Abel Tasman | New Zealand 3/9
Lazy!
Not you, am bashing myself. But this way managed to stay away from sore eyes for sometime. Starting now and hope I will finish the rest of the NZ articles in one stretch. Comeback my perseverance!!
Actually the drive started from Picton and have covered about the queen charlotte drive in the previous post.
After never ending hairpin bends and a long(first) deal of driving, I saw flats. And the first sight itself was breath taking. And it happened like this; I had to drive through a spitted meadow which almost had no visibility further that split. The moment I passed through that, was a plain to the distant horizon. Lush green, cultivated geometric designs. It was really hard for me to concentrate on the road. If it wasn’t her, taking those pics, much of the NZ would have been a hazy memory for me.
It was the drive of some 3 hours drive for a regular driver. But it took a lot for me. After the plain road which offered a visibility of at least a KM, I managed to drive steady. It was little late for our lunch when we realized. Knowing Nelson the beautiful town is near, we decided to catch something there. But was not so keen to exit the highway all the way to Nelson for lunch which would definitely gonna take a lot of time. I was already thinking so hard to avoid driving after light. There comes another town at the shore and thought its time to take that exit. Sea looks pretty different here. It was more of a calm flat lake and shallow. Sky was at its best with blue colors and the clouds were really big and showing symptoms of how the wind ripped them in patterns.
We quickly parked in a micro shopping complex area near the shore and headed to the shops just to realize they were wet markets and few of them closed for the day. Damn, its just in the afternoon people!. Luckily one of the seafood shop was cooking as well for the customers. She was in great dilemma as usual with which fish or fishes to chose while I easily settled with chicken nuggets. We waited for ages but the package came neat. It was very professionally packed with just brown papers. We decided to eat in the car while I was little skeptical about the air inside after the mess. So course changed on our way to the car to the shore. I forgot to get the ketchup and went back to the shop while she struggled to open the cover against the wind. When I cam back with peculiar sachets of ketchup, we had guests to share our food. Sea gulls!
They were not afraid of us and in fact threatened us to share the food. I was wondering if our Indian crows can compete with them. We returned to the car managed to eat quickly to resume the lovely drive. I trusted GPS to get me back to the highway, which was very orthodox and found me a uphill road and a narrow road then the return to the highway. I should have just taken a U-turn from the market. At times, its okay to skip the GPS. 😀
She slept enough during ferry journey, but as if that was not enough, she happily resumed to continue what she left. I was accompanying myself with the thoughts. Seems NZ has bettered the roads but the GPS was outdated with the maps. When it lost the road for the first time, I was really worried and halted the car completely for couple of minutes to think about the route. She was happily sleeping.
Then continued with the same route to explore, GPS joined and advised thats the correct route. When it did the same for the second time, I worried less. :-P. Mouteka was the next major town where people keep as a base during their abel tasman exploration. Mouteka is too small for a town standards but neatly built. Before we knew, we passed through. In towns, we are restricted to drive at 40-50 Kmph range. Else, I wouldn’t even realize the town at all.
After like hours, we reached Kaiteriteri. We had a reservation with Kimi Ora for a whopping 200 bucks a night (yes, most the hotels are costly here no matter how well you plan). I thought its a beach resort as it claimed. But that sits on a small mountain which faces the kaiteriteri beach. She was up around that time and I managed to find their front office after a wrong stop. Place is quite isolated and gives us a feeling of abandoned. Hotel manager was courteous and offered a lovely welcome drink. We decided to take their 18 course for the dinner as we didn’t have any other options. Wind was really cool and soothing. A lovely cocktail, cool breeze with the breath taking view, I couldn’t really asked for better.
It was one of the lovely veggie dinner. After that, we decided to take a short walk which lasted for more than an hour and a half. We took the road and walked all the way to the beach. I wish I had the camera by that time as the colors were really unique. Sky and the clouds were really making some ultra-contrast canvas with super special lights. Her tolerance to the cool wind reduced as the time progressed. We decided to return before it was too dark. We took the shortcut by walking into the backwater/river which looked dry in most the places. We jumped small streams and sand pits. It was fun for a while. Just a while. We called it a day, later.
Next morning, we quickly checked out and drove to the Kaiteriteri Beach. We were on time for the Sea kayaking, walking, boat package for the day. I was hoping for a lot.
