February 02, 2019
We woke up to another beautiful day with partly cloudy skies. After checking out of the apartment we headed north toward Golden Bay. Our first stop was at a lookout that had nice views of Golden Bay in the distance. The surrounding hills were golden, so I thought the name was appropriate.
It was about a 1-hour drive to our first destination: Farewell Spit. This was a long narrow section of beach that extended for several miles, but most of it was closed to foot traffic to keep it as a wildlife preserve. The road out to the spit was gravel for a few miles and ended at the Puponga Farm Park. There were many sheep grazing on the farm. We hiked up to the top of a small hill that had a nice view of the spit. There was a restaurant at the farm but it was not open yet. We were the only people in the area. It was so nice and quiet.
We backtracked down the dirt road and took a right turn to the next area of interest: Wharariki Beach. There was a small car park with a trail (about a half mile) that led to the beach. There was one camper van already at the car park: it looked like they had stayed there overnight. There were a couple of other cars in the lot, and that was it. Another quiet place.
On the hike we encountered a cow standing right in the middle of the trail, so we had to take a little detour. Once again we saw many sheep grazing near both sides of the trail.
The trail climbed over a small hill and then descended to the beach. There were many large sand dunes that we hiked over before reaching the shore.
This was an area where I was concerned we would encounter sandflies. But there was enough wind to keep them at bay.
The beach extended for a few miles. Offshore there were sea arches. The most prominent formation had three openings. The arches were far enough offshore that we were unable to get close to them, and it was not low tide. For the next trip I will check in advance as to when we have low tide. There was another arch located close to the beach that would have been accessible during low tide. We had to settle for photos from a distance.
We walked to the northern end of the beach where there was a solitary fur seal sunning itself. We watched it waddle over to a comfortable spot in the sand, where it proceeded to roll around. This area of the beach was in a nice protected spot surrounded by the dunes and small bluffs.
When we returned to the car, we found a male peacock wandering around the car park. There were many more cars that had arrived.
Our next stop was Cape Farewell. This was the northernmost part of the South Island. There was a short trail that led to the top of a bluff where we had a great view of the Cape Farewell sea arch. There was a hiking trail that climbed to the top of some sea cliffs where there had been reports of fur seals, but we did not take it due to time constraints.
We started the drive back south and made a restroom stop at Tomatea Point. This was a beautiful section of beach on Golden Bay. From there we had great views across the bay of the city of Nelson and the mountains in the distance.
We made the 1-hour drive back to Takaka and then detoured to a car park for the trail to Wainui Falls. Heinrich decided not to hike: his feet were still bothering him from the Tongariro hike. I hiked on my own: it was about an hour round trip. The trail led into the northern portion of Abel Tasman National Park. The forest was lush and beautiful. Wainui Falls was a gorgeous waterfall that cascaded into a beautiful green pool. It was a fun, easy hike.
I got back to the car at about 2 PM. It was time to head to our next destination: Marahou. We knew it was going to take at least a couple of hours driving since we had to backtrack over the steep, twisty road with sections of road construction. The side road to Marahau was also steep and twisty, so it was slow going.
The town of Marahau was very small with not much there. It was a main drop off point for hikers into Abel Tasman National Park and for some of the sea shuttles. We drove out of town and up a residential road that led into the rain forest, where our lodging was located. We checked in at the Buena Vista Apartments, a small privately owned accommodation that had three rooms for rent in a separate building. We stayed in the Samba room. It was very quiet and we did not hear our neighbors.
The apartment had a small living room, bedroom, and a kitchenette with a hot plate, microwave and small refrigerator. I fried potatoes, bacon, and eggs for dinner.
After dinner we drove to the entrance of Abel Tasman National Park, which was only a few miles from where we were staying. We decided to hike the first portion of the Abel Tasman Coastal Track just to see what it was like. The trail crossed a wide section of Marahau Beach which was very pretty in the evening light. We encountered a lot of people hiking out, as this was the end of their day. It was not as crowded as the Tongariro hike, but still more people than I had seen so far all day. We had read about New Zealand trail etiquette: hike on the left side of the trail, the same as driving on the left. The very first person we encountered, a European carrying a baby, stopped dead in front of Heinrich and made him walk around. Apparently he was not well versed in the trail etiquette. Next we passed a group of folks that were blasting music through their iPods. So much for peace and quiet and the sounds of nature.
After those encounters I was getting concerned about what our hike would be like the next day. We only went a little way further, up to a viewpoint of the next beach, before turning around.
Back at the apartment we had a relaxing quiet evening. There were laundry facilities outside the apartment, so Heinrich took advantage. The owners had told us to be sure to go outside after dark since there were glowworms along the creek. There was a small bridge across the creek that we crossed to get from our car to the apartment. Unfortunately when I went outside just after dark, the bridge was lit up with tiny white Christmas lights that made it impossible to see the glowworms. I hoped to check with the owners next day to ask if they could turn the lights off.