We had wonderful weather and the usual fantastic companions to tackle the Abel Tasman Great Walk. Knocking this one off leaves only one more for Callan and Stacey to do, and 2 more for Mike and 3 for me.
Out of all the Great Walks I have done so far this was by far the easiest terrain. But that wasn't the only thing that made this one stand out from the rest. The gorgeous weather and the accessibility of almost every part of this track meant we encountered a constant stream of tourists and trampers exploring this outstanding part of Aotearoa.
Wednesday Feb 28th - Wellington to Marahau
Callan and Stacey arrived at a very early hour at our house to move their gear to our car and rooftop box, and park their lovely new car in our garage for safe-keeping. Then down to Bluebridge for our early morning ferry over to the southern motu. We had a cabin booked and chilled out in there for the bulk of our crossing.
We got to Blenheim and drove through the Z Picton car wash to get all the encrusted salt off our car. Then stopped in at Catalyst cafe to get something to eat and a quick run into PacknSav for some nibblies for the car. Then off to our campsite accommodation in Marahau, via a supermarket run in Nelson for provisions for the tramp.
We got to the campground at Marahau and found our allocated spot after realising reception was actually back across the road from the camp site. Mike and I took a while pitching our tent as we wanted to use duct tape to mend the ground sheet holes. The ground sheet seemed to have more duct tape than ground sheet by the time Mike had finished.
We went across the road for tea - to the Hooked cafe/pub and enjoyed a meal there. Then off to bed.
Thursday Feb 29 - Marahau to Anchorage Hut
Woke in tent early after a lovely sleep. Stumbled out to the bathroom for a 6.30am shower for me. $1 coin for 3 or 4 minutes of hot water. Mike was up when I got back and we packed up quickly. Callan was working - talking to various people on the phone. Yes, it was leap day and it meant a key system for some payment terminals were not working across the entire country. He got the right people involved so he could step away from the chaos and start our tramp.
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| Ready to go! |
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| Beautiful walking ... |
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| ... past beach after beach |
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| With stunning views as we went over hills |
We made good time to Anchorage - nothing too strenuous in terms of terrain. We stepped out into the beach just after 1pm. The DoC hut was so nice - like Mintaro hut on the Milford Track. Less than 10 years old and built so well for the surroundings. Came with WiFi and a cold water shower on the beach. Stacey had found us good beds in the furthest room. Lovely hut. Individual bunks with wooden lockers for your pack. So everything is nice and tidy. We were not far from the flush toilets either.
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| Swimming |
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| Gorgeous. Feet. |
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| Is this really a "hut"? |
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| Mike is flat out |
We wandered back to the DoC hut and made tea. I had the creamy Carbonara pasta from BackCountry. I ate it all! I went to bed early. But I had a terrible sleep. So that didn't work so well.
Friday March 1 - Anchorage Hut to Awaroa Hut
We woke to another glorious day at Anchorage. This place is definitely a slice
of heaven. I ate instant porridge - the plain one. And it wasn't too
terrible. Mike drank coffee from his stove lid.
We left at 7.50am, walking along the beach. Then up and over a hill to an estuary we needed to cross at low tide. Callan had studied the tide tables and timed everything perfectly when he booked, and we had an uneventful but muddy walk across the drained estuary. Just a wee channel to ford.
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| Not difficult tramping |
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| So beautiful here |
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| Across the estuary |
We emerged at Torrent Bay - a tiny settlement with ten or so houses. Many of them had extensive solar. Being off-grid is much easier than it used to be.
From here, the track wound up and down a few hills. We got some good views back to Anchorage.
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| Fairly easy going |
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| Look at the view! |
Bark Bay came up really quickly. We stopped for a quick snack at the really tidy hut there and kept going to Tonga Quarry for lunch, beside a glorious beach with marine reserve.
The afternoon saw us climbing up and down over headlands and into a huge beach curving north.
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| I found a little Sand Dollar, more like a Sand 10c |
The track took us back up to a saddle and then down again. We could hear talking and laughing. Suddenly we emerged to a wonderful sight - of people sitting on beanbags and tables eating pizza and supping on craft beer. An amazing sight and not something you see on most tramps!
Se settled in for pizzas and beers and chia sisters lemonade. Delicious.
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| Wow! |
At 3pm Stacey and I decided it was time to leave. We left Mike and Callan to have 'just one more beer' with some new drinking buddies and headed back up the sky track. It took ten minutes to get back to the main track and another hour to reach Awaroa hut, nestled in a lovely spot next to a tidal estuary.
We went for bit of a swim in knee-deep water. Suddenly we heard Callan and Mike talking as they walked in. "They'll be another hour at least", we heard Callan say. I shouted Mike a few times and the echo was amazing. They were quite astonished to see us there already and swimming! They had taken the 'low route' which we thought might be tricky at high tide - but they said it really wasn't. Well signposted and just a little bit of wading.
Callan came in for swim. There was a cold shower to rinse off afterwards, and we got a room sorted.
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| What a great spot for a swim |
We sat on the grass outside the hut watched people trying to cross the estuary to our side as the tide dropped. It was quite entertaining, as people started off, the water got deeper and deeper and they turned back.
Mike found a tramping friend, Stirling, waiting at our side! Mike was astonished to see him, he's normally hiking in Europe and North America and it was quite the surprise to find him at Awaroa.
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| Sitting in the sun |
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| Hi Stirling! |
There was all sorts of activity at Awaroa Hut. A couple with day packs came over through the water and asked for the "manager". Stacey sent them to the hut wardens. The couple came back and wandered off to the south. A couple of minutes later the hut warden came with tent, sleeping bags and mats - and warden ran after them when Stacey said they'd wandered off but came back after not finding them. Turns out they were day walkers that got lost and missed their taxi. With no hope of a taxi this late the warden was going to supply them emergency stuff to get through the night. The warden said it was too warm to give them any problems from exposure. I'm sure they were fine. Maybe uncomfortable and cold.
