5 days of excitement, beautiful weather and awesome scenery. Catherine Moss, Catherine Ansley, Fiona Gregson and myself walked and kayaked the coast of the Abel Tasman national park.

Day 1. All of us Kayaked from Marahau up to Anchorage, while our luggage was transferred by AquaTaxi. Catherine A and Fiona hired a freedom kayak and Catherine M and myself went in my sea kayak.We stopped halfway between Marahau and Anchorage for lunch. We arrived in Anchorage with plenty of time to put up our tent and relax on the beach.

Day 2. My kayak, along with our luggage was transferred by Aqua Taxi up to Bark Bay. The four of us walked from Anchorage to Bark bay, via Cleopatra's pool. I was the only one to brave the freezing waters of the Torrent river to experience Cleopatra's pool and it's natural water shoot. We sat on a wharf in Torrent bay for some lunch and arrived at Bark bay around 5ish.

Day 3. Our luggage was again transferred up through the park to Onetahuti bay. Catherine A and Fiona walked the track from Bark Bay to Onetahuti bay, while Catherine and I kayaked. We paddled out to Tonga island to the seal colony, and met up with the other girls at Onetahuti beach afterwards. We pitched our tent, went for a swim at the Onetahuti pool, and then another swim and snorkel on the bay. I went back to Onetahuti pool for a freshening up and a wash in the freezing cold water.

Day 4.This was to be our last day walking and kayaking through the park. We left Onetahuti and paddled along the beach to meet up with Catherine A and Fiona with a plan to ferry them across the estuary, but when we arrived, there was no need, as the tide was out enough to wade through. Catherine and I then started paddling toward Awaroa bay, but as we were leaving Onetahuti bay, I realised that I had lost my hat. We spent half an hour paddling back to the campsite and searching for it, but... :-( was unable to locate it. We set off again, and decided to paddle around Tonga island for one last look at the seals. During the paddle from Onetahuti up to Awaroa we saw 2 little blue penguins and some seals playing around a rock aptly named "The Cottage Loaf" We spent 15 minutes bobbing around with the seals and watching them play. It was such a calm morning, with blue sky and sunshine, and only the slightest ripple on the sea.

The plan was to meet Catherine A and Fiona at the crossing point in Awaroa harbour because this was another crossing where the tide needed to be out before it was possible to cross. We arrived at the DOC hut at Awaroa, but the girls were nowhere to be seen. We waited a while and eventually the DOC ranger looking after the hut, came and spoke to us and told us that there was another crossing before this one. Doh!!! We paddled to the other crossing and found the girls. By the time we got to the first crossing, the girls were able to wade across. We then paddled back to the main crossing for lunch. The wind had picked up and there was a bit of a swell out in the harbour. I ferried Catherine A and Fiona across the harbour before heading back to pick up Catherine for our last hour paddled up to Totaranui. As we started to head out towards the sea, we could see breaking waves on the sandbank, but decided we would continue on, and if it got to bad we would head back. As we hit the breaking waves, we were both a little worried. I couldn't see any end to the white horses, and it wasn't possible to turn around at this point without the threat of us capsizing. We kept the kayak straight and crashed through and over the waves, eventually clearing the breaking waves and finally out in the open sea. There was still quite a swell, but nothing we couldn't manage. There was no wind, the sun was shining and we only had an hour to paddle. I was planning on coming in as soon as we were level with the beginning of Totaranui bay, but the large swell would have meant we would have a difficult landing on the beach, so I decided to take us up to the shelter of the headland at the top of Totaranui bay. This was a good plan, because when we arrived in the shelter of the headland, the sea was calm and there were only small waves on the beach.

We met up with the others, pitched our tent, had some dinner and crashed out for the night.

Day 5. We had a leisurely morning, the Aqua Taxi turned up about mid morning to collect us, our luggage and my kayak.

It was an awesome, fun, and action packed 5 days, and looking forward to paddling there again.

 

 

More photos from the trip can be found at

http://photos.pominnz.com/gallery/7219272_HW6nf