Starting to taste the Golden Bay - Abel Tasman

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Wednesday morning we left Picton on a beautiful drive to a small town called Takaka. On the way we had a short glimpse on the Queen Charlotte Sound again. We heard people saying there was no point to do the track because you can see it from the road, so if anybody comes here remember: it's bullshit... go and walk, you'll see much better views!
Then we stopped in Havelock which is "the town of the green mussels". Unfortunately, it was too early for lunch, but still we shared a bowl of mussels chowder (very creamy and very tasty soup), and we decided we'll pay them a real visit for dinner on our way back there! It was very yummie!

The drive to Takaka goes through magnificient views (as always in NZ), and Takaka itself is a cute little town with lots of art and crafts shops, and people that look stoned... We stayed in a cute backpacker, whose owner remember the names of all the guests, she was amazing.

Thursday was supposed to be another easy "Japanese tourists day" (that's how we call the days in the car, stopping for photo and going on). However a visit to the info center turned it into a day with beautiful 5 hours hike, in the northern part of Abel Tasman park. This part is more north than the "official" track, so it's much less travelled, less people on route, but it's not less beautiful. The woman in the info said we could do a 5 hours roundtrip, but it turned out to be 5 hours from the car park (Wainui) to the next one (Totaranui), then 3 hours more to finish the circuit! Luckily, we found a ride with a couple of Canadians that even took us all the way back to our car. After that Erez admitted he knew it wasn't 5 hours but he also knew we would find a ride! He tricked me! (and claimed I heard it with him from Israelis we met. True, but I never remember). I was angry but it's forgiven :-)
I almost forgot to tell you about the hike itself. You go from one beach to the next, mostly you climb in between and then down to the next beach and they are all so beautiful. And in our first one we suddenly saw dolphins! they simply swam there and then moved on, we even didn't have time to take a photo but everone said we were so lucky as people rarely see them there.
To finish another great day we went to the spa in the backpacker (yes, backpackers are sometimes really nice...) and then dined out - a bit tired of cooking. Surprisingly it was an excellent dinner again, with Coquilles St Jacques for me (did I spell that correctly???) and lamb for Erez, and as we always share I know both were excellent. We didn't have great expectations because the chef was a Canadian guy that stayed in the same place with us and he's just working there temporarily for the money, but aparently he knows the job.

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Photos

Lookout on the way
Short hike on the way to Takaka, look at the rocks we had to "climb"!

Wainui inlet
Start of the walk on the northern part of Abel Tasman park

Anapai beach
A beautiful beach that people usually miss when tthey do only the "formal" Abel Tasman great walk