Walking the Abel Tasman Coastal Path

So here we are in the South Island. Our ferry docked at 10pm so we drove to the nearest campsite to park up the van. Thank god we arrived in the dark as the next morning in daylight we saw the reality of where we'd arrived! It looked like a dodgy car lot or scrap yard with run down buses and vans around us and a railway overhead that was transporting freight every hour on the hour. To cap it off, we were parked up next to a 90 old man in a tent held together by shoelaces. I think we set the record for shortest stay in a caravan park...ever. By 7am we had showered (carefully!) and bolted out of there! Our destination was Marahau and the start of the 60km-long Abel Tasman Coastal Path that we would be walking for 4 days. The scenery was clearly picturesque but the weather didn't do it justice and we had to drive through rain and cloud with most of it obscured. We also went past the famous Marlborough wineries which were pretty vast - trying to spot the vineyards that we'd drunk wine from so far! We got to Motueka and stopped to pick up some maps, a billy can and some freeze dried meals for our walk! We had to carry everything we needed so spent an hour in the local supermarket discussing sandwich fillings and which cereal bar would provide the most energy!

Our campsite in Marahau was this fab little place called Old MacDonald's Farm (seriously!). It was so pretty - even in the rain - and we parked Womba up under a willow tree. The rain was coming down pretty hard and the weather wasn't looking great for the walk so waterproofs were definitely going in our packs! In town we found this great cafe that did a pretty damn fine cup of hot chocolate. We punished ourselves by looking at the menu and decided what we'd have for our dinner AFTER the walk.

The next morning the rain had died off a bit. We finished packing our rucksacks with changes of clothes and food for 4 days (they felt worryingly heavy and looked pretty full!) and then headed off. The walk starts along the beach before climbing into the hills around curving tracks and through blackened rainforests. Even in the mist it was pretty awesome. the first day's walk was meant to be about 4 hours to Anchorage Hut. We got a good pace going - even up the hills - and made it to Anchorage by 2pm. The packs weren't too bad on day 1 - although heavy - but more worryingly Guy was getting blisters. Rest and plenty of plasters were in order!

The idea with the Abel Tasman Tramp is that it runs through DOC national parks so  you have to 'take out everything you take in' which includes rubbish, plus there is no electricity or hot water. The huts act as refuges and places to sleep along the route but there are no showers or lights so it's pretty basic. The dorms consist of 2 giant bunks that look more like man-sized shelves and sleep 6 top and 6 bottom. It's very cosy! Personal space goes out the window. The location couldn't be better though - we were right on a beach looking out to see and surrounded by rainforest. We dined on a rather meagre boil-in-a-bag freeze dried meal and got ready to settle in. But then tragedy befell us! We had forgotten our toothbrush and toothpaste. You wouldn't believe how serious this felt on a 4 day hike with no shops or access to civilization. We already knew we couldn't wash but not cleaning teeth for that long was unbearable!! Guy wasn't even talking about running (yes, running) back to the start to pick it up! Instead we had to call on the good nature of our fellow 'trampers' who lent us toothpaste and we had to do the old 'toothpaste on the finger' trick, which wasn't ideal but saved us our sanity (and bad breath!).

After an OK night's sleep and got up early to start day 2 - a 20km walk that would take about 8 hours. We had to time it carefully to hit certain low tide crossings. The first tidal crossing would have been too late for us to do so instead we thought we were being clever and took the high tidal alternative track. What we didn't know is that we had by accident taken a much steeper and longer track, and 2 hours later met up with some of our 'late starter' friends who looked a lot less knackered and red than us! At this point our packs were really starting to feel heavy and Guy's blisters were pretty raw. We started regretting bringing that 3rd and 4th pair of socks and our jeans were quite simply a luxury! The climbs were starting to feel vertical and the rain hadn't eased off. A hard going we had of it (with apologies to T.S. Eliot). Thankfully one of the cereal bars in our packs appeared to have the same healing properties as Elvish bread and, like Frodo and Samwise, we pushed on.

