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Published: October 24th 2007
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Torrent Bay
This is where we are buying our first house! (in our dreams) Abel Tasman national park really does have everything...............this is how our three days went.......
DAY ONE
We started off by driving to Marahau, the gateway to the national park. The kind lady at the backpackers had told us that we could get our large backpacks transferred for a fee of $10 per pack to the campsite that we were due to stay at. As the bags weighed somewhere in the region of maybe 10-15kgs each with food tent, every sort of clothes, sleeping bags, camping cooker and well i am sure you can imagine, we decided that as we were to walk 22kms today that it would be a good idea to do that. The sun was shining which has been quite rare since we have been here! We sorted out the bags and off we went.........We walked for about 3 hours before we saw anything but trees, which don't get me wrong are beautiful but it was great to see Torrent bay! Torrent bay is like the Caribbean to look at, clear blue green waters pretty white sandy coves and sand splits! We sat and had lunch here with the stunning view. At this point we were not
Day one
This was a stream of fresh water along the way that looked so yellow! really feeling that tired. That was about to change. After about 5 hours of walking we began to feel it, thanks to the red hot chili peppers on my ipod i got myself through the hill to finish off the days walking. We arrived in barks bay to see our bags waiting there on the beach for us! We were joined by a Scottish couple Mahari and Neil who were also camping. The sun was slowly going down and the temperature with it. We put the tent up and set about making some true camping meals.......dry pasta! yum. We took packets of dry food that don't weigh much and some fruit and biscuits to keep us going. By the time we had finished tea i felt like my legs had been chopped off and replaced with wooden ones without me knowing! We took a lovely walk catching the last bit of light across the silent tranquil bay before retiring to bed in our tent.
DAY TWO
As have no phone again at the moment, the kind Scottish couple said that they would wake us and that they did at 6.30am. To do this walk we had to cross
The tent
Me putting the final peg in! 2 tidal crossings. The first being a 2 hour walk away from bark bay then the other at a place called Awaroa. You only have a certain amount of time to cross during low tide. We obtained the low tide times from the info center before we left. We needed to leave by 7.30 at the latest to make both crossings. Mhari and Neil were doing the same except they were only making the first and staying at Awaroa for the night. Our plan was to carry on the walk to Totaranui for the night. We set off in the rain, knew that the day of sunshine the day before was too good to be true! We were all wrapped up in layers of clothes and waterproofs as it was cold as well as wet, complete with backpacks on today. My legs were still pretty sore from yesterdays walk and they were not happy when they were faced with an uphill struggle for 2hours! It really dawned on me that in fact i am not that fit especially when carrying weight! ha ha ha. I had a bit of a moan as i was stopping to take layers off then
The Awaroa tidal crossing
The estury at low tide that we had to cross, Ste with his backpack ready to go put them back on errhhhhh! Anyway we made the first tidal crossing accross a stunning wide white beach that had a huge conga eel washed up on it was massive! We realised that we were not going to make it to the next tidal crossing in time so decided on taking our time. We came across an English mum and son who told us about a short cut through a lodge along the way that cut off half an hour........hmmmmm well we got to the sign that said 'Awaroa via lodge' we took it called in at the posh lodge all smelly and muddy for a wee then carried on, thinking it would be an hour or so. I can not tell you what happened or tell you where we ended up but i can tell you that that hour journey took us 4! We arrived at Awaroa campsite to Mhari and Neil all set up....bearing in mind they left about 15mins ahead of us and we did not cross them once along the way. they were baffled as to how it has taken us so long and so were we. we got a map out and realised that some
Totarauni beach
The sweeping bay that greeted us at the end of day three! how we had covered every track possible!!!!! oh dear. We got the tent up in true form before it stared to rain and sat and had our tea of rainy water pasta, which tasted so good as we were that tired and hungry. The plus side being that the views were amazing huge green mountains, then a big estuary where we were due to cross then just around the corner a bay with crystal clear waters!
DAY THREE
Last night was a real shocker......we had frost on the tent it had been that cold! None of us slept very well at all. The low tide was at 8.50am so not as early this time we got up had a big bowl of hearty porridge for breakie then tried to dry the tent a little before packing it away! My legs were not feeling as sore today but i was convinced that somebody had put some of those rocks from the estuary into my backpack. The Scots left 10mins before us and started making there way across. The crossing was a wide estuary that at low tide was left was left with a small stream like flow of water
The views
the views throughout most of the walk...stunning! in the middle. We knew that we would be getting our feet a bit wet today so put our flip flops on ready. As we made our way over we could see the pair of them vastly disappearing into the water until they were knee deep....deeper than we thought! As we got closer we realised that the pants had to be rolled up and it was going to be cold! I have never felt water so cold as this it hurt it was that cold! Once at the other side we put our socks and shoes back on and carried on across the sand. Watching the Scots again taking there shoes off and beginning to disappear once again! We only thought that there were one crossing hey ho the pants came back up and we were off back into the icy water! We took our time walking to Totarauni. The scenery along this coastal walk was by far the best we had seen, long beaches that were part of the walk with nobody on them blue and green waters...you would think you were in Greece some where! We made it and collapsed in a heap on the beach. The plan
Totaranui wildlife
The oyster catcher birds, they have bright red beaks and eyes was to walk for a further 4hours to the top but neither of us had it in us to do it so waited for a couple of hours on the beach watching the oyster catcher birds until our water taxi arrived to take us back to Marahau. The water taxi ride was a James Bond speed boat ride that took us past the island where the sea lions hang out, we saw a few of them sleeping on the rocks bless them! Once back at the backpackers we put the tent out to dry and had a well deserved shower as we had not had one since we left....none of the campsites have showers!!!!
Overall we really enjoyed the walk of 45kms even though we were thrown every sort of weather besides snow! The Abel Tasman was farmland around 100years ago but was then left to grow wild and become what it is today a beautiful area with everything to offer from paradise beaches to lush wildlife filled forests! for anybody that is planning to do this walk every sort of clothing is needed as the weather changes so fast!
I am now on a mission to get
myself a bit fitter...................
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