April 3, 2003
I had to get up early because we had to walk to town and catch a bus to start the Abel Tasman coastline walk. When we were dropped off I looked at my tickets for the transport back and realized that there was a mistake. So we didn't start hiking til an hour after we arrived at the starting point. The hike was suppose to be only four hours. The trail goes along the coastline. It is very scenic and beautiful. We see the blue-green water and the beaches. We weren't hiking on the beach, but we had the views. The trail was very good. The weather was also good. We stopped at some beach and had lunch. It was nice and peaceful. I was going to stay to enjoy it longer but moved on hoping that where we're staying was going to be as nice. And it was. It was on Torrent Bay. The beach was good size here. A lot of people will kayak to here and then get a water taxi back. The tide was low so I walked along it. Down at the end there were some neat rock formations formed by the water. I sat for a while on the beach reading.
The hut we are staying in is not as nice as the others but they have flush toilets and a kitchen to eat in but no stoves to use.
I met a couple that were from Boston. I found out that they did the AT the year before I did. It was nice to talk to some home locals.
We have been spoiled staying in hostels where we have lights and TV. It was dark at 7:00 and there is not much to do but write or read People are already in bed. I am in bed, but I'll read for awhile before I go to sleep. Today we hiked 7.2 miles.
April 4, 2003
I put in a full day of work today, about 8 hours of hiking. It's been a while since I did a full day of it and my body feels it. We started hiking about 9:00. One thing that we have to worry about walking on the coast are tides. The first place we came to we had to take the high tides which added an hour more of hiking. We got to Bark Bay about 1:00. There is a nice beach there so we stopped and ate, read, and enjoyed the scenery. Unfortunately we had to move on. There was on tidal crossing that we had to wait till low tide because there wasn't a high tide route. The low tide was 5:20 pm and we could start crossing 2 hours before and 2 hours after. The beach there was called Onetahuti and again beautiful views. Stopped for a short break than moved to our final destination, Auroura Hut. The last stretch seemed to take forever. We were walking along the beach, it was low tide--couldn't even see the sea. It looked funny because there were boats out in the middle of the sand just waiting for the tide to come in. We hiked 14.2 miles.
I feel sticky and grimmy. I am looking forward to the shower when I get in to town.
This hut's location is not as nice as last night because the tide is so far out. Well, I am tired so I will sign-off.
April 5, 2003
I knew our luck wouldn't last forever on having good weather for hiking--by the time we were done we were soaking. Having smelly clothes is one thing, but wet smelly clothes is worse.
I got up at 6:00. We needed to get on the trail before the tide came in. I packed up my stuff and checked my food. I could hear mice rumbling around last nigh. Just wanted to make sure they didn't get my food. Everything looked in tack. Started off wearing sandals. Eventhough the tide was out we had some spots were the water was up to my calf. The sky was all kinds of blue and some pink. The sun came up bright and yellow. Unfortunately, it went behind the clouds and within 2 hours the rain came. At first it was a light rain, but came to be pretty steady. Laurie read that this was the prettiest area. From what I could see it looked like it might have been. We were on and off the beach. When we were off the beach we were on the cliffs and able to see the beach through the trees.
We got to the Wainui Car Park about 12:00 We hiked 10.2 miles. We had to wait for 1 hour and 45 minutes. We were so wet. We only had a small pavillon to stand under. I needed to get something on that was dry. So I went to the bathroom to change. There was enough room to sit under the overhang there so Laurie and I hung out there. Laurie got her stove out and we heated up water to have tea and hot chocolate. It certainly helped to make me feel warmer and dryer. I had enough food for lunch--peanut butter and jelly and a ___. That will have to hold me over til I get to Nelson at 5:15. I was worried that my reservation might have gotten lost. The worry was unfounded and the bus arrived right on time. The bus was dry and comfortable.
We picked some people up in Moteuka. We saw the couple from Boston that we met hiking on the Abel Tasman. As travelers it quite frequently happens that you run into some of the same people. The first day on the Abel Tasman we ran into Pat, he is the one that took the bone carving class. The next day we ran into a couple of people that stayed in the same hostel as us.
We got to the center of Nelson about 5:30. I ran over to the store because they had something on sale, but it was closed. So then Laurie and I quickly stopped at the internet place. Couldn't stay long because we had to check into the hostel, get food, do our laundry, shower, and pack all the other stuff we had stored that we had been traveling with in the car. Tomorrow we have to catch a bus at 8:00 and then a ferry. We are going over to the North Island.
Laurie and I picked up dinner--fried chicken and fries. I don't usually eat this stuff, but I'll tell you, it was delicious. I am sure I ate enough for two people.
April 6, 2003
We were up early today because we had to walk to the bus station and be there for 7:45. We were quite loaded down. I had my backpack full, a day pack that was filled with books that I wore in the front and snapped in the back which was quite tricky to do with my backpack and then I had my fanny pack on and I was carrying a small cooler. I looked like a pregnant backpacker going on a picnic.
