Abel Tasman Great Walk

8 January 2022Uncategorized admin 2 Comments

We are back from our hike and had a wonderful time. The rest of Boxing day was spent keeping cool on the slip and slide….

and fooling around on the go cart 🙂

We had a long drive ahead of us the next day so were all up early and on the road by 9am. Coming out of our drive we met a guy who was walking all the way to Warrington campground. He was obviously a little worse for wear ,(having celebrated the Xmas season maybe a little too much), and I don’t think was going to make the days walk it would have taken him to get there, so we gave him a lift. His nausea levels were high and this set Rich off in the back seat. He never gets carsick but was looking a little green around the gills by the time we let our passenger off. Luckily it passed after an hour or so. We played 5 minutes to distract him 🙂 Rich had gotten this for us all for Xmas, it was a great idea and lots of fun to play, even with me driving I could participate (highly recommend).

We were heading for Kaikoura, we had not done that part of the coast from Christchurch when we traveled around NZ, so wanted to see it. I used to live in Christchurch years ago and they have put in motorways and lots more housing, it has changed a lot, what was very familiar to me is no longer! Of course I took a wrong turn and ended us up in the middle of the city, not going to be allowed to forget that one! 🙂

We made it to Kaikoura late afternoon and had time to look around, it has grown a lot! We were staying in a little cabin close to the town centre tiny, perfect and a bit of luxury for us heading into tenting.

We had fish and chips for dinner and then went down onto the beach for an hour or so, it was a stunning evening. Rich had been here 20 plus years ago and swam with the seals on one of the tours they do form here, little did he know at the time he would be living in NZ one day!

We all slept really well and awoke to a family of ducks on our doorstep wanting to be fed, Luca had fun with them.

On the road again early, we found by chance a very cool place up the coast called “The Store” to have a late breakfast. The setting right on the ocean and huge grounds with their own vege garden set among it

View from the cafe where we sat, best coffee Rich and I have had in while!

It was a bit rainy as we headed to Nelson, (our next stop for the night), so we decided to go into the city grab a bite to eat, and head to the museum. Last time we were in Nelson Luca had wanted to go but it wasn’t open, so we thought we would grab the chance. He was very happy we did 🙂

The rain had settled as we headed to our next stop. This one we had been looking forward to a lot and it did not disappoint! How cute is this?!!!!!!! Our own little hobbit home, we all fell in love!

The outside just as cool, the owners ,(from Germany and Scotland originally), brought this place around 3 years ago and slowly transforming it, with the airbnb on one part of the land and their home on another. They are doing a great job!

Lots of animals around, which of course made Luca happy..

We wandered around the property and went across the river to explore things, all wishing we had more than one night here 🙂

Hiking life however beckoned and we left the next morning to head to Motueka and then onto the start of the hike. We decided on a hearty breakfast to start us off and stopped at another very cool place called Toad Hall

Delicious! My Turkish eggs were the best food I have tasted in a while, divine!!

Then it was off to the start of the hike……

and off we went. The weather had come right which made the walking and views so much better.

Luca doing so well carrying a full pack, as heavy as mine.

The first day took us from the start at Marahau, to Anchorage (12.4km), and was a really good way to ease into the 5 days.

We found a great campsite and set up

Luca wanted to fry up some beef jerky ,(one of his favorite treats), he had been wanting to see what it was liked fried and was the first thing he did once the tent was up 🙂 Rich taught him how to use the stove and the result ….. it was good!!!! Frying up any jerky or meat we had, was now Luca’s mission and became one of the themes of the trip 🙂

That and swimming! We swam often !

Rich had planned all the meals and as usual nailed it, they were all delicious!!!

We were on the trail early the next morning heading this time to Bark Bay, an 11.5km hike .

This is known as Cleopatra’s Pool, cool but refreshing and there is slide at the base of that little waterfall, the boys tried it, hard on the buttocks apparently! 🙂

The beauty of it all was really hard to capture on my phone but I tried!

Bark Bay campsite was located on a sand spit right on the ocean and most sites open and exposed. It was VERY hot and so we moved a table and crammed in under this bush, it was our best sleeping place on the hike, we all slept until 8am!!!!!

The beach here was amazing and we all felt the relief of getting clean in the ocean!

Luca of course fried up more beef jerky, very confident with the cooker now .

The next morning we were off 13.5km to Awaroa. There was talk of a pizza place to be had near here but we kept our expectations low.

These are Weka and they are everywhere! VERY cheeky and will get into your packs and take what they like. You have to make sure everything is very secure, especially at the campgrounds. We met one coming towards us on the trail carrying a huge bag of nuts, it was in the middle of nowhere so who knows where he had got it from! He was not sharing it, when he saw us he veered off into the bush where we could not follow.

The beach walks as lovely as they look, were tortuous, it was at almost 30 degrees and hard going in the sand, they seemed to go on forever!

We had lunch under this bridge just to find some shade.

The bush all our favourite place to hike, shady and cool.

We arrived in Awaroa in good time we had decided to take the long route and not go down to the pizza place (yes it did exist!). Others who had done it said it was great, but much further from the campsite than they thought and it was hard to get the motivation to walk again after! Plus if you didn’t catch the tide, you had to take the long route which made the trek even longer! We once again found a great place to set up , the big issue here though was mosquitoes, very itchy!!!!!

This is full tide and we had to wait until 1:30pm the next day to be able to cross, the boys are pointing to where we needed to walk to. We made the most of the extra time to relax and swim. Luca says this was the best swim he has ever had, it was a beautiful place to hang out for sure!

By 1:30pm we were all keen to start the trail as knew we had a long day ahead. We were going to Whariwharangi, our longest day at 16.9km. Others wanting to cross waited to see if we would make it!

The tide still not at its lowest and it took us an hour, but we made it!! We saw the others start the walk across as we put our shoes back on and got going.

It was the hottest day yet and we did not get to our campsite until 7:30pm. We had found a DOC campground on the way and been able to purchase some ice blocks, chocolate peanut bars and noodles which kept us going. You can see by my lack of photos on this leg that I was tired!!! 🙂 We set up and had supper before it got dark then all fell exhausted into the tent. Here was a cold shower, we had been using the river and ocean to get clean up until now, so made the most of this luxury, freezing but refreshing! It was again very “buggy” and the Weka and possums foraged through the site during the night, they had obviously tried to get in the tent as I found possum poop right by the door in the morning, we had slept through it all.

The final day was an easy one to Wainui Bay, only 5.7km. Everyone doing this had an added bounce in their step as we knew the end was near! 🙂

As we headed down we found a shady spot and Luca cooked up the last pot of noddles and the snickers bar we had been saving for lunch, we had used every morsel of food we had taken 🙂

Then we were there!!!!! So happy to make it and so jubilant we had done it!

We met some great people on this hike, some who I hope we will keep in touch with. It is so nice to see so many kiwis getting back to basics and exploring this beautiful country!

We had a cabin booked in Murchison for the night but opted for some pizza first! We had promised Luca that we would do this instead of pizza on the hike .

We were not sure what to expect of our cabin at the next site, as seemed very reasonable at $65 for all 3 of us, but we were pleasantly surprised by the setting and facilities! Would highly recommend this place!

Then boys opted for a swim in the river but I went for a warm shower – bliss!!!!!!!!!!!!

The next morning before the long drive home we had breakfast. Luca was starving, (an ongoing issue), and ordered the biggest breakfast he could find….