Abel Tasman National Park is under renewed pressure from tourism as record numbers of holiday-makers head to its sandy beaches.
The country's most popular national park now has a whopping 300,000 visitors every year and during silly season, the beaches are packed.
The day starts with the slow hum of tractors heading out to sea. Boats loaded with kayaks hog the beach, lining up to launch from the bar.
"Once you've got that Kiwi holiday time kicking in, it's not just the commercial operators and the casual sort of locals coming through, once all the holiday-makers come through it becomes a pretty crazy place," Abel Tasman Kayaks owner Jack Kelly told Newshub.
The park is known around the world for its sunshine and golden beaches, boasting a five-day coastal track.
It's so popular the Department of Conservation (DoC) has capped kayak numbers to stop the beaches from being overrun.
"We have approximately 300,000 visitors, and of those 300,000, 20 percent are staying overnight, that remaining 80 percent are coming in for the day, it's a day visitor park," DoC Motueka operations manager Mark Townsend said.
Dazza Anderson has been guiding visitors through the park for 28 years and has seen a huge change.
"It used be travellers, and now it's more tourists, who are a little bit softer, looking for a push off the beach," he said.
It's a tale of two halves. The southern end of the park gets most of the tourism, most of the kayakers, most of the day trippers - while the further north you go though, the more isolated it becomes.
All that attention means Abel Tasman is one of the only national parks in the country to run a surplus, making $660,000 for DoC in the 2016-2017 year.
The money goes back to conservation, protecting that same raw beauty.
Newshub.
