Thursday 16 March: Weather 10°C to 20°C and beautifully sunny.
Nelson to Whangarini Hut: Bus Nelson to Kaiteriteri, Water Taxi to Anchorage, 11k walk to Whangarini Hut
Accommodation: Whangarini Hut
Queues at Kaiteriteri
Highlight of the day was a water taxi along the Abel Tasman Coast and then meeting up with Donna and Milton at the Whanigarini Hut, the last DOC hut on the Abel Tasman Walk.
The alarm is set for 6am and we’re up and showered and walking down the road to the YHA for a 7am pick up by a bus I’ve booked to take us to Kaiteriteri for the Water Taxi. It’s dark and cold but the bus arrives on time and we are the first ones on. Little did we know that we made another 30 stops picking up people all over town before heading north through apple orchards loaded with red apples just ripe for the icing by the Cook Island Ladies.
The bus driver reassures us we’ll all be in time for the boat which will wait for us, but when we arrive at 9.30am and find our 9am Water taxi long gone, we realise he was referring to the heavily loaded tourist Cataraman waiting for tourists paying 10 times as much as our water taxi. The tourist boat included morning tea and lunch.
Spot for breakfast and cup of tea
Ferries on the beach Kaiteriteri
Split Apple Rock
$114 million boat
Beach walk from Totoranui
Beaches and bays Abel Tasman
High point 100 metres
More beaches and bays
Whangarini Bay
So we have an hour to kill while waiting for the next taxi at 10.30am and there’s a seat on the beach begging for us to sit down and have breakfast with a hot cup of tea from our Jet Boil. Kaiteriteri is a really busy little hamlet with dozens or tourist operators touting their business from mini shacks near the beach. It’s a cool almost cold 10°C but sunny as we watch the dozens of tourist boats coming and going from the sandy beach.
At 10.30am, our Water Taxi drops its gang plank and about 10 people are loaded on. There’s 7 stops along the Abel Tasman coastline: Apple Beach, Anchorage, Medlands, Awaroa etc then Totaranui. We’re given a running commentary - not owed as we’re only paying taxi prices not tourist prices - but the New Zealand deck hand can’t help himself and his dry New Zealand sense of humour is most enjoyable. There’s Adele Island named after the wife of the explorer Maurier - from the air its looks like a dragon. We’re told to sit down in rough weather - mostly to keep the seats dry. There’s the large boulder in the ocean used for shooting practice by the New Zealand Navy - if you look hard enough you’ll see where they missed.
We disembark at 12.20pm and walk for an hour thinking we might catch up with Donna and Milton who are walking this leg today - we didn’t know til we met up with them that night that they had caught the earlier water taxi instead of walking across the Awaroa inlet. No sign of them so at 2pm it’s time for lunch on a secluded beach - but the sandflies were vicious. Heading for a detour before the hut, we walk to Separation Point where there’s a large seal colony and spectacular views across the bay. Another hour and we’re at Whangarini Hut where we find that Donna and Milton had already arrived. Much catching up to do as we had intended to walk the whole 5 days with them but we still had a great day and got to see all of the Abel Tasman Coast line. A quick wash from our water bucket - a $5 (including postage) chines portable kitchen that worked perfectly as a was bowl. Donna and Milton had become friends with Fred and Jenny Gamble so we all had dinner together - fried dehydrated mince, veggies, cheese and wine. Bed at 9.30pm.