Nelson Tasman, South Island, New Zealand
02/04/2005 - 02/08/2005
Kaiteriteri Beach is a beautiful resort community just 13 km away from Moteuka. From here, many water taxis are available to transport you into the Abel Tasman National Park. The boat in this picture is one of the water taxis.
Abel Tasman National Park
Amazing pictures of beautiful beaches and turquoise water made us wonder to what extent the images had been enhanced before the tourist brochures were produced. Time to go find out.
Motueka, a tourist town 20 minutes from the entrance to the Abel Tasman National Park, served as our base for exploring the area. The town is definitely geared toward tourists exploring the park. Cafes, restaurants, accommodations and grocery shops satiate the tourist needs. Kauhurangi National Park, Nelson Lakes, Golden Bay and Farewell Spit are all within two hours of Moteuka hence its reputation as a good base for travelling the area.
Renting kayaks or taking a guided kayaking tour is another popular activity. Paddling the Abel Tasman is something we will do on our next visit.
Look at the huge golden sand beach!
We decided to take a water taxi up into the Abel Tasman National Park and then tramp from Torrent Bay to Anchorage Bay. En route to Torrent Bay, the taxi driver stopped by Split Apple Rock. He proceeded to tell us a story about Captain Cook, a cannon shot, and how the rock became split. We did not buy the story -- which is one of the reasons we don't do well on guided tours.
The water taxi left us on this beach in Torrent Bay. From here, we hop on the Abel Tasman track for a one and a half hour hike over to Anchorage Bay.
The brochures did not mislead us on the beauty of the Abel Tasman. Beach after glorious beach treated us to feelings of being back in the tropics.
The weather was perfect for a day of exploring on water and land.
A huge tidal range creates multiple options for exploring the Abel Tasman track. At low tide, you can walk across the tidal flats. At high tide, you must walk through the bush looking down at the water. Even though it was low tide, we chose to hike through the bush.
Rivers meet the ocean in several spots along the way. Do you see the turquoise water in the background.
Spotting a sign leading to Cleopatra's Pools, we took the side trip hike up to the pools. As we hiked, excitement mounted for a quick skinny dip.
No skinny dipping on this trip. Way too many people had the same idea. Being relatively shy, we stuck our toes in the water and hiked back out. Branding the pools with Cleopatra's name must draw lots of people to the pools with similar romantic notions.
A first glimpse of Anchorage Bay drives us to start walking a bit faster.
With plenty of time to spare before the taxi arrives, Robin takes a swim in the ocean. If you look closely, you will see she is wearing her skivvies. The warm water was quite a pleasant surprise.
Is this a picture perfect beach or what?!
Dubbed Keyhole Rock by Robin, here is another view of the each in Anchorage Bay. Hey, is that our taxi? Better run.
What a pleasant surprise! KT & Chris were in the Abel Tasman region at the same time we were there. Here they are arriving at our hotel via Billa-van.
Chris's Mom and husband were travelling with them. We enjoyed a great Indian dinner with them while swapping tales of each other's travels.
You are never far from an espresso machine in New Zealand.
Golden Bay
Having flown over Farewell Spit on the plane trip to the South Island, we decided to drive to Golden Bay and Farewell Spit. Walking east to west along the Abel Tasman Track, the track terminates at Golden Bay. Abel Tasman called this Murderers’ Bay after his 1642 encounter with local Maori. Farewell Spit is a long, skinny wetland area at the northwestern tip of the South Island.
Waikoropupu Springs are renowned for their water clarity.
Driving over lush hills with vistas looking out to Golden Bay and then winding down into the valley near the bay provides quite a diverse experience. Along the way, we stopped for a side trip to Waikoropupu (aka Pupu) Springs. Beautiful boardwalk walking tracks throughout the Pupu Springs Scenic Reserve.
More pictures of New Zealand's largest freshwater springs.
These are some big springs. See the bubbling in the center of the picture. Lonely Planet says "About 14,000 litres of water a second is thrown up from a number of underground vents...". Wow!
At the Farewell Spit Visitor Centre, a skeleton of a pilot whale is on display. For some unknown reason, whales tend to beach in this area.
As a result, this handy whale rescue kit is nearby.
The Boat Shed restaurant in Nelson serves up a tasty batch of mussels for lunch.
Nelson
With no where near enough time in the Abel Tasman/Golden Bay area, we moved on to the big city of Nelson. Nelson, population 52,300, is the hub of the agricultural region as well as the second largest city on the South Island. Everyone said we were going to love Nelson leaving our expectations quite high.
Nelson is a fine city, but we were much more impressed with the Abel Tasman area than Nelson. We were disappointed with our lodging reservation. Most of the trip planning was done with the help of Lonely Planet and the internet. For Nelson, Robin reserved an accommodation with Beachside Villas thinking we'd be staying near the beach. Hah! Without going into a rant, we'll just leave it with our disappointment in the location of the accommodation - not near the beach and a 15 minute drive into Nelson.
A relaxing visit in Nelson, left us ready to move on to the Marlborough Sounds area.
Looking down at the city from atop a hill in Nelson gives a good view of the area. We were surprised by the number and proximity of the homes.
In Nelson proper, beautiful streets and plazas filled the city center. Looking past the lamp post and walking up the steps takes you to the Christ Church Cathedral.
Here is a shot of the harbour. Again, the tidal range is huge so parts of the harbour are completely dry at low tide.
Beautiful pots or flowers hang from the roof tops making the Nelson streets quite attractive.