Back from the South Island

I've been neglecting my blogging a lot recently. First, I need to get back into the swing of things in Wellington. Now that classes are over I feel a bit out of it and lost as to what my motivation will be for the last few weeks I have left in this wonderful city. I'm considering getting back into shape (running, trying to prevent at least some of the hurt that my body will feel once I start riding again), I've got some books I want to read and there are still corners of this city I have yet to explore. But it hard without some sort of concrete purpose. It's weird that even though I spend have my time procrastinating and bitching and moaning about how I don't want to do my homework or go to class, classes give me such structure and time consuming things to do and without them, I feel a little lost. I need a job or a project. Haha.
Anyway, a quick update.


(This picture I took from Shannon, it's of - I believe - Tonga Island on our way to our first camp site in Abel Tasman as the sun was just setting)

This past week, from June 6th to June 13th I was in the Abel Tasman and greater Golden Bay area with Chris, Brian, Stephen and Shannon. I took over 500 pictures and there is no more room left on my computer to upload them, so those will have to wait until I get an external hard drive.
The first day we all got up at the crack of dawn to catch a ferry leaving at 8am (we had to be there at 715 am). We were taking the "Bluebridge Ferry" across Cook Strait, through the Marlborough Sounds to Picton. There is another ferry service known as the "Interislander." The Interislander is a much nicer and slightly more expensive boat that caters more to passengers. Our boat, on the other hand, smelled a bit like a zoo in the lower decks and is pretty much a freight boat, transporting cars and trucks rather than people. Overall, I would call it the "ghetto" boat of the two.
We managed to find a nice seating area in an empty closed bar room where really no other people (of the few that were on board) were around. This area had access to both sides of the boat so we could run back and forth to see both views (because there were no passengers allowed in the front of the boat). As the boat set off the sun was just beginning to rise over the mountains surrounding The Hutt and it shone directly onto Wellington lighting it up. It was completely cloudless and clear out except a foggy mist that had settled around the water and mountains creating a very hazy beautiful view as we left the bay.
We were all so excited to be leaving and to be on the boat that we kept running back and forth between the two decks taking pictures. And the most spectacular thing was that just as we came out of the bay and started our way into Cook Strait you could see, clear as day, snow capped mountains off in the distance that belonged to the South Island. I gasped and cried out how amazing it was and it started another frenzy of picture taking. The boat ride was 3 hours and we must have spent 2 of them running around taking pictures.

(Taken by Stephen, us all excited leaving the Wellington Bay area)

