The Gold of Golden Bay

Abel Tasman National Park

On Friday, we decided to get out and see a bit of the local area. This did raise a lot of protest from all three of the children, but in the end we were moving and before long had entered Abel Tasman National Park. We used this opportunity to take a half hour trek to a lookout point, through some beautiful native forest. The bird song was phenomenal.

Looking towards Tata Beach from Lookout Rock

Logan and David standing on Lookout Rock

Logan and Eliza sitting atop Lookout Rock

We returned to the coast for lunch, and then began trekking towards Taupo Pa around the sandy and rocky coastline. Eliza decided not to continue, so Jane stayed with her while the boys kept walking to the small peninsula. I was interested to see the change in sand quality between each of the bays. Some of the bays were full of granite and coarse granite sands, and others had finer quartz sands. The walk was a lot of fun, with only a few small injuries, eh Logan?.

Logan at the Coastal walking track sign

Logan and Jonty rock scrambling on the way back from Taupo Pa

Taupo pa on the left and an overview of the walk around the coastline

 Farewell Spit

We always knew that this was going to be the best weather day to go to the northernmost tip of the South Island. The drive was smooth and easy, and the views were incredible - driving the marshland along the narrow causeway. It was stunning looking out into the bay and watching the Black Swans gracefully bobbing on the ocean.
Firstly, we stopped at the Farewell Spit Cafe & Visitor Centre, where we enjoyed a beverage and caramel slice.

The cafe has the most incredible views

Golden Bay was named for a reason

 After our break, we decided to walk out on the spit. We donned our backpacks and water bottles, reapplied our sunscreen and trekked down to the beach. The distances appeared very misleading as we tried to walk to near-looking objectives, and realised that we were in-fact kilometres away.

When we had walked a couple of kilometres, we turned inland - towards the sand dunes - and stood in a barren windswept desert. It was amazing. The walk took us longer than we had expected, and we drained our water bottles; but the home-made pizza and cookies for lunch made up for it.

Looking down into Golden Bay, the water had receded hundreds of metres with the low tide. It was astounding how quickly the bay had turned to sand.

Logan and Eliza on the shoreline of Farewell Spit

The water rapidly recedes

Panorama showing Golden Bay and the sand dunes of Farewell Spit

Panorama of the sand dunes at the base of the spit

Kids on the dunes

A windswept desert!

Back at Pohora Beach
The campsite was filling up, trailers and tent villages pitching up. We hear that they were expecting 900 people by the 26th! Christmas trees, lights and pop-up Santas filled the campground and the tourists were well outnumbered by 'locals'.

The beach is lovely. The full moon has added more magic to the night view, as well as the latest volcanic eruption of Krakatoa leading to magnificent sunsets.

Eliza on the beach

Davie holding the moon

We are on the beach too, happily together

Kayaking

This overcast day was forecast to rain and experience strong winds; however, we had already booked a family kayaking expedition so drove our way to Tata Beach. There were plenty of weather warnings and a lot of excitement, so we took the punt and went for it. Jonty was put in a fibreglass sea kayak with Kat, our instructor, Eliza a kayak with Jane, and Logan and David had a sit-on plastic kayak.

We had great fun paddling around the local islands, checking out seals and other wildlife, and riding the ocean waves. Unfortunately, on our return trip the wind had picked up and the heavier boats were struggling to return to the starting point. After our efforts we were all feeling quite well exercised and Eliza had developed a few blisters, so she wasn't in the best of spirits. Needless to say, the rest of the afternoon was very low key.