Tramping Abel Tasman

Kia Ora!

Cool Bridge in the Rainforest

Nelson is in the northwest area of NZ's South Island, east of Cook Strait.  Nelson's biggest draw is its 3 national parks.  Kahurangi National Park, right next door, is the second largest and newest of NZ's 14 national parks. Nelson Lakes National Park, sculpted by glaciers, is to the south.  But Abel Tasman National Park, NZ's smallest, is the most visited.   The area is subtropical rainforest on a granitic rock base.  The Abel Tasman Coastal Track is 52 km long, usually takes 3 days to tramp, and winds over the coastline around golden beaches and through dense rainforests.  BTW, hiking is called tramping in New Zealand.

Gray and pied cormorants

One of the drawbacks of Abel Tasman, or maybe its saving grace, is that most of it is not accessible by car.  Most people access the park from the south at Marahau or Kaiteriteri from Nelson (1 hour drive) or Motueka (15 minutes drive). There is also western access from Takaka at Totaranui.  There are no shops in the park other than a cafe at the Awaroa Lodge which is accessible only by tramping or water taxi.  Potable water is available only at 4 sites along the track.  There are also 4 huts and camping facilities for overnight use by registered guests.

Split Apple Rock

Of course there is a solution for this inaccessibility.  Good ol' capitalism.  There are several companies that offer water taxi service.  They offer many options.  Coach from Nelson or Motueka, then water taxi from Kaiteriteri or Marahau to your desired bay.  From there, you can tramp back to Marahau and civilization or tramp back to a predetermined bay and reboard the water taxi back to Marahau. Alternatives include kayaking, either guided or unguided.  Of course there are options for that as well, including overnight, tramping, cruise, and kayaking combos.

I chose Abel Tasman AquaTaxi's most popular package, Seals and Sand, ($70 + $18 return coach to Nelson) so that we could cruise by Tonga Island and view the seal colony before getting set down at Onetahuti Beach for a 13.8+ km (8.3 miles) tramp back to Torrent or Anchorage Bay for a water taxi pickup.  I asked Mike, my taxi skipper, if people (me) could get picked up at Bark Bay if the going got too tough.  I wasn't sure what kind of terrain I would have to tramp through and the forecast was for showers in the morning with rain by afternoon.  I was assured that Grandma could do this in a wheelchair.  (NZ grandmas must be pretty hardy; that's all I can say.)  His answer was yes, just wave them down using very big arm movements otherwise they'll just think we're being friendly.

Torrent Bay and Village- see how high the water is at 10 am

Abel Tasman Park has an unusually wide tidal range where there can be 5.2 meters (16 feet) difference between high and low tide.  Several areas of the track have high or low tide alternatives.  Mike told us that the day's tidal range was about 4 meters and low tide would be at 2 pm.  Our scheduled pick up was 4 pm at Torrent Bay or 4:15 at Anchorage Bay.

New Zealand fur seals and pups

My adventure started with a 7:30 am pick-up from my hostel.   After check in, we boarded the water taxi in the parking lot.  A tractor pulled us to the boat ramp and then we were off!  There was a stiff wind so the water was a little choppy.  Mike decided to give us a thrill by going fast through the swells.  It was a roller coaster ride with the boat airborne at times.  We slowed down to see the pied and gray cormorants (known by locals as shags) on the shore and Split Apple Rock (in water at this point).  We also got 2 stories about how the rock was split, the Maori story and the geologic story.

Tonga Bay where we were set down

We cruised (at high speed and very bumpily) to Anchorage Bay to set a passenger down.  This is a water taxi setting down on a beach.  None of us had realized that we had to take our shoes off and roll up our pants.  Most people got their pants wet either from splashing or their pant leg falling down.  I guess it wouldn't really matter anyway since it was raining on and off,  but we were protected by the roof and sides of the taxi and were dry at this point.

We passed Torrent Bay and Torrent Bay Village.  The Village is private property dating to before Abel Tasman was a national park.  The small home on the far left sold in 2009 for NZ$1.3 million; a house like that would normally sell for $300,000.  A mere $1 million for location, location, location.  Most of the homeowners have boats; a few have helicopters.  Then off to Bark Bay where we set down more trampers.  Then we sailed to Tonga Island to view the seal colony up close.  There were lots of NZ fur seals and their pups lounging on the rocks.  Darling little things!

