After a bout of housesitting, we have resumed being a tourist. We have hit the ground walking. Headed to Abel Tasman National Forest. The smallest, but most visited of New Zealand’s many national parks and the Kahurangi National Park just adjacent. For a week in an air B&B we are doing tourist things and day hikes around the National Parks.
One of our tourist activities was a “bus” tour to Farewell Spit. The bus being a 4wd sand faring truck. This is the only way to visit the Farewell Spit. This is one of the longest sand spits in the world. It was other worldly. Sand dunes and long bay sand flats. The tide is long and encroaches from both sides. We got pretty close to one of the only gannet nesting grounds on mainland (okay, not mainland, but kiwi’s call it that). Unfortunately our tour coincided with a beaching of 50 pilot whales. We heard about the beaching on the morning news when we woke up. A large pod of 250 whales got trapped in the receding tide. 50 beached. Most were returned to the water by hundreds of volunteers. Unfortunately 50 returned and 20 perished. We were unwilling witnesses to the score of deceased beached whales. Not the happiest of our sightings. There are several theories of why whales beach themselves in droves, no one knows for sure. The way the tides recede here gently may be part of the problem, another may be killer whales that herd the whales to the shallows so they can pick them off.
Another tourist activity was a visit to the Mussel Inn, an institution. We do not often hit the tourist feeding spots, but we made an exception here because it was close to our house (and nothing else was). Turned out we were the only tourists. The place is known as a local music scene and they make their own craft beer, oh, and also the mussels. So we rocked up hungry and fell into a party. Literally some local poet’s 70th birthday. Every family from towns around must have been there. Very few wearing shoes. Every music group in town showed up to play. Eclectic and rustic outdoor venue. It was a hoot.
Then we set off on one of NZ’s “Great Walks” the Heaphy Track. I only committed to one overnight, so we are going to the second hut, spending the night and hiking out again. To do this track right takes 4 or 5 nights of camping. It is like cutting the upper left corner of the South Island from top to the west coast. The only issue is, there are no roads at all in the upper north west. So while the entire hike is 78.6 km, to drive from the start to the end of the track is 463 km, or about 6.5 hours. Logistically it is not the easiest. Neither end is very near civilization either. Paying for someone to move your car far exceeds air B&B costs for those nights, just saying. Guys make a lot of money moving your car and then biking over the track to get back. So one night in and out was an easier solution for us. We hit the dirt on Saturday. Twenty kilometers up through thick trees to the hut in a saddle of mountains. We got water right out of the creeks that crossed the path, no filtering required. A creek near the hut, aka mountain spa, was convenient for cleaning up if it wasn’t a treacherous muddy hike back out of the deep gorge, and kinda cold (ok, really cold). The hut had 24 bunks, 22 occupied. We all took turns cooking, eating mostly freeze dried foods right out of the bags it comes in, cleaning up, and hitting the sack just after the sunset. Up early for the sunrise and hiked down the mountain again. Mosquitoes are not a big deal in NZ. They have them, but the ones here do not carry diseases. More of a nuisance are sand flies. Their bites itch like mozzies (as mosquitos are called here) and there are a lot of them in the rainforest bush areas, or around water, both beaches and lakes. So these were an issue on the Heaphy. I still itch.
Now that we have ticked off a night of backpacking we are gearing up for another bike trek. This one is different from the last. Another of NZ’s great walk tracks, this one the Queen Charlotte track. A water taxi will deliver us to the start of the track out on the Marlborough sound. We are staying in lodges. Accommodation ranges from camp site, to hut or dormitory sleeping, to resort style suites. Restaurants and pools and room service available. We will not be carrying our gear either. Water taxis pick it up daily and shuttle it to the next accommodation. It should be another fun adventure. Stay tuned.
I am attaching some albums of pictures from all these recent hikes. It will make you want to come here no doubt.
Album: New Zealand Tramping 2021: https://photos.app.goo.gl/6aqCS6t3mACKBsaN9
Wine tasting, socializing and relaxing: https://photos.app.goo.gl/d9ZPmVj2NhkbATT88
Cheers, Wandering Kiwi style