Good Friday 30th March 2018 - Abel Tasman National Park.
We were up at about 6.30 a.m. as we had an early start at the offices of Wilson at Kaiteriteri which is about 53 km outside of Nelson. We left without breakfast and drove through a couple of towns before stopping for a coffee at a wayside cafe. We arrived in good time at Kaiteriteri and checked in for our trip called 'A Great Day Out' which it certainly proved to be.
We were soon aboard the catamaran 'Vista' and we called at various bays including Anchorage Bay, Torrent Bay, Medlands Beach before disembarking at Tonga Quarry for the 'Seals and Beach Walk'.
Before arriving at Tonga Quarry beach we went close to the seal colony at Tonga Island and caught a glimpse of some seals on the rocks there.
After disembarking from the catamaran, we started walking the trail southward along the cliffs and through the rain forest. We climbed up to an altitude of abort 400 meters and snaked around the coast until we reached the beach at Bark Bay. The trek took about 1 1/4 hours and was, in places quite strenuous but we were rewarded with stunning views and wonderful plants and trees. We crossed a new suspension bridge over a torrent on the way.
We arrived at Bark Bay Camp where there are toilets, a kitchen and other facilities. We stayed there and ate the lunch we had bought before boarding the boat. It was restful there but there were a few Weka birds around and these birds also had the thieving ways of the Kea. Although they are flightless, MAC spotted one which had jumped on a picnic table which some others had left momentarily, and the bird had made off with a quite large bag of trash which they had left on the table. She chased the bird who dropped the bag. It soon returned and, when our backs were turned, it tried to remove a small bag of candy which we had on our table. Fortunately, we were too quick for it this time.
We did go and put our feet in the water and although there were intrepid folks who went into the quite cold water, we decided not to.
After an hour or so, we continued on the short walk to Medlands Beach where the catamaran would pick us up at 3 p.m.
The return journey was without incident except that the low tide meant we had to disembark, shoe and sock-less!!
We made the drive back to the hotel with a short stop for coffee on the way.
As we had had quite a long day we opted to have dinner at the restaurant at the hotel. This proved to be an interesting experience. Other than the good food, the maitre d' introduced himself as from Los Angeles. He had come here in 1998 with his partner after being the make-up person for both Bette Midler and also Michael Jackson and the Jackson Five. He moved to New Zealand with his partner who has since, sadly died of cancer. He was a most entertaining person and our dinner was considerably enlivened by him. I am sure that he could write a book about his life which would be very interesting but he seems content to live here and entertain the guests at this small but very nice little restaurant.
One more travelers' tip for New Zealand. The electrical plugs have the angled positive and negative terminals \ / but many of them also need a middle 'earth' pin or they will not work. I assume this is a safety feature but it can prove awkward if you only have two pin connectors/adapters.
We were soon aboard the catamaran 'Vista' and we called at various bays including Anchorage Bay, Torrent Bay, Medlands Beach before disembarking at Tonga Quarry for the 'Seals and Beach Walk'.
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| MAC trying to look like a local in her 'Kiwi' hat and 'sunnies' |
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| Seals on Tonga Rocks |
We arrived at Bark Bay Camp where there are toilets, a kitchen and other facilities. We stayed there and ate the lunch we had bought before boarding the boat. It was restful there but there were a few Weka birds around and these birds also had the thieving ways of the Kea. Although they are flightless, MAC spotted one which had jumped on a picnic table which some others had left momentarily, and the bird had made off with a quite large bag of trash which they had left on the table. She chased the bird who dropped the bag. It soon returned and, when our backs were turned, it tried to remove a small bag of candy which we had on our table. Fortunately, we were too quick for it this time.
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| The kleptomaniac Weka bird!! |
After an hour or so, we continued on the short walk to Medlands Beach where the catamaran would pick us up at 3 p.m.
The return journey was without incident except that the low tide meant we had to disembark, shoe and sock-less!!
We made the drive back to the hotel with a short stop for coffee on the way.
As we had had quite a long day we opted to have dinner at the restaurant at the hotel. This proved to be an interesting experience. Other than the good food, the maitre d' introduced himself as from Los Angeles. He had come here in 1998 with his partner after being the make-up person for both Bette Midler and also Michael Jackson and the Jackson Five. He moved to New Zealand with his partner who has since, sadly died of cancer. He was a most entertaining person and our dinner was considerably enlivened by him. I am sure that he could write a book about his life which would be very interesting but he seems content to live here and entertain the guests at this small but very nice little restaurant.
One more travelers' tip for New Zealand. The electrical plugs have the angled positive and negative terminals \ / but many of them also need a middle 'earth' pin or they will not work. I assume this is a safety feature but it can prove awkward if you only have two pin connectors/adapters.
More importantly, are these wacky weka birds EDIBLE? Inquiring and hungry minds need to be told. After eating the last surviving guinea pig in Peru, I am fully expecting to learn you have caused an extinction event for at least one species down there. If they can’t fly, surely Darwin would approve, no?
ReplyDeleteWeak birds are related to the rather wanker birds who have bad habits.
DeleteShould be Weka, not Weaker.
Delete