Te Pukatea Bay

Its 7am and I am watching the sunrise in one of the most lovely places ever – Te Pukatea Bay which faces east, and therefore the sun is rising right over the middle of the bay, casting brilliant orange reflections over top the water, causing it to look like its on fire. Lovely. I couldn’t imagine a better way to see dawn break than sitting by myself here on this lovely beach.

Anchorage

Such a beautiful beach! I loved it there

Marahau to Anchorage

We stopped a lot on the way for photos and food breaks. We left our packs a couple of times to descend down hills to see Apple Tree Bay and another place so we could get better photos, but after a while I was too tired to go down any more hills. It did level out for quite a bit, there were lots of waterfalls as well and in places it looked like the bush had been through a fire. Finally we saw a sign, 35mins to Anchorage. I was so happy! But it wasn’t all downhill – the last few hills nearly killed me, my quads were burning. I was so glad when we got to the beach that said Anchorage. We chucked our stuff in the hut and laxed out on the beach for about 20mins we had the place to ourselves, then this group of teenagers showed up. They were very loud. Not looking forward to spending the night near them. I hope they sleep in the other bunk room (Theres two). Some of them went for a swim, yelling loudly.

Tuesday 6 September

What a strenuous but beautiful day! My hands are swollen, my ankles are sore but I made it! We have been so blessed with beautiful weather even though its barely spring. Golden sand beaches, turquoise waters, granite arch and cave formations and good company. Well Liz is such good company. Shes a champ and carried by day bag almost the whole way here. I was nearly dying for most of the track. I did make efforts to get fitter before we came, but I never tried wearing the backpack, 14kg on my shoulders my back is so sore. Liz carried almost all the food, shes awesome.

Monday in Motueka

We got a ride back to town and ate some crackers, cheese and fruit at the park by the I Site. Then we went for an almighty long walk (3hrs) to look for this shipwreck. We got lost at Thorps bush it took ages, we stopped this guy on the street to ask for directions. He was quite helpful, even though he was on the phone at the time.

We found the beach (not much of one) took photos, walked to the shipwreck, an old rusted out hull of the “Jane Seddon” then we walked further.

Monday 5 September

We got to Motueka and checked in, then went to the I Site where they recommended a couple of walks. So we went to go get some gas for our cooker & Liz asked the guy about skydiving. He said it was awesome and everybody should do it at least once in their life so she called the skydive people and they said they’d pick her up in half an hour and I told her to check if she could bring a friend. So I was glad I ‘d just got some food that I could eat while I was waiting.

We went out to the Aerodrome –we watched a safety-get-pumped up video of others who had done the jump. Liz decided to do the high one 16500 ft, $400. Liz had to wait for this other girl Deneira to go. In the meantime I chatted to this French guy Cedric (in French) and Liz talked to her jumpmaster and got some photos of her beforehand. I was eating and laxing out on the couch when I looked up and saw a blue chute with four legs dangling from it, I wasn’t sure if it was Liz but I jumped up and started taking photos last minute, as she landed, it was her. She had called out but I never heard her. I took some after shots as well. She was quite pumped but she said she liked hang gliding better but couldn’t quite pinpoint why.

Abel Tasman National Park

So I have been to Nelson twice previously, the first time I went to Motueka & took a scenic flight over the Abel Tasman, the second time I went it was in May last year and I did a boat cruise all the way up the top and back down to Medlands beach (in the middle) where they made me a barbecue lunch & I went for a short walk on shore (and was amazed by the bird song and decided I had to come back) so this year I talked my friend Liz into doing a tramp with me.

We started at Marahau at the bottom of the park, then headed north, the first night we stayed at Anchorage, the second day we kayaked up from Torrent bay north to Medlands beach and back, saw some seals, it was awesome, then that afternoon we walked up to Bark Bay it took forever, and we arrived at about sunset (luckily a nice aussie man had already kindled a fire in the hut).

The next day we walked up to Tonga Quarry which is where the boat was picking us up from, dumped our bags in the bush and went up a kilometre further to Onetahuti beach to have lunch.
Headed back for our afternoon pickup and back to Kaiteriteri to get the bus to Nelson, it was an amazing trip, the weather was sunny and beautiful, the beaches were lovely and empty and we almost felt like we had the whole place to ourselves.