Giveaways
ONE of the classic New Zealand holidays simply involves heading along the coast north-west of Nelson, or Whakatū. You journey south-west to begin with, through Stoke and Richmond, which are now suburbs of Nelson/Whakatū, through Hope and Brightwater, as far as the historic town of Wakefield, which has the South Island’s oldest church, St Johns, dating back to the 1840s.
From Wakefield you double back and head on up the coast north westward through Mapua and Motueka on the main road, and then on minor coast roads to Kaiteriteri and Marahau and the beginning of Abel Tasman National Park. This is a really beautiful stretch of rocky coast, sheltered beaches and tidal sandflats, with famous sights to see and things to do such as the Split Apple Rock, the Abel Tasman monument and the Abel Tasman Coastal Track.
Even though you are still in the South Island, this area is so warm and sheltered that it seems quite subtropical.
The coastal roads peter out at Marahau. After that you have to leg it on the tracks of Abel Tasman National Park or take to a coastal canoe. It is indeed perhaps best appreciated by canoe, and that’s what a lot of people do.
Abel Tasman National Park lies in the middle of this stretch of coast, and deserves special mention itself. It is named after the Dutch explorer Abel Tasman, whose ships the Heemskerck and the Zeehaen were the first known vessels from the Northern Hemisphere to encounter New Zealand, in 1642. Just outside and to the west of the park, on a hill between Pohara Beach and Ligar Bay, there is the spectacular Abel Tasman National Monument, erected in 1942 to commemorate the 300th anniversary of Tasman's visit. Here’s a picture of the monument. It looks simple but it is stunningly effective, like the black slab in 2001: A Space Odyssey, except that it’s a white slab that catches the sun and can be seen from a great distance. It was re-dedicated by Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands in 1992 and is one of thirteen New Zealand National Monuments.
While I was in Abel Tasman National Park, I checked out the Tōtaranui campsite to see how the local wildlife was coming back. Years ago, there was nothing but the introduced Australian brushtail possum to be seen. Now the possums are in retreat and the flightless weka (mostly brown) and semi-flightless pūkeko (mostly blue) are numerous once again, running around in mixed flocks on the ground. Dogs are strictly banned, as they would make short work of such ground-dwelling birds, the cheeky and fearless weka in particular.
The Tōtaranui campsite is on the beach and you can watch the sun come up over the water
Within the Abel Tasman National Park, the Great Walk called the Abel Tasman Coast Track takes around three to five days to hike but can be shortened by taking a kayak or water taxi between beaches. I have done this track twice in the summer and would love to do it at a cooler time of the year.
Note the seals in the bottom photo of the collage that follows!
Like most Great Walks, the Abel Tasman Coast Track can be hiked from either end, either starting from Marahau, which is just under seventy kilometres from Nelson, or Wainui Bay, which is just over twenty kilometres from Tākaka. The gentle coastal walk is largely flat and has many campsites, making it a family-friendly trek that can be walked by trampers of all levels, unlike some of the more mountainous Great Walks. Because of this, it is a particularly popular walk, especially over the summer months.
I tramped on to Tōtaranui, which is fifteen and a half kilometres from Wainui Bay, and decided to sleep out on the beach.
After another three hours I got to Whariwharangi Bay where I saw the old Whariwharangi Hut. This hut was built around 1896 and used to be a homestead. What a beautiful place!
Golden Bay and Nelson form a Riviera coast which faces toward the sun and is protected from the cold south winds by the mountainous spine of the South Island. It is sheltered from westerlies, too. So, the region is warmer and sunnier than many places in the North Island.
After Whariwharangi, I continued by kayak, which gave me a 3-D perspective of the coast. The kayaks on the beach at Marahau reminded me of a scene in the British film Chariots of Fire.
Sea kayaking the route instead of tramping is really a wonderful opportunity, as the Abel Tasman National Park looks even more beautiful from the water.
On the inland side, Abel Tasman National Park also surrounds a limestone plateau covered in strange rock outcrops, called Canaan Downs Scenic Reserve, where the Luminate countercultural festival is held each year in late summer: the subject of one of my earliest blog posts in 2017. The scenic reserve is at the end of a road called the Canaan Road.
There are lots of caves around the Canaan Downs area, including such epic ones such as Harwood’s Hole, into which experienced cavers descend 183 metres, or 600 feet, on a line.
Harwoods Hole is at the end of a 45-minute walk called Harwoods Hole Track, through spectacular limestone country, from the carpark at the end of the Canaan Road. As you can imagine the brochures about the hole, and the track, are hedged about with warnings. There is a spectacular view over the surrounding countryside from the Gorge Creek Lookout, accessible from the track (with caution); the cave itself cannot be looked into at all unless you are actually on a line.
