February 03, 2019
We had booked the 9 AM Discoverer Day cruise (Astrolabe Beaches and Bays option) with Abel Tasman Sea Shuttles. It left from Kaiteriteri. We could have taken a free shuttle bus from Marahau to Kaiteriteri, but we elected not to since I wanted the freedom to stay later in the area. The road from Marahou to Kaiteriteri was very narrow and twisty. It was about a 20-minute drive. I am glad that we left early while traffic was minimal.
Kaiteriteri has a very nice golden sand beach. It is more of a main hub than Marahou for boat tours to the national park.
The first part of our tour was a 3-hour boat cruise up the coast of the national park. Every 15 minutes the boat stopped at a beach to let people on and off for their various tours. We just stayed on the boat and enjoyed the scenery. We had great seats on the top deck. We passed by Split Apple Rock and a fur seal colony. The captain had nice commentary throughout the tour about the various landmarks along the way. We cruised back down the coast and were dropped off at Apple Tree Bay.
The second part of our tour was the hike from Apple Tree Bay to Anchorage Bay. This was about a 7 km hike that was estimated to take 2 hours 15 minutes total. There were a few side trails that led to other beaches along the way. Along the trail Heinrich heard some unusual pecking noises, and we found a mama Weka and her 2 chicks foraging for food.
We took the side trail to Stillwell Bay. It is a small but very pretty golden sand beach.
Next the trail climbed uphill and inland. We stopped at the Yellow Point Lookout which had nice views of the ocean on both sides of the trail.
We stopped at a nice viewpoint near Observation Beach. Heinrich decided to wait while I tramped down the 750-meter trail to the beach. At about the halfway point the trail got very steep, and I bailed out. It was taking way too much time and we had a deadline to be picked up by the shuttle boat at Anchorage Bay at 3:45.
The trail had many good viewpoints near Anchorage Bay. After we reached the bay we still had an hour to spare before the shuttle boat arrived, so I decided to hike to Te Pukatea Bay. It was a 20-minute hike each way. I rushed the hike a bit to make sure I had enough time, but I am glad I went since it was the prettiest beach seen so far.
The shuttle boat arrived early, and once again we got good viewing seats on the top deck. It was a 30-minute ride back to Kaiteriteri.
After we disembarked we wandered around the town and decided to have dinner there before heading back to Marahau. We ordered a meat lovers pizza at the Beached Whale restaurant. It was very good and reasonably priced.
We drove back to Marahau and had a relaxing evening at our room. I stayed up late to upload many photos to Facebook. After midnight I was happy to see that the outside lights were turned off. I wandered outside to the bridge over the creek, looked down and could see several glowworms at the bank on both sides of the bridge! I called Heinrich out to take a look. The stars were nice, too!
It was a great day with spectacular weather, and the trail, although busy, was less crowded than I had expected. People were spread out nicely along the way.