A gorgeous, but knackering day starting through the Abel Tasman National Park Coastal Track
Distance walked 31km
Total Distance 3349km
"You are going to do this. One more hill. That's all it is. Nothing. You used to be able to do this in your sleep. What's wrong with you? You've become soft. You used to be so good at this. Too much time on your fat arse. Get up. Get up and go. Just do it. You'll be at your camp then, you can rest there. Go to sleep there. But now you're going to get over this last hill."
Some days you just need an old school team talk to get you going. Or, in this case, to finish. It was a long day, 31.5km over small, but numerous, hills, through stunning landscapes and seascapes. Mostly I walked in the forest, but the trail followed the coast, such that it was interspersed by the bluest waters under the clearest sky.
The day started with a lift from a German woman who was going to get the taxi to the furthest point along the walk one can, about 2/3 of the way along. She, like many people, was going to start there and walk back to her car.
As I began a young guy was doing roughly the same pace as me so we got to talking. He was from Sheffield! Which, given where we are, means we practically grew up as neighbours. As a builder he couldn't find enough work in the UK, but there was plenty available in New Zealand. A few years ago Christchurch suffered a horrendous earthquake, destroying many homes and city centre. Much of the population left. Since then the rebuild has been steady for various reasons- finance and building earthquake safe buildings being the two biggest. For two years he has been working there with many others. Only a young lad he's far from home but enjoying it. Soon he'll be eligible for residency.
We discussed home, living in NZ, the differences, both good and bad. What we missed from home, Christmas, Abel Tasman, and many other topics. Eventually we reached his campsite and seperated. It wasn't even lunchtime, so he was due for an afternoon of sunbathing and swimming. How boring, I had 7 hours of hiking ahead of me.
One can cut 30 minutes out of the hike by taking a low tide track along the beaches and through an estuary. Otherwise it's the high tide track- but this comes with numerous swing bridges and Cleopatra's Pool!
Cleopatra's Pool is part of a river including small waterfalls, lagoons, and many large boulders. I spotted Cleopatra's Eel- a 6ft long, 6 inch thick eel, calmly swimming under the boulders, which resulted in all the other tourists gathering round to snap pictures.
Having eaten lunch I carried on, up and over more hills, past more beaches, blue sky, blue sea, through the lush forest.
I had one last hill to do when I reached Bark's Bay. The his is a proper place to stop- proper campsite, lodge, filtered water fit for drinking. Hence I stopped for half a dinner, drank water, filled my bottles, then set out again before I fell asleep.
I was getting more into the walk at this point, but the last hill was still tough. Eventually I hit my own bit of paradise though- Tonga Quarry. There's a small island there confusingly called Tonga- obviously no The Tonga, just A Tonga. There was still the foundations of the works there, but also the beach and my little oozed sanded spot to sleep. I chatted with an English couple who had done my stretch for the next day, getting the low down on how nice and relatively flat it was. The tent went up, gear went in, bed made, and I passed out.
Nice day, but should have been two!
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