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.

Making New Friends

Abel Tasman Coastal Track, Bark Bay to Marahau
17 – 20 April 2019
Party: Mark, Spike, Me
 
A few weeks prior to departure, I got the devastating email from Lisa that her boss wasn’t allowing her leave to bring her two boys up and walk with us. Given the short notice, we weren’t able to find anyone to take her place either, leaving us a little anxious that Spike would be hard work with no other kids to walk with.

Obviously, we still went anyway.

Our ferry sailing and drive through to Motueka both went smoothly. The Motueka Top10 has changed a bit since Mark and I were last there (in about the summer of 2011), but not massively so. The large, park-like gardens were basically empty, opening up masses of space to run around in on our day off.

When we arrived at our water taxi depot in Marahau on the Wednesday morning, we discovered that they actually did offer gear portage – but we had packed in such a way that this wasn’t feasible for us to arrange with super short notice. Looking later at their website, to figure out how we had missed this essential piece of planning information, we could not find a single reference to it. It seems that if you don’t pick up one of their printed brochures while doing your planning, you’ll never know.

The ride out to Bark Bay was somewhat bumpy, but not massively so. We arrived as the tide was well into its drop to low tide, so had to be dropped at the far end of the beach, leading to about 10 minutes of slog through the soft, grainy sand, to the hut itself. Wandering inside, we found we were among the first to arrive for the night, so nabbed a trio of mattresses before enjoying lunch on the deck.

To fill in our afternoon, we went for a walk to a swing bridge and waterfall, and explored the estuary.
After a scrummy dinner (eaten under the watchful eye of a couple of weka), Spike had an early-ish night, and Mark and I got to know some of the others in the hut with us. There were a lot of kiwis in residence, which was lovely.

Thursday dawned fine, and after watching some of the others having a swim in the estuary, we headed off, allowing ourselves as much time as possible for our 8.5km day. We opted to stop and explore Sandfly Bay on our way through, and took our time heading up the hill from the swingbridge just past there.

We timed things nicely, arriving in Torrent Bay about half an hour before full low tide. We sat by the wharf and ate a relaxed lunch before making our way across the estuary. The last up and over the hill to Anchorage was easier than I remembered, and we were among the first 10 or so people to arrive at Anchorage Hut for the night, getting awesome bunks.

Another relaxing afternoon stretched before us. We watched guided walkers wander in and out, and a group of canyoners do the same. The hut filled up, and the lights came on as the sunset dropped.

Watching everyone leave on Friday, knowing we had a full day up our sleeves to do whatever we wanted was an unusual sensation. But the peace at the hut between departure time and the arrival of the first day walkers was gorgeous. We wound up doing two walks – in the morning out to Pitt Head (don’t bother, the views aren’t that amazing), and in the afternoon out to Cleopatras Pool, via the high tide track there, and the estuary back.

The climb out of Anchorage on Saturday morning was unrelenting. We were glad to have made a reasonably early start as it was exposed and very warm on our way up the hill. The going was super slow (not helped by how much walking we had inadvertently done on our “day off”). Spike super hit the wall all day, and it was just hard going.

We stopped at several of the bays along the way for toilets and rest, enjoying being watched by weka. Thankfully this day had regularly spaced markers for trapping boxes that counted down to the end of the track at Marahau – finding these was all that kept Spike putting one foot in front of the other. To be honest, by the end of the day, I felt about the same.

The last couple of km from Tinline Bay campsite to the Marahau road end were just depressing. We should have dropped out on to the beach and taken the low-tide route, but we weren’t confident of it. Instead we ducked and weaved, climbed and dropped, never seemed to get any closer till we were on the bridges.
 

We grabbed our car, changed into more comfortable shoes, and headed off back to Kaiteriteri, where we were staying for the night. Hot showers, clean clothes, dinner cooked for us, and real beds. Exactly what was needed to wrap up this trip. We were super proud of how Spike had done over our four days on the track. We’re keen at some point to go back as a family and walk the northern end of the track – Bark Bay to Whariwharangi Hut, but that’s maybe a few years away yet.

Spikes First Hut

27 December 2013

Abel Tasman Coastal Track

Team: Mark, Spike, Me

Mark and I decided to have the first part of our summer holiday (Christmas through to nearly New Years Eve) in Nelson this year, catching up with old friends of ours and their new baby, and hopefully doing some walks. We opted for a kitchen cabin at the Richmond Top 10, rather than a tent site, simply because Nelson has a reputation for getting some heavily stormy weather around Christmas, and tenting with a 9 month old in bad weather was not high on our "to do" list.

Mark had really wanted to stay at Tahunanui, as he had a strong connection to it from family holidays there as a child, but it was full up by the time we decided in July that we definitely were going away.

Various forces conspired against us, and instead of the 3 or 4 walks we had originally hoped for when we booked, we only got in one. So we made it a goodie.

Spike was up early, which for once was a blessing. Popping him in the car at exactly the time we wanted to leave for Kaiteriteri, he was asleep almost as soon as we left the campground.



We grabbed tickets to Anchorage from the booth at the carpark, sorted sunscreen on everyone, checked we had everything and boarded our boat. Spike played with another young boy on the boat up to Anchorage, which was lovely, and helped keep him occupied. After dropping off a couple of groups at various lodges along the way, we arrived at Anchorage about 10.15am, just nicely in time to give Spike some morning tea on the deck of the hut before we headed off for a walk.