As we got closer the mountains loomed larger and we began to see more of the South Island. Large birds were sitting in the water and I realized that they were albatrosses. Once we reached the South Island, we began the slow meandering through the Marlborough Sounds toward Picton. It's amazing that such a large boat can fit and move through the Sounds, which just shows how deep the water must go below. It seemed like these large mountains (no longer snow capped, those were further off) were pressing in on the boat on both sides. I scrambled to take as many pictures of them as possible but I'm afraid that a picture can not do the experience justice. It was windy and cold but we were giddy and excited and around every bend we took there were more things to gasp about.
Once we arrived, to show how ghetto Bluebridge really is...instead of walking off the boat into the boat terminal area, as the Interisland boat does right next to the docking site of the Bluebridge, we had to be shuttled over around a fence line and some unused trains to be dropped off maybe a 2 minute walk from where the boat had originally dropped us off except on the other side of the fence and right in front of where the Interislander passengers get off.
After being so kindly dropped off, and with our bags in tow, we went off to get our prebooked rental car. We were all a little nervous because we went a bit cheap and had opted to go for a smaller car for the 5 of us, yet seeing us all with our packs on we were worried that we wouldn't be able to fit us all into a small car and our stuff.
Our ride turned out to be a white Nissan "Sunny." It was rather small and it was a game of tetris putting our bags in and a moment of holding our breath as we slammed the trunk down, but it fit and we all jammed ourselves into the car (after getting applause from some nearby observers) and drove into the town of Picton (which was maybe 2 minutes away from where we picked the car up.)
We grabbed lunch at a restaurant called "The Dog & Frog", walked around the beach area and then set off towards Nelson, our first destination.
Although the trees and vegitation is all the same on the South Island it seems like everything is just larger and more daunting. The mountains reach higher, the roads are much windier and the towns much smaller and more desolate. Between Picton and Nelson is wine country. Marlborough is known for their good wines. Everywhere we looked were wineries flanked by huge mountains. We did not stop to check it out, but did on our return trip.
In Nelson we stopped at an Isite (tourist info) and booked camp sites in the Abel Tasman for 3 nights and a water taxi to take us to the trail head. We planned to start from the top of the trail and work our way down to the bottom where our car was parked, which is the reverse of what is typically done. People usually start at the bottom and work their way up, catching a water taxi or a bus shuttle back down to their cars. We preferred to get the water taxi over first because we figured that once we were done with the trek we'd be too tired to want to wait around for a bus or a taxi.
After Nelson we drove on to Richmond to get groceries (peanut butter and jelly, bread, trail mix, dried fruit, apples, breakfast bars, and candy - living the cheap life) and then onto Motueka and then Marahau, which was where we were to get picked up by the water taxi and taken to the trail head the following morning.
However, when we arrived in Marahau, we realized that it was a tiny town with most places closed and no where (that we could find) to stay. Of the two places we stopped at there were signs saying they were out visiting Grandma or something but the last places sign said that if we needed a place to stay, we could set up camp and just pay in the morning. Luckily this place also turned out to run the taxi service we were using. So we set up our tents (in the dark) and then had to figure out what we would do for dinner. There was no way we'd find food in Marahau so we drove back to Motueka and ate at a restaurant called "Hot Mamas" for dinner. It was rather good and ti seemed to be the hotspot for that small town.
After dinner we all crawled into our tents (so early, but we really had nothing else to do but sleep).
Saturday Chris and I woke up at 7:30, before everyone else and went and looked at the sun rise. It looked a bit overcast and cloudy and it had rained the night before so we were worried about the weather conditions.
We packed up camp, distributed the load of carrying the tents into all our bags, took our all the clothes we wouldn't be wearing on the hike and put them in the car along with any other unnecessary items like shampoo and books. Then we met at the office to find out about paying for the nights stay and also the water taxi. Somehow no one ever asked us to pay for the night in the campground and instead just instructed us over to where we would get our water taxi. It was pretty great.
The boat we took was sitting hitched up to a tractor and we all piled into the boat and then were driven and place into the water that way. Our driver was a funny older Kiwi who seemed to know a whole lot about the area. In the water it was immediately clear that it was going to be a choppy and bumpy ride. Our drive took us over to see "Split Apple Rock" which is a local hotspot. It's a large, very round, rock that had somehow been perfectly cleaved in half. He then took us on our way. There we several other people with us with different destinations. Our route was right along the coast and we could pretty much see the terrain that we would eventually hike across.
In Anchorage Bay our drive stopped to show us a dolphin he claimed was Abel Tasmans "tame" dolphin George. It was one of the best parts of the day and made us all forget briefly about how rocking and stomach dropping our boat ride was and we saw the dolphin dipping in and out from under the boat and then when our driver started up again the dolphin chased after us leaping out of the water, playing in the wake of the boat. We also were shown a bunch of sea lions that had drapped themselves on rocks around "Tonga" island.
We were dropped off at Totaranui trailhead. Getting off the boat was interesting. We had to take our shoes off (which was dreadful because it was pretty cold outside) and our drive anchors the boat right by the shore. We had to watch as the waves were pulled in and time it just right to jump off the boat with as little amount of water underneath us as possible. All of us faired pretty well although our feet were frozen and stiff.
After we put our shoes back on and got our direction figured out we headed off.
The trail itself was pretty painless, a very easy hike (although a little more difficult because of our heavy packs) along the coast with a lot of nice views of the ocean and various islands around the area.

