Abel Tasman Park

Saturday, Feb. 19:
 

Lots of interesting rock formations

Had a horrible night's sleep at Bella Vista last night after partyers a couple units over were talking loudly and drinking until 2am.  Which meant we decided to checkout and find somewhere else to stay.  Took the Discovery Day tour from Abel Tasman Sea Shuttle, for $72 each.  Ended up booking it at the Eden's Edge Backpackers lodge in Motueka on the way to Kaiteritiri beach.  Unfortunately Eden's Edge was booked for accommodation for that night, but she was more than willing to book the shuttle for us, as she gets 10% - very nice, talkative lady actually.  Turns out you can just book the various boat tours at the beach, but it was pretty busy when we got there.

Golden sand beaches, but cold water!

We enjoyed the cruise for the first hour or so, as the various bays along the coast are very pretty, with golden beaches, greeny blue water and rugged rainforest down to the shoreline.  The boat was pretty full.  The Sea Shuttle basically stopped in six bays to drop people off until we reached the top bay, Totaranui Bay. Then on the way back, we stopped again in a couple bays before dropping us off in Bark Bay at about 1:30pm.  There is a 6 km coast track hike south towards Torrent Bay, where we were scheduled for shuttle pick up at 4:45pm.  You could add on another 30 minute walk to the adjacent Anchorage Bay, if it was low tide, or another 90 minutes if high tide.  

Track between Bark Bay & Torrent Bay

The hike was enjoyable, again through lush forest including black beech trees (although it appeared to be quite dry while we were there) with peeks here and there at the luscious blue ocean.  Everything is so green here, not much color variation or flowers.  Also got to cross the Falls River swingbridge, not for the height-sensitive types (Mom you'd hate this!).  We arrived at Torrent Bay just after 3 pm, and decided we'd hitch a ride on the earlier boat back to Kaiteriteri at 3:45pm.  Alot of people got wet boarding the boat as some swells came into the bay just as we were wading in th water onto the gangway.  Headed back to Nelson to find accommodation, and stayed at the much quieter Amber Court Motor Lodge in Tahunanui near the Bella Vista.  The owner was a wise guy though, teasing us about our wimpiness on the roads here, telling me to go the local hardware store, buy some concrete to toughen up!!  The cheekiness!!

Tahunanui Beach at dusk, Nelson

Just wanted to add that the main beach in Nelson, Tahunanui Beach, is absolutely beautiful, and under-rated compared to the pebbly but golden Kaiteritiri beach by Abel Tasman park. It was right near our hotel in Tahunanui so we visited it in the evenings both nights.  The beach is almost flat, so at low tide, the sand seems to go on for miles, and the sand is soooo soft, with no rocks and a few shells.  This is a great swimming beach - unfortunately we ran out of time for that.

B-bye Wellington, Hello South Island!

Friday, Feb. 18th

Forgot to mention we visited the Te Papa museum in Wellington yesterday.  Good museum, but absolutely huge!  We didn't see all of it, but gave it a good 3 hours. Highlights were an "earthquake house" that simulated what an earthquake would feel like indoors - very freaky; and dioramas of animals that have lived or still live on New Zealand including the flightless kiwi bird, which is only found in a few spots in NZ now. Today we left Wellington for Picton via the infamous Cook Strait ferry crossing. Alot of folks who have visited New Zealand warned us that this crossing can be really fun - if fun for you means a really rough boat ride that lasts over 3 hours!!  Thankfully, Mother Nature smiled down on us on Friday and we had sunny skies and calm breezes, so no seasickness problems!  As we waited in the passenger vehicle line up to load the 10:30am ferry, we chatted up a local couple who were heading to Abel Tasman park for the weekend.  Gave us some ideas on other places to visit and hike on the South Island, including Arrowtown near Queenstown. We've come to realize that alot of people down here have never heard of Calgary before, so it's kind of fun filling them in - this middle aged couple had never visited Canada before. 

Drive from Picton (ferry arrival town) to our destination, Nelson, was, ah, interesting.  Okay, it was crazy busy and a white knuckler for a good half of it.  Glad to arrive safe and sound in Nelson. 

Wellington, Hutt City and the search for Rivendell

Wed & Thurs, February 16-17th:
Wednesday was pretty much a travel day as we made our way south from Tongariro down to Wellington, on the southern tip of the North Island.  We chose a route that kept us on the main highways as much as possible to speed up the driving.  However, we ran into lots of traffic and more road construction.  And the first third of the drive was one of the worst roads I've ever driven - more on that on a future post about our ratings of the roads here! Interesting note: We've noticed the road crews are often made up of older men, not just the young punks we use in Canada - wonder why?  We left Tongariro before 9 am and didn't arrive in Wellington until around 3pm.  Long driving day that's for sure.  Even better was that there was no accommodation left in Wellington that night, so we had to stay in Lower Hutt (or Hutt City), a bedroom community outside of Wellington, AND, we booked our hotel through an I-Site visitor centre (there's one in every town/city), and discovered they charge a booking fee to the hotel (and then to the customer) of 10-20%.  So we payed $130NZD for a dumpy hotel in Hutt City, that is $110 if you book directly. Oh well, at least we know that now.  The lady there did call around to a lot of hotels to find us something so I guess she earned it, and she booked our next night's motel in Wellington. Walked along the river through Lower Hutt in the evening, and lots of people were out jogging (everybody runs here) or walking their dogs off leash.

Thursday was a better day.  This was our search for Lord of the Rings (LOTR) sites and in the afternoon, a visit to the Te Papa museum in Wellington.  Wellington and surrounding areas were used extensively in the filming of LOTR movies, and they're at it again with The Hobbit now starting up. Everyone's just waiting for the director, Peter Jackson, to get over his ulcer.

Here's our independent tour of some LOTR sites:

Helm's Deep - Gravel Quarry outside Lower Hutt

- Helm's Deep (now a dry gravel quarry with limited access). Doesn't look like much now.

River Anduin location

- The Great River Anduin (part of a Hutt City park that runs along the Hutt River). The river is very low right now, so it's a little hard to imagine this scene.

- Isengaard (another Hutt City park).  This one stumped us - seriously looks like a lovely open space for a picnic, and there's a big playground with a zip line. Ummm, think they used a few computer graphics to make this look like a fortress for Saromen.

Rivendell in Kaitohe Park

- Rivendell - Forest of the Elves. Definitely the best LOTR site of the bunch.  This forest actually looked like it could be used in the movies, and is signmarked with info on the filming location.  Only a 10 minute walk from the carpark at Kaitoke Regional Park, you're in the middle of a forest that was used for Rivendell.  Even better, there was a film crew set up in a nearby parking lot, and we saw some actors dressed as medieval warriors.  We also saw a production crew setting up tents and props along the river. When we asked a crew member what film they were working on, he joked and said it was a little movie called The Hobbit, then he said it was actually a small scale movie about zombies or something.  Hmmmm, I wonder.