Once in Nelson for our 9 night stay, we realized it is just too far from the wonders of the far north tip of the South Island to do them justice by day trip. We calculated the cost of petrol for up and back drives in comparison to staying up there. Getting a spot for a night won out so I booked one in Collingwood, which is on Golden Bay between the two main areas we wanted to visit – Cape Farewell and the top portion of Abel Tasman National Park.
Tuesday – Cape Farewell
What a day. The three hour drive to Farewell Spit went quickly, despite the crazy curvy experience that Nelsonites call “going over the hill” (driving over 791m Takaka Hill which separates Tasman Bay from Golden Bay) where we stopped for a short lookout stroll and marveled at the view and intriguing rock formations along the path.
After a stop in the funky little town of Takaka for a coffee, soon we reached the top end of the South Island. You can’t miss this spot of land if you look at a map of NZ – it reaches up like an arm embracing Golden Bay. Most of the 26km spit itself is a wildlife preserve, since its dunes and the 80 square kilometers of mud flats that appear during the 7km tides are perfect for birds who live here permanently and those who travel from around the world to stop here. The Godwit flies nonstop here from Alaska – just imagine.
We hiked across the bottom of the spit to the northern beach and walked a couple km out it before crossing over and returning on the inside. The outside is usually extremely windy, but we were lucky to be there on a calm and perfectly clear day. We reveled in finding our first seal of the trip and enjoyed feeling like we were at lands’ end.
Next up was the chance to see the spit and the adjacent magnificent coast from up above via the Cape Farewell/Pillar Point Lighthouse Track. This has to be one of the best coastal walks we’ve done as every step brought more scenic views and we were almost entirely alone up there. From the Cape view-platform where we started, we were treated to a bird’s eye view of an arch, a dramatic cove and seals swimming in the surf and hanging out on the beach. The track climbs up and down amongst pastureland along the high cliffs and north to the lighthouse, where the views encompass the entire spit with Golden Bay on one side and the blue Tasman Sea on the other. Picnic on the platform when we returned.
The tide had fallen so perfect timing to visit the fabulous Wharariki Beach, with its stunning rocky headlands, dunes, sea arches, haystacks, caves and rock bridges. We wandered all the way down to the south end with our mouths hanging open and met a seal who was guarding his family in a cave. He postured and approached us so we gave them plenty of space. We came across others lazily sleeping the day away on the beach amongst the rocks and then at the north end, just as we are preparing to leave, we found the most amazing show.
A seal family was up in the rocks, with one adult sleeping in the cave and one little contented pup hanging out there. Mom and the other pup were going through the universally difficult process of weaning. She scrambled down the rocks and into the water to bring back fish for him, but he wanted to nurse. He begged and cried and she was firm with him, pushing him away and even tossing him partway down the rocks when he becomes insistent. It was heartbreaking to hear him mewl, but she knows he has to learn to like fish as he will soon need to be out there feeding himself.
Our little peaceful studio for the night was attached to a young family’s home and we chatted with the guy about his desire to make Airbnb and captaining a small fishing charter boat his full time living.
Wednesday – Abel Tasman
We were on the go early this morning in order to make the most of our day and started out with a visit to Te Waikoropupu Springs. This is the largest freshwater springs in the southern hemisphere and the 14,000 liters of water per second surging from underground creates some of the clearest water in the world. There’s just a small car park and a short boardwalk out to see this low key but spectacular natural wonder.
Next stop was the Grove, which is a maze of limestone, ferns and rata vines that you enter from flat farmland and suddenly you are in another world. It was another short and easy stroll in a natural playground.
There was one more driving hill challenge to tackle to reach the day’s destination of Totaranui, which is near the top end of Abel Tasman National Park. The AT track is the most popular great walk in New Zealand, due to its beauty but also due to its accessibility. From the south end, water taxis enable easy day options of a hike with pickup, a one way kayak with pickup or a combo of kayak one way for a couple of hours, be served lunch on the beach and return via foot.
We want to avoid trails packed with people, so chose this less visited upper section. It’s definitely not remote or isolated, but also not crowded and we loved getting to experience these uniquely dark golden sand beaches and well-trod hiking paths linking them.
Starting out from the Totaranui Campground, we walked north for a couple of hours to Separation Point, passing through birdsong filled jungle-like forest, Anapai Bay and double-beach Mutton Bay. Separation Point sometimes has a colony of seals, but today’s colony was a throng of backpackers laying out on the rocks so we skipped the scramble down. I was fooled for a moment by the large birds on the rocks as we peered over the edge, but it turns out that they are decoys set up to try to attract a gannet colony to start here.
When we stopped for a swim at Mutton Bay on our return, we were treated to a private solitary seal show as he arrived while I was swimming and hung out in the rocks in front of our picnic spot, all while the shags put on their own show. Magic.
We finished the day’s fun with a short easy 4km return walk to Wanui Falls, the Tasman area’s only waterfall, where we were late enough in the day to have it almost to ourselves. Then the long drive home to Nelson.
Wrap
Spending time up here was definitely the right decision…an even better decision would have been a week or more. What an amazing part of this amazing country.