(Taken by Stephen - some of the hike weaved through the mountains and jungle forests, but parts also went through the beaches and other terrain)

The interesting thing about Abel Tasman and the Golden Bay region is that the tides are HUGE. They pull in and out large amounts of water. So much that certain inlets are sucked almost dry of water. The Abel Tasman coastal track is set up in a way that you need to cross certain inlets when they are sucked dry like that. This means that all travellers must watch the tides or else you could be stuck waiting for low tide or having to trek on the alternate route that usually takes much longer.
We had thought we had figured the tides out pretty well. We planned to arrive to our first crossing, called "Awaroa Inlet" as it was just starting to go out, have some lunch and explore the area for a little and then cross. However, it took much longer for the water to drain out than we expected and we found ourselves waiting still around 1:30. Chris, Stephen and I got impatient and decided to try and snake our way through the pools and streams that still covered the crossing region.

(Taken by Stephen - This was when we first arrived, before the tide went out)

(Taken by Stephen - This was when we headed out attempting to cross, you can't really see it - as we also didn't - the rivers that we had to wade through eventually)

Chris and I faired pretty well because we both had waterproof hiking boots on but were stopped about two thirds fo the way there when we came ot a large stream we could not wade through without taking our boots off. Stephen on the other hand had sneakers on and took a different route than Chris and I. We watched in the distance as Stephen made the decision to take his shoes off and go barefoot. This was something we had been dreading doing because the ground we were walking on was almost entirely comprised of rough sand and dead seashells that crunched loudly under our feet. Also, although we weren't too cold, we knew the water and the ground would be freezing. We watched as Stephen waded through the stream that we would not and go on further to cross another stream that was much deeper (going up passed his knees) and make it to the other side. As we stood watching, Shannon and Brian had begun their walk over to us with a group fo 3 other hikers. The three others reached us first, took one look at the stream, saw Stephen without his shoes on and they immediately took off their shoes and crossed.
Chris and I groaned as we realized that this might be an inevitable thing. Once Shannon and Brian reached us we decided to wait until 3 (when low tide was supposed to be at its lowest). However, it was 2:30 when we decided this and as we sat there another hiker went ahead and took his shoes off and crossed. So we sucked it up and took our own boots off and crossed. It was really painfully cold and the shells, although they didn't break skin or anything, were sharp and painful to step on. At the very last "river" that we had to cross, the deep on, I watched Shannon cross and realized that there was no way I could roll my pants up that high to prevent them from gettting wet and ended up taking my pants off and crossing in my underwear. Hahaha. It came up passed my knees and splashed up cold onto my thighs and I was thankful that I had dry pants to climb into at the end of it. Brian followed my explain and crossed in his boxers whereas Chris braved it and came out dry in the end with his pants rolled up high.
When we reached Stephen (after having put our boots on) we set off once more with the hopes that walking would warm our frozen and battered feet.
Our campsite for the night was called "Tonga Quarry" and was unfortunately situated maybe 20 minutes AFTER another campsite called "Onetanuti Bay." When we reached Onetanuti we were all really exhausted and ready to set up camp before it got dark (it was about 5) but we realized that it wasn't our campsite and that instead we had a bit more to carry on. This did nothing for our moods or the morale of the group.
Once we arrived at Tonga we quickly set up camp before it got too dark and then ate in the dark, changed into PJS (long johns, pants, wool socks, long sleeve shirts, sweaters, jackets, and hats) and went to bed with the sound of crashing waves really close by.

THAT WAS A LOT. Haha. I know that I have a tendency to write in detail about my trips, but wow, that was a lot of writing. So I'll stop here for now and write more tomorrow, break up the travels a little so that my blog entries aren't a million years long and impossible to read.