After our night in the city of Nelson, we had breakfast at the Motueka Saltwater Pools. Here we had a calm, relaxing view towards Tasman Bay. They're artificial pools offering hardy bathers year-round access to a pool with a view of a nature reserve.
Of course we took a long walk along the Motueka Sandspit Scenic Reserve, watching various bird species such as kingfishers, spoonbills, oystercatchers and other typical species. As you know, birds are very close to our hearts, and this place – this route – was a pure bird paradise.
The next campsite we headed for was right on Pohara Beach, not far from Golden Bay. At The Grove Scenic Reserve we took a short walk through a mystical-looking jungle and along impressive high rock walls.
This path is also laid out as a discovery trail for children, and although it isn't comparable to the usual hikes, the walk is worth it if you're nearby anyway.
Since this walk wasn't quite enough for our step goal, in the late afternoon we also made a trip to Rawhiti Cave. This trip was exactly to our adventurous taste. The way up was steep and somewhat rough, and we had to hike briskly, as it could soon get dark. We had also found different times for this trip on the internet, so we weren't sure how much time to allow. My sporadically aching dancer's hip was always a factor we had to take into account, and photo stops were part of it anyway. During the whole trip we only met one young, athletic hiker, already sweaty from his descent, coming towards us. On the other hand, wekas (New Zealand woodhens) crossed our path, and countless fantails flew closely around us, accompanying us and even letting us give them some water. At a dried-up riverbed we had to cross, Chris poured some drinking water into a rock bowl, and the fantails gratefully accepted the drinking spot. So we could take lots of great photos of the cute birds.
The cave lay high up at the end of the hiking trail. It was freely accessible, which had actually never been the case on our cave visits during our travels so far. Usually you pay an entrance fee to get to such cave entrances. We saw a dense, large array of pointed, narrow stalactites hanging closely side by side from the entrance of the cave. Very exciting to look at.
You can go right up to the cave opening on a wooden platform and see the enormous size of this entrance. According to our research, it's the largest cave entrance in all of New Zealand. So this spontaneous trip was really worth it. After a short rest and a snack came the descent, during which it had already started to drizzle.
Here we got to watch another of New Zealand's flightless birds, completely unimpressed by us, foraging for food in the undergrowth. Back at the riverbed, we had to say goodbye to the fantails, and another long and strenuous evening was over.
Another cool mini trip we made during our time in the Abel Tasman region was to the Te Waikoropupū Springs, a sacred Māori water site with untouched, pure water. A loop path about 1 kilometre long leads along the springs. Visitors are expressly asked not to touch the water out of respect for Māori beliefs.
We had never before seen such wonderfully colourful pools and such clear water in the middle of a forest. It looked like a coral landscape with turquoise to dark blue water.
As so often, the walk leads through a fern forest, and an encounter with one of our beloved stick insects was included.
Afterwards it was time to rest and prepare for the next day. We had decided to explore Abel Tasman by kayak too. For the following day we had secured a two-person kayak in Golden Bay, and after a short briefing very early in the morning on the beach, off we went. The sun wasn't really out yet, so we froze in our water-sports outfits during the rental guy's explanations and got a taste of what the approaching winter in New Zealand might feel like. But once we were paddling and the sun came out, we quickly warmed up, and the time on the New Zealand sea reminded us of the many hours of kayaking in Southeast Asian waters.
Our rental guy had explained exactly how far out it was realistic to paddle in order to be back in time, and where we were most likely to come across stingrays. So we paddled past interesting rocks by the shortest route straight to the stingray-watching spot.
The plan worked, and we could watch huge dark rays as well as small younger ones from the kayak.
Check out our video summary – we've packed some stingray footage into it.
The water was wonderfully clear and calm. We could leave the kayak on a sandbank and now watch the animals from land too. Rays and sea creatures always fascinate us, so we spent some time filming a few of the shy rays with the GoPro, which wasn't easy at all. Chris considered coming back in the afternoon from the coast side to snorkel with the rays here. He had already bought a wetsuit in Australia. Since after more than 10 weeks I still wasn't allowed into the water because of my illness, unfortunately that wasn't an option for me.
In this part of the world, however, the difference between low and high tide was so extreme that when we arrived at the right stretch of coast by car at another time, there was nothing left of the sandbank to be seen, and it simply looked like the open New Zealand sea.
What during the day had invited us as a friendly bay for snorkelling was now just New Zealand coast. Mission aborted. Safety first – and we'll keep the rays from the kayak in good memory.
On our third day in Abel Tasman we drove to Wharariki Beach.
This outing is something I urge anyone in the area to do. We've often mentioned that in New Zealand you don't have to be a particularly good photographer to get great pictures. But here every corner and view is worth a postcard, and I strongly advise you to bring enough batteries for your cameras. Towards the end we actually had to save power because we had taken so many pictures and videos.
We walked across sheep pastures – perfect for Easter – with ultra-cute sheep on them. Then a short stretch through a forest, then over rock slabs to sand dunes, which in turn led us to the imposing beach, where 2 huge cliffs towered up, leaving – compared to them – a narrow gap as a view of the sea behind. So we walked through completely opposite landscapes in one go.
If you know the "Southern Oracle" from Michael Ende's beloved book, you'll know exactly what I was thinking of when I entered this place. Only the blue sphinxes were missing.
Basically, everything at this place had such a "Neverending Story" feeling, and the view we were offered was – at least on this particular day – extremely vast, sandy, untouched and empty.
One of the best-known Windows 10 desktop backgrounds was taken here. Partly because of that, this dreamlike place has received increasing media attention. So from our chosen starting point we now walked through the Windows 10 desktop background we knew and enjoyed the huge rocks and caves.
We kept walking towards Farewell Spit. We came across incredibly cute seal pups, in front of which most of the tourists visiting this place had gathered.
We trudged on through sandy landscapes crossed by steppe grass and played in the powder-fine, white sand dunes before setting off on the climb back up to find our car park again. Of course our partner acrobatics couldn't be missing here.
Sometimes things go wrong ;)
Afterwards we drove a little further in our camper van to get just short of the northernmost point of the South Island, where we had an amazing view over the Tasman Sea. I didn't want to stop looking down from our elevated sheep pasture into the turquoise, extremely clear water, hoping at every moment to see a whale surface in it. Unfortunately, it didn't show up.
Exhausted from all the walking and acrobatics, we moved on and left this unforgettable part of the South Island called Abel Tasman behind us.
We went back to the city of Nelson to get to Picton, where we had to keep our only appointment planned in advance: the ferry to the North Island.
But we'll pack that experience into the next report.
Enjoy looking at the still and moving pictures.