Around the World (Again) Nelson and Abel Tasman National Park

The Abel Tasman National Park. Sunday 10 Nov

It was up early, I am always up so it was no problem for me, and Linda likes to lie a bit but is also able to get into gear at speed (relative) if the need takes it.

So we got our breakfast over and made up packed lunches and leaving Steve's camper/workshop van behind, we jumped into the car to set off towards the peninsular. (do you like Birte's letterbox?)

 

But first we travelled through the fertile plain of the area around the town Richmond, this is hemmed in by the Mt Richmond National park, the vineyards (or wineries as they prefer to call them on this side of the world) are interspersed by high hedged fruit and vegetable fields.
We stooped to take a photo at a barbers and to pick up some pies for lunch.

 

Here the Abel Tasman Sea, that takes a bite out of the South Island right here, ebbs into mud flats, sand banks, river mouths and small inlets, which are full with bird life, an Ornithologists paradise. To the high ground is sheep country and this was spring and each ewe had its lambs (mostly two) gambolling around them.

We arrived at the backpackers paradise town of Moteuka, you can carry on to Takaka and then to Collingwood and Golden bay with its sandy beaches and Cape Farewell.  We had decided we would on this visit be doing the Abel Tasman trail (well part of it, the whole track takes a few days to trek). The Trail is set out in bite size pieces, but take everything you want with you, there are no shops, kiosks or roads, also bring all rubbish out, there are no rubbish bins and if camping do it only in the designated areas and light your fires only in the special pits provided, in the area of the new hostel at Anchorage Bay they provide free firewood for this purpose. The National Parks authority are undertaking of returning the Park to its natural condition, they are killing off introduced flora such as the pine and fir trees, this leaves large tracts of seemingly desolate areas, with grey dead trees but it doesn’t take long for nature to return the hillsides to the fern and shrub covering that is indigenous to New Zealand, with this comes, hopefully, the return of native bird life.

But I am getting ahead of myself. 

We had decided that Birte, Linda and I would take an Aqua Taxi to get into the Park, these run from the small town of Morteuka to various set down and pick up points on beaches within the Park boundaries.

 

We had decided on Anchorage Bay as this had a nice loop walk of a couple of hours, this would also give us time to have our picnic on the beach.  Steve is a mountain man and had decided to just go direct in and do his thing from here. You get loaded on the boat and get towed by a tractor into the water, we passed a chap doing a bit of whitebait fishing, well about to.

The taxi scoots across the water at about 50kmh, the driver, gives a very nice commentary and pops into a couple of bays to show places of interest, like shag breeding colonies or penguins returning from the sea, this area is home of the smallest penguin species, the little blue penguin.

Before long the expanse of Anchorage comes into view, the sea in front of the beach is full of little bobbing yellow objects, this is another way to visit the Abel Tasman and kayak trekking is great way to do it. You get dropped off at one of the designated set-down/pick-up points and then depending on how long and how far you are doing, you get picked up either in a couple of hours or more likely a couple of days.  The girls dabbled their twinkle toes in the sea before setting off on our little jaunt.

 

We jumped off the taxi and had a look at our map and saw the loop started right beside the brand new backpacker’s hostel, run by the park authorities, what a location. It has been constructed with the environment in mind; all facilities are basic, bunked bed dorms, large communal cooking and eating facilities and functional toilet facilities. No mod cons here, great and what a view, it is a place I would like to stay, may be next time.  

 

We took our time wandering and climbing through some of the remnants of the oldest forests left on the planet.

 

 

The track climbing ever upwards into the fern covered hillside, before long we could catch glimpses of the beaches and the beach down below, we eventually reached a very steep incline that lead to a look out, I had, silly fool, not brought any glucose tablets and on reaching the top was glad of the seats as my sugar depleted body recovered. My heart was pumping 20 to the dozen and I am sure those things floating in front of my eyes were not birds or flies. Sat for a few moments, recovered my breath and took in the view, it was amazing.

 

We then descended from the lookout descending until we saw a golden beach below us, little did we know but that was to be our beach, the beach that we would have our picnic on.

We arrived and found only a single kayak bobbing in the surf, the occupants lying on the beach, we arrived through the lush undergrowth and took up our spot at the water’s edge, we unpacked our sandwiches and warding off the terns (the boss one was quite aggressive) had our picnic. About 20 mtr away, a pair of red billed Oyster Catchers poked and prodded in the sand looking for a few worms.

Birte decided, the water looked so inviting so disappeared down the beach for a dip, while we dozed and took in the wonderful view of the pristine bay with a solitary bobbing yatch and my feet.

Then it was time to get back to Anchorage and wait for the Taxi to return to pick up not only us, but a load of Kayakers that would also be returning with us.

The WaterTaxi arrived, all loaded and we headed back towards Morteuka , stopping on the way to catch a glimpse of a penguin bobbing in the surf.

It was then time to head for home Steve picked us up, we had a drink at the very nice café at the start or end of the trail depending on if your coming in or going out, then it was back to Nelson, Next time it will not be for just a day in the Abel Tasman Natural Park.

  

The Next day it was a flight down to Christchurch and then on to Sydney.

Around the World (Again) Nelson

Nelson South Island New Zealand.

