After a few nights of rest, it was time to start the Abel Tasman Great Walk. If you remember from a previous post, we had already done one of NZ's Great Walks during our trip (the Milford Track). Each of the Great Walks is a different experience, and this one was chosen by Lindsey when she was trip planning because it afforded us an opportunity to do a Great Walk and see something completely different than we had seen on Milford. Milford was a structured 4 day hike through a glacial valley and over a mountain (Fiordland) in which each person (40 of us) had to hike the same distance to the same hut each day. There was no tent camping allowed, and you couldn't veer off and do your own thing. It needed to be booked well in advance because of how full it gets. The Abel Tasman is very different. It's a very loose hike that can be done in 1-5 days. The tramp is basically along the beach on the north end of the South Island. There are hills, but it's mostly considered an easier hike, and there are both huts and campsites at many stops along the way which you can book based upon the pace you decide you want to go. It's flexibility and capacity allowed for us to make our decision about how we wanted to do the hike much closer to the actual start date.
Daniel and I opted to do the Abel Tasman in 3 days and 2 nights. The weather forecast predicted possible rain on the morning of day 1 and sunshine thereafter - perfect! The Abel Tasman is interesting in that on one of the days of the hike, you can only cross the trail during low tide. Otherwise, you would just have to swim across a bay (not safe, nobody does this especially with a pack)! The low tide schedule also worked well on our chosen days with low tide at 3:30pm on day 1 and 4pm on day 2. It worked well with my plan to do all the tidal crossings in one day in order to avoid having to wait for low tide all morning and part of the afternoon of day 2 or 3. If you get stuck between the two mandatory tidal crossings, you might have to wait most of the next day in order to go to your next stop which is possibly just an hour hike away. We did not want to wait 24 hours just to hike for an hour. I felt that we could see more if the tides didn't require us to stay in a certain place for a long time. I also had hoped to take the water taxi to our start point and be able to walk back to the finish and get in our car on our own time. I did not want us being rushed to get to a certain pick up point on the trail at a certain time for the water taxi to bring us back to our car at the end of the trip. The weather and tide timing worked wonderfully with this plan.
Day 1
We drove to Marahau and hopped on the water taxi with about 8 other people. These other passengers were day hikers who didn't have enormous packs to lug onto our boat. We definitely stuck out among them. They had on their blue jeans and sneakers while we were decked out in our hiking gear. First we visited by boat the Broken Rock, one of the famous landmarks (or seamarks?) in the Abel Tasman National Park. It was just a round granite rock in the sea that split in two a long time ago, but it was a mandatory photo opportunity. Then, we went north along the shores of the park dropping off day hikers here and there until it was just the boat driver and us. At one point he started turning inland and weaved through some major rock formations to get to a place called Shag Point which he said was only accessible at a "bloody high tide." He navigated us to this little spot with seals hanging around and said, "Alright let's see your seal charming skills." We looked at him really confused until he pointed to some baby seal pups that were jumping in the water towards us. This was one of the best moments of the trip! We got on the back of the boat and gently swirled our hands in the water and the seals slowly swam over and started playing. Both of us even got to pet them when they swam up and rolled over to present their bellies! It was so cool and something completely unexpected.
We left that area and were dropped off at Totoranui, but we still had about an hour or so to kill, so we made a little loop north of the track we were about to do, had a picnic lunch, and then took off, backpacks full and loaded. The plan worked beautifully as we arrived at the first tidal crossing right at the point when we'd be able to cross. You always get a little wet going through the Awaroa Estuary, but that is all part of the fun. Daniel and I both brought sandals for this part, but Daniel's broke not even halfway through the crossing, but we just laughed and he was barefoot through the sand, mud, and water which probably also made it more fun! He probably finds it more fun now than at the time. The track led us through some very beautiful woods and then back onto the beach several times. We also made it to the next tidal crossing just at the right time. I tried to keep my feet dry on this one without taking my boots off... and failed. I wound up with a thorn or two or seven in my feet, and one didn't come out until the next morning! No worries though! We made it to our campsite with enough daylight to pitch the tent and start dinner. We stayed at the Onetehuti campsite just steps from the beautiful Onetehuti Bay which had a very nice beach. This campsite is big enough for 100 people, but we only saw about 2 or 3. We had our little section all to ourselves.
Day 2
We woke up to a beautiful morning at Onetehuti. We slept a little late (until 7:30) and took our time getting all packed up to go. This was our longest day, but it was still only a 5 hour hike ahead of us. We spent a while getting the tent dry since we were going to need it again on this trip and hit the trail around 10am which is a super late start for us. This day was gorgeous all day long, and we got some amazing views! One thing that I found very different about this hike is that you actually see some tiny towns of New Zealand holiday homes (called baches). There are a few roads that connect through the park and occasionally some power lines. In comparison, on some of the other hikes, running water is not even thought of. Sometimes we felt so far from civilization and then we would feel that we were almost in it. Of course, these holiday homes were deserted because of the timing, but seeing them was really different from the Milford. On day 2 we passed another tidal crossing, but our timing wasn't excellent so we took the optional high tide track that took an extra hour. This led us to Cleopatra's Pools which is a natural pool created by a large stream. Had it been just a little bit warmer we would have been taking a refreshing swim. The water looked incredibly tempting, but (seeing that it is their equivalent of our November) even on a warm sunny day at the northern end of the South Island, it could be pretty chilly in the shade and at night. At the advise of some lady who works at the Motueke info center, we stayed at a place called Watering Cove. It is a little campsite big enough for only 10 people, but we had it all to ourselves. It had spots for only a few tents, one rudimentary toilet, and a faucet that spurted water which had to be boiled before being consumed. From the beach we had a nice view of an island, and the stars at night were unbelievable. The Milky Way was right above us and the southern cross just in front of us. The longer we stared the more beautiful they glowed.
Day 3
This was our very last day of backpacking and we had motivation to get up and get going because most importantly... our lunches were in the car. This was an anticipated 3.5 hour day, but it only took us 2.5 hours. It was another day of fabulous weather! We were so lucky this whole time! We saw a number of other awesome views, but as a whole, not quite as good as the first two days. We just had fun cruising along this very easy track and were excited that we had accomplished another New Zealand Great Walk - our first one tent camping the whole way!
After completing the tramp we walked (yes, another 20 minutes with our packs on) to the car and found a nice picnic table in Marahau with views of the bay. It was an awesome trip to end our backpacking in NZ.
The Broken Rock
Totaranui: returning from our little loop track north of this campsite- Just ahead of me is the beach where the water taxi dropped us off. At this moment I was amazed that this place even has gravel roads.
Finished!
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