The Canaan Road comes off the main road over the Tākaka Hill: a great mass of dark-coloured limestone outcrops with incredible views to the south, the east, and into the Tākaka Valley, which is where you are now headed. Ironically, in view of its present-day elevation, the dark colour suggests that the limestone is of very deep ocean origins, several kilometres down; white limestone forms in waters above that depth.
The main town here is Tākaka, probably the most isolated spot in New Zealand that still has a supermarket. One of the attractions in Tākaka, or a few hundred metres outside town to be specific, is the Labyrinth Rocks Park, in which you walk on three kilometres of trails between rock walls.
Since the 1970s, the area past the Tākaka Hill has also become well known as a bit of a hippie haven. Which is probably why Luminate is held nearby, in an otherwise out-of-the-way place.
Further up the coast is Collingwood, named after one of Nelson’s fellow-admirals, Cuthbert Collingwood.
At an amazing old colonial-era cemetery near Collingwood, my editor Chris took a photo of the grave of a noted Māori rangatira or chief of the region in colonial times, Tamati Pirimona Marino, whose gravestone says that it preserves his memory, that he lies beneath, and that he died at Nelson (I MATE KI WAKATU) on the 30th of December 1877. Behind it, to the right, you can see the gravestone of a settler named Florence Ellis.
North from Collingwood you get to the town of Puponga and to Farewell Spit or Tohuroa, an ecologically important, rare, sandspit made of pure quartz sand from the Southern Alps, transported north. From Collingwood, you can take bus trips along Farewell Spit/Tohuroa. Across the base of the spit from Puponga, near Cape Farewell, is Wharariki Beach with the Archway Islands.
When you travel inland from Collingwood, up the light green valley that points southwest in the photo above, the Aorere Valley, you get to the start of the Heaphy Track. That’s the subject of another post!
As for the sea, this area, between Abel Tasman National Park and Farewell Spit/Tohuroa, is known as Golden Bay, or Mohua in Māori. It is even more sheltered than Tasman Bay/Te Tai o Aorere to its east, where Nelson/Whakatū and Motueka are located.
Tasman and his party anchored for several days in Golden Bay/Mohua in 1642. Tasman named the bay Murderers’ Bay, after a misunderstanding that soon developed between the locals and his party, who had after all shown up uninvited. But these days, naturally enough, Golden Bay is preferred.
Driving northward past the foot of Farewell Spit/Tuhuroa along by-now dusty roads youcome to a car park outside a place called the Archway Café: and that’s the end of that particular road.
From the Archway Café, on foot, you walk to the amazing Wharariki Beach and Archway Islands on the north coast.
You can also trek to Cape Farewell, the northernmost tip of the South Island, which at 40.5 degrees south is north of Wellington, Levin and Masterton in the North Island. Cape Farewell. has a sea-arch at the end and thus looks like a bit like an elephant with a trunk.
To go along Farewell Spit/Tuhuroa you can either embark on a long hot walk, which is only allowed for the first four kilometres of its 26 km permanently dry length in any case. Or you can catch the eco-tourism bus from Collingwood that I mentioned above.
You can also drive to the Whanganui Inlet at the northernmost extremity of the West Coast, but the road eventually terminates some way past there as well. The only possibility for driving further along the West Coast is to go all the way back to Wakefield and continue along State Highway 6 inland. In between, of course, lies the wild Kahurangi National Parkand its tracks, of which the best-known is the Heaphy Track.
On the way back, through Tākaka, you have to take a detour to see Te Waikoropūpū Springs,the largest cold-water springs in the Southern Hemisphere, which also contain some of the clearest natural water anywhere. You can see all the way down into their rather considerable depths, and go bushwalking in the vicinity as well.
The great pool of the springs is one of the clearest lakes in the world, constantly refreshed by an upwelling of absolutely pure groundwater, which varies, but is typically enough to fill more than forty bathtubs a second.
Te Waikoropūpū ('the bubbling waters') Springs were sacred to the Māori in more traditional times. They also have a high degree of ecological uniqueness, containing stygofauna or cave-creatures that normally live underground in the Arthur Marble Aquifer. There are concerns about dairy farming pollution, potentially compounded by upstream taking of water for irrigation, that might make the springs go murky or harm the stygofauna if conflicting water and land uses are not managed properly. I hope they get a plan together to prevent the spoiling of the springs!
And that's all for now!
If you liked the post above, check out my new book about the South Island! It's available for purchase from this website.
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