Golden Bay

Oceania » New Zealand » South Island » Nelson Region » Golden Bay
March 3rd 2006

Published: March 3rd 2006

Well I didn’t make it up early enough to see penguins (more about that later). I reluctantly left Punakiki. It is probably one of my favorite stops on this trip. I drove northeast through the inland to Moteuka (where I would be kayaking from in a couple of days) and headed for Golden Bay and a hostel called Shambhala (sounds like an oasis). After 6 hours of driving I arrived at Shambhala. Its an alternative hostel off the main road to Collingwood. I had been told about it by one of the firefighters I work with and thought I’d check it out. Its located off the main road to Collingwood.

Shambhala is right on Golden Bay. There is a trail from the house down to the bay that is marked by adobe archways imbedded with local seashells and in the evening solar lights. I lounged on the beach for awhile and then headed back up to the house to look around. The owner is quite artistic and there are personal creative touches everywhere. An adobe gazebo to sit under in the afternoon sun, stepping stones with shells, pieces of colored glass, and different colored stones. You can see the bay from the house. It was nice to just hangout in a beach chair on the lawn and read, watch the sunset, and drink a cup of tea. The place runs on solar power and has composting toilets. It reminds me of a land cooperative up in the Skagit river valley.

The next day I packed up and headed off to Farewell Spit, my destination for the day. Its about an hour drive the far northwest coast. The spit is a bird and wildlife sanctuary and only part of it is open to the public. First I went out to Whauriki beach which was supposed to be beautiful. I followed the trail which starts off in a pasture with large black cows. It winds up over a couple of hillocks and then down to an amazing beach. The green ends and there is an estuary to the right and white rolling sand dunes that lead down to the beach. The wind was blowing pretty hard and I could tell from the wind carved sand sculpture that it was probably windy a lot. I got a free exfoliating skin treatment that day. The tide was high so I couldn’t explore much of the beach. It was incredible though. Near the mouth of the cove was a giant stone arch with the surf moving through the arch and around it. The bright blue water seemed to be moving in about 4 different directions as it hit the beach. White caps and the wind blown clouds of water in the direction of the wind. Swirling white sand blew down the beach. I followed it to the right and followed the stream in the estuary around the dunes and back inland to where the trail went from sand to pasture. I decided that I definitely would wait and come back at high tide. There is a loop trail down the beach and at low tide you can explore the caves and arches.

I hiked back to the car and then headed for Farewell Spit. I hiked to a place called Fossil Point. The trail starts off in from the information center and café. You step up over wooden steps that go over pasture fences. Then I walked through a pasture full of sheep. Its different to hike through farmland. It is called a “Farm Park”though. As I hiked the sheep ran in all directions. I went through about 3 pastures until the steps crossed over the fence into the forest. From there the trail went through the forest and then dropped out to another white sandy beach. This one had stone cliffs on the left that had fossilized remains of sea shells inbedded in the sedimentary rock and sandstone. Then the white brilliant beach went off into the distance to the end of Farewell Spit. I hiked along the beach to another trail that crosses over to the inland beach which is the western edge of Golden Bay. Then I hiked down the beach back to the info center. Along the way I saw hundreds of black swans and a few ganets, and stilts. The swans are very interesting to watch and they were everywhere in the water.

Then it was up to the café for lunch and a break before heading back to whariki beach. I had it timed so I would arrive at the beach 2 hours before low tide when its possible to hike the beach 2 hours before until 2 hours afterward. My original plan was to hike down the beach and then loop back on the farm track but after arriving and experiencing the wind I realized I’d rather walk into the wind through the pasture to avoid walking into the blowing sand on the beach. I figured I’d rather get my back sandblasted then my front.

The trail was a road through the pasture. I walked by more black cows, around a small mucky lake and then over some more hillocks to the beach. I dropped down and was immediately greeted by a beautiful long arch to the right and a maze of rock around the beach and the beautiful golden sand and bright blue water. I took my time down the beach and explored a number of wind and water carved caves. Three were actually 30 foot long arches that I could walk through to the other side. There were some side tunnels and caves that branched off. One of these seemed to be pretty deep. I had brought my light but I couldn’t get it to work so I thought I’d just walk in, let my eyes adjust, and see what it looked like. No sooner had I walked into complete darkness I heard this loud growl and propelled myself backward as fast as I could. I knew intuitively since there were no large predators in New Zealand that it was a seal but that didn’t make that growl any less intimidating or me any less quick to make an exit. I finally got my light to work and peaked back into the cave. Sure enough it was a large Fur Seal who probably just wanted a quiet nap in the cave and not to be bothered with more humans.

I then crawled through a low arch out onto the sandy beach and was greeted by 4 teenagers. I thought, do I tell them and then they’ll definitely go bug him or do I just keep quiet. I decided to just tell them they needed a light for that cave and walked off. Then I followed the water line across the beach towardswhere I’d been in the morning. The rocks that had been out in the water earlier were now part of the beach.

The highlight of the hike was coming upon a baby seal rearing area. It reminded me of the shallow pools for little kids to play in while the adults watch. Up against one of the massive rocks was a series of small shallow pools. All around them were baby seals and their mothers. As long as I didn’t get between them and the ocean the mothers seemed content to let me watch. At first the baby seals ran for the cover of recessed cave areas. Then curiousity and the desire to play won out and the tumbled out over the rocks and into the water. The restled and swam together. Jumped in and out of the water. One swam about 6 feet from me and peered over a rock. It was just amazing to watch them play like other baby animals do. Too fun and my first experience seeing lots of baby seals. I could have watched them all day. ( I took a lot of photos for Molly and Adam as well as the adults).

From there I hiked back to my car and decided to call it a day. I had hiked about 10 miles and still had to pack and get ready for my 3 day sea kayak trip that started the next day. I also had a 2 hour drive back to Moteuka.

Backyard Adventure Girl

Lisa

Copyright Notice: All Rights Reserved