We had arrived in Nelson mid-afternoon, Steve was off fishing (catching our next day evenings meal) and Birte was working until 18:00, but the key had been stashed in a secret (grin) place. We got our baggage out of the taxi and into our bedroom and made ourselves comfortable. Birte had been able to get away early and was actually home at about 16:00 so we had all of the welcomes and Wiedersehens earlier than expected.  

We sat out on the patio in the sun, drank coffee and watched the butterflies on the vine, life doesn't get much better than this.

 

Birte made us a meal and the rest of the evening was spent with the girls nattering about old times and friends, I just went on to the computer and blogged and caught up with news from home. I had an early night as we had been up early and yesterday’s session with Bill had been a bit hard.

Next morning up with the larks or whatever is the New Zealand equivalent (they sure make a lot of noise). The sunrise is quite spectacular, it starts with a faint glow behind the mountains and then whoosh it is there climbing into the heavens. We breakfasted and decided we would walk down into town (it is great going down, but oh boy is it a good hike on the way back).

Birte took us to a couple of nice Galleries and to the main Nelson one, called the Suther Gallery, very nice lots of paintings and plastics by local artists, you can sit out and enjoy a coffee 

 

 and watch the Mallards playing at ducks and drakes, wink, wink.

 

 

 It was a very nice day for us and I am sure for the drakes, we then walked through the park and returned through the shopping area, Birte pointing out where the Saturday Farmers market took place. We then hiked it back up the mountain (I wouldn’t fancy this every day, no wonder the Kiwis are fit). After a quick lunch, it was now time for Birte to go to work (she holds down two jobs as well as running an au-pair agency). She took us to the harbour (I wanted to see if I could get a fishing charter boat, alas to no avail), she then headed off to work.

We legged it right along the promenade, there are some nice pieces of information about the first ships that came to settle in Tasman Bay, some nice bronze plastics depicting the early settlers.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We walked until we hit the intersection where the road heads off towards the airport, Stoke and Richmond, so off course we had to have a photograph didn’t we! 

By this time Linda had a blister and needed some plasters and so we went to a chemists), across the road was a nice pub, so we decided to have a couple (the All Blacks game was on tele) of beers, do I hear 2 birds one stone.

After it was finished we went outside and low and behold, a whole load of schools where having a touch rugby competition, we sat and watch that for about an hour, bloody great all mixed teams.

Linda Texted to Birte and she said she would be with us in about 30 minutes.

She picked us up and suggested we go for fish and chips, do I heard what again, well as I love the stuff and have not had a bad one in NZ to date, why not. Now this is a one right on the harbour, there are at least 8 types of fish to choose from, I chose the blue Pacific cod (it actually tastes like cod), Linda the Hokey and Birte the Gurnard. If you ever venture down this way do not be tempted to have a whole scoop of chips, I can tell you Birte and I shared a scoop and I must say half a scoop would have sufficed (though Linda almost finished her ½ a scoop).

That eaten (well I ate all of my delicious fish) we drove home, I was absolutely bloated, stuffed and could do nothing that waddle into the bedroom and collapse into a satisfied sleep.

 

Saturday turned out to be not so nice, in fact it was quite overcast Steve had returned from his fishing expedition, (with some success) but was already up and about. Birte had also to go to work and so this meant we would walk down to the market and then be left to our own devices until afternoon.

The market was quite wonderful, a lot of artisan food products, local crafts and fruit and veg, we took in the very nice laidback Kiwi life style, we just wandered, stopped to try some of the delicious produce, be it honey, German Sausages and smoked hams, apples, cheese, juices, finally to sit at a coffee stall to drink a (now our drink) flat white, the owner had a Chelsea shirt on, poor lad got some ribbing from me (Newcastle had beat them 2:0). there was even a German Brattie stall (bit far to come!

 

We then popped into see Birte as Linda wanted to buy her niece and (very new) nephew presents for when she visits them in Bangkok on her way home. Birte is a trained pedagogue, but due to her non-residence status she is not able to get work fully in her field, so she work part-time in the toyshop and part-time teaching children with learning disabilities. She also runs her Au pair agency for Germans from home. 

We then went and done a bit of wandering the streets of Nelson. The main Nelson shopping and business area isn’t at all large and once down is very flat, so easily covered on foot. We once again ended up at the Suther Gallery, but this time just to eat and drink, Linda ate and I drank.

Linda had an excellent vegetarian meal on offer. It was a curried dal and a pear and blue goats cheese salad.

We then decided that rather than exert too much pressure on our weary limbs (we had a hard day ahead the next day) we would get a taxi back up the hill, we arrived and guess what? I had a nap.

I awoke to the smell of cooking, it was Steve preparing the evening meal, it was the fish he had caught the day before, so it was very nice flounder and whitebait omelette , we ate it with potatoes, carrots, broccoli and drank a nice local white sauvignon blanc with it (what else).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After the meal we sat and chatted, I read a bit in my travel guide about Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia. Steve had bought an underwater light for flounder fishing at night; this is done in the shallows with a harpoon, it is also used for prawn and crab fishing in the rock pools after dark. This is a very interesting method of fishing and I shall have to look into it in greater depth (pun intended) for later days.

It was time for bed as the next day was to be a hard one. We would be doing a bit of walking in the Abel Tasman National Park! Birte's idea not mine!