At last! Abel Tasman
National Park! This had been the original motivation for our
trip to the South Island and now we could go
explore it :)
Our entry
point was from the east, but we didn’t have enough time to complete the trek to
the western boundary of the park, so we settled for a shorter overnight in and
out hike. We didn’t rush to leave
Marahau, since we weren’t aiming to hike too far anyway. And the pukekos around the rural campsite
were pretty entertaining anyway. We even
got to see a few of them ward off an unwanted rival pukeko with some loud
squawks and aggressive charges. It was a
bit like having a front row seat for a genuine kiwi nature docco.
Once we
organised our packs with supplies for a couple of days they seemed kinda heavy;
even though we were leaving behind the airbed and duvet which had made our
camping to date very comfortable. A
proper light weight hiking tent could’ve been very useful! But we were determined to go exploring and
take all of our supplies on our own backs.
The first
stage of the hike was a rather symbolic bridge, leaving behind modern life to
return to life in the forest. Once we
had penetrated the fringes of the park, the native trees surrounded us and the
birds and insects provided a peaceful soundtrack to our stroll through the
woods. The track wound around the coast,
sometimes only metres from the shore, sometimes climbing higher into the forest
and crossing tame little streams. We
stopped to check out a couple of these and relieve our shoulders from the
unaccustomed burdens. We felt a million
miles away from civilisation & ‘ordinary’ life and the only people we saw
were walking along, like us, with smiles on their faces.
After a
couple of hours (we guessed – no watches needed), we came to a beautiful
deserted beach. DOC had supplied it with
a tap to supply fresh water and a classic long drop for other bodily
needs. There was also a sign warning
campers to beware of the high tide. But
the water was well down the beach and still going out, so surely it couldn’t
come up too high?? The driftwood on the beach gave some clues though, so we pitched
our tent as high on the sand as we could, behind a sturdy looking log.
There was
also an old bach nestled between the beach & the forest, safely above the
highest tide lines. We decided to heed
the warnings of the signs, however, and kept out of the private property. There was plenty of beach to explore though
and maybe some mussels to find for dinner?
It was a bit like landing on an uninhabited tropical island; everything
was undisturbed & unexplored. No
footprints on the beach, no plastic debris from careless beachgoers and just
the two of us and our tent :)
As darkness
fell we dug out our dehydrated meals & boiled up some water with our gas
cooker on the sand. It wasn’t quite as
flash as some of the feasts we’d conjured up in campgrounds before, but we were
happy to be having our dinner on a secluded beach in one of NZ’s finest
national parks.
Our night’s
sleep wasn’t quite as satisfying though; we only had towels to cushion us from
the sand (which is surprisingly hard and cold for sleeping on, especially in
May!). Consequently, we woke up a few
times during that night; Rachel got really cold so we tried sharing our
sleeping bags for warmth. We also woke
to the sound of waves lapping onto the sand quite close to our tent. Uhoh! Was this why there were warning signs
about the tide?? I poked my head out of the tent and saw the sea reaching to
only a couple of metres below us! And our gas cooker was on the other side of
our protective log. Luckily it was still there. We rescued our gear to higher
ground and crawled back into the warmth and comfort of our luxury tent ;) But for the next couple of hours I kept
waking to (or perhaps dreaming of) the sound of waves very close to our
tent.
At last
daylight arrived and we could warm up again and check how close the sea had
actually come up. The sand was smoothed
right up to our protective log; just as well it was there or we would’ve been
swimming in our sleep!!
We decided
not to push on further into the park and instead return for a night’s sleep
with our airbed & warm duvet at the campground outside the park. This also meant that we had most of the day
free to explore around the area :) Our
first foray was following a stream up the hill where it was flowing down. We managed to keep our boots dry by
rock-hopping & clambering through the foliage surrounding the stream. It was quite a surprise to us when we found
ourselves under a bridge where the main track crossed the stream. We had been happily ignorant of such man-made
constructions for the past couple of hours.
We continued upstream past the bridge until a waterfall blocked our
path. Who knows what we might’ve found
beyond that? A tribe of pixies or pygmies? It was a beautiful spot though –
river-rounded boulders with cloaks of algae and trees sprouting from seemingly
impossible spots amongst the rocks and fallen logs. If it was a bit closer to summer we wouldn’t
have been able to resist jumping in for a bath.
(I had been in the sea earlier and that was pretty chilly!)
Our next
little stroll was much easier – we followed the trail along further from our
campsite beach to explore the next headland.
We were surprised to notice that our beach wasn’t as private as we’d
thought; it was easily visible from the main track! I hope no one had seen anything they
shouldn’t have!!?? At least we could see
that our tent was still there :)
At the end
of the headland we were exploring, the land dropped down abruptly into the sea,
with only a few trees and shags (aka cormorants) hanging over the edge. We quietly climbed down as far as we could
and spied on the domestic life of the shags; mothers and babies in their nests
and bird couples flirting. They seemed
quite oblivious to us being only 10 metres away and clicking away with our
cameras.
The view out
to the north was stunning – crystal clear blue water lapping against the base
of craggy cliffs. The hills were covered
in shades of green from the spectrum of local native trees. Sadly we had to turn our backs on this and
make our way back to pack up our gear & hike out before dark. We only just made it too! The setting sun gave us a great farewell from
the Abel Tasman though; the sky turned shades of pink and orange and also
transformed the water from its natural cool blue to warmer hues in a slow
motion visual duet with the heavens above.
As if Mother Nature was saying to us ‘Why are you leaving this wonderful
part of the world? Don’t you want to spend more time here?’ Of course we did, but the ‘real world’ had
put some time constraints on us. Anyway,
I know we’ll be back for another visit.
Maybe by kayak rather than by foot next time? I can’t wait to explore there more :)
