Today was a very special day. It was Gustav’s birthday!
In celebration of this, we stayed for the whole day in Abel Tasman and didn’t do any driving. By the way, that’s the only day we’ve planned to stay at the same campsite during this trip. We started the day by talking to Gustav’s parents on Skype. It’s a bit fascinating that the time difference is so substantial (10 hours at the moment) that Gustav’s parents are still having the day before at the time of the Skype.
Afterward, Linnea started making a pancake gateau, with Nutella, ice cream and candy decorations on top. As the Swedish saying goes; “Man tager vad man haver!” (”You take what you have!”)
This delicious monstrosity was eaten outside the campervan, out in the sun at our portable table that we rented with the van. We sat there for quite some time, admiring the landscape, and also Gustav opened his present.
When we were done with the cake, we thought about renting a kayak for the day and called the company operating close by. Unfortunately, they had only one drop off time during the low season, and it had been early in the morning. It would have been nice if they had written that in the brochure…
A little disappointed with the kayaking company, we quickly came up with a plan B. Which was hiking in the national park!
Linnea had read about the stunning beaches alongside the coast of the national park, so it was quite fitting that our campsite was located right next to the starting point of Abel Tasman Coastal Walk. We looked up on the map how far it would be to walk to Te Pukatura Bay in the middle of the park, and it was roughly 12 km one way. We didn’t feel discouraged by that, nor were particularly concerned by the fact that none of the signs at the starting point had that bay on it.
We started walking the same track as when we ran the evening before. This time, it was high tide, and most of Sandy Bay was under water. We continued on the track past Porters Beach and up along the coast.
We kept a steady fast pace, since we wanted to reach the stunning beaches in the middle of the national park, and also a tiny bit due to the fact that we were tracking our pace with Runkeeper. We felt like beating our record for the furthest and fastest hike!
After passing a few bays, we felt like it was time for lunch and walked down to a gorgeous small beach at Akersten Bay with two benches available. At first, we had some company by other hikers, but then they all went, and we were alone at the beach. We finished our lunch and drew a mark in the sand before continuing.
We pretty much went straight up the cliff to a lookout where we could see both the beach, another bay on the other side, and a boat that was anchored gleaming in the water. We had a coffee break there, sitting on a rock and feeling tired but wonderful.
Moving on we kept our fast pace, feeling energised we passed 10 km walked. The rainforest continued on and on, the track going up and down the cliffs and always curving back and fourth. Notably, there were no railings on this track, not even when you were walking high up, and there was a straight plunge down to the water. But fortunately the path wasn’t that narrow, so we didn’t think about is most of the time.
Passing a corner we saw some strange shapes moving towards us on the path. Coming closer we saw that it was two birds that looked a bit like the Kiwi Bird, but bigger from our estimate. They didn’t move off the path, not even when we walked passed them. They just kept walking the path like they were a couple just like us out on a stroll. Birds in New Zealand are weird. (The birds turned out to be Weka or Maori hen).
We finally made it to the middle of the park! The view from the top of the hills was amazing. For the final stretch of our hike, we decided not to go to Te Pukatura Bay. Instead, we went to Watering Cove.
We were alone on the beach there too. Probably because of it being the low season, so a big tip we want to give is to visit NZ during the low season!
At Watering Cove, we were thinking about taking a swim. So we changed into our swimmers and started walking into the water. We had got to our ankles before we stopped. It was very cold, and the sun was no longer shining into the cove not making things better.
Being happy with just bathing our feet, we got dressed and started our journey back to the campsite.
As time was rushing on and our walk had taken quite a lot of time going one way, we walked back in a brisk tempo with few stops. It was good that we decided to head back when we did, because when we had a few kilometres left it was really starting to get dark, and we only had a flashlight. But we made it back in time before it was completely dark.
Back in the campervan, we at a three-course dinner consisting of carrot sticks and dip as the appetiser, spaghetti and sausage in tomato sauce as our main course, and last but not least, fruit salad (a.k.a. fruit cocktail) with ice cream for dessert.
After dinner, we went out for a short bit to look at the sky. There wasn’t a cloud in the sky making it very easy to see the stars. It was an awe-inspiring experience.
/ Linnea and Gustav