Greymouth to Puponga

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The above panorama is of Golden Bay (coast and valley) from Takaka Hill.

March 10th - 15th 2011

From Greymouth we took the inland road to Reefton and on past Inangahua towards Nelson. We stopped for the afternoon / night at a DOC camp-ground at the old gold mining town of Lyell. There isn't a lot there now, none of the buildings remain and we didn't hike as far as the old battery. There are boards with old photos up around the camp, but its hard to work out exactly what was where as the landscape has changed quite a bit. As well as going for a walk along the river with us, Colin had a go at gold panning and came back with a few more specks to add to our collection. While he did that, Samara and I sat under the mossie net (sand-flies) and tried to sleep. Or to be more accurate, I tried to persuade Samara that she should have a snooze but we spent more time chatting and watching the other people in the camp.

We stopped at the Murchison Swing-bridge the next morning. We had both heard of it but weren't really sure what was there, apart from a bridge of some kind. It turned out to be the (supposedly) longest foot swing-bridge in the Southern Hemisphere, and for a fee we could walk across it, round some walking tracks and back across the bridge. The walking tracks covered old gold mining areas and the results of an earthquake in 1929 – a rift in the land about 2.5m high. A very pleasant way to spend an hour, though squeezing past other people on the bridge while carrying Samara in her backpack wasn't the easiest.

We stopped in Murchison itself for a late lunch before continuing on our way. We stopped at a view point at the pass over into the Tasman district, and would have considered staying the night there if it wasn't for all the wasps. We found ourselves nicer spot further along the road in a reserve and camped up there with a few other vans – no sand-flies or wasps!

We hit the coast the next morning at Motueka and had high hopes of warmer water. We didn't try the water though, but stocked the pantry and petrol tank (petrol is getting so expensive at the moment, we might have to start pushing the van home to save money!) We didn't get in the sea until the following afternoon, but more about that in a little while.

We slowly wound our way up the hill over towards Golden Bay, the views unveiling with each twist and turn in the road. At the top of the pass, more or less, we turned off the main road and took an even windier, much narrower gravel road into the hills. Our destination was a place called Harwoods Hole and the DOC camp-ground there. Once again we parked up surrounded by sand-flies and wasps, but had no choice here. We didn't think we had time to walk to Harwoods Hole that evening so went for a walk along another track as far as a creek. We couldn't easily cross with the baby backpack on, so turned round and came back again. In the end we were out as long as we would have been had we gone to the hole! We managed to scare off a couple of campers when we got back to the van by turning up with a baby. They had parked as close to us as you might expect in a supermarket car park rather than a far from full camp-ground. Not sure why, Colin thought it might have something to do with being used to being crowded in European campgrounds, but maybe they just wanted to lean against our bumper while eating dinner. Anyway, Samara is actually a really quiet baby now and rarely wakes up crying, she has a shuffle and chews loudly on her hands to let us know she is awake and hungry. If she is just awake but not hungry, you can keep on sleeping! We are however not going to tell people this if they are camping very close to us! Its not like we have personal space issues or anything, but...

Anyway, the following morning we walked to Harwoods Hole. Despite the number of vehicles overnighting at the camp, we were surprised how few people we met on the trail. It was marked on the sign as a tramp, but it was only the last part that was particularly tricky. Much of the walk was along a well formed dirt track under the (beech?) trees in a kind of massive gully, the rock walls going up either side of us initially at quite a distance. The closer we got to the hole, or the further from the car park, the narrower the gully became, until we were clambering over rocks and roots. This was the point we became thankful we didn't bring the buggy 😊 The last part to the edge of the hole (and I say edge in the broadest terms) was a matter of climbing over big boulders, so we took turns holding Samara and climbing for a closer look.

Harwoods Hole is about 183m deep, a big vertical shaft created by water slowly eroding away the limestone. There are big signs up saying access is only for very experienced cavers. The hole is only really high on three sides, one part of the rim has collapsed, and this is where our track came out. So we were kind of at the edge but not at the top. It still looked long way down from where we were, not that we could get all that close to the edge. We thought we heard the screech of a kaka, but all we could see were fantails so who knows.

Back on the main road and over the pass, a mere 791m or so, higher than the Haast Pass and not far off Arthurs Pass. We never did find out how high Lewis Pass was, and haven't thought to look when we've been online. (We tend to write these blogs offline and upload when we get a chance, which hasn’t been that often as we are deliberately staying away from the internet as much as we can.) Coming down Takaka Hill gives spectacular views over Golden Bay, the coastline and the hills and forests of Kahurangi NP. Golden Bay isn't apparently named because of golden sandy beaches, but because of gold being “accidentally” discovered by hunters in 1857. We found both in our brief travels in the area. The first golden sandy beach was at Totaranui, in the Abel Tasman NP. Or the first beach that we stopped at was there, we passed plenty along the way round the coast.

