The Tide Waits for no Man (or Kayak)

Abel Tasman Kayaks, Onetahuti to Marahau
23 – 25 April 2019
Amelia & Mark

This part of our April adventure came about in a rush at short notice. We didn’t get the Kaiteriteri Holiday House we wanted in the ballot, so had to come up with an alternative plan. In the end, we flew Spike to Christchurch to stay with his grandparents and cousins for the week, and we grabbed a rare opportunity to have an adventure together that was a bit different.

Ready to launch

In December last year, we were down to co-lead a kayak trip for the tramping club in Kenepuru Sound. We had to cancel that trip when Mark broke his collarbone at the end of September and we couldn’t find a replacement co-leader without paying the hire company.

With a week to play with, we looked at a host of options – walking some or all of the Heaphy Track (booked out at the huts, only awkwardly placed campsites available), walking the north end of the Abel Tasman from Bark Bay (same thing, especially awkward with tides) – and eventually settled on hiring a kayak. We considered doing a multi-day guided kayak, but in the end our cheap sides won out and we went with freedom rental instead.

Mosquito Bay, mid-tide

Our freedom rental involved a drop-off at Onetahuti beach and two nights camping accommodation at any site we wanted to (which Abel Tasman Kayaks would book on our behalf). Going this way works with the prevailing winds and tides in the area, but what we didn’t realise was that this meant we didn’t get to load our kayaks until we were at the beach, so had to guesstimate whether what we had would fit.

Looking at our rather large pile of stuff, we were a little worried. It looked like an absolute mass of gear and food, and the spaces in the kayak just didn’t seem that large.

Our water taxi ride out to Onetahuti was uneventful. It started raining a little as we hit the beach, so we packed up reasonably quickly and headed off onto the water, rather than going for a walk or much of an explore. It turned out that our gear fit easily into the kayak, with space to spare. So now we know for any future trips.

Mosquito Bay, low tide

The tides had turned right around since we had been walking the week before, and now low tide was closer to dawn and dusk rather than mid-day. So we made our way directly around and over the reefs to our nights campsite at Mosquito Bay (only accessible by water), and unpacked our kayak, pitched our tent and stowed our stuff. Then we jumped back in the kayak and headed out to go for a paddle in the Bark Bay estuary, just because we could. We bottomed out a couple of times as the tide was receding rapidly, but got back out before we had to portage.

By the time we got back to Mosquito Bay, the tide had gone a LOOONG way out and we had to portage the (thankfully largely empty) kayak quite some distance. Not so far as some of the other groups who arrived later did though, as the tide continued to drop. We racked our kayaks, cooked up some dinner and chilled out to watch the sunset, catching up in the meantime with a solo kayaker who had been in the OUTC with me back in the day.

Bark Bay

Wednesday morning dawned clear, with a damp tent and what looked like a long wait for the sun to come around to the campsite. The size of the tide movement in the area was really clear when we were preparing to portage our kayak. This day, the high tide was at 3.9m, with the low tide at 0.3m – a 3.6m difference. We clambered over some rocks on the island in the middle of the bay to explore and then set off, aiming to hit the Torrent Bay estuary some time around high tide (11:42am).

Before getting there though, there was Frenchmans Bay estuary to explore. Sadly, we hit this one WAY too early, and there was barely depth to get us anywhere. It was gorgeous and so peaceful though, just as we expected having looked into it on our walk the week before.

Torrent Bay

To avoid doubling back (we wanted lunch at Anchorage hut), we wound up in Torrent Bay estuary a little early. This was great for getting in, as the water pushed us through the gap and we barely needed to paddle. We managed to kayak nearly all the way to the back of the estuary, where we had walked the week before to do Cleopatras pool. Coming back out was a slightly different challenge – the tide was still pushing in with some force, and we had to work hard to avoid being pushed around too much.


After lunch and refilling of water bottles at Anchorage Hut (the place felt like home after two nights there the week before), we chilled out for a bit in the sunshine. We’d done the bulk of our days paddle by now, but the most exposed bit of the day was still to come, and the advice we had was that this section tended to be most sketchy later in the afternoon.

We were the first boat to arrive at Observation Beach. On the brochures, its marked as being boat access only, but at some point in the last couple of years, a track has been built and its now accessible from the coastal track. We set up our tent, tidied away our kayak and went for a walk up the hill – I gave up about 2/3 up the hill because that was far enough!

Another lovely night, including watching the ISS fly over, and suddenly it was our last day. We warmed up in the morning by wandering around to the next cove (accessible via the beach at lower tides) where the sun was, then paddled straight out to Adele Island to see the seals.

Lunch at Apple Tree bay included a long walk to the far end of the beach and back to waste some time, and we were still back at Marahau about 2pm, having abandoned plans to go around to Split Apple Rock because we were tired and the weather was packing in.

We timed this perfectly, as there was a couple of staff from the kayak firm hanging around at the boat ramp when we arrived, so our kayak was on the trailer and we were back at the depot to unpack, clean up and have showers within a few minutes.

This trip was AMAZING. Can’t wait till Spike is 12 so we can go and do it again as a family – albeit maybe taking a bit longer.