We had an early start today as we had to be up to Marahau by 8:30 to sign in to the Aquataxi service that we had booked with. Since the drive is about 1 hour away (told to allow for 1 ¼ hours) we decided that we needed to be away close to 7 am – so we got up before 6. (Yes I know this used to be our normal wake up time but times have been changing.)
Another exciting thing for us was to have the lighter in the van come apart. When we pulled out the charger for the GPS to plug in the blackberry last night (our alarm clock) the entire plug came out and of course disconnected from any wires in the dash. This is not good since we use the GPS all the time and it needs to charged regularly. It took some time this morning after we got to the Aquataxi place to sign in for me to pull things apart and reassemble the lighter. Good thing we were early so I had time to play with this and I am happy to report that it works great.
The drive took us through several areas of the country side that reminded us of our area of BC. The major difference is that the hills are well wooded and green with pine trees and since they have all be planted, there is a definite pattern to the planting. However, one thing we did note again is that here in New Zealand when a road goes up the side of the mountain to go to the other side, the road follows the lay of the land and is very narrow. It could be seen as a paved logging road with sharp corners and very little shoulder. As it turns out we had to go over a pass on route so we were able to confirm this previous point of view.
We arrived to Marahau which is a very small community on Sandy Bay which is offof the ocean. We had an address so it was easy to find the Aquataxi – of course it helped that there is only one street and since the bay is on the right side, there is only one side of the road with businesses.
After I had finished fixing the lighter and as we waited for the ‘taxi’ to be pulled by the tractor to the launching ramp we spotted a couple arriving late to join the hike. It was the couple we met on the North Island – Stephen and Yvonne – and had exchanged emails with. This was a total surprise but it was so great to see them and catch up on their travels for the past week.
The boat taxi’s were readied (all 5 of them with a variety of drops) and we all climbed into our assigned taxi while it was sitting on the boat trailer in the parking lot. Then the boat captain drove the tractor down the road to the boat launch and backed the trailer into the water. He jumped into the boat and one of his co-workers pulled the trailer out from under neath leaving us floating in the water. This really was an interesting way to begin our trip.
The boat carried 18 passengers and the captain so you can see how many people were being ferried at this one time to various locations in the park. At any rate our boat did not include our friends so we thought we would not likely see them again since we would be walking the trail from the Tongo Bay to Anchorage Bay (Wes estimated 15 km) and it would be possible that we would not overlap at all.
We were taken for a quick tour to see the Split Apple Rock which sits in the middle of small bay. Then we headed off toward Tonga Island which is inhabitated by about 400 Fur Seals (also known as keKewa Seals). We were not the only ones looking at them since this is a regular stop for the taxi and for all those in kayaks. We were fortunate to see a seal that was just born last week.
We got dropped off at Tonga Bay beach and had to wade to shore. This meant taking off shoes and socks and unfortunately we did not remember to bring our water shoes so barefoot it was. As we were putting on the socks and shoes our friends arrived on their boat so we did spend the rest of the day walking back together and enjoying getting to know them better.
The walk reminded me a lot of the type of terrain found on the West Coast Trail (except no fallen trees or mud) but it was definitely a walk along the coast line going up and down to a variety of beachs. Highlights include: Tanga Arches, Bark Bay, Medlands Beach, South Head, Sandfly Beach, Frenchman Bay, North Head, Boundary Bay, Torrent Bay and finally Anchorage Bay. Now we got to Bork Bay around lunch time so we did have a nice sit down for lunch at picnic tables set up there for campers. Many people apparently tramp (hike) along this coast taking several days and camping at the designated locations which provides for toilets, water and camping spots.
We learned several things about the birds in the area, but specifically one called the Shag (which looks like a penquin but flies and nests in trees), the KoKako, the Tieke, and the Tui. There were many other birds but those are the ones we identified.
The biggest thing that we enjoyed was the walking with friends and talking to the many others on the trail. We stopped to look at several waterfalls, a suspension bridge and of course we had to walk down to all the beaches as we came across them. I have not sorted the pictures by location but more by theme since the beaches were beautiful and the views incredible. I decided to let the pictures tell the story.
We got to Torrent Bay by 3 (pickup by the taxi is 4) and we had been told that during the low tide we could walk across the estuary between Torrent Bay and go behind a hill to come down to Anchorage Bay. This would take about 30 minutes. If we missed the tide we could go around on the high tide trail but this would take about 1 ½ hours. Alternatively we could wait on Torrent Bay for pickup. Since we had an hour and the tide was out, we decided to walk along the beach and go to Anchorage Bay. What we did not realize was that we would have to ford a couple of small streams and walk through some muddy sections. This meant no shoes. So we finished our trek enjoying the warm sand, the cool water and the squish of mud between our toes. What a great time we had.
We had about a 30 minute wait on the sunny and warm (ok hot) beach before we were picked up along with a large number of other people. Not only were there the hikers, but also many people who had kayak from Marahau were having the kayaks picked up and they were taking the taxi back.
When we got back to Sandy Bay (where we started this morning) we found why it was called Sandy Bay. With the tide out the sand ran for several hundred yards out from the shore. The tractors were driven out over the sand to the water to push the trailer into the water. The boat was driven right up onto the trailer. Then the tractor pulled the trailer, the boat and all of us the passengers across the sand and back to the Aquataxi base where we went our separate ways.
We returned to Nelson to our campsite arriving around 7 pm so this has been a very long day. After dinner, showers and time to socialize with a couple on holidays with their kids we felt the day was complete.
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