"Dive in, Worm!" - Abel Tasman National Park, New Zealand
Abel Tasman National Park, New Zealand
Where I stayed
Anchorage, Bark Bay and Totaranui DOC Campsites
What I did
Stingrays, seals, a penguin and the beautiful National Park
Day One:
The alarm went off at 5am. A couple of snoozes later and Sarah was up and off to enjoy a cold shower. We packed our last bits away, put the tent down and stored a couple of bags at the hostel where we would book back into after our walk.
The bus collected us at 7:10am. Our bus driver, Rene, was very relaxed and welcoming, even happy for Chris to run back to the hostel to collect his ukulele. Rene has lived in Nelson all of his life, with his Grandmother emigrating from Sweden. He was very passionate about his home town, particularly the Maori culture that he was keen to share. We then fell asleep and woke as we were approaching The Abel Tasman National Park, passing fields filled with hops destined to make some of the many fine beers you can find in New Zealand. We were dropped off at Marahau, the start point for our walk.
We put on our backpacks, which were quite heavy as we were carrying our tent, all of our food, water and cooking equipment for the entire three day walk. We then took photos of the starting point and headed off. We got approximately four feet when we read the sign in front of us, which said......
ABEL TASMAN COAST TRACK - HAVE YOU BOOKED YOUR CAMPSITE OR HUT?
Yes we had, and were about to head on, when we read the following......
IF STAYING OVERNIGHT, YOU MUST BOOK BEFORE ENTERING THE PARK AND CARRY YOUR ACCOMMODATION PASS. PENALTY RATES APPLY IF YOU DO NOT HAVE YOUR PASS WITH YOU.
&$#$#& - we had not realised that you had to carry a pass with you. In our typically unorganised way we had written down the reference number, but had managed to leave that in our Lonely Planet guidebook back at the hostel! Well done, us!
Chris legged it back down the road to a water taxi company we had passed in hope of being able to use the internet. One hour later, with our pass in hand we were off and ready to tramp the 11.8km to Anchorage, our first campsite along The Abel Tasman walk.
The well known and popular Abel Tasman Coast Track is a trail which links Tasman and Golden Bay. It takes between three and five days to walk one way. It was perfect walking conditions - dry, warm, but not too hot. The track took us through lush, vibrant green forest, filled with huge ferns which created a canopy effect. There were beautiful flowers and berries (which we didn't eat to avoid a scene from the film Into The Wild!) We crossed wooden bridges with waterfalls and rivers running below and walked alongside golden beaches and turquoise bays. We could see people kayaking (also a great way to explore The Abel Tasman).
We didn't see much wildlife aside from a brilliant looking bird with a mohican feather on his head. Then we stopped for our picnic lunch at Apple Tree Bay, 5.5km into the walk.
The track was busy with people of all ages, walking both ways. We arrived at Anchorage by mid-afternoon, entering the campsite through the trees and onto a beautiful beach. We set up our tent and then headed back to the beach. Sarah enjoyed a swim (which also doubled as a wash), Chris played his ukulele and we had a game of frisbee. For dinner we had noodles, onions and tomato. We were pleased to find out that the next day low tide was around noon, a good time to complete our next beach section. This meant we did not have to set our alarm.
We felt very lucky today that we had been sat on the beautiful golden sand beach relaxing after a pleasant walk.
Day Two:
Chris was pleased that we were able to have a lay in this morning (although he did think that 9:30 / 10:00 was still too early!) We leisurely packed our tent away and had breakfast before heading off at around 11:30 to complete day two of The Abel Tasman Track from Anchorage Bay to Bark Bay campsite.
Although it was low tide and so we could have walked across the estuary, we decided to follow the high tide track so we could walk to Cleopatra Falls, as we had been told there was a natural water slide. Once there, Sarah clambered over the rocks and through the water whilst Chris filmed (secretly hoping we may get a You've Been Framed moment!) Three children turned up at the same time (one nick named Worm, because as a child he had a pet duck which went under the house and so he crawled in after the duck, looking apparently like a worm - classic!) The girl in the group (her cousin) proceeded to shout at Worm to get into the water and go on to the natural rock slide, which she had been on last year. She said......
