Anapai Bay

Anapai Bay is a golden-sand beach beside a six-site Great Walk campsite on the northern part of the Abel Tasman Coast Track. Visitors praise the clear water, swimming and pale rock stacks at the beach ends. It is a quieter, more remote stop than the park's southern beaches, but getting here takes a walk or a boat, so it is not a quick roadside detour.

Expect tent sites, a flush toilet and a picnic table. Water is untreated, so boil or treat it before drinking. The sites are non-powered, and no food service could be verified at the bay; bring your own supplies.

Rock stacks and pools sit among the boulders at the ends of the beach; walk to the far end to see them. For a photo, put a pale stack in the foreground and frame the curve of sand and water behind it. Seals and seabirds are reported around the rocky outcrop above the bay, though sightings are never guaranteed.

Archaeological finds at Anapai include early Māori artefacts and moa bone from an archaeological site's lower layers. The finds have not been radiocarbon dated, so they have no firm age. A hut at Anapai was recorded by 1962.