First things first: Abel Tasman is the Cancun of New Zealand. It’s hard to describe just how clear or blue the water there is because the photos just don’t do the place justice. You just have to go there yourself to understand. I’ll start from the beginning. By the way, this post is going to be a little bit shorter than some of the other ones because it's mostly about walking and taking pictures. Not a lot of commentary needed for that. Here we go.
We woke up well after the sun had risen the next day. The opportunity to sleep in had been way too tempting to dismiss, so we took our time getting ready. At this point, now that several weeks have passed, I can’t quite remember what Elwin did or who went where, but I decided to do a scenic walk along the park. Yeah, that thing is humongous. I think attempting to scratch the surface of it would probably take two days at least. A lot of people end up doing the three or four day trek where they camp out overnight and do all of the little side hikes. I only had a day, so I decided to employ the use of an aqua taxi. You basically ask them to take you out to a certain point and drop you off so that you can walk back on foot. Or you walk out there and have a predetermined time and place in mind for meeting them to take you back. Either way works, and it’s much easier than trying to do the whole thing up and down yourself. I did it the first way, but now I wonder if it would have been easier the second way since you can just look forward to a nice trip home at the end. I guess it doesn’t really matter.
A good majority of the bus was doing a big catamaran thing where they got about 23 people together to rent out a boat for the day. It involved cruising, swimming, drinking, and barbecuing pieces of meat all day and then coming back around dinner time. I was tempted to do that as well, but it was only my second day with this particular group of people, and I didn’t want to be stuck on a boat all day without knowing if we were going to click or not. It’s never a good idea to be at the mercy of someone else’s schedule, so I decided to my own thing that day and do something a lot less expensive. It turned out to be a good call because they were fully booked out, and the water was too cold for swimming anyways. I think they ended up having a good time, but I’m glad that I made the decision that I did. Felt like I saw a lot more.
So I went over to reception and booked the next available bus to come pick me up, then I just hung out with Barney for the twenty minutes it took for them to arrive. The aqua taxis themselves are kind of cool because they have to be dragged out into the water by these gigantic tractors. The water is super shallow for quite a ways out into the cove, so a guy can literally pull the boat halfway out into the bay before having to turn back. I was way in the back of the boat, so I had a good, unobstructed view of the scenery behind us. The only problem was that it was a bit chilly that morning, and I was only in a T-shirt at the time, so I was pretty cold for the ride out there. It eventually warmed up later in the day and got really nice, though.
The tractor that towed us out there. Kayak.
Once we opened up the throttle and hit the water, it was pretty easy going. Our guide took us around the other way first to show us Split Apple Rock, which is fairly self-explanatory, and then circled around to take us all out to our scheduled destinations. A few of the other passengers on board were doing the drop-off and pick-up later in the day, so I was one of the first to get out at Torrent Bay. I had had the option of disembarking on the spot before that – Anchorage Bay – but the lady in the reception had told me to try Torrent because it was near Cleopatra’s Pool and involved a little extra scenery. If you look on the map, Torrent is just about one third of the way up the main track, and almost right next to Anchorage. You would assume, then, that it wouldn’t take long to walk from one to the other. Yeah, I’m not going to make any assumptions again anytime soon.
Split Apple Rock and heading out towards Torrent Bay
The boat pulled right up to the beach at Torrent and dropped me off, telling me to just head along the beach in a certain direction and to try and make it back to camp before dark. Sounded easy enough. This is where those amazing, postcard-worthy beaches come in. It was hard not to take a picture every few seconds because it was just that pretty. I decided to follow the reception lady’s advice and followed the map towards Cleopatra’s Pool. According to the signs, that would take me quite a ways out into the forest and add an extra hour to my hike back, but I was feeling pretty well-rested after all of that sleep. The trek out there was definitely memorable with trails winding in and out of the trees, always within sight of the water. One of the coolest thing was the fact that every campground was surrounded by little beach houses. People actually live – or at least vacation – in these bungalows right next to the water and have sailboats to go cruising every day. Sounds like quite a life.
