Apr 20th: And I would walk 500 miles…

 Day 17 (Day 13 in New Zealand)

… well not quite 500 miles but it felt like it!

We drove an hour to the west into Abel Tasman National Park and stopped at the tiny town of Mārahau (pop. 270). From there we took a ‘water taxi’ to Anchorage Bay and then walked back. That’s it!

The water taxi was a boat that held about 16 passengers. It starts at the ticket office on a trailer and is pulled by a tractor about ¼ mile along the road and then down on to the wide flat golden sands beach. The tractor then reverses into the water and releases the boat.

The ‘taxi’ journey lasts about 40 minutes including detours to Split Apple Rock, Fisherman’s Island to see a few seals and Adele Island (named after the wife of the explorer who discovered it).

Split Apple Rock

As we pulled into Anchorage Bay the skipper informed us that anyone getting off here needed to remove their shoes & socks so they could wade ashore. It was only calf deep though.

Once we’d washed the sand off our feet and put our shoes & socks back on we had a brief look around the unspoilt beach and then started the walk back to base through the national park 

We estimated it would take 4 hours but it was closer to 5 with all the many stops for photos. We took well over 100 between us. The walk itself was amazing  

It started with a long steep climb though what, to us, looked like rain forest but less humid  At the top the views were quite special. My friend Dennis and his good knee would love it but his bad knee gets the casting vote every time so he’ll have to settle for my words and pictures.

It was 6pm and beginning to get dark when we reached the car. The app on my phone said we had covered 10.2 miles with 20,600 steps and 1,031 feet gained in height. 

The sky threw up some amazing colours which will only partially be appreciated via the photos.

Back in Nelson we had another superb meal in the pub next door, chosen mainly because it was next door and our legs refused to walk any further. After almost 25,000 steps in the day next door was as much as we could manage. Not bad for a couple in their late 60s  

Only one more whole day on the South Island.