I knew I had rushed it folks, just some additional information for you……..I omitted to mention that Abel Tasman National Park is the smallest and the newest National Park in NZ. In 1642 Abel Tasman, a Dutch explorer was the first European to come, this is how Tasmania got its name which there is more detail on my blog on that previously and then the Tasman Sea. Abel came but never put a foot in New Zealand. Instead he docked in Golden Bay and sent a scouting party over to the land to “make friends” with the local Māori who instantly got ready to “greet” them with a “Haka” and yes you have got it they were slaughtered, hence why Golden Bay then became Murderer’s Bay, Abel having seen this, left in a hurry!

Roll on 300 years, in 1942 NZ being a relatively fresh Colony and in the midst of war, the NZ forestry commission was cutting down a lot of trees decimating the landscape and wildlife, also very against Māori belief, there was a huge landslide and fires in the “slash” wood cuttings/left overs that were left. Something needed to be done!

A woman named Perri Moncrieff started a petition to parliament to which she got no response, she was an ornithologist and decided she needed to take a different approach, perhaps a more manipulative one? The fact that no-one had the courtesy to respond to her petition made her very angry and indignant. Her parents were aristocratic and she knew all about influence, now there is a nicer word for it. She needed to create a want/need/fear to do something so she wrote to the Queen of Holland saying that the government was going to create a National Park on the 300th anniversary of Abel’s journey here, the Queen thought this was a marvellous idea. Broadly, what happened next was she then went to the NZ government and said how embarrassing it would be if they now didn’t and so this area became “The Abel Tasman National Park”, hence protecting Perri’s beloved wild birds and the habitat. Pretty clever huh!