For a long time I had wanted to walk the Abel Tasman track, which is one of Doc’s great walks in New Zealand and I finally got motivated enough to plan a trip and get out and do it.
We made out way up towards the track on a Tuesday night and stayed in one of the local camp grounds, the next morning saw us up bright and early cooking some breakfast for the first big day ahead which included some kayaking.
Before we started the big walk we had a nice meal out and a beer to celebrate the start of the trip, as it was November it was warm and daylight savings made for a great evening.
A early start the next morning with coffee to help the day, the day was looking like it was going to be perfect, we locked up the car in the campsites car park and headed off down the road to the starting bridge and made our way towards anchorage.
The first encounter on the track with a Weka involved me seeing if the bird would try eat my lens cover, it had other ideas and ran off with it into the bush a little and luckily it got bored trying to eat it and I got it back.
We arrived in a busy Anchorage with heaps of people even though the photo does not show it, a great spot for lunch. After relaxing in the shade passing the time until we could cross the estuary at low tide allowing us to reach camp for the night.
Torrent bay was the camp for the first night, In planning the trip I decided to try stay away from the busier sites and hoping to get more of that piece and quiet.
After some delicious dehydrated breakfast and a delicious coffee, I would totally recommend back country breakfast. We started off on another great day, the weather had turned it on so far and it looked like it was not going to disappoint.
We Stopped off at one of the main campsites for coffee and lunch and tried to hide from the sun for a little bit.
Looking back at the campsite we stopped for lunch, climbing up a hill in the heat.
We made our second night camp and immediately unpacked our stuff and went to hang out on the beach for a swim and rest. You would have thought that we would have learnt about Wekas but no a Weka had decided that the breakfast we left on the table with the rest of the gear was theirs.
Another relaxing sunset watching the small waves crashing into the shore, what a great way to end a long walk. It sure is nice being away from technology and just take in whats in front of you.
The third day the weather was still good however it started with a bit more wind, and a walk down a beach.
This is the patch of beach that was purchased through crowdfunding, I wanted to set foot on it to get my fifty dollars worth however we never managed to find the track to get to it until we had gone past it.
We had to wait for the tide for a few hours to cross a estuary, so we spread out on the lawn and still hadn’t learnt our lesson with Wekas attempting to eat more of our gear.
After waiting for the time to pass resting out of the sun we were able to start crossing with the rest of the people.
The final beach of the trip looking down into Totaranui.
Another great sunset glow to end the day and the last of the walking, tomorrow we catch the boat back to the start.
What a great trip to have done with one of my friends, this was the final campsite TÅtaranui before taking the boat back and the weather was starting to turn. The boat ride for my friend was not quite as enjoyable as it was a little lumpy.
