Our day began with a nice view from our little “chalet” in the gardens – what a cute little mini-house!
We made our way down to Motueka to catch the water taxi to the Abel Tasman National Park and walking track. Upon signing in, we took our seats on the back of a boat that was being hauled by a tractor. They actually load you on dry land, then back the boat trailer into the water via farm tractor in the tidal flats. Never seen that before…
The boat road out to Anchorage Bay was nice, albeit somewhat short. The waters are such a beautiful blue, and the sands a lovely white. We then had a 13 km or so trek through Bark Bay past Tonga Quarry, where the boat would pick us up in 6 hours’ time. The track was fairly flat, with a few ups and downs, but nothing compared to Tongariro. Very often, we were rewarded with beautiful Tasman Sea views through the ferns and tropical-ish bush. JD’s knee started acting up, which was a shame and we hope it does calm down before the 4-day Milford Track. The boat ride back past the seal colony was a bit of a disappointment, as there were hardly any seals and we lingered for all of 3 minutes. Our take on the situation – the hike was great, the water taxi was a ripoff for the price.
We then had a drive through the Buller River Gorge, which was LOVELY on our way to Westport. Beautiful rivers and bridges and the ocasional (Rein)deer farm, which was an odd sight to see.
We arrived 3 hours later safely at our homestay, where we had our own “Annexe” (wing) of the house to ourselves. It was so clean and neat and WONDERFUL!
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