“I enjoy photography too, so this book comes out of the combination of two things I really like doing.” The book is 50 pages of colour photographs set out as a geographic journey through the track in pictures, showing lots of the best bits of the track. It’s small, soft-covered and inexpensive with the tourist market in mind, “I’ve travelled a bit and a good book on a place you really like in a format that’s easy to put in your pack and bring back home – that’s what I had in mind for this book.”

Apart from the fact that the Abel Tasman Coastal Track is the best bit of New Zealand [according to Mike], it is also a good “first tramp” for people to do. It’s not climbing up mountains like a lot of other NZ walks, there are a few hills to get over from one beach to another but any hilly bits take no more than about half an hour at a time. Last year Mike walked the track with a family who had four children, the youngest was 8 – the youngest of anyone who has joined Mike on the track. The 8 year-old coped pretty well, but mainly because his Dad carried most of his stuff! The track can be walked in less time than Mike does it in, he walks it over 4 days (3 nights), and likes to get most of the walking done in the mornings if the tide allows that to happen, and then set up camp about lunch time, ready to spend the afternoons lounging on the beach or swimming or napping or walking or reading…

“I think this book is the first of its type: a pictorial book on a bit of New Zealand, printed in New Zealand, on paper made from sustainable forests and recycled materials. It’s a book with a conscience!” The book carries the Forest Stewardship Council logo, this means every step of the manufacturing process from the planting of the tree through to the printing press has been certified as not oppressing people or the environment – not many books can make this claim.

Mike’s Abel Tasman book is available from book shops and information centres in the Nelson, Motueka and Golden Bay regions with a recommended retail price of $17 (he will be working on expanding the distribution network next month once his semester at university is finished).

Some of his photographs are being displayed on stretched canvas at the Hooked on Marahau café and restaurant near the start of the track over the summer. The book has a website as well and can be purchased online: www.AbelTasmanBook.com

(Photos on right courtesy of Mike Crudge.)