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Published: March 11th 2007
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As we were staying in the beautiful Abel Tasman National Park at Old MacDonalds Farm for 2 nights I got a bit of a lie in on the Saturday morning before I met up with some of the new guys that had joined us on the bus in Picton to go for a walk along the coast through the National Park to some of it's stunning little beaches. Me, Lisa from Ireland, Ryan from Canada & Francesco from Germany (who was feeling a bit hungover thanks to a big box of Goon as they call it in Australia (really cheap wine in a box) that he was drinking the night before) set off to the information centre to find out where to go & we decided that as the nicest beach was about a 3 hour walk away we'd also book ourselves a water taxi (speedboats that pick you up on the beach & take you up & down the coast) to take us home at around 5pm so we wouldn't have to walk the 3hours back after lazing around on the beach in the sun....seemed like we had it all figured out doesn't it.....you'll find out soon enough that
we didn't.
We set off along the coastal path towards Anchorage Beach which was 17km down the coast but it was fairly level the whole way (unlike the 17km Tongariro Crossing) so it only took me & Lisa about 2hrs 45mins to get there....the boys took a bit longer as they were stopping every few minutes to take lots of photos & me & Lisa were marching along gossiping in front! We did get some stunning views of the ocean & the little secluded beaches dotted along the coastline half-hidden by the trees, many of them didn't have any way down to them unless you went there by boat.
We made it to Anchorage beach which was gorgeous & the sun was shining so we decided to chill out there for a bit before heading down the coast a bit further to Torrent Bay where we were getting picked up by the water taxi at 5pm (supposedly). The water wasn't exactly warm but it wasn't cold enough to stop me Ryan & Francesco going for a swim, although Lisa decided that it was much nicer sitting on the beach in the warm sun!
After an hour or
The beautiful bay at Anchorage
you can see why we weren't in a hurry to leave so one of the other guys from our bus Steve turned up, he'd got up at around 6am to head off for the day walking through the National Park & he'd just come from a fresh water pool a bit further inland called Cleopatra's Pool where he had fallen in fully clothed not once but twice! He joined us for a bit to get some sun & dry off!
The boys then decided that they were going to check out Cleopatras Pool on the way to Torrent Bay to get the water taxi & me & Lisa decided that we stay on the beach for a bit longer as we had ages (or so we thought) to get to Torrent Bay for 5pm to get the taxi & we'd wander along in a bit. We finally made a move & headed for the shortcut low-tide path to Torrent Bay but unfortunately the tide was in so we had to take the incredibly long way round along the high tide path. The path kept going & going & going & after about half an hour the Torrent Bay stopped appearing on the distance signs which was a bit worrying. As
there was only one path though we just kept going, walking faster & faster as the time marched closer to 5pm. We ended up absolutely marching along the path hoping that we would see a sign for Torrent Bay & having no idea if we were going to get there in time to catch our water taxi back & if we didn't make it we'd be stuck out there as it was at least a 3 or 4 hour walk back & the sun was going to go down in about 2 hours!
Luckily we finally made it to Torrent Bay just before 5pm where we met up with the boys walking along the beach, they'd realised that they were running out of time too & had cut across the bay through the water up to their chests (at least for Ryan, up to Francesco's neck as he's not so tall!) holding their bags above their heads. We were all just relieved to have made it by 5pm, just so we had a seat on the beach & waited for our taxi.....and waited....and waited. Finally at about 5.15pm Ryan checked our ticket & realised that our taxi was actually
at 5.30pm not 5pm so we probably didn't have to all make quite such a mad dash to get there in time!
At 5.30 our water taxi speedboat turned up & we were all just happy to be getting on it & not be stuck in Torrent Bay with the prospect of walking 4 hours back, half of it in the dark! We got a fantastic view of the coastline from the speedboat & we got a bit wet from the spray as we bounced along on the waves. As we were the last drop off of the day our driver decided to treat the 4 of us to a few tricks in his boat so he took us for a n extra spin along the coast & did a few donuts (360 turns) before taking us onto the beach where the boat was attached to the back of a tractor with us still on it & driven up the beach & along the road back to the water taxi office in the village.
We all managed just about to walk back to Old MacDonalds Farm with our tired & weary legs from there, we were kind of hoping that they'd take us all the way along the road in the speedboat but no. Once we got back it was finally time for some well earned food & drinks. Kristine had spent the day sea kayaking with one of the other guys from the bus, Simon from Manchester (has the whole Liam Gallagher swagger thing going on!) so had had a long day too so we opened some of the wine we'd bought at the winery the day before. One bottle turned into two bottles & before we knew it me, Lisa, Steve, Francesco & Kristine had all agreed to do a skydive the following morning over Abel Tasman NP before we headed south on the bus......to be continued!
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