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Published: January 18th 2010
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North island - early morning
From the Abel Tasman national park, you can see the north island across the Cook Straights Having spent the night at a lodge run by a Dutch couple, day 15 promisses to continue the rather heavenly experience from yesterday. I have booked a place on a catamaran from Ancorage Bay back to Kaiteriteri for the afternoon, so just need to get to the starting point by lunch time.
There's a road as far as Marahau, and a car park with snack bar by the National Park entrance. So, rather than walking the first 10km, I decided to drive there. Having had a good cup of coffee and asavoury muffin at the snack bar, I headed off on foot along the Abel Tasman national park walk. It was going to be a 12km hike, which I estimated would take less than 4 hours even allowing for little rests along the way.
What hit me in the first half hour was that this was a bird watcher's paradise. I have taken a number of photos of unusual birds, but am completely unable to identify them at present. Their song stays with you for the whole walk though, and often this is the only noise you hear. One of the most unique songs is produced by something I
Unidentified wader
I have no idea what this bird is, but a rough guess is that it might be a Blackwinged Stilt was told was the sewing bird (can't find this on Google though). It sounds as if the bird it quickly tapping two pebbles together4 or 5 times. Then there is a bell-bird, which has 4 different sounds, and is more musically agile than a blackbird. Other walkers can be a great help, and when I came across what I thought was a very small pheasnat and family, it turned out to be Mr and Mrs quail and their offspring. That's another fisrt for me.
For the next 3 hours, I enjoyed a great walk through native New Zealand bush. Although the path looks close to the coast on the map, much of the time, you are up high, and because of all the vegetation, you can't see or hear the sea. With a relaxed pace, it was possible to stop often forr photos, or to try to see which birds were singing. There was even time for a 30 minute break on Stillwell beach which I had to myself.
Lunch was ready for me on arrival at Anchorage Bay, then it was onto the boat. Mark, our captain, took us out to some rocks first of all. Here,
Not a mini pheasant
... but a family of quail. The chicks are the size of bumble bees when hatched - tiny we could see fur seals soaking up the sun as they lay on the rocks. They didn't seem the slightest bit bothered by us, and just lay there enjoying the warmth.
Then, sails were craised (Mark does all this on his own), and we were off. The 23 foot catamaran is far smoother than a water taxi, so we could sit back and enjoy the changing scenery as we tacked our way along bthe coast. Mark would answer questions about land masses, bird calls and performance statistics, and at one stage gave us a fairly clear yet thorough lesson in sailing. The boat was a little different to anything I've seen partly as it has been customised to be sailed single handed (so all controls are in one place), it has dagger boards instead of a fixed keel, and it's weak point is being lifted by high waves in windy conditions (it could potentially be flipped over, and that's the way it would stay).
Mark originally sailed the boat from Auckland, and has worked on it since. In summer, they go out every day, while in winter it is normally only 3 days a week. Of all the
Stillwell Bay
Location for my elevensies, and a beautiful secluded spot for it too jobs, he seems to have one of the most enhjoyable I've seen.
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