Those "buddies" that Callan and Mike had met at the cafe eventually arrived at the hut very inebriated. And they were almost all sleeping in our room. They were a bit rowdy.
I was in bed by 1930 but woken by dribbling water landing on the floor of the room. Panicked as thought someone's water was leaking. Watch light showed someone hunched over at the door without a torch trying to find the door handle. And weeing on the ground! I asked if he was OK. No answer. He stumbled back to his sleeping bag. Stacey used her phone to look and I could see a puddle under my bed. Idiot.
After that I had a fitful sleep.
Saturday March 2 - Awaroa Hut to Whaiwharangi Hut
Awake at 6.30am to dodge the puddle and do a wee in the actual toilet. It was a stunning morning but with rain later in the forecast. I ate my porridge, packed up and waited for low tide at 8.20am.
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| A dry estuary for us to cross |
Today was an 18km day to Whaiwharangi, our last hut of the walk.
We crossed the estuary, about 1km across. Mike started barefoot and convinced Stacey to do the same. But immediately the shells caused a bit of wincing from both of them. I said, remember my shell encounter?! which got Mike more than a little worried. Stacey commandeered Callan's Crocs and stomped across in huge but less sore footwear. I gave Mike my poles and that took enough of his weight that the shells became bearable.
As we put our shoes on at the other end, and Mike picked up inexplicably dumped toilet paper all around, the hut wardens arrived and said people use the toilet paper from the nearby toilet to clean their feet after the crossing. One person asked the warden where there was a hose to wash his feet off. We're in the middle of nowhere! The warden pointed at a stream 10m away and said there. Which we'd all done.
Once we were re-shoed and ready we set off under a tree canopy. And it started raining. We were well covered under the trees, but eventually we did get our jackets on. Callan and Stacey forged ahead. This day had a bit of up and down. We bumped into Stirling again as he walked back to his end point.
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| Mike contemplating the rain showers |
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| Crossing a beach on the way |
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| Jacket? Or Cap? It was that sort of day. |
We walked through Totaranui - our destination the next day for our water taxi back to Marahau. Totaranui is a big DOC campsite with road access and a homestead that was just getting prepared for a wedding function. But rumours of a shop were exaggerated. No cold V for Mike.
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| Well, this is a pretty well prepared track! |
We continued to Whaiwharangi as the rain eased to drizzly showers. This hut, our final stop, was lovely. An old restored homestead. 20 bunks. Stacey and Callan had secured primo beds in the downstairs room for us. Sweet.
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| Whaiwharangi hut |
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| Beach out front |
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| This is more than a hut! |
We chatted to Hunter from the US who'd just finished working at the Gin Shack in Blenheim. He was lovely. He was a talented musician and played folk music guitar and banjo and wooden spoons. Check him out on his YouTube channel.
Anyway. I was not long out of bed. And had my best sleep of the whole tramp.
Sunday Mar 3 - Whaiwharangi Hut to Totaranui and out
I awoke at 5.15am and snoozed until 7.10am when it was time for brekkie. I tried the maple porridge. It was a bit sweet. Brekkie is an issue for me. It's hard to find something I like eating every morning.
Away, we were off by 8.20am. Today was lightly overcast and warm. Our itinerary today was to return to Totaranui via Gibbs Hill - up and over the hills instead of back via the beaches.
It started with an easy grunt up to views over to Wainui. This is the end of the official great walk, and there's a track down the hill into the car park that we didn't take. Instead we headed off on a lovely inland track for three DOC hours. It took me just a smidge under that. The track took us up to Gibbs Hill and then followed the power lines down as the clouds cleared up, and blue skies with really warm humid weather took their place. 45 minutes later got us to the "outer suburbs" of Totoranui. Ha ha. Still another 20 mins to the campsite and beachfront.
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| I am pointing at things |
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| Gibbs track was mostly 4WD track |
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| Looking across to PÅhara and Golden Bay - where have stayed a couple of times in the past |
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| The bush clad inland hill views were quite different to the last few days |
We waited in the sun for our water taxi. As we were super early for our 1.45pm scheduled taxi, we tried our luck on the 12pm one. And got on!! They had 5 places left and we bagged 4 of them.
The boat trip back was absolutely gorgeous. The skipper stopped at Tonga Island and we watched seals sunbathe. We were following our walking route as we headed back to Marahau so we had wonderful views of where we'd been, from the ocean this time.
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| Loading up |
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| Seals on Tonga Island |
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| Views back to the beaches and headlands we walked over |
When we reached Marahau, the crew took our boat out of the water and onto a trailer behind a tractor - and towed it, with us still in what I guess now was a bus, to their office near the start of the walk. Callan and Mike helped unload the bags from the hold and it went on and on, seemingly without end. So much luggage for 24 people stashed away.
We had enough time for lunch at Hooked - my Mushroom Barbecue burger was delicious! - before we were on the road back to Blenheim. We overnighted at a chalet at the Spring Creek Holiday Park before our Monday afternoon sailing to get us back to Wellington.
What a wonderful adventure! This trip was very different to other great walks. It felt less like we were tramping, and more that we were strolling from one tropical beach paradise to another. What would I do differently next time? Probably spend more time and even stay somewhere like Anchorage or Whaiwharangi for successive nights. I couldn't spend too much time lazing on the beautiful undisturbed beaches and clear azure waters.
