Abel Tasman - Seals, Bays and Bridges

Tuesday 23rd November – the last part of our South Island tour has seen considerable adjustment from the original schedule, though the Picton Ferry on Thursday will bring us back in line for those who saw the original ‘master plan’. It was always expected that we would vary things according to what we found, with just a handful of absolutely fixed dates where we had booked things well in advance; though even those have been adjustable, as we found out at Doubtful Sound. That said, the last few days have been very much ‘do as we please’ and as such we spent most of today at the Abel Tasman National Park.
After early morning rain (stopped before we got up) we arrived at Kaiteriteri well before 10 and got checked in with the water taxi (not without going to the wrong company’s booth first! She was very polite.... ) and then went for a wander along the beach where we would board at about 1030.

The water taxi took us north past Kaka Island, along the bays and in to get views of Split Apple Rock.

We dropped a couple off at Coquille Bay who were planning to walk into the park, camp overnight, and be picked up towards the top of the park tomorrow. We then visited Adele Island where there were seals playing in the water, as well as one asleep on the rocks. It was then on to Anchorage Bay and Torrent Bay (where we were advised re pick-up point for later “and don’t be late”...) and so, on to Bark Bay where we were dropped off just before 11.30.

We were due to walk back to Torrent Bay and had been advised that our pick up two hours later would mean that we “had to keep walking”. The walk itself was along a reasonably surfaced path with only a few places where it deteriorated into a muddy mess, however it did rather replicate some of the terrain of yesterday’s drive with the path zigzagging up and down the hillside, cutting across gullies via a range of bridges including quite a long and wobbly suspension bridge.

One climb in particular was sufficiently steep and long to necessitate a refreshment pause part way up. We saw a number of others who were also finding the going tough and were bemused to note that the brochure described it as ‘comfortable’ walking.

The views of the lagoons and bays was well worth the effort, with the sun highlighting the beautiful colouring of the water.

As we crested what turned out to be the final climb we had a spectacular view of the bay ahead, though it did not look like the bay we had seen from the boat we realised that our persepctive was quite different. As we descended we came across the sign assuring us that it was indeed Torrent Bay and we had reached it in just over half of the ‘brochure’ time – we could have dawdled!

We took a stroll along the beach and then sat a while to wait for the taxi. Its due time of 13.35 came and went but no boat.... eventually it arrived 15 minutes late – it was not a problem to us, but it always gets a bit concerning that we might have messed up!

We then had the boat ride back to Kaiteriteri, picking up other passengers at anchorage bay en route. It was then a late lunch and pootle to Richmond via the scenic route where we checked in to a campsite relatively early (to compensate for yesterday’s late finish!).

Laundry done, showered and sitting in the sunshine writing up the Blog by 1800!