After our long drive up from Franz Josef, we were happy to arrive in the town of
Motueka at the Baker’s Lodge.
Baker’s is the first place that we’ve stayed in a while that is not a YHA hostel.
It’s only an “affiliate” and you can really tell the difference.
It’s a little on the dark, dirty and smelly side at times.
It’s also completely overrun with all the fruit pickers in town for the seasonal harvest (there are really only a couple of other backpackers), so it has a very different vibe.
At least the slightly scary kitchen has given us an excuse to check out the Thai-licious dining options in town.
Up until now, we’ve done most of our own cooking.
On Sunday morning, we made the short drive up to the town of Marahau to hitch a ride on the water taxi into Abel Tasman National Park. We thought that a water taxi ride would start in the water, but no, we boarded on land and had a nice blue tractor drag us down to the water’s edge. We also thought that we’d be getting an express ride up to Bark Bay to start our hike, but we took a quick detour first to see Split Apple Rock. Split Apple Rock got its name because, well, you know. Having just filled up on Pancake Rocks, we thought some better names would be Pacman Rock or Feed Me Seymour Rock. You decide. After a quick look, we headed up north to our drop off point to begin the six hour tramp south down the coastal track.
Just a few K’s into the trip, we took a detour to check one of the many golden sand beaches for which the park is famous. The bright golden sand and the vivid blues and emerald greens of the water made for some nice eye candy. Had it been slightly more that 16 degrees, the water would have been very inviting. Instead of a swim, we opted for some quick photo opps and we headed back to the main track. The trail took us inland at times and up some pretty steep slopes, but the views from the top were always rewarding. After a couple of hours, we were ready for a lunch break at Torrent Bay.
Resuming our hike after lunch, the tide had receded considerably so we decided to take the short cut across a previously inaccessible route. This area has some of the most dramatic changes of tide in the world and after about 4 meters of water had run out to sea, the place had a quite a different look.
We soon arrived at Ankorage where a sign told us that we were still four hours away from our destination. We laughed it off as we’ve seen many similar signs that grossly overestimate how long it takes to get anywhere. This time, the joke was on us though as we had a long afternoon of hiking. By the time we arrived back in Marahau with very sore feet, the full moon was rising and it was getting even colder. We were very happy to see our car again and head back to town for a well earned “Coast Roast” dinner.
After surveying the southern part of the park by land, we thought we would cover the upper half by taking a kayak tour. As you can imagine, like in any tourist destination there are a ton of options. But thanks to some hot tips from friends in Christchurch, we knew we wanted to see one section of the park where the seals have been very friendly lately and booked our tour accordingly. The tour couldn’t have been more perfect for us. We knew that it would be a good day when we saw that our guide, Gareth, had packed a disc!
The day got off to a similar start from Sunday. This time we took the water taxi (appropriately starting from the water this time) up to Onetahuti to start our day of paddling. Gareth led us up north to Shag Harbour which at this time of year is a hot spot for friendly and curious seal pups. We heard that they were especially active the day before so our hopes were high.
After paddling deep into the cove, we saw a flurry of activity as the seals were everywhere. Initially we just hung around and watched them play. They were swarming everywhere and at times we had to be careful with our paddles. Finding some rocks in the lagoon as anchor, we tried to remain as still as possible and take in the action. After a minute or two one brave pup climbed up on the deck of Gareth’s kayak. It didn’t seem to mind all the attention at all. It was willing to stay there all day and scratch away. Eventually, Jen and Chris got a chance to get in on the action as not one, but two seals climbed on deck. We could have stayed there for hours if we didn’t have to eat and catch a ride back home!
When we finally tore ourselves away, we headed south and check out some more of the coastal sights. By the time we stopped for lunch, it was getting very late. Having been on many tours of late, our expectations were very low for the “fully catered” lunch. We were very pleasantly surprised though by some great sandwiches and some ginormous muffins.
Of course, after lunch we couldn’t resist the disc. We managed to teach Gareth (and Doug) how to play Hotbox, which was pretty interesting on our very full stomachs. In turn, Gareth taught us some other neat tricks like jumping over a line while holding onto your toes (harder than you think) and spinning around with an oar. Perhaps one day when we don’t have a million pictures, we’ll post the videos of out pathetic attempts. For now, enjoy the seals!
This "cool bird" takes flight over the tidal flatlands
We barely made it home before moonrise
Doug learns hotbox quickly. Nice cut!
This guy was considering coming on board with us
The pups are wide-eyed at their audience
Sue and Doug get up close
The gang enjoys lunch on the beach
A seal checks out Jen
Previously, in our travels, we’ve heard that Kiwis have named some things in order to actually keep tourists away. For example, we enjoyed a nice lunch at 
Despite the small town, there were plenty of options to explore the caves. We’ve seen our fair share of caves before, so we didn’t just want a typical run through with a brief glimpse at the shining larvae. We decided to add a little adventure with some black water rafting or “rafting” underground through the dark caves. The word “rafting” is used loosely. We were actually just tubing.
After a change into our wetsuits and a quick orientation on the equipment we all got to try our hand at jumping into the water. Later we would be jumping down waterfalls by headlamp, so for safety, you could see why they would throw us off a short pier first. Unfortunately, Jen’s first attempt didn’t go very well and she was a little hesitant the rest of the day.
The past few days have been very rainy. The good news was that all the rain made for excellent conditions in the caves. We could tell as soon as we got underground that the water was really flowing. We had to navigate a few narrow passages, one where the high water level almost reached the ceiling. As the tour group gathered after at the end of a tubing section, our guides instructed us to turn out our headlamps. In the darkness, the blue pinpoints of light from our glowing friends took over the room. 
It took about an hour to make our way through the caves. Jen even got her courage up and tried one of the waterfall jumps without further incident. The highlight was definitely the massive caverns where we could just float past in the blue light of the worms. By the time we reached daylight, we were getting pretty cold and we were ready for our complimentary soup and bagel.
After the tour, we headed back across the street (we said it was a small town) to our hostel to get ready for the afternoon. We didn’t have much planned, but our tour came with free admission to the Waitomo Museum of Caves. We decided to take the 3 minute drive down the street to check it out. As you might imagine, there’s not much to it, but we did enjoy the Kid’s Cave Crawl. Chris made it through without getting stuck. The ride home provided the day’s strangest moment. 
No idea why they had American Gladiator gear, but we couldn't resist!
The view from above.
