Abel Tasmen

Hey everyone,
I appoligise to those who sent me an email and havent recieved a reply yet. I got in from my hike last night and was pretty tired so I went straight to bed, and now I am trying to sort through everything and trying to write a bit. First in line is updating this, I have alot to talk about as Abel Tasmen definitly lived up to its reputation as being an amazing trip.

After I updated last time, I got to work getting everything ready to go on my trip. It was really fun to plan out everything, I havent had a chance to do that in awhile and I really enjoyed trying to think of all the things I needed to remember. I bought a bunch of food (I am truly my parents son... from good salami to a wheel of bree and some good chocolate, my pack was quite a bit heavier then it needed to be) and made sure I had all my gear togethor. I garbage bagged everything, lined my pack and basicly made sure everything was going to be water proof. After everything was packed I went down to the local DOC office and booked my huts and water taxi, the DOC officer was really helpful and pointed out a few places that I shouldnt miss when I was out there.

With all my things ready to go I headed back to the hostel and met up with a few people I had been hanging out with the night before. There was a group of American girls down here for the year, as well as another American guy who after hearing about what I was doing the next day, decided that they really wanted to come. I said it was no problem thinking that there was no way they would get ready and go for a four day hike with absolutly no notice or preparation. To my suprise they immediately got off the couch and got everything sorted and packed for the next day. I was unsure as to what I wanted because I had planned it as a solo trip, but I decided it would probably be fun to have some company on the trail. With everyone all ready to go I went to bed early and got excited about the trip.

Day One - 7 Km
I woke up in the hostel, got all my stuff into the van and then headed to the kitchen for breakfast. I alot took all my ski gear (which I have yet to send home or decide what to do with...) and put it in the hostels storage room, just in case the van was broken into at the trailhead. After breakfast, Two of the girls and I headed out in the van towards Abel Tasmen. We got their water taxis worked out, parked and started out from the trailhead.
The First section of the trail is a long section of boardwalk over an amazing coastal wetland. There were a tonne of day hikers out and we felt a little weird puffing away with our big packs on while hiking along past families out for the day. After the wetland, the trail snakes its way up through the rainforest and along the coastline. You work your way along, seeing viewpoints of incredible blue water and golden sandy beaches down below. It started to rain lightly and after a little blister work for one of the girls, we got into Anchorage bay which was the first stop for the trip.
Anchorage bay is another of the gorgious bays, Golden beaches with incredible limestone formations in the rocks, surrounded by lush rianforest. The entire park is similar to this, so it is hard to describe everything, I will do my best and attach some pictures at the end so bare with me. We quickly dropped our packs and headed out to another little trail heading up into the forest. We followed it for an hour and came to a little creek and pool called "cleopatra's pool". It was a really cool waterfall and creek, and just as we got there, the sun came out for the first time all day so I decided to go swimming. After we were done at Cleopatras pool, We hiked back to Anchorage, met the others and then continued on to "Te Pokatea Bay". The bay was just over the hill from Anchorage but there was absolutly nobody there so we just lay in the sand, crawled around on the rocks and just enjoyed it for awhile before going back to the hut to make dinner.
The other thing that blew me away about Anchorage, was that it was my first look at the NZ hut system. I had a nice hut pictured like those in Canada but had no idea what to imagine. To my suprise, all the huts down here have flush toilets and RUNNING water in the outhouses. Not only that but all the huts along the Abel Tasmen trek have filtered water supplied, so this was turning out to be not really the most backcountry of trips. The other thing, is Anchorage hut is the first hut on the trip so it is full of people just going out for a single night before returning to Marahau. Unlike the diverse spread of outdoors people regularly found in huts back home, this hut was full of, well... punters. There was even the group of obese middle aged kiwis who got their luggage water taxied everyday to the next hut. These hard core group of locals brought ten full sized coolers, as well as 5 big duffle bags full of stuff. Every morning the water taxi would pick it up and drop it off at their next hut (they took 4 days to cover the same distance it took us to do in 2... and I thought we were wandering through). I cant complain too much as after they found out it was my birthday, they spent the whole night handing me another beer and supplying me with lots of tasty treats from their various cheese plates (sounds like the robsons go to Lake O'hara? minus the overweight kiwis of course).

Day Two - 21 Km
I woke up nice and early, made a great breakfast of porridge and fruit and then packed up all my gear. Spent a little time down on the beach around sunrise and then went to see how my fellow travelers were. They were all still semi asleep, and a long ways away from being ready to go. It was going to be the longest day of the trip adn I wanted to have enough time to see everything so I decided that instead of getting annoying adn trying to get everyone outta bed, I just said "cya tonight" and headed off solo. It turned out to be a wonderful day, hiking alone proved to be an awsome experience giving me time to see absolutly everything and take lots of pictures.
The day started with a long tidal crossing across Torrent bay. There are a few crossings on the trek that you have to do at low tide because you cross large tidal estuaries and cant get across if the tide is in. I had lunch at the next hut on the trek at Bark Bay and then continued on. I came to my second tidal crossing at around 2... the next low tide wasnt until 6 and the crossing wasnt too big, there was also some weather coming in and my sun wasnt going to last forever so I decided to once again go swimming. I took off my boots and put my pack on my shoulder and waded across, it was only about 40 feet across and only about waist deep so i dropped my pack on the other end and went for a quick dip before continuing up the trail. After the crossing I moved up into the rainforest and over a small saddle before winding my way down into Awaroa bay. The weather was looking worse and worse, there was a storm coming in from the northwest and it looked like it was going to hit pretty soon so I hustled down the hill. The rain started once I hit the beach and luckily I got into the hut before it really started to come down. I dropped all my stuff, lit a fire in the stove (this hut was less crowded and alot cooler vibe). I then watched as a bunch of bedragled looking trampers walked down the beach and into the hut. My crew of Americans finally got in with two of them suffering from blisters on their feet. Everyone was soaked so we all stoked the fire and the place heated up nicely. I had dinner with a really interesting guy from South Africa (I have met a bunch of "SAFIS" and it is quickly becoming another destination that I want to go to) and then we all spent the night playing cards and drinking coffee with a good shot of Jimmy Bean. There was another tidal crossing over Awaroa estuary the next morning and with low tide at 8am we went to bed early, listening to the storm drumming on the roof.