The views even in the rain made it worth it and we had cool obstacles like a swing bridge to cross along the way. En route we met up with a couple from Christchurch called Chris and Heather who had been hot on our tail all morning despite leaving 2 hours later than us (!) and overtook us after the swing bridge with some encouraging words but much more of a skip in their step than us! Our main focus for the day was to make the second tidal crossing by 3pm as there was no high tide alternative. With our teeth gritted and a bit more Elvish bread, we made it in time and had a very modest lunch of a tin of tuna in a bread roll and a Mini Baby Bell to celebrate! (Memories of eating a pork pie in the rain on the Pembrokeshire Walk sprang to mind!). The last 2 hours felt comparatively easy now we didn't have the pressure of high tide, and we reached Awaroa Hut at 5pm - 8 hours of tough walking. Phew! The hut though was so much nicer than the previous night's and we curled up in front of a log fire in fresh socks with a tolerable boil in the bag ready meal and half a mini bottle of wine. (Yes, even though our packs were 20kg each we had managed to remember the wine!). We all slept well that night.

The next morning we woke to brilliant blue sky - hurrah! We couldn't physically start the walk until midday due to the high tide crossing, so instead we got the chance to hang out in the hut, read and chat to the other trampers. Chris and Heather were brilliant company and we chatted to them most of the morning - discovering shared loves of allotments, Waitrose (they lived in the UK for 3 years) and Hugh-Fearnley Whittingstall! At lunchtime, the tide was low enough to cross so we ventured out together. It still meant we had to wade through about half a meter of water which was pretty bracing! (Check out pictures on Guy's gallery). Once on the other side, we walked most of the 4 hour tramp together to Whariwharngi Hut and got to know each other pretty well, enough to realise how scarily similar we were as a couple! The final hut was once again different from the previous night. It was an old house with lots of small rooms off a big wooden dining room. We managed to score a room for two so had a bit of privacy. We arrived around 4pm so spent an hour on the beach just chatting and looking at the sky. Then we forced down probably the worst boil in the bag meal I've eaten (and we'd had to eat 3). It tasted like dog food with added wholemeal to make their coat extra glossy! Believe me, having not had the chance to wash my hair for 3 days, I didn't need any help making my 'coat' look any more glossy! Coupled with the worst night's sleep (lots of doors banging and scrabbling sounds in the eaves above my head (didn't investigate), we felt a bit jaded in the morning but the good news was that we only had 2.5 hours of walking left back to Totaranui to catch our water taxi back.

We had another blue-sky day and another great walk with Chris and Heather. By this point heavy packs and blisters were just a minor irritation, as the views and the company were both excellent. We reached the taxi pick up point with an hour to kill so enjoyed taking off our (rather hot and stinky) socks and relax. We were catching different boats back so quickly exchanged contact details, accepting C & H's brilliant offer to stay with them in Christchurch in 2 days time. Our trip back to Marahau was like another mini adventure as the skipper took as back via cool rock formations and pointed out a 'L'il Bluey' (Little Blue Penguin) in the water. He had to pick up some sea kayaks from one of the beaches - as you do - so we all shuffled to the front of the boat while 6 massive canoes were lashed to the back!

Back at Old MacDonald's farm we were reunited with Womba and had THE BEST shower and teeth clean I think we've ever had. it was soooooo nice to be clean again. We got our finest clothes on (i.e. not a fleece) and headed into the little village for the dinner we'd been dreaming of 4 days before. We were pracitically salivating in the restaurant but tried to style it out! I had local green shelled mussels and duck gnocchi and Guy supersized his starter of scallops to a main meal portion, followed by beef (effectively eating 2 main courses!) - all washed down with a bottle of local Pinot Noir. It was delicious. Trouble was our stomachs had got aso used to nuts, fruit and tuna overthe last 4 days that we were totally stuffed and both woke up at 3am with the worst case of indigestion! That'll teach us!

Check out pics at: http://gallery.mac.com/guypattison