2019 AU-NZ: New Zealand Curio Bay to Abel Tasman March 31 - April 5

March 31 we departed from the Tasman Glacier wilderness area near Aoraki (Mt. Cook), where we would have liked to stay a week to do more hikes and exploring.

There were wonderful, familiar, scenic vistas all day towards Curio Bay and we stopped at Wrinkley Rams Co. for a look.

The sheep shearing demo was not on, and there was a bus line at the cafe so we drove on to arrive at Dunstan, a destination town with cafes, galleries, and shops with locally made crafts. There are many bike trails and routes within New Zealand, and Dunstan is along part of the system. Vineyards are also promoted via bike tours, and our Berlin pals Jens & Andrea told us about a scenic 25Kms, one-way route they did out of Arrowtown.

We arrived at Curio Bay to hopefully see Yellow-eyed Penguin and/or Blue Penguin. We saw yellow-eyed and blue penguin stuffies in the gift shop but not sea foraging ones, as in March, April and May they are in molt, so cannot swim, so forage out-of-sight in the seaside bush. Well, the campsite laundry was open all night and the cafe was open. After waiting at the coast for the penguins, we put up our tent in the dark. We then went to the cafe, but it was closed early for inventory count - oh well, off-season, so these kind of things are to be expected.

April 01 we lingered at the stormy Curio Bay coast. It was so windy that Bob was able to lay into the wind on a 15-degree angle without falling down.

Family Dawne had suggested we stop to see the naturally round boulders south of Omaru. We found a small, no-fee carpark just south of the Boulder tourist carpark and a ten-minute walk took us along the beach towards the boulders, which were enormous. What an interesting stop! Maori stories explain the existence of the boulders as spillage from an ancestral canoe load, and text panels by the boulders describe a collection of geographic features throughout New Zealand that are similarly explained in Maori genesis stories. Some of the boulders were broken apart, which made it possible to see the internal concretions. A few looked similar to molars with deep cavities!

Another scenic drive north of the Boulders towards Omaru took us past a spot with semi-domesticated penguins (it was closed for the molt season), a hilltop castle and the Steampunk Headquarters museum (closed 15min before we arrived). We walked along a wharf and breakwater and videotaped the Kiwi Rail arrive and by then we had to cancel our plans to reach our chosen DOC mountain camp, as time was too short to get there by dark. We ended the day at Timaru Holiday Camp, which had a nice kitchen busy with migrant orchard workers cooking fish and rice. After watching Bob clean stove-tops and tables we hadn't used, one worker asked if he was retired, did he like apples and would he like a job!

As we were packing up camp April 02 it started to rain heavily and then hail on our tent. Happily we have a good system for drying our tent, laid out in the car boot on our camp table. We rotate the tent cloth throughout the day and it is usually dry by the evening. Occasionally, if the sun breaks through at a picnic lunch stop, we shake the cloth and hang it to dry faster.

We stopped for lunch at a Cheviot tea room (great coffee, "eh" food), and then drove past a number of road works stops around Kaikoura. The 2016 earthquake had destroyed train and road access for 10 months and road work is on-going two-and-a-half years later. At one stoppage directly on the coast, we watched a pod of Bottle-nose Dolphin play in the surf.

In Kaikoura, we visited the museum, which contained mostly colonial curiosity content. We spent considerable time in the 2016 Earthquake display room, which presented geological, road-works engineering and the humanity of the experience through people's personal stories. What had been the low tide mark is now the high tide mark, so parts of the ocean floor are exposed that had not been previously. In some places along the 120Km fault, the land changed by 2.5 meters. The experience changed the community of Kaikoura in many ways, and the people speak about their renewed outlook on life and relationships as a result of the earthquake aftermath, with international and New Zealand tourists needing care and then evacuation. Ten months later, the process of returning rental caravans and cars took a bit of detective work, as many had been abandoned in parking lots or side roads with keys and gear inside.

We did a seaside walk to see the seabed geology north of Kaikoura and then drove slowly to our remote Marfells Beach camp,  just south of Blenheim, NZ. Along the last bit of the route, we stopped frequently and Bob was able to photograph a Sacred Kingfisher. Marfells Beach is a gorgeous area, but with very sticky mud - "gumbo".

April 03 we almost had hand-caught-by-Bob lobster for dinner! We also almost had local vineyard wine to go with that lobster dinner! Two missed opportunities - oh well. Our Marfells Beach camp host invited Bob to go out to Cape Campbell for a quad crayfish catch, but Bob didn't jump at the invitation, in part because we didn't have a free day. Nearby, we hoped to finally do a vineyard visit to pick up wine made by Greywack, a New Zealand vineyard that Bob discovered in December 2018 while planning our AU - NZ camp tour. After leaving Marfells Beach, we drove to Greywack Vineyard, but then read it was a small operation that did not have a visitor program.

As we were leaving Marfells Beach, we again saw the Kingfisher at the evaporation ponds where we had seen it the evening before. We also saw Goldfinch again, as well as other small finch.

En route to Abel Tasman NP, and before passing the gateway town of Nelson, we had a lovely riverside picnic lunch on a riverbank near the community of Pelorus Bridge. A few days later, while awaiting our ferry to the north island of New Zealand, we spoke with a craft shop volunteer who was from Pelorus Bridge, and it was nice to be able to say to her how much we appreciated the beautiful picnic spot on the river.

