New Zealand Diary, Day 4

Day 4: Oops!

Today we start our 5-day hiking and kayaking adventure with the Wilsons group. We awake early, get semi-packed (since we'll be repacking for the lodges), and head out for the headquarters in Motueka. We had about 35 km to go, and nearly 3 hours to get there. Piece of cake. First stop, brekkie at a McDonald's in Nelson with a McCafe, where we are given another loyalty card. Now this one, we might be able to use back home.

Onward, forward, to Richmond--less than 5 km away. Nelson and Richmond are sort of twin cities, almost suburbs of each other. In Richmond, there are several roundabouts in quick succession, but I confidently keep following Highway 6 all the way out of town. We travel through a couple of small towns, past vineyards, hops fields, and apple orchards, and even over a small pass. I'm thinking Motueka should be getting close, but wondering why we can't see the sea. After about 45 minutes, I see a sign: Motueka Valley Highway, right turn; Motueka 51 km.

What?! We were now farther away from our destination than when we started? Apparently, at that 2nd or 3rd roundabout in Richmond, I was supposed to take a right onto Highway 60, not 6. Good thing we left in plenty of time.

The Motueka Valley was even more packed with hops and apples, cattle and sheep, with streams and creeks to cross and backpackers to avoid hitting. Beautiful country, but no time for photos, since we now had to find the place with less time to spare.

As it turned out, it really was no problem finding the Wilsons office, and we were packed up and ready to go before their bus was ready to take us. We met the other nine clients in our group, and Whitey, our guide for five days. Onto the bus, and off to Kaiteriteri, where we would board the boat for the ride north to our starting point.

The intrepid group, awaiting the boat. Whitey is in black.

We're on a boat!

You may notice there are more than 11 folks on the boat. It seats about 60 people, and it's used to ferry both people on arranged trips and people out on their own to several points along the Abel Tasman coast. On our trip up, there was a family going to a birthday party in Torrent Bay, where our group would spend the nights of Christmas and Boxing Day.

Split Apple Rock

The first pause--not a stop for loading and unloading --was at Honeymoon Bay, site of Split Apple Rock, a granite boulder about 3m diameter that has been split by water and time. A little over 20 km more, after unloading our lodge bags at Awaroa, we were at the northern end of our journey: Totaranui, named so by the Maori for the big (nui) Totara trees prized for making waka, their dugout canoes.

In Totaranui the group members took a few minutes to introduce ourselves to each other, then started off walking. It was almost 3pm when we started, and we had a little over 6 km to go to the lodge at Awaroa.

Totaranui beach

Hikers in front!

Pikers in the rear.

We walked down a road past campgrounds, then onto a foot track that climbed a short way up to a vista point where we could see the beach where we landed.

Whitey pointing out Rata
vines on a Rimu tree

From there it was back down through the forest, where Whitey told us about a few of the native species. He read a poem about Rimu and Rata, describing a fanciful loving relationship. Rimu is a large, long-living tree of the cypress family, which plays host to several parasites and symbiots, most notably the Rata. Rata starts in the forks of Rimu branches, sending vine-like roots down the trunk. As the Rata grows, the roots begin to intertwine and completely cover the trunk of the Rimu. After a few hundred years, the Rimu dies (whether because of the Rata or of age is not known), and in time rots away, leaving a large, hollow Rata tree.

Down we went to the next beach at Goat Bay, where we saw pied shags (a species of cormorant), black oystercatchers, and a colony of mussels. There were also quite a few jellyfish bodies, sans tentacles, one of which Whitey picked up to show us how harmless they were. We all agreed they looked a lot like breast implants. (Sorry, no photo of the jellies!)

Pied Shags, or Cormorants

Oystercatchers foraging in the surf

Mussels clinging fast

I couldn't resist this pattern.

We spent a little time and had a snack on the beach, then set off again to go over one more point before we got to the Awaroa inlet. Once we got there, I understood why we'd been advised to bring water shoes in our day pack: we had to cross the inlet to get to the lodge! If you've ever walked through the fine silt mud deposited where a river meets the ocean, you can imagine what our crossing was like.

We got to the lodge a little behind schedule, and the appetizers of broccoli-cheese balls were just about to come out of the oven. We climbed the carpeted staircase to our cozy little room and cleaned up, then went down to the deck overlooking the bay for beer and balls. The main feature at supper was a strip steak, grilled over an open fire with just the right spices.

The living room at Awaroa Lodge

 After supper, we all gathered in the comfortable living room of the lodge to watch a short video about the family who settled in the part of the South Island that became Abel Tasman National Park. This family eventually became the Wilsons who started with a water taxi and inn, and built up a tourism business from that. They had built a house in Awaroa Bay, and this lodge was built on that same plan (albeit a mirror-image). The story told by the video, and in more detail by a book (both offered for sale by Wilsons), was not without betrayal and tragedy, but in the end it was a story of success. We all considered the day's adventures to be a success, and retired to our rooms to rest up for the next day.

Up next: what does one do in an estuary at high tide?