Day 46 - 47 (March 13 - 14) - Marahau (Abel Tasman National Park)

Day 46

When we woke up in the morning, the freedom campground "Waitapu Bridge" was almost empty again. Apparently, most people only used the place as a short stopover. Mattis wandered around the place with his wheelbarrow and played in the dirty puddles with joy.

At noon, we drove to the southern entrance of Abel Tasman National Park, Marahau. Since we had sunny weather today, we made a short stop at Pupu Springs. In this light, the spring looked more interesting, but still not spectacular.

We wanted to sleep for 2 nights at the camping site Abel Tasman Marahau Beach Camp ($40). We were already here around 2 pm and spent the rest of the day at the campsite. We liked the place. In the middle of the campsite, there was the centerpiece with kitchen, seating area, showers, washroom, and playground.

Mattis played independently and happily at the local playground and was excited when other children passed by. He found it funny to slide his digging things down the slide and then slide down after them. If Mattis needed something, he would come to our motorhome on his own, which was not directly next to the playground. He immediately remembered the way after I had shown him once. I was amazed. Lea also played on the playground from time to time and loved the sand.

In the meantime, I did the laundry, Tim booked our water taxi for tomorrow. And so the day flew by. The weather was very nice.

During dinner time, you could see all campers around the kitchen. Such a colorful hustle and bustle of people was quite nice. So we decided to eat here in front of the kitchen. We had pancakes. We had a chat with two super nice people from Brühl who sat down at our table. Before that, we had already talked to a young family with an 11-month-old child from near Hamburg. You get to know people on a campsite.

During dinner, I discovered Lea's first tooth, the bottom left incisor.

After this relaxed day, the children slept well, and Tim and I sat in the kitchen later and booked our ferry to the North Island.

Day 47

The day started very early because we had a hike in Abel Tasman National Park ahead of us. We got up at 7 am and packed our things for the hike. We woke the children up around 8:15 am. There was a quick breakfast and then we started. Shortly before 9 am, we arrived at the water taxi. The water taxi left from the parking lot opposite the campsite, so we only had a short walk. Everything went really smoothly. I hadn't necessarily expected that.

The water taxi/boat was loaded on a trailer behind a tractor. After all the passengers had boarded, the tractor drove off to the beach. Of course, Mattis found that extremely exciting. The beach was only a few meters away, but since it was low tide, we had to be driven quite far over the beach to the water. The boat was then launched into the water, and the ride started after a short briefing. Everyone had to put on life jackets, including Lea and Mattis. Lea looked so cute in this "huge" life jacket. You could hardly see anything of Lea, just the life jacket. It was so funny. But fortunately, she endured it.

Today was a wonderfully sunny day and the light in the morning, especially at the sea, was so beautiful and had a unique charm. We were so happy that we had chosen this tour early in the morning.

The water taxi was supposed to take us to Bark Bay in Abel Tasman National Park. By the way, you can only reach the bays of the national park on foot or by water taxi. On the way to the bay, we first stopped at Split Apple Rock. As the name promises, it is a huge rock that looks like a split apple. The splitting of the rock happened naturally, but no one knows exactly how, and so many stories are told about it, for example that Chuck Norris split it (as the boat driver amusedly told us). :-)

Afterwards, we stopped at some rocks where seals frolicked and many little baby seals swam in a small pool.

Now we continued our journey to Bark Bay. The water was very calm, allowing the boat to glide at full speed over the water. The breeze was wonderful on our faces. The morning sun reflected so beautifully on the water, showcasing the whole landscape in a particularly breathtaking way. We could admire the enchanting bays with their white sandy beaches and the rainforest in the background from the water. Oh man, what a great sight. Mattis and we loved the ride. I think Lea was okay with the ride, although she was quite frozen, but that was probably mainly because of the huge life jacket, which didn't allow much freedom of movement.

The first passengers were dropped off in Torrent Bay, so we got a first impression of the first bay that we would hike to later on. Then, after only 45 minutes, we arrived at Bark Bay. The water taxi came very close to the beach, and we got off in knee-deep water. We felt as if we had been abandoned on a deserted island. It was a fantastic white sandy beach.

Our hike was supposed to go from here through Torrent Bay to Anchorage Bay, it was 12km long and was supposed to take 4 hours. We had booked our water taxi for the return trip at 4 pm, so we had to get there by then. But we would manage.

Since New Zealand is excellent for hikers, there was drinking water and toilets in the bay. That was great. Now we could start our day hike.

The first part of the hike was incredibly beautiful. We hiked along the outside of the mountain and had a view of Bark Bay and the sea. We passed a small bay called Sandfly Bay, but we didn't hike down there since we had a more or less tight schedule.

We then entered the rainforest. After 1.5 hours, we took a little break. Mattis had walked quite far on his own and at a steady pace up to this point. Lea had slept up to here and was now very happy to get out of the carrier. We had a little snack and then continued.

A few meters further, we were surprised by a fantastic view that we knew from the cover of our travel guide, Frenchman Bay. Frenchman Bay is a so-called inlet, a bay that is only connected to the open sea by a small arm of the ocean. The water sparkled turquoise on the white sand. Paradise.

We continued through the rainforest with not too strenuous climbs. After some persuasion, Mattis hiked in the carrier with Tim and was able to rest a bit. Shortly before Torrent Bay, we already had a wonderful view of the bay from above. We were looking forward to sit down on the beach soon. We arrived at the beach of Torrent Bay around 1 pm. Lea had slept again up to this point. Now we all sat on this beautiful white sandy beach. It was fantastic. Mattis and Lea were also so happy, and Lea was so active. Lea watched the seagulls on the beach with great interest.

After a half-hour break, we continued our hike. Here in Torrent Bay, there was like a small holiday village that we walked through. Then we walked along the water all the time around the quite large bay. We crossed a river and watched kayakers go under the bridge and wave at us. Mattis loved that. It was interesting that we didn't hike along the water level the whole time, but after a while, we were directed away from the bay and had to make some significant climbs. In the end, we knew what the altitude meters were good for - a great view from above of Torrent Bay.

The last part to Anchorage Bay challenged us again because there were quite strenuous climbs. We went through the rainforest again. Tim was exhausted after carrying a 16kg child on his back + luggage. I was still feeling fine (fortunately, Lea is still very petite). Mattis fell asleep again just before the end. So Tim had a lot of weight to carry. Lea had fallen asleep for the third time on this hike. Today she slept a lot.

Here, there were Wekas again, which came eagerly as soon as they saw our food. One Weka was so bold that it pecked at our banana through a small gap in our backpack.

At 4 pm sharp, our water taxi picked us up from the bay. Mattis had just woken up shortly before, but then he was immediately clear and joyful when he knew that we were going to ride a boat again. The boat ride was great again and passed too quickly. This time, Lea was also excited about the ride.

Arriving at the beach of Marahau, we and the boat were loaded onto the trailer of a tractor again and brought to the campsite via the beach and the road. We quickly unloaded our things and went for an ice cream. Down the coastal road in Marahau, there was a small ice cream van at the sea. We sat down on the beach with the ice cream and let the beautiful impressions of the day sink in.

We spent the remaining evening with Mattis and Lea at the campsite playground. Tim conjured up a delicious dinner (curry with rice) in the campsite kitchen. We ate outside in front of the kitchen, where many other campers were bustling around.