Just before arriving at Nelson, we saw a red bucket fly out of an aluminium fish boat being towed by a pick-up. The red bucket landed in the grass handle-up at the roadside and Yolanda considered stopping to check it out for potential content - lobster maybe(?). Instead, she followed the rig to a hill-top house and spoke with a fisherman showing a 20+pound flounder to his dad. "I don't know you and I'm not guilty" said the dad with a mischievous grin. The fisherman commented that it was "not the first time things flew out of the boat" and thanked us for news about the location of his red bucket.

We arrived at the Nelson information centre and booked two excursions (April 04 & April 06-07) and our ferry transport April 05 with car to the north island of New Zealand. The information centre staff and DOC staff on site were enthusiastic and helpful and the brochure racks were resplendent with free maps, guide books and tour options.

The April 04 Abel Tasman excursion was with a hop-on-hop-off (pre-booked times) taxiboat service, 8:30am - 4:30pm from Marahau to Totaranui and back to Bark Bay, a hike through a forest, across a swingbridge, past lagoons to Anchorage, and then return taxiboat to Marahau from Anchorage. The possibilities are endless for hiking and kayaking in and around the Abel Tasman wilderness. Some people kayak, and then get picked up by taxiboat; others taxiboat their camp gear and then hike to their pack drop spot; and so on.

It was a beautiful day, and the taxiboat driver stopped at a number of scenic spots en route to the north end, Totaranui. As it was a King tide, there was a special spot accessible to small craft at high tide, Shag Bay. There we watched eight curios 13-week-old sea lion pups playing in the water. New Zealanders call sea lions "fur seals", and they are now a protected species. We learned that a sea lion differs from a seal as it has an external ear and its flippers can turn so it can walk. Males spend their non-mating time at sea and can reach 150Kg. We also passed areas being re-forested, with introduced species of plants, trees and animals being cut, trapped and poisoned.

At Torrent Bay we walked past a Grandfathered community, which the government could not afford to buy out. The properties are only able to be passed through direct family lines.

At low tide, it is possible to hike from Bark Bay to Anchorage in about 2 3/4 hours, as the final section is an estuary that is exposed sandbars at low tide. The hike is 4 hours at high tide as the trail crosses additional forest trails. Though the estuary was still draining, we took off our shoes and socks and crunched 30 minutes across the seashelled sandbars and along draining rivulets. High tide was about 3 hours away, but the estuary was relatively easy to cross.

The system for the Abel Tasman taxiboats to get in and out of the ocean is neat. To enter the water, tractors tow boat trailers loaded with the taxiboats full of passengers from shore and slide the boats into the sea. On the way in, at low tide, the taxiboats full of passengers ride up onto the submerged trailers and then the tractors trudge across the sandbar, the trailer and its passengers bumping along behind. Fun factor, NZ style!

Bob chose the winding, scenic coastal route from Abel Tasman to the ferry port town of Picton. The next day in the ferry line, we were told by environmental control officer Gil that "many New Zealand roads are just go-cart tracks with good views". The scenic north road into Picton is just that! We arrived late in Picton and so stayed in a motel to enable an easier start to the ferry travel day and to finish drying our tent from the morning dew.

April 05 in the morning time we did laundry while we ate breakfast at an amazing town bakery! We also stopped in a locally made crafts shop and spoke with two volunteer crafters there. They asked where we were from and told us where they were from and we happily were able to tell them we have visited their home communities and especially liked both! We are covering a lot of ground, so are at least passing through most towns and stopping at quite a few spots.

We were in the ferry line-up early, and so had time to check our devices, and disappointingly read an email regarding our April 06-07 Kapiti Island excursion. It is gale-force winds over the next few days so it will likely be cancelled. The skipper is to make the final call at 6:00 in the morning.

The ferry crossing from Picton on the south island and Wellington on the north island with Interislander is about 3 hours and an equivalent cost as a BC ferry crossing. 3 hours in calm seas. The crossing took an extra hour and a half, as the predicted 3meter swells became 5meter swells, so the captain navigated quite a bit south across the swells to a point further south from Wellington, then swung north to head up into the harbour.

We disembarked in Wellington and enjoyed a dinner outing with Pippa & Peter, whom we met while camping west of Arthur's Pass. They were excited to hear about our travels since Slab Hut Creek camp and filled in some stories about their camp travels and life in New Zealand. They had stayed at Marfells Beach camp before heading home to Wellington - it is a favourite camp spot of their's and one of our favourites camps of our south island tour.

On the ferry crossing from south to north, Picton to Wellington, we heard by email that our Kapiti Island excursion was cancelled. It would have been fun and was to have included two day walks and a night Kiwi walk, 8:30am Sat - 5pm Sunday (including ferry, shuttles, 3 walks, 4 meals, accommodation). Oh well, next time, maybe. Now we are going to have a couple more days to explore further north on the north island of New Zealand before we start our trip home April 14, via a two-day stop in Melbourne, AU. Our first stop on the north island is to be Napier, a town destroyed by an earthquake in 1931, so rebuilt in the architectural style of the early part of the decade: Art Deco!