We decided (since it was basically bang on low tide) to take the low tide track over to Torrent Bay for an early lunch before catching the 1pm water taxi back to Kaiteriteri. The climb up and over the saddle was quick, and walking through the cool water of Torrent Bay estuary was wonderful on a warm, sunny day.



We had lunch on the beach, before heading back again the same way. We debated trying to find the track for Cleopatras Pool from the low-tide crossing (and therefore take a later water taxi back), but opted instead to return as planned before Spike got grumpy at being up and about for so long.

Our water taxi ran late, so we got to spend a good half an hour chilling on the beach at Anchorage, waiting. Shame we had no umbrella as there was no shade! Spike (again) didn't like the sand or the water at the beach, but was happy to be held while we stood in the water cooling off.

Unsuprisingly, he fell asleep as soon as we were back in the car. Highly successful!

Hut Bagged: Anchorage Hut, Abel Tasman Coastal Track. (0 nights). Mark / Spike first visit, Amelia 3rd or 4th (although first time at New New Anchorage Hut)

In the Summertime

Abel Tasman Coastal Track, Abel Tasman National Park
24 - 28 January 2007
People: Amelia, Emma, Emily, Olivia, Marion, Tiffany, Kathryn, Lizzy, Dani, Sam, Chrystal

Now, its been well over two years since I did this track, but I had completed the same walk at least twice before the trip I write of here, so at least the track itself is easy to remember!

We started in Wellington, staying overnight at the guide hall to make sure everyone had everything and that all the food was sorted in such a way as to keep it safe until needed. Dropped at the ferry terminal at 7.30am, we had a nice, relaxing start to our week. Chrystal met us in Picton, having been in the South Island on holiday for the previous week, and we boarded our bus bound for Nelson, then onward to Kaiteriteri beach for the night.

We had a quick swim at Kaiteriteri in the afternoon, before having ice creams from the shop and cooking dinner on our little gas cookers at our tent site with our little tents... We felt a bit insignificant when we compared our little site with the massive behemoth tents that surrounded us... Emaa, Olivia and I shared a tent fly to save weight and it was lovely to have that light breeze coming through the tent at night.

In the morning we started lazily. Safe Crossing time at Awarua wasnt until 7pm, and it was only an hours water taxi and two hours walk to get there. We were booked on a Noon taxi, which meant sitting out at the beach in the heat with all our gear for a couple of hours after we cleared our campsite. the shuttle ran to time at least, and while out we got to see some seals.

Working on the theory that it shouldnt get full dark until about 9.30pm and it was only meant to be an hour and a bit from Awarua to Onetahuti, we had planned to walk through to that campsite in the late evening in order to make day two slightly shorter. This meant we needed to have had dinner, cleaned up and repacked by 7pm, ready to start crossing. Now, the thing with the Awaroa Inlet is that "safe crossing time" extends quite a way each side of low tide (about 2 hours), and if you go at the very start or very end, the water gets quite deep...

(This isnt the deepest it got of course. The girls all wound up having to hold their packs funny in order to avoid getting them wet too)
Deep water means slow movement, and looking back I think it would have been better to wait for actual low tide before crossing and then stay at the Awarua campsite, especially as it got well dark before we managed to get to the campsite and one of the groups nearly got lost! Crossing the small Onetahuti inlet (which never really gets more than waist deep anyway) would definitely be much easier in daylight than in the torch light we wound up crossing it under!

Having read the weather report posted at the Totaranui campsite that we started out from, our smaller group decided to get up early the next morning to hopefully get in some good tramping before it got too hot. This plan failed epically when Emma started showing signs of heat exhaustion only about an hour and a half into the anticipated 7 hours to complete that day. We managed to get Emma very slowly to Bark Bay Hut, where water taxis come in for pick up / drop off and then sat and waited for the other group to turn up. We worked hard at relaxing, cooling and rehydrating Emma, and by the time the rest arrived, she was feeling much better, but still not up to tramping the next 4 hours to our overnight campsite (which was also about the next place we could expect to pick up a water taxi for her!).

So Emma and myself were accompanied by all the group tents and Dani's pack on to Anchorage by water taxi while the rest of the group walked through to Torrent Bay. When they got there it was starting to rain. They helped a guy pack up his tent, and in return got a ride across that estuary rather than having to walk the tidal track around it. In the mean time we had pitched all the tents bar one (someone had forgotten to give us part of it), had a swim and had a nap while a thunderstorm raged above us. Dinner was cooked in the small shelter provided and included fresh soup and bread.

Instead of walking out from Anchorage, we had arranged Sea Kayaks to take us out.

It was a great day, although we all had wicked motion sickness when we got back to Nelson for the night - I clearly remember standing in the shower at Tahunanui Beach Campsite, holding on to the walls so I didnt fall over when I closed my eyes (and can I just say, the showers at that campsite were fantasitc!!). Most of us got at least partly sunburnt that day, and after fish n chips from the camp store for dinner, we all went to bed fairly early, with most people deciding to sleep out of their tents since the weather was so mild.

After all that, the only thing left to do was to catch a taxi, bus and ferry home to Wellington. I think most of us slept most of the way!!
If I was to do this again, I think I would go to Marahau for the night before instead of Kaiteriteri, as then you would have the option of leaving travel stuff at the campground while on track and collecting it on the way out. I have only ever walked the track Totaranui - Marahau, and I think I prefer doing it that way, especially with the days kayaking to finish!