Our Great Adventure: Abel Tasman Day 178 15/03/2015

We were up early and the sun was just rising beautifully as we drove the short distance north from Motueka to Marahau where we were starting our kayaking trip. Marahau is the main gateway to the Abel Tasman National Park and seemed to be more of a collection of tourist businesses than an actual town. We checked in and met Ryan, our guide for the day, along with Claude and Danielle who were also on the trip. Originally from near Marseille, they currently live in Tahiti and have been in New Zealand with work and now enjoying a week long holiday on the south island. We were heading up the coast to Onetahuti Beach to pick up our kayaks. We got picked up by the water taxi, literally on dry land. The boat was on a trailer pulled along by a tractor, a totally surreal experience travelling down the mainroad on a boat! Marahu has a huge sand bank at low tide and the tractor took us out to deeper water before letting the boat off the trailer. From here it was about 30 minutes, stopping to let off other passengers, to reach Onetahuti. The coastline is beautiful with green sparkling sea and golden beaches backed by lush forest. The park attracts around 30,000 overnight trampers and kayakers every year, all spending at least one night in the park in addition to all the day trippers. After a short safety briefing from Rhian we loaded up the kayaks and set off, paddling out to Tonga Island which is a marine reserve with seals and numerous sea birds. The weather was glorious with clam seas making the going very easy compared to our trip in Doubtful Sound. From the island we paddled back to the mainland to Tonga Arches were we stopped for refreshments. Diane managed to fall over after getting out of the kayak and got a good soaking although dried very quickly thanks to the lovely weather. Back in the kayaks we continued south and paddled into Mosquito Bay where we stopped for lunch. It's a beautiful bay and only accessible by sea. Whilst we didn't get the bay to ourselves it did feel very remote and very idyllic (and there weren't any mosquito's!). After lunch we continued south to Bark Bay, and stopped at a buoy where there's a pipe pumping freshwater from a river in the park, and then went looking for stingray which are apparently regularly seen here. Ryan did spot one but we didn't, not that Diane was too concerned that we hadn't. The tide was coming in and we headed into Falls River and paddled up to the swing bridge on the Abel Tasman Coast Track. The lagoon was very shallow and we scrapped over the sand bed a few times. Coming back out was fun, paddling hard against the tide but luckily we all made it without too much effort. We continued out to sea and paddled around Pinnacle Island before continuing south and eventually reaching Anchorage Bay where we were being picked up by water taxi. The paddle across to the bay was lovely with flat, calm seas. After sorting our the gear we took the opportunity for a dip in the sea before the boat arrived. The water was crystal clear and wonderfully refreshing. In addition to passengers we took nine kayaks back on the water taxi to Marahau. It's certainly an art getting them all loaded up and tied on. The tide was high enough for the taxi to sail up to the boat ramp and onto the trailer and we set off down the road pulled by a tractor. We'd decided to continue north and stay at Pohara overnight. It took about an hour to get there driving over Takaka Hill. The campsite is next to the beach and we paid a premium for a site that backs on to the beach without realising it was the other side of a row of trees! The weather was still warm and we enjoyed dinner alfresco before finally heading in for bed, very tired after a wonderful day in a very beautiful part of New Zealand.