We treated ourselves to a night (and afternoon and morning) relaxing on the beach. Those of you who know us will know that we aren't the sort to sit on a beach for too long and not do much. So 24 hours in a beach camp doesn't mean 24 hours of lazing on the sand. Colin and I could have managed a little more if we were baby less, but as we aren't (and now don't want to be) we didn't. I swam I am proud to say, despite the water being cold for us northern wusses. Samara and Colin only paddled. We also caught up with two English girls we had camped next to in Greymouth.

The next morning we walked (tramped) part of the Abel Tasman Coastal Track, one of NZ's Great Walks. We only walked 3 or so of the 51km (and the 3 or so back), but we felt like we'd walked somewhere special. We passed through beech forest, more golden sandy beaches and over rocky headlands. The first past of the track was nice and wide (buggy friendly if you didn't mind hills) but past the first beach it got rougher and much narrower. Lucky for us Samara loves riding in her backpack, and most of the time sleeps in it looking reasonably comfortable. The only problem arises when she sits there and plays with my hair and yanks hard! We did clip one of her toys up there for her, but my hair is still the main attraction! We plan to walk more of the track from the other end in a few days or so.

From Totaranui we went to Te Waikoropupu Springs, better known as Pupu Springs. The marble of rock of the Takaka Hill is honeycombed with cave systems, underground rivers, sinkholes and such like, and a huge system of flooded chambers exists beneath the valley. Overlying the marble is a layer of sandstones which do not allow water to pass through them. These act as a cap rock over the marble. In the Waikoropupu valley the surface river has eroded down through this cap rock to a point where the underground water, at high pressure, has been able to burst through and emerge as springs.

This spring system is the largest in NZ and among the 100 largest in the world, and the water is considered to be among the clearest in the world. The horizontal visibility has been proven to average about 63m. The water from the main spring is a constant temperature of 11.7C and the flow ranges from 7-21cubic metres a second. There are several springs including three coming up under the sea in Golden Bay. The area is wahi tapu or a sacred place to Maori. There is a legend of a female taniwha called Huriawa who guards the springs, when she's not clearing blocked waterways in the earth. The water of the springs is considered sacred and is used for healing and ceremonial blessings.

We stayed the night in Collingwood, a nice little town on the mouth of the Aorere River. Our spot at the camp-ground was right on the waters edge and we could sit there and watch the gulls and gannets. We went for a walk through the village after dinner and were surprised to find the museum still open. We weren't sure at first as it was all dark, but the sign on the door said to go in and the lights would come on, so we did and they did. One part was just big displays behind glass of old things, basically, from jars and tins to books and clothes, items from 'ye olden days'. The next part was mainly written displays of various aspects of the history of the settlement. One of the locals came round while we were in there and asked us to just shut the doors on our way out. All very relaxed and trusting.

The next morning was meant to be Colins for more gold panning. We stopped at a place called the Devils Boots, an unusual limestone formation that looks a bit like two boots sticking up in the air. We weren't exactly sure where the gold panning area here was, the Aorere Goldfields walkway was another couple of km along the 4WD only road, but there was a creek nearby that looked promising. Colin had a quick pan and found a few flakes.

We went further up the valley looking for a historic footbridge. The Salisbury Bridge was built in 1887 for people working and living on the Quartz Range goldfield. It was a lifeline for 95 years until a road bridge was built over the Aorere River (turbulent and quick to rise) gorge in 1982. This was swept away by a flood only three years later. There is another road bridge there now, which is lucky as the footbridge appears to have been swept away now. All we could find were the wooden frames on either side of the gorge and some steel cable. There were huge floods across the area in December last year and that is probably when the bridge went. So much for the testament to the skill and ingenuity of the early pioneers, but it did last much longer than the modern road bridge. We didn't stay to pan the river here as it had started to drizzle and the sand-flies were out in force.

The afternoon saw us almost at the end of the road. We drove to a place called Puponga where the access for Farewell Spit is. This is NZ's longest sandspit at about 35km long. We went for a walk across the spit to Fossil Point, along the beach a little bit then back across the vehicle track. Inside the spit is like a big tidal flat and outside is the open ocean, but more about all this next time.

A couple of km back down the road is the home of our next couch surf host, Sarah, where we'll stay for a couple of nights while we further explore this top corner of the South Island.

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Photos

Baby Weka
Lyell Creek DOC Camp

Under Pupu Springs
they had a system of mirrors so you could see underneath the springs