Abel Tasman National Park

From the Motueka NZMCA Camp, we travelled round the coast to Kaiteriteri, a bay away from the Abel Tasman National Park (ATNP). Here we stayed in the Campsaver Holiday Camp. The NZMCA have arranged with various camps throughout the country to charge $20.00 per night for two people to stay there. A good price especially as we could connect to power.

We booked onto a ferry to take us up the coast to Totaranui. and then back to Medland Bay (by Bark Bay) where we were to go ashore to walk back over the ATNP track to Anchorage Bay. We were to be picked up again and transported back to Kaiteriteri.

So the next day we set off on the 20 minute walk from our caravan to Kaiteriteri beach and the ferry. As we were walking a cute duck and ducklings were scuttling along in front of us when a weka shot out, grabbed one of the ducklings in its beak and made a hurried exit towards the bush with the ducks mother, Judy and myself in hot pursuit. Judy managed to retrieve the little duckling and we returned it to its mother and the poor weka lost its little feed.

Reunited. Doesn’t she look  happy?

Our ferry.

On our way to Totaranui. Adele Island behind us. A bird sanctuary.

Medlands Beach. Just got off.

The ferry trip and the 4 hour walk back to Anchorage went very well. There were about 8 of us that got off the ferry for the walk. After about 10 minutes the