1 active Abel Tasman alert
- ClosureRoad resealing closures near Kaiteriteri, 29–30 OctoberExpect rolling closures on roads near Kaiteriteri from 6am to 8pm on Thursday 29 and Friday 30 October while crews reseal the roads.Official details
Overview
About Coquille Bay
Why stop
- Clear water and a small crescent beach
- A beachside Coast Track campsite
Heads up
- Walk-in or boat-in only, with no food service
- Uneven tent ground can make pitching tricky
Map
Where it is
Loading the Abel Tasman map
Full mapPlan your stop
Before you go
The highest, rockiest slopes around here are a summer buffet for grizzly bears.
Abel Tasman Tour Guide
Your drive to Coquille Bay, narrated.
Parkwolf is a GPS audio tour guide for Abel Tasman National Park. As you drive, it chimes in with what’s ahead: hidden gems, upcoming stops, history, geology, and wildlife, right through your car’s speakers.
Recorded for this area
Mārahau and Te Waharoa0:00 / 0:33
“You're approaching Mārahau's Coast Track entrance, marked by the carved gateway called Te Waharoa. Stop for a look even if you're not planning a long walk, and go around to see both faces.”
Plays on the road 2.3 km from Coquille Bay in the Parkwolf Abel Tasman Tour Guide.
More stories near here in the app
- Abel Tasman Centre
- A Fern's Hidden Generation
- 23 audio storiesacross Abel Tasman’s roads, triggered by GPS as you drive
- Wildlife heatmapsfor Kea, New Zealand Fur Seal, Little Penguin, and 13 more
- Works offlinemaps, 43 trails, 65 places, and audio download before you lose signal
- CarPlay readysimple controls built for the drive
“Fantastic app with many points of information… It’s great to just turn on while you’re driving and it gives you an audio tour of the national Park. We love it!!!!”
Guide
More about Coquille Bay
A beach campsite on the Coast TrackCoquille Bay is a small, bush-fringed cove on the southern Abel Tasman Coast Track, with a…
Coquille Bay is a small, bush-fringed cove on the southern Abel Tasman Coast Track, with a crescent of golden sand, clear water and a low wooded island offshore. The six-site tent campsite sits beside the beach. It suits a swim or an overnight stop for walkers and boat arrivals; there is no road access. From Mārahau, a local track guide puts the walk at about 3.5 km and one to one and a half hours.
Plan for a simple campThis is a walk-in or boat-in site, not a drive-up campground.
This is a walk-in or boat-in site, not a drive-up campground. Book ahead and carry your own food; there is no food service on the track. DOC lists six non-powered tent sites. A pit toilet and untreated water source serve the camp, so boil the water before drinking. A couple of campers have reported sloping, uneven tent ground, so don't count on every pitch being level.
Look from the track, then go down to the shoreThe sheltered beach is framed by native bush and ponga ferns.
The sheltered beach is framed by native bush and ponga ferns. A lookout on the Coast Track above gives the best view of the curve of sand, the bay and the wooded island; include that island in a beach photo to show the cove's setting. Several visitors also mention weka around camp, sometimes bold near food.
A name from d’Urville’s shipThe bay is named for La Coquille, the ship sailed by French explorer Jules Dumont d’Urville…
The bay is named for La Coquille, the ship sailed by French explorer Jules Dumont d’Urville before it was renamed Astrolabe. The Coast Track brings that history into an otherwise simple stop: a strip of sand and bush on the route, with the open bay beyond it.
Wildlife
Wildlife in Abel Tasman
10 sightingsKeaMost seen around 10 AMSighting map
54 sightingsNew Zealand Fur SealMost seen around 10 AMSighting map
20 sightingsLittle PenguinMost seen around 9 PMSighting map
21 sightingsSouth Island KākāMost seen around 5 PMSighting map
527 sightingsWekaMost seen around 9 AMSighting map
16 sightingsTūīMost seen around 7 AMSighting mapSighting maps show where each species has been reported across Abel Tasman. Wildlife moves, so no sighting is guaranteed.