'Get in Worm, don't be a chicken!'
Worm and his brother crossed the water pool to the waterfall and slide. Not wanting to be a chicken herself, Sarah eventually took the plunge into the chilly water and clambered up onto the rocks. Sarah watched Worm and his brother go down the slide, feeling unsure if she could do it. Worm explained to Sarah how to get onto the slide and where any rocks were under the water that she may knock herself on. Knowing she would regret it if she didn't, she eventually lowered herself into the water and was quickly taken down the rapid, letting out what Chris has described as a 'Goldie Hawn scream'. Sarah was considering having another go on the water slide until she saw a reasonably sized freshwater eel leisurely swimming in the same water pool she had just been in. Later on in the day several people said that the eel has been a long term resident at Cleopatra Falls, that eels do have teeth and could potentially bite and that there is somewhere in New Zealand you can pay to feed eels sausages (a similar size to Sarah's toes!)
We climbed up and down through forest, running alongside beautiful bays until reaching our lunch spot. We created a new delicacy - Nutella spread on tortilla wraps with chopped banana. Incredible! The village we stopped to have our lunch in has only one main street and just fifity residents.
Now we had just two hours more walking. As we tramped up the hill a rescue / ambulance helicopter landed in the village. A helicopter would be by far the quickest way in and out of the village and Abel Tasman Park in an emergency.
We crossed over Glasgow River and Sarah thought of her and her families dear friend's the Hopes from Glasgow. The last two hours were quite tough. Not only was Sarah particularly desperate for the toilet and there was not really a convenient place to go, her knee was playing up, particularly going down hills. The scenery, however, did not let us done. Beautiful golden and white sand beaches, and turquoise waters and winding estuaries against a backdrop of thick forest.
We arrived at Bark Bay, an amazing tiny campsite situated on a small piece of headland jetting into the water, creating an Island effect. Standing on the beach surrounding the headland you can see a small forest area and would not know there was a campsite in there.
We found a little spot next to the beach for our tent. When we arrived the water was out on one side of the headland, but had come in during the evening. We enjoyed another dinner of noodles and onion, this time with an added bonus of tuna! We took a walk on the beach to the furthest point. It looked like paradise. We were joined by a couple of German lads we had met at different points along the track. They had been lucky enough to have just see an Orca whale from the other side of the beach. We all then spotted several stingrays gliding in the water and burying themselves in the sand close to the shore - amazing!
We sat having a coffee on the beach, chatting to the lads and looking out for whales (unfortunately we did not see any). This was a perfect end to a fantastic day.
Day Three:
After an early morning swim in beautiful turquoise water (a great way to get refreshed and feel ready for a six hour tramp to our final camp), our planned departure time of 8:00 am ended up being 9:40am (not too bad going for us!)
This was our final days tramp along the beautiful Abel Tasman Coast Track and we were feeling excited to reach the end. In total we would have walked 42 kilometres.
We joked with the German lads (who we now new to be Sebastian and Kevin) as we left the campsite that they would probably be overtaking us in the next twenty minutes. Of course that set off Sarah's competitive streak not to let that happen. They were at least ten years younger than us, but we were feeling quite fit!
The first part of our tramp took us on a steep climb up a twisting forest path and then a descent into the next bay - Tonga Quarry. This was hard going with our backpacks but provided awesome views of Bark Bay and the camp ground we had been staying at (which was now up there as one of our favourite campsites in NZ). We breaked briefly at Tonga Quarry, at which point Sebastian and Kevin arrived. We think they may have politely breaked there to allow us time to get a second head start!
The next leg was along Onetehuti Bay. We followed a Cormorant which was diving into the water, swimming several metres very quickly and then surfacing with the food it had found. Chris saw the bird had got lucky and had a fish in its mouth. The water was incredibly clear and clean. We crossed a bridge and a walkway that had been put in over the river joining Onetchuti Bay. This once would have been a tidal crossing, limiting when you could complete this section of the walk.
