Road Trip Part 2 - Abel Tasman/Golden Bay

Wednesday, 18.12.19

So, actually we were only supposed to stay in Nelson until Friday morning (13.12.) and then drive to Abel Tasman National Park and go camping there for two days. We had already booked the campsites over a month ago, as you're not allowed to freedom camp on the Great Walks, but can only sleep in the designated campsites or huts, which are already fully booked weeks in advance. We wanted to take the water taxi from Marahau to Anchorage and then hike from there to Bark Bay on the first day, and then continue to Awaroa, where we had booked the second night. Unfortunately, I felt really sick all day on Thursday and was sure that I wouldn't be able to walk the full circuit for two days. So Lars and I decided to skip the first day, even though it was supposed to be one of the highlights of our trip. Well, we ended up staying another night in Nelson and then left on Saturday morning. Since we didn't want to waste the night in Arawoa either, we drove to Onetahuti (a bay north of Bark Bay) and hiked from there to Awaroa. So instead of hiking for two full days, we only hiked for about two hours each. Instead, we had a beach day, which wasn't too bad. We had to wait for low tide anyway to walk from the beach to our campsite, otherwise it would have taken two hours instead of 20 minutes over the sandbar. We walked the detour back the next day to at least pretend that we were actually hiking. Despite the pretty short night (I always realize again and again that you don't get much sleep while camping), we thought we deserved a good bed and a shower. We then checked into a nice B&B near Takaka in the Golden Bay area. From there, we drove to Te Waikoropupu or Pupu Springs the next day, which are known for their clear water. Unfortunately, it was cloudy and rainy that day, so we could only see it minimally. Nevertheless, we didn't want to miss the opportunity to continue to Wharariki Beach and Cape Farewell, the northernmost point of the South Island.