Cute little houses on the water
This trail in particular went on for a good hour and a half through the brush, and when I finally found Cleopatra’s Pool, it was at a dead end. There was no way to loop around to the other side of the lagoon. The pool itself was pretty nice, but it was way too cold for swimming. Some people had that idea and were down there already, but I was fine with just watching – nothing like walking back home for five hours with wet hair. There’s one cool feature about this particular swimming spot in that it comes equipped with its own natural waterslide. One of the ledges juts away from the waterfall and slopes out into the pool at such an angle that it becomes perfect for sliding down. The rock has been worn down by the water over the last couple hundred years, so it’s basically smooth, too. I managed to go a ways further upstream for a few more photo opportunities, but the trail became all but impassable after a short distance. All I accomplished was some creative rock jumping and nearly sliding feet first into the river before having to turn back to the trail.
Trail on the way to Cleopatra's Pool
Area around Cleopatra's Pool, complete with water slide
As it turns out, that little centimeter on the map between Torrent and Anchorage is, in reality, fairly steep and winds all the way around the mountain. It took me over an hour to get close to the ocean again, and I was practically dead on my feet by the time I got there. Anchorage looked so nice and inviting after that ordeal that I, who hates sunbathing as a general rule and wear jeans 365 days a year, stripped right down to my swimsuit and collapsed on the beach for a good thirty minutes or so. It was sort of nice and peaceful to just lie there and work through the remains of my food supply, but it was cut short when I looked to my right and saw this massive spider trying to crawl into my backpack. Oh right, they like to hide in driftwood on the west coast. After that, I couldn’t really relax, and the water was still just above freezing, so I gathered up my clothes and continued on.
Sunbathing on the beach at Anchorage Bay
It was kind of discouraging to look at the map and see the depressingly small amount of progress made in two and a half hours, and I knew that I had at least four hours of walking to go, so I didn’t waste any more time from that point on. There were all sorts of signs leading off towards other cool spots like Cleopatra’s Pool, but I had to ignore them and stick to the main path. I think that’s how people end up spending days in the bush – checking out all of those locations. The path from Anchorage back to base was especially steep, too, so I was getting really tired. For any of you thinking of doing this at some point, that little stretch between Anchorage and the next marker is definitely the worse. After that, it’s all literally downhill.
The trail on the way back to camp
Just at the steepest point of the trail, I took a moment to breathe and drink the last swallow of water I had when all of a sudden, a group of familiar figures emerged right in front of me. My group of friends from Stray had managed to find me against all odds and suggested walking back to camp together. That was just awesome. Turns out that some of them had started out on the big party boat and gotten bored, and the rest of them had done the same thing as me, except that they had started later at Anchorage instead. Point is, we all ended up at the same place at the same time, so it made the walk back much more enjoyable. Natalie and Alec were the two that I ended up hanging out with the most, and they were just awesome. Natalie is a quirky English girl from outside Manchester and Alec is a 40-something gay guy who manages to pull of the appalled silence that comes naturally to British art connoisseurs in any situation. He was sort of the mascot of our bus, and Natalie was our morale officer. I miss those guys now.
Once you have someone to talk to, the time goes by a lot faster, and you don’t really notice how much further you have to hike. Before I knew it, we were within range of The Barn, and it was just starting to fade into sunset. I took a few last-minute photos for the road, grabbed a celebratory smoothie from the café, and then headed back to camp.
That night, we made ourselves some more sausages and potatoes under the stars and enjoyed the sunset lighting. There’s something very peaceful about being out in the wilderness, sitting around a giant camp fire, and just enjoying the atmosphere. We were treated to some amazing constellations that night, too, because of the clear night and complete lack of light pollution. I was able to recall my intensive astronomy lesson that I got in Napier and point out a few of the major southern hemisphere ones. Eventually, we all retired to our tents, dorms, and cabins for another day on the road. Most of the group had to be up and on the bus by 9am the next day, but I had to get up…earlier. I’ll tell you guys why in the next post. It involves the booking of another activity, though. Hmm, fun times. Until then!
Goodnight!
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