Day Three - 13 Km
I again woke up early and had a nice long breakfast, the storm showed no sign of slowing down and it was absolutly pouring outside, with the palms swaying in the wind. I got the Americans up and reminded them about the crossing this morning. I watched from the hut as some other trampers crossed and it turns out that the river that runs into the estuary was flooding from all the rain over night, instead of being really shallow at low tide, it was over waist height for most of the crossing with a decent current. I decided that I better go right away instead of waiting as the tide came back in. Just as I left the warden ran in and warned everyone that if they were gonna cross they had to do it RIGHT NOW. This got everyone into high gear and they all set about packing up as I left the hut. I pushed through the storm over to the edge of the water and then in. I was pretty shocked to learn that unlike all the water I had been swimming in, this was FREEZING and in the driving rain and wind of the storm, it wasnt the most pleasant swim of the trip. It took me around half an hour to make it across the water, it was almost the width of the crossing and the majority of it was just above my waist and with enough current to keep you on your toes the whole way. I finally got across and put on my dry socks and boots. I walked on through the rain, up through the rainforest and back to another beach before getting into Totoranui where I had lunch and waited for the others. Totaranui is the pull out for most trampers and there was a few people out (not many due to the weather) getting picked up by the water taxis in the surf.
After lunch we pushed on back up the trail. When I planned my trip after talking to the DOC officer, I decided to go up to Wharawharangi (pronounced Fair-a-fair-angi)instead of just to Totoranui. The reason behind this was that everyone just does the standard Marahau to Totoranui trip and the area up by WharaWharangi was supposed to be amazing. It turned out to be a great plan with the trail becoming more of a trail then a road and weaving up through some of the more amazing forests that we had seen. The storm finally blew through about an hour after we got to the hut and we had the evening alone (we were the only people at the hut). The hut itself was actually an old farmhouse from when the area was used for farming (I cant imagine trying to clear this area.... it has only been regenerating since 1976 and it is complete jungle... everything grows SO fast here) which was really cool.

Day Four - 7.5 Km
For the last day, we had all day to make 7.5 km so it was nice to able to just relax. I went on alone and checked out Seperation point, it is a seal colony as well as a shag colony (birds) and you can go and climb through the rocks right with the seals. There are hundreds of seals lounging around on the rocks and I found one and started snapping pictures of him, he was really lazy and just watched my for awhile but then decided he'd had enough paparazzi treatment and turned and started barking.... I got a great picture of that and then quickly retreated away leaving him in peace.
After Seperation point I poked around some of the beaches, got eaten alive by the sandflys and the sat down for lunch on my own private beach. I was joined by a Kiwi guy who turned out to work in a few of the environmentalist organizations in ChristChurch, it was interesting to hear about all the different plant forms around Abel Tasmen and we compared pictures before heading seperate ways. I continued along until finally returning to Totaranui where I met up with the Americans and we waited for our Water Taxi. Mine came a little early (for some reason we booked the same time, from the same place and I got a different boat), it was a really cool Maori guy who after asking if anyone on the boat got sea sick (none of the three of us did), smiled and threw down the throttle. I was really suprised how fast the boat could go as we absolutly CAINED it across the water. After picking up one more group at Bark Bay hut we went over and checked some seals out at an island and took some pictures before returning to Marahau. It was really cool to see the whole park from the water, it took us an hour of flying through the surf to get back to the car and it was neat to see all the beaches I had been hiking down over the past couple days. When we arrived back to Marahau, instead of unloading at a dock, they load the boat onto a trailer and pull it back to the parking lot by tractor.... right down the main street of Marahau. It is the first time I have ever ridden in a boat down the street, it was definitly a cool way to get back to the taxi office.

We loaded all our gear in the van and drove back to Nelson. Booked a night at the same hostel and everyone put in some money to make a great dinner. We had huge burgers, a great salad and some homefries, everything tasted amazing and it was a great thing to do after 4 days on the trail.

I am spending some time around Nelson today just updating and doing laundry and tomorow I am going to head south towards Christchurch where I am going to sell the van. I only have 15 days left in New Zealand before heading off to Fiji and it seems like I only just got here. I think I might stop in Kaikoura for the night on the way down as I have heard alot of great things and then hopefully get a hostel downtown ChCh so I can explore the city as well as sell the van.
Hope everyone is doing great, keep sending the awsome emails and Happy Halloween.
cheers,
-Jesse

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