Destination: New Zealand : Plying calm waters in a fiberglass shell is one of the best ways to see the country’s deeply notched coast

On a rainy mid-winter morning I stood shivering on a deserted beach in Abel Tasman National Park, gazing at the aftermath of an icy storm that had blown in from the Antarctic. Dark clouds and mist shrouded lush valleys and beech-covered ridges; rain dribbled down rocky headlands and ran over golden beaches. To the southeast, on the hazy horizon, fresh snow capped the Richmond Mountains.

I tried to warm myself with thoughts of my first kayak trip here a few summers ago, when I swam in the emerald shallows of a sandy cove, sipped morning tea on the beach and paddled home ahead of a warm sea breeze.

This time, it was July, the middle of winter in New Zealand, when I pushed my kayak off shore and started the chilly paddle along the South Island’s northern coast with three other New Zealanders and a guide. But even as the icy rain coated my face and numbed my hands, I didn’t complain. Before me, in the inky stillness of the sea, was a kayaker’s paradise--no waves, no wind, no other boats, only a deserted wonderland of wilderness and the promise of paddling in the company of penguins and seals.

In a country celebrated for its rugged mountain ranges, lush river valleys, thermal lakes and glaciers, sea kayaking is rarely at the top of visitors’ “to do” lists. Even novelist and travel writer Paul Theroux, who carted a collapsible kayak here a few years ago for his book on paddling the Pacific, “The Happy Isles of Oceania,” never mentioned using it in the chapters he devoted to New Zealand’s dull cities and magnificent mountains.

But each year more New Zealanders and tourists are discovering that sea kayaking is a dramatic way to explore New Zealand’s most underrated virtue--6,000 miles of unspoiled, sparsely populated coastline. It’s also getting easier to do. For tourists who arrive without a collapsible kayak--but looking for a kinder, softer adventure than bungee jumping or river rafting--there are at least 40 commercial kayak operators who can guide one to the best spots. Most rent kayaks and conduct daylong guided trips, which usually cost about $60 for kayak rental, gear and lunch.

I was on such a day trip along Abel Tasman National Park the first time I paddled a kayak. That was four years ago, not long after I moved to New Zealand from New York.

This time, I went by bus from the easygoing port city of Nelson, an hour’s journey on New Zealand 60. Along the way, it was hard to miss the jumble of lifestyles the region’s sunny climate and varied landscapes have drawn together. Waves of apple orchards and cattle pastures stretched from green hills to sandy beaches. Wooden signs advertised the work of New Age therapists, potters and winemakers. Others pitched fresh mussels and the newest seaside subdivision. Outside a small white farmhouse, another weathered sign told me something I didn’t care to know: “Sheep Manure for Sale,” adding below in fresh red paint, “More Coming Soon.”

Spread over a coastal bulge between Golden and Tasman bays, Abel Tasman, New Zealand’s smallest national park, features 50,000 acres of unspoiled native forest, bush and bird life. But what makes it so popular with kayakers year-round is its 25 miles of protected coastline: gently curved golden beaches, a marine reserve, rugged granite headlands and tidal inlets.

In Marahau (population 200), at the park’s southern entrance, most of the tourist facilities were shut for winter. I wandered down a gravel road and across an empty paddock to the small office of Abel Tasman Kayaks, one of the oldest and best-known kayak rental and tour operators in New Zealand.

The owners don’t rent to solo paddlers, so I agreed to go out for the day with one of their guides, who was escorting an enthusiastic Nelson woman and her two children as they started a three-day kayak trip up the coast.

I sealed my gear in the rear hatch of a 16-foot kayak and paddled north into the icy rain. In the calm and flat winter sea, my boat tracked easily as I skirted the coastline of Apple Tree Bay. Near a rocky shoal, a pair of orange-beaked oyster catchers ran at me along the waters edge, screeching, until I drifted away with a wide smile. Overhead, I followed the plaintive calls of cormorants, flying to their nests atop a stand of tea trees (whose oil is sold today for a broad range of medicinal uses).

As we paddled near the granite caves and arches at Yellow Point, I was startled by a blubbery, big-eyed fur seal staring at me from the water in front of the bow. Playfully he rolled in the water, then dived and surfaced behind me.

When the rain worsened, we headed to shore for an early lunch. We found shelter on the porch of an unoccupied beach cottage and shared the food we’d been carrying: a block of cheese, bread, crackers, tuna and salami. An hour later, the rain had eased and we resumed paddling. Guide Darryl Anderson and I said goodby to our companions, who were headed north on their own to a sheltered hut on Anchorage Beach, their first night’s stop on an unguided three-day voyage.

Later that afternoon, as we floated on the still and serene sea, there were two surprises. The first, on the waters east of Fisherman Island, sacred Maori land where two tribal chiefs are buried, was the only other creature we could then see on the water: a Cook Strait penguin, swimming home with a fish clutched in its mouth. Then, as we turned toward home, a brilliant rainbow blossomed over the sea, as full and defined as you’d find in a Disney cartoon. I paddled toward it, clinging to the image and embracing the day long after I headed home.

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Finding a place to kayak is easy wherever you are on both the North and South islands. Not only is every point in the country less than 70 miles from inviting coastline, but sea kayak rental and tour companies are proliferating around most major tourist areas.

