I sit here writing having just finished the most delicious
bowl of ramen and peas I’ve ever eaten. No, that is not sarcasm. After three
long days of backpacking we are exhausted and ramen seemed to help our
condition a bit. We had an absolutely amazing time on the track, but let me go
back and tell you about our previous few days first.
We stayed our last two nights on the south island with Mike
and Ivan (friends of the family we did our workaway with) in the most adorable
little place called Greytown. We’ve found that a lot of tiny towns here, just
like tiny towns back home, are often outdated and sorta’ rundown. Greytown on
the other hand was full of upscale boutiques and cute little cafés all built in
resorted colonial style homes. Mike and Ivan’s villa style house was also
adorable and they even had a separate cottage in the back for us to stay. We
loved the fresh salad and lamb Ivan made us and especially their chocolate lab,
Monty (I think Blake wanted to steal him). Greytown is just over an hour from
Wellington, so we decided we needed to spend a day seeing the windy city. We
spent a few hours at Te Papa museum looking at the Māori exhibits, giant squid
and my favorite, Shrek the sheep who had 27 kgs of wool on him before the shearers
finally found him. Afterwards, we walked down Cuba street with its unique shops
and took a walk along the waterfront after the wind finally died down.
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| Walking along the Wellington waterfront |
It was really hard getting out of bed Saturday morning,
because I knew it would be the last time I would be sleeping in a real bed for a
while, but we had a ferry to the south island to catch! The Interislander Ferry
runs three or four times a day from Wellington to Picton and takes about three
hours. This massive ferry was probably three times as big as the Seattle ferries.
It holds semi trucks, has a theater, cafés, and several viewing decks. Although
it was super windy on the observation decks, we braved them for a few minutes
to get some pictures of the beautiful Marlborough Sounds. The only downside was
that I learned I can get very seasick even on a massive boat. We arrived in
Picton that evening and picked up some fish and chips to avoid getting hungry
on the hour drive to our campsite at Pelorus Bridge. It was a beautiful
campsite right on the river, but we met our nemesis of the south island: sand
flies. Think mosquitos but even more annoying. The little black bugs hover
around your legs and leave the tiniest, but itchiest bites. After leaving the
attacking sand flies the next morning, we drove west to Nelson and visited the
local I-site (info sites most every town has) for advice on the Abel Tasman. A
helpful lady helped us book our water taxi and campsites for our trip which we
would be starting the next morning.
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| View of the Marlborough Sounds from the ferry |
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| Picton Harbor |
The Abel Tasman Track is one of nine “Great Walks” they have
in New Zealand. These are basically anywhere from 3-6 day hikes through areas
they have deemed really pretty and have therefore spent a lot of money on
maintaining really nice trails. All of the great walks have backcountry huts
(basically lots of bunks to sleep, a basic kitchen and toilets) as well as
camping sites to choose from. Even though the huts are nice, we thought it was
kind of silly you pay more for a hut per night than you would for a hostel, so
we chose to camp for half the price.
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| An example of a hut you can stay in. This one was by far the nicest one we've seen. Most look like old school log cabins. |
After dropping our car off at the water taxi base, we set
out to Marahau beach where our journey would begin. We had a long day ahead of
us since we had to walk 22k from Marahau to our camp for the night at Bark Bay.
Immediately we were struck by how beautiful the coast was. The beaches are
golden orange and the water is a brilliant turquoise color. We walked for about
three hours before stopping for lunch at what we decided was the prettiest
beach of the trip, Anchorage Bay. After wolfing down our pb and j and admiring
the views, we had to keep going. The trail continued winding back into the bush
for a few kilometers and then bringing us back to the ocean views. About three
more hours later, we made it to Bark Bay. We spent awhile lounging on the beach
until the wind picked up and we decided it was dinner time anyways.
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| Views from the track day one` |
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| Anchorage Bay |
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| Bark Bay beach where we camped the first night |
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| Blake woke up early to catch the first morning sunrise |
Day two was
a bit of a challenge since our legs were really tired and sore from the day
before and our packs had rubbed our hips raw. We sucked it up knowing we had a
shorter day (17k) and started walking. About an hour in, Blake realized he
dropped his sunglasses somewhere on the trail. Reluctantly, we head back up the
big hill at which point Blake drops his pack with me and starts running to find
them. Miraculously, he runs up the hill out of breath and dripping sweat, but
has his glasses in hand. Although the trail is still awesome, we start to get
really tired right before lunch the second day and start talking about how we
wished there was a Red Robin and symphony bar brownies waiting for us at our
lunch stop. Unfortunately, lunch was half of a pb and j and some trail mix, but
just being able to take our packs off was bliss for us as our bodies were so
tired at this point. Luckily, we had an hour to rest, because the next part of
the track was an estuary that couldn’t be crossed until low tide. We staggered
to our camp and set up our tent just in time to avoid the sandfly fest that
would plague us for the night. Our last day on the track we woke up really
early so we could catch the sunrise over the beach. I realized I had never
intentionally gotten up to watch a sunrise before, but after watching this one,
I think it is something I will do more often. Despite our pain and exhaustion,
I can’t even begin to describe how beautiful and definitely worth it this hike
was. I think it was my favorite thing I’ve done since we’ve been here and would
recommend at least doing part of it to anyone who comes to NZ. Now time for
some rest, because tomorrow is hopefully a tour of Pic’s Peanut Butter
factory!!
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| Awaroa Bay |
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| The prettiest turquoise water I've ever seen |
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| Blake at a waterfall pre losing glasses |
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| Sunrise day two |
42.4 kilometers hiked- 26.5 for those of you who
are metrically challenged