We briefly stopped at the end of Onetchuti Bay knowing we had to cross an estuary a couple hours ahead, and needed to fit in with the low tide, so decided to hold off with lunch until over the other side. At this point we were passed by Sebastian and Kevin, and would soon see a man who we kept crossing paths with on the track, who had decided to treat us all to the sight of his wet pants which he had tied onto his rucksack to dry!
We had rationed our food over the three day walk because we only had what we were able to carry ourselves in our backpack. This meant only four sweets a day, and we agreed at this stage we would have our second to keep us going!
We had another steep climb, which brought us to a crossroads and a serious dilemma. Sat with Sebastian and Kevin having a break, we noticed a walkway which led off the track and down onto a cafe on the beach. A cafe which had a licence to sell cold beer to tired trampers! Did we continue on the official DOC track, or were we led astray by the promise of refreshing ale? Well, what do you think?
Actually, we surprised everyone (not least ourselves) by carrying on with the track and making it in good time to do the estuary crossing at The Arawoa hut. It was here we had to remove our shoes and socks, roll up our trousers and walk across the tidal crossing. At low tide it was good fun, with the water coming up to our knees at its deepest point. We had heard from The Park Ranger that recently an American had gotten himself in trouble when trying to cross. He had reached the crossing at night, and for some inexplicable reason thought it was wise to try and make it to Arawoa hut with the water at chest height. Imagine the surprise The Ranger got when he did his final check through his binoculars that evening and noticed a figure struggling across fully clothed with a rucksack on his back. He quickly launched his boat (and no doubt saved the man from serious mischief), and when they were back on dry land the American asked where the track was! The polite answer would have been four feet beneath you!
After our crossing we marched on to Sandfly Bay (not a place Chris was particularly bothered about stopping in!) and then Goat Bay, a beautiful beach where we ate our lunch and Sarah swam alongside stingray. A few more steep ups and downs along narrow pathway with sheer drops, and we were at Totaranui Campsite at the end of our Abel Tasman adventure. We cold showered, cooked noodles and opened our bottle of Merlot, which by some miracle we hadn't touched for the previous three days. The stars put on a beautiful show for us in the clearest skies we had seen to date. Poor Sarah then began to feel unwell and was sick, before we fell asleep tired from our three days of incredible walking.
Day Four:
After one final refreshing dip in the water for Sarah, we left Totaranui by water taxi to head back to Marahau. The water taxi ride was a mini-tour in itself, and we were able to follow the coastline we had walked over the previous three days. The view was just as impressive from the boat looking at the thick forest, and being on the boats enabled us to see how clear the water was.
Funnily enough on the boat we passed the man who hung his wet pants on his rucksack (identifiable by his straw hat) on a cruise liner heading back to Marahau. This was amusing as he had claimed to us and anybody who'd listen that he was carrying on walking. Perhaps he'd had enough, or lost his undies along the way.
We were lucky enough to see a couple of seals diving in and out of the water, and some basking on the rocks too. We also saw our first penguin, grey and white in colour and roughly the size of a coke can! They are usually very shy when boats approach, but this little one happily floated on his back and belly. To top it off we saw another stingray gliding in Onetehuti Bay as we dropped a couple of passengers off. There were also lots of birds bobbing on the water. Unfortunately we didn't see any Orca's or dolphins, but were told there had been more spottings over the last few days.
When we reached Marahau bay our driver hooked the water taxi onto a tractor and pulled the boat out of the water, towing us (still in the boat) back to the water taxi office. We treated ourselves to a Mars bar and sweets before flagging down the coach liner at 12:30. The driver kindly let us on, as we had been due to get the later 4:00pm bus. He couldn't guarantee us a space all the way to Nelson, but luckily there was room on the connecting mini bus. We dropped off passengers at the airport on route to Nelson and Chris spotted The Green Love Machine in the airport car park!
Walking The Abel Tasman was an incredible experience in staggeringly beautiful countryside. It had been a real challenge too, with punishing ascents, and we felt proud of ourselves for completing the three days of this beautiful track. It was time to reward ourselves with an evening in Nelson sampling the local ale!