Disappointment came in the name of weather. But it was early morning so sea looked calm and really encouraged for sea-kayaking. Instructor was too good in explaining and it was really fun with those sea kayaks. After the theoretical part, we headed into the sea. At the last minute we swapped the place in the kayak where the pedal to change direction was not in contact at all. I thought I could manage, but only after the instructor fixed at the sea after I took ages to fight the wind. red cheeks. 😛
Then we rowed to the split apple rock against the rough wind. It was asking a lot. Especially physical strength. Its good that it was not for the whole day.
Split apple rock.
This was very unique that anyone would notice. Rock looks exactly like sliced apple into half. Legend has it that the rock was split, like an apple, by the sword of Zeus while battling with Neptune over the hand of Dione. Zeus actually won that battle and the hand of Dione. How the rock found its way to NZ remains a mystery. But the practical information is, Jame cook the explorer who found the New Zealand is the person behind this ‘split’. It seems the obviously target-missed canon ball which hits and splits the rock with ear deafening noise makes Maoris to accept him as the avatar of the God with special powers.
Sky wasn’t blue at all, however, it looked misty with ash color which made the sea to look very dramatic. Anything that looks mystery would never fail to create interest.. ;). Its me.
We returned the kayak and realized the back water swelled and the river didn’t have mud patches at all. I thought that the Abel Tasman trip was a package one. However, we had to engage ourselves activity after activity. After the kayaking, Its time for a boat ride. Interesting part was to get into the ferry with a uniquely designed ladder which allows us to get into the boat without getting our foot wet.
After a quick lunch, it was time for the ferry ride. Ferry takes us from Kaiteriteri beach to Anchorage beach passing through Tong Island marine reserve. By this time, sea swell pretty much wore a face of rain-mood. It was windy and the heavily built ferry tried hard to sail smooth. I tried to balance for a while to take some decent pics. Cold and rough wind didn’t really encourage either.
We got dropped at the Anchorage bay (beach) which was a nice hideout for yachts to stay away from bad sea days. Its govt run area which has a natural campsites and few lodges. We cant speak ‘days’ here to stay, just in months. All I had was like 2 hours and limited to choose one and a half trek routes (yup, cant complete the second one).
There are following Trek routes available.
Pitt Head track loop (1.5 hours return)
Watering Cove (45 mins return)
Cleopatra’s pool (1.5 hours return)
Falls River Track (3 hours )
Coast Track (3-5 days)
We decided to catch the first one and the possible 30 mins of the second. We started in the woods which has a clear signed path. It had a funny weather, if you dont walk you feel its cool but humid on the move. New Zealand’s leaf logo “Fern” can be seen everywhere. Fern leaf has Māori names harakeke and wharariki. This tree is unique to this side of earth. A good leaf, looks really beautiful and the dried one looks beautiful too. Information boards claim it requires 15 hours in general, but thats the fastest possible I would guess. If you are slow or have to enjoy the scenery, expect at least 50% of more time. Te Pukatea bay was the first to come which was a small but beautiful isolated bay. As the sea was rough, tides were noisy as well. As the bay was quite small, tide wasn’t the typical ones, they were more of a swell. After few minutes, we decided to return to the starting point as the rest of the trip would require more time to reach PittHead.
We returned to the starting point (anchorage bay) and headed further to Watering Cove track. This is indeed more beautiful path as it raises to the top and offers periodic panoramic nice views of the distant sea. As per the advise we got, the best views lie around three-fourth of the watering cove track. This track was asking for more of our energy which we lost most in the morning Sea Kayaking. Also, I was concerned about the 3pm return boat to Kaiteriteri and all we had was like 20 mins. After some nice views, I pestered about returning to the bay with all the intentions to catch the 3 pm schedule. If I would lose that, next is 5 pm and the day doesn’t end there. Am suppose to drive all the way to Westport. With my newly learned driving skills, I thought use the time as much as possible.
We were just in time to the beach and little shower was started already. Few tourists were feeding the tough sea gulls. Boat came on time and the thunderous rain joined the schedule. We were inside the boat just in time. We couldn’t see anything outside the window as everything looked misty. We couldn’t believe it was the same calm sea where we kayaked earlier and found hard to row. Even before my thoughts of rowing the kayak in that rough sea, a quick but deep sleep took over. We got dropped at the Kaiteriteri beach and the rain had no mood to slowdown. We ran to a nearby cafe just to get some caffeine (am sure, with that deep sleep which I never get that quick, driving a car at that rain would be last thing I would be interested). We bought some Herbal Tea which had all the ingredients of our typical masala tea except the milk. We got them for the road and returned to the car. Even before the start of the car, car windows and mirrors got completely fogged. I had to look for some de-fogging options which I got a bit later.
There starts another lovely road trip to Westport!.
Download Abel Tasman slides here
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