Thursday, 30 October 2025
This is our third visit to Nelson, which is on the doorstep of the renowned Abel Tasman National Park and yet, we have never managed to go tramping (NZ word for hiking) in the park. I think when we visited in 2018, we got as far as the Department of Conservation car park at Marahau and set foot on the boardwalk at the start of the Abel Tasman Track, but that’s about it, other than a brief coastal excursion in Robin’s boat, which had to be cut short due to rising winds.
This visit we planned to rectify that and get out into this amazing national park. When we were at the Nelson Classic Car Museum yesterday we picked up a Wilsons Visitor Guide & Map for the Abel Tasman National Park. Wilsons operates out of Kaiteriteri (pronounced Kai – rhyming with eye – terry, terry) and has a number of options for shorter day walks, for those not wanting to walk the whole Abel Tasman Track. You can be dropped off at a number of different points, tramp a section of track, and then be collected from one of the bays/beaches they service.
We liked the sound of the four hour (10.6kms) walk from Medlands to Anchorage. Considered one of the most varied sections of the coastal track, including swing bridges, bush and beach sections, it sounded like it would be a good introduction to the scenery the park has to offer. Now I am pretty sure I said right from the start that we might need to make an early start and aim for the first drop off service out of Kaiteriteri at 9.15am. However, Bernie said, we didn’t need to be so early, if we count it back four hours from the 3.30pm collection time that’s 11.30am which is the time that the 10.30am departure drops you at Medlands. We’ll be fine if we aim to catch the water taxi at 10.30am. Hmmn, absolutely no padding in that itinerary.
We left Nelson just before 9.00am this morning and rolled into Kaiteriteri before 10.00am. Despite a full night’s sleep, I dozed most of the way there! My car induced narcolepsy just gets worse and worse. Grrr! Anyhow, plenty of time to collect our tickets from the Wilsons office, our sack lunch and our Interpretation & Trail Guide.
Our water taxi driver, Murray, arrived shortly before 10.30am, anchored the ‘Vigour’, went up to the office to check the numbers for this outbound trip and returned to the beach to load six passengers. Us and two young couples, very young couples. I’m sure we could have been their grandparents!
The water taxi includes some sightseeing on the outbound journey, so we pulled in to see Split Apple Rock. The main rock type along the coast is granite some 135 million years old. Generally, the rock breaks down to form the golden quartz sand beaches that characterize this coast. The rock however, is a huge sphere of granite that has split along a natural fault line into almost perfect halves, hence Split Apple Rock. Brief stops were also made to visit a spot where two types of cormorants (shags) could be seen, the spotted shags and pied shags, and on the shoreline of Adele Island, New Zealand fur seals.
We pulled in at Anchorage Bay, so that Murray could explain where we would be picked up later this afternoon, then motored across to Torrent Bay to drop the English couple in knee deep water. They had to take their shoes and socks off to make it ashore with dry footwear for their hike! At this point hoping that Murray can get us in closer to shore at Medlands??
Hmmn, with all this sightseeing along the way, we arrived at Medlands about 10.45am, rather than 10.30am, so that’s ten minutes hiking time gone already without setting foot on the beach! On the plus side, Murray was able to back the boat in close enough to the sand that we could disembark with dry feet. At least we didn’t have to spend time getting sand off our feet and putting our hiking boots back on.
As per the instructions, received we walked up to the track and turned left. When we were given our map we were told if we kept the sea on our left we couldn’t go wrong. It was a perfect day for a hiking through native forest with ocean views and we set off at a steady pace, heading for Anchorage via Torrent Bay. Well … well, yes, it was a perfect day BUT, as per usual, the track had been undersold to me and it was much hillier than I expected. I really struggle with hills these days, my hamstrings really don’t like a slope at all, but I just had to suck it up and get myself up those hills.
I kept saying to Bernie to go faster on the flat and downhill sections to make up for my lack of speed on the steep bits, but he’s like, no, a steady pace is the best way to go. We walked steadily (hamstrings complaining on the uphill bits) past Sandy Bay, Falls River (one of the larger rivers in the park crossed via a suspension bridge), Frenchman’s Bay, Boundary Bay and Glasgows Bay.
We reached Torrent Bay, which was to have been a lunch stop. However, it was decided that we did not have time to stop for lunch. Rather than go without lunch, I insisted that I could eat my sandwich as I walked. OK, it was agreed that I could have food if I ate it on the go! The low time option ACROSS Torrent Bay was not an option this afternoon, so we had to take the longer route around the bay.
With the possibility of missing our 3.30pm pick up from Anchorage becoming increasingly likely, the hike leader picked up the pace from steady, to punishing to gruelling. For me anyway. The other member of our hiking party of two is a machine when it comes to hiking (he has completed the 100km Oxfam Trailwalker Challenge three times!) so he just kept on checking our progress on the trail app he had downloaded, checking the time and upping the pace accordingly to make our deadline.
This was no longer a pleasant hike in beautiful surroundings, it had become an endurance event and I was not enjoying myself, but I had no choice but to keep on going. It also meant that we did not have time to take the detour to Cleopatra’s Pool, so that was disappointing. If we had known what we knew now when we had booked the trip, we definitely would have booked on the 9.15am water taxi. You live and learn. If/when we visit again we’ll have a better idea of what to expect.
Finally, with my hips, knees and ankles hurting, we staggered into Anchorage Bay at 3.10pm. This was a full five minutes before the time they ask you to be there ready for the boat and 20 minutes before the scheduled departure time. Thank goodness we didn’t embarrass ourselves running out of the bush onto the corner of the beach at 3.31pm waving frantically as the boat pulled away from the centre of the bay, leaving us behind.
I sank gratefully onto a driftwood log and wolfed down the rest of our lunch. A bag of crisps, an apple and CHOCOLATE. I had earned chocolate! The boat arrived, the big boat that does a longer cruise along the coastline of Abel Tasman NP. This boat had a much longer gangplank, so no danger at all of getting our feet wet as we boarded. As we cruised back to Kaiteriteri, we ate our tangelos and MORE chocolate. My watch was giving me a message that I had achieved a Walking Workout Record with 2,796 kilojoules burned so OBVIOUSLY I needed more chocolate. To say nothing of the ice-creams that we purchased from the Kākā Point Cafe, after we had been dropped off back at Kaiteriteri Beach.
And, of course, I slept all the way home! Back at Robin and Sandra’s I collapsed into one of their recliners with a cup of tea, and did not move again until dinner time. Thank goodness I was having a meal cooked for me and didn’t have to worry about preparing food tonight!
The Trans Tasman Bolivia Ashes tournament is going from bad to worse … for the Aussies at least. We are having the most appalling run of luck at the moment. Pretty soon we will be running out of time to have any chance of making a come back. We lost both games tonight to go to seven games to three down!
Bernie said that he couldn’t remember kicking a black cat but felt that he must have done something drastic like that to account for the run of bad luck that we are having. The cards are just not playing in our favour AT ALL. I suggested that perhaps Robin and Sandra had performed some arcane ritual during the last full moon to put a hex on the cards??
To top it off, Sandra continues to dominate at Jo, while I cannot remember another time where I have played the game so miserably. Thank goodness we are not playing Jo for money as I would be putting in $3.00+ every night, because I am struggling to get my cards on the table, let alone go out and catch the others with their hands full.
Steps: 21,686 (13.83kms)