We arrived at Tonga/Onetahuti Beach at 10:15 am.  Since we had to deliver 2 kayaks and a guide to overnight trampers, they beached the boat.  Jumping from the gangway, we didn't get our shoes wet.  There were 5 of us.  A British couple, a couple from Long Beach, California and me.  And that was the order in which we entered the bush.  We tramped for a little while and came out to the next beach, Tonga Quarry.  Then the British couple took off and we never saw them again.  (They got picked up at 2:45 pm.  They did 15 km in a total of 4.5 hours!)

Bark Bay estuary still under water at noon - go around!

The Long Beach couple and I leap frogged each other because of steep inclines and photo ops.  (I can do uphills much faster than a few years ago since I've been training.)  I also took a low tide track and had to double back when I found the beach still inundated.  I thought since it was only 2 hours from low tide, the water should have receded sufficiently.  (I learned about tides during my Marine Biology class last year.)  Not here!  Anyway, it took almost the predicted 2 hours to walk the 6.1 km to Bark Bay.  While I was there, a ranger told me that low tide was at 3:50 pm and that's why the waters were still high.

After a 45 minute lunch break and to let the water recede enough to walk over the beach, I continued tramping.  The scenery is terrific.  Tropical rainforest with lots of ferns and tree ferns.  And lots of other plants most of which I could not positively identify.  Lots of little bridges and then a long swing bridge!  Thank goodness it wasn't very high.  If it broke, I could probably survive the fall, especially since it was low tide.  At times the track is very steep; at times it is very densely forested.  Sometimes it is a little spooky.  Occasionally it showered but the rain held off.  It took about 2 hours to tramp the 7.7 km.  I picked up the pace a little because the skies were looking ominous and I wanted to beat the rain.

Torrent Bay 2pm  - I can see where I was supposed to go

Since I got to Torrent Bay before 3 pm and the water taxi wasn't coming till 4 pm, I decided to tramp to Anchorage Bay.  I figured that I could take the beach route since it was almost peak low tide.  It was only .9 km and "should take 20 minutes" across the beach.  Well, it started to rain but I continued.  Then I saw that I would have to do some wading so I took off my boots and put my socks into my pockets.  Then it started pouring!

Yeah, it's low tide, just not low enough for me

I was getting totally soaked because the wind was whipping the rain everywhere.  I put my boots back on cuz walking on the shells hurt my feet.  Visibility was really poor.  Still I kept going towards the marker I could see and trying to find the most shallow areas, less than calf deep.  But by 3:20 I still couldn't see the opening that was supposed to be between the stranded island and the mainland.  Then thunder!  Yikes!  Forget it.  I'm going back to Torrent Bay so I can be there by 4 pm.  Then lightning!!  Yikes!!  I started running!  Then I see the Long Beach couple with their shoes off standing by the water.  They saw me coming back and saw the lightning and me running and decided not to go any further.

None of us knew when low tide was; we had been told 2 pm, 3:50 pm, and 4:30 pm.  I guess it didn't matter, you might have to do some wading anyway.  I waded through the water in my boots; they were wet anyway from the rain, what's a little salt gonna do to 'em?  So we tramped back to the meeting point at Torrent Bay.  We walked out to the shallows which were a very long way from where we had been just 6 hours previously. We saw two other taxi services but not ours.

Can you believe this?!

Finally, at around 4:15, we see what should be our taxi coming and I do the big arm wave, just in case.  Mike, funny guy, veers off as if going away from shore.  Well, the rain is pouring down, the bay is choppy and he can't get the boat in any closer.  We have to wade in past our knees to the gangway.  It doesn't matter about getting wet at this point; I'm soaked through everywhere.  But I really don't like water, especially waves or deep water.   I had an adventure!  Beautiful, calm, and enjoyable and then wham!  Well, at least the rain held off until 3 pm.  It coulda been worse; we coulda had to tramp all day in the rain.

It was a great day.
Cheers!
Cyn