For example, in Auckland, New Zealand’s largest and gateway city, one has to go only three miles from the main street to hire a kayak, and paddle around the city’s harbor front and the sheltered waters of Hauraki Gulf (site of the next America’s Cup).

But Auckland’s most popular kayak tour, by far, departs most nights from Ian Ferguson Marine Sports Center at Okahu Bay, which is operated by four-time Olympic gold medalist kayaker Ian Ferguson. The five-hour guided trip in double-kayaks crosses the harbor to volcanic Rangitoto Island, where paddlers walk to the top, have a sunset picnic and kayak home in the dark (with safety lights).

From the capital of Wellington, or the wineries on the South Island’s northeastern coast, the best place for kayaking is the Marlborough Sounds. A jigsaw puzzle of islets and inlets, the sounds feature 600 miles of calm waterways and shorelines of dense bush, sheer cliffs and plenty of birds and marine life. As in the days of the English explorer, Capt. James Cook (who visited here at least five times on his Pacific voyages), many of the sounds’ picturesque coves and beaches are still accessible only by sea.

For those heading to the mountain resort of Queenstown or hiking through one of the world’s last great wildernesses, 3-million-acre Fiordland National Park, there is a choice of sea and lake kayaking expeditions (guided and independent). Fiordland Wilderness Experiences operates one of the preferred trips in this region. The two-day guided tour, which crosses Lake Manapouri to Doubtful Sound, reveals massive glacial landscapes, dense rain forests, tumbling waterfalls and sheer cliffs.

On the North Island, where I live, the most tempting spot for sea kayaking is the subtropical Bay of Islands, a three-hour drive or hour’s flight from Auckland. Named by Capt. Cook in 1769, this deeply recessed coastline of tranquil harbors sprinkled with more than 150 small islands, is the cradle of both Maori and European settlement in New Zealand.

The Polynesian explorer Kupe, according to legend, arrived here first in the 10th Century, traveling by canoe from either present-day Tahiti or the Cook Islands. Nearly a thousand years later, the country’s first European settlement and capital was established here. Today, the Bay of Islands draws yachts from all over the world and big-game fishermen, many inspired by American sportsman Zane Grey, who spent considerable time here in the 1920s fishing and writing. By kayak, the most popular tour in the Bay of Islands begins from the seaside resort of Paihia. Not so long ago, my wife, Sue, and I joined a group of Japanese and British tourists on this trip. It was a sunny summer morning, and the beaches were flecked with sunbathers as we paddled past the Georgian-style timber-structure Treaty House, where the controversial 1840 Treaty of Waitangi was signed, by which the Maoris ceded New Zealand’s sovereignty to the British Crown.

We then paddled up a tidal estuary, watched by white herons and cormorants, and into a thick mangrove forest, where I briefly and blissfully lost my way in a marvel of gnarled trunks, still water and refracted light. After a picnic lunch on an empty beach, we finished the day paddling around and through the tumbling rush of the 45-foot Haruru Falls.

For casual and serious kayakers, the ragged coastline of the Bay of Islands and farther north along the east coast offers an almost endless range of year-round expeditions. On a recent weekend trip to Whangaroa Harbour, just south of the Bay of Islands, my wife and I found ourselves at a secluded lodge where everyone else spent their days fishing. With no way out, except by boat, we found two plastic kayaks on shore and spent two days exploring sandy nooks and rocky crannies along quiet bays.

If kayaking can take you away from it all, we were nearly there--just drifting in and out of clear lagoons, picking an empty beach for a picnic or afternoon swim, losing ourselves in the lap of the sea.

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GUIDEBOOK: New Zealand Waterways

Getting there: Nonstop flights between Los Angeles and Auckland on Air New Zealand, United Airlines, Qantas and British Airways begin at about $1,170 round trip, including tax.

Getting around: Air New Zealand offers daily nonstop flights from Auckland to Nelson, round trip $238-$395, and to Keri Keri (Bay of Islands), $139-$230. Rental cars are available from $30 a day.

Where to stay: At Abel Tasman National Park: Marahau Lodge, Marahau, Motueka (from U.S. telephones, 011-64-3-527-8250), $67 a night per couple; Ocean View Chalets, Marahau, Motueka (tel. 011-64-3-527-8232), $67 a night per couple.

At Bay of Islands: Okiato Lodge, Russell (tel. 011-64-9-403-7948), a top luxury lodge, $581 per night per couple includes breakfast, dinner; Swiss Chalet Lodge Motel, Paihia (011-64-9-402-7615), $102 a night; Anchorage Motel, Paihia (011-64-9-402-7447), $100 a night.

Kayak tours: Most operators offer guided daily and multiple-day tours starting at about $50.

Abel Tasman Kayaks, Marahau, Motueka; tel. 011-64-3-527-8022, fax 011-64-3-527-8032.

Coastal Kayakers, Paihia, Bay of Islands; tel. 011-64-9-402-8105.

Bay of Islands Kayak Co., Russell; tel./fax 011-64-9-403-7672.

Auckland Canoe Centre, Mt. Eden, Auckland; tel. 011-64-9-638-6773.

Marlborough Sounds Adventure Co., Picton; tel. 011-64-3-573-6078.

Ian Ferguson Marine Sports Center, Auckland; tel. 011-64-9-529-2230.

For more information: Contact the New Zealand Tourism Board, 501 Santa Monica Blvd., Suite 300, Santa Monica, CA 90401; tel. (800) 388-5494.

--T.R.