Golden Bay

According our last wwoof hosts Golden Bay is worth staying at longer for a while, so we took their advice and headed North. On the way we went to see Harwoods Hole, the deepest (176mtr) sinkhole in the Southern hemisphere. The walk to it was beautiful. But once we got to the actual hole I was a bit disappointed because after climbing some massive rocks (vertigo!) I still couldn't have a decent look into it. I just had to assume it was there somewhere. And Emma wisely decided not even climb on to the rocks. The road to it had been 11 km long of single lane unsealed road and as it went into the Abel Tasman National Park, it was a no-exit one so we had to make our way back the same way we came...

We arrived at Collingwood, after visiting the Mussel Inn, and booked in for 2 nights. The next day we drove all the way of to Farewell Spit and took a left exit to Wharariki beach, a secluded beach with stunning views. Apart from my shorts getting ripped to pieces at one of my walks over the ridges it was a fantastic experience. We even saw a seal waggling up to the beach. On our way back we stopped at a cafe in Puponga for tea and cake. The cafe was on top of a hill with views over the Spit. Later we went into the tiny museum of Colingwood. Apparently in the early days of the Europeans arrival Collingwood had been considered to become NZ's capitol. How things can change... We also visited the local cemetery and noticed that most people buried there died at a very young age. The next day we headed back to Takaka and when we passed a holiday park we were tempted to stop there since it was said to be at one of the best spots in Golden Bay. Later that week we read in the news that this holiday had suffered from a flu virus which made nearly 500 people ill. Before we arrived in Takaka we had a look at Waikoropupu Springs or locally called Te Pupu Springs. They are natural springs and are caused by an updwelling of water from marble aquifers. The springs are sacred to the Maoris and people are not allowed to touch the water. After we booked in at the holiday park we had a look in town.

The next day we went to Tata Beach which is one of the popular beaches in the area. Nearby was Pohara Beach Top 10 Holiday Park which we thought of staying at but when we read about the size of it (Huge!) we weren't very keen. Too busy... At the beach we sat down in our comfy chairs and had a look at all the different kinds of watersports and read for a bit. We left Takaka the next day and made our way back to Marahau via Takaka Hill. It was very foggy when we drove over the range and on our way down we saw a near accident. Since people get very eager to overtake a slower vehicle, the slower vehicle usually slows down and moves over to the left so the person behind can overtake. And so did we when a big Toyota truck was so close behind us I could almost read the brand of his sunglasses. But after he overtook he missed the next curve and crashed into the rock wall. The truck bumped back on the road and the driver continued his way. But after a 100 meters he pulled over on to a parking bay and when we passed him we could hear one of his front tyres hissing. Had this happened to him on the other side of the range he would have taken a shortcut down the hill... Dumb ass...

We arrived in Marahau and booked an Abel Tasman walk for the next day. Unfortunately the next day it was raining buckets so we postponed the walk to the following day. A couple of tents were flooded and some people had to spend the night in their cars. At that moment I felt very happy we bought a van to sleep in! Since the weather was really bad we decided to drive to Motueka for an internet stint. We had a bit of a backlog on our upload of pictures and blog entries to post on our website. That evening we went to see the open Mic Night (Thirsty Thursday) at the Park Cafe again and to our surprise Rob was performing. That evening was even better than the week before. 

The Abel Tasman walk was very nice. We took a water taxi up to Tonga Bay and from there we walked back to Torrent Bay, which was about a 4 hrs walk. It took us along the coast of The Able Tasman National Park and had some amazing views over pretty beaches. It also had a swing bridge which tested my vertigo... Golden Bay has been a beautiful spot indeed...

Ciao,

Ray