Nelson to Punakaiki

July 19, 2009

This morning we headed downstairs for a relaxing breakfast before heading out for our next adventure. Unfortunately, the teenage dance troupe in our backpacker had a different idea of relaxing. They’d been there the night before with teenagers feeling the liberty of horrible chaperones. That means 14 year olds running around yelling and tearing around the place when we were downstairs on our computers. We couldn’t be in our rooms because, as I mentioned yesterday, we couldn’t get online from our rooms. So we had to deal with obnoxious teenagers. Again this morning they were out running around and again they took over the entire hostel. However, this time the chaperones were getting on my nerves because they were so darn loud. Shhhh! Let us have a peaceful morning in well, peace. I couldn’t get out of there soon enough.

We walked outside and noticed that our car was next to the Flea Market so we dutifully stopped and walked around. I think I like the idea of a flea market more than the actual flea market because minutes into exploring it I was essentially done. Thankfully, so was Raven so we hopped into the car and headed on our way. Ever since the last time I was in New Zealand I’ve wanted to go on the Great Walk in the Abel Tasman National Park. I’ve seen pictures of it and it has always looked amazing… golden sand beaches with deep blue sea. Last time I didn’t book a trip there and the way our timing has gone this time, I knew that a 3-4 day trip to Abel Tasman wouldn’t be possible. I saw that the track was close to the road, however, and we decided to venture onto the edge of the track at least. We didn’t have an actual address for Magda the Bitch so I had to navigate us to the park. According to the map, we had a choice of either taking the windy road by the water or the windy road not by the water. We chose water and OMG did that map lie. It wasn’t just windy, it was scary windy. We were not happy and were very glad to get through it unscathed. I didn’t suggest stopping along the road to take pictures because it was that scary. We finally made it to the park and there was hardly anyone there. We made quick sandwiches and ate before venturing onto the trail. I was sooo excited by this as, like I said, I’ve waited a long time to be on this trail.

We walked out onto the bridge and headed towards the trail. As we walked we could see lots of rocks arranged into words along the beach. This is apparently something that lots of kiwis do with rocks on the beach around here and it was fun trying to figure out what they said. Much more longevity with this than with writing in the sand and yet still not permanent. We took pictures of the sand and the water and I was thrilled to see that the pictures do not lie. The Abel Tasman National Park is a combination of deep blue sea and golden sand. It’s stunning. We walked to the boardwalk until we got onto the actual trail. Once again we found ourselves walking in native NZ bush so we saw ferns galore. At one point, a fantail was flitting about and I told it to hold still so we could take pictures and … it did! I have 3-4 pictures of it and was taking pictures of it until it had had enough and flew off. We stopped over and over again taking pictures of the bush and of the views of the water through the trees. We decided that we needed to have a time limit so that we wouldn’t arrive at our backpacker too late at night so we gave ourselves an hour on the trail before having to head back. We got to a beach access point that said Tinline Bay and decided to stop off and take pictures. It was one of the most beautiful places I’ve been to in NZ and that’s saying something. We walked along the beach taking oodles of pictures and had an amazing time. We were 5 minutes ‘behind schedule’ when we had finished our pictures and decided to head back. We were shocked when we saw the boardwalk again as it took us about 30 minutes to get back. So we’d meandered for an hour and took 1/2 as long to get back. Oops. Needless to say, I thoroughly enjoyed walking along the track and didn’t mind that we spent an hour and a half instead of 3 days, although some day I’d like to make it a multiday trip. We stopped at a shop across from the park on the way back because it was finally open (it wasn’t open at noon when we’d arrived). There was a sign saying that the shop, the property and the art were on sale for $295,000 NZ, which is uber cheap by both US and NZ standards. I didn’t buy it though.

We decided to stay the night in Greymouth, which meant quite a bit of driving when we left the park… try 5 hours worth of driving and it was already 3 pm. Mind you, it’s winter here and 3 pm means long shadows as it’s a couple of hours before dark. Such a shock coming here from summer! We decided that driving all the way to Greymouth might not be the best idea so we decided on Westport instead. We stopped along the way in a town called Tapawera because we were really craving coffee. We walked in and the girl in the cafe saw us and greeted us. We walked up to the counter and thought that she’d be serving us quickly. To our surprise, she stayed in back and started doing dishes. We kept thinking she’d come take our order. Nope. It got so ridiculous that Raven and I decided to leave. We got to the door when she came out and asked us what we were doing. Um, leaving? She then took our order and we sat down to wait. There were two men who were sitting outside when we arrived. A few minutes after we sat down she walked out to them and brought out coffees. It was weird. She’d been doing dishes while they had to wait for their coffees. We waited a while and then she brought out our coffees. Not so yummy either. We drank them quickly and headed out, not particularly impressed by the town. We then headed towards Westport, listening to our book on tape and meandering through the passes. I was a little nervous navigating on the road because the map showed lots of twists and turns but we did pass a bus, which made us think that maybe it wasn’t so bad. For once, it wasn’t so bad and we made it to Westport by 6ish.

We followed directions to the backpacker and pulled up in front. We got out of the car and were BLASTED by a horrible burning smell. Raven was worried that it was her car but as we walked away from her car the smell did not lessen. We looked up at the chimney of the backpacker and saw a horrible cloud of smoke coming from it. They were heating their place with coal and it smelled so toxic. We walked in and there weren’t any twin beds available, just a double. We decided to leave because we didn’t want to deal with that, it was crowded and it was hard to breathe. We drove through the town and it ALL smelled of burning coal, which was horrible. I suggested staying at the backpacker in Punakaiki, which is where I’d stayed five years ago when I was here. Raven agreed so we plugged in the address and headed out of Westport. It took about an hour and we saw penguin crossing signs along the way, which we hope to take pictures of tomorrow. We also had to slow down for a bird in the road. Raven was super excited and adamant that we’d just seen a kiwi bird. I, at the same moment, thought we’d seen a weka. I’m pretty sure I was right and the woman at the hostel agreed with me.

We finally arrived in Punakaiki around 7. Punakaiki is a very small little town in NZ and that’s saying something in NZ because there are some very small towns. It really is a row of restaurants along the highway plus this amazing little backpacker a mile or two down the road. It has access to a gorgeous little beach and it’s where I took some of my best pictures the last time I was here. I remembered the owner of the backpacker and I really wanted to come back here. While it was unfortunate about Westport, I was personally very happy to be returning here. There were vacancies and so we are here right now. There are major improvements over how it was five years ago. Most noticeable is that there is now a reception area and staff. Before it was just the owner. The place looks much cleaner and they now sell some food (last time I had to walk to a restaurant nearby along the highway … not one of my smarter moments). We cooked dinner and we’re going to have fresh bread and muffins tomorrow (they did have that last time). I can’t wait to walk back to the beach and I’m hoping for more lovely pictures. The downside to this place is that they’re using coal to heat it, but luckily it’s not AS vile as Westport. Raven and I are still affected by it though and we’re going to risk being cold tonight rather than deal with the coal fumes.

I don’t think that I’ll be posting more pictures on Facebook until after I return to the States. My computer says that disk space is now low and I can’t even upload more pictures. So I’ll just be posting to the blog and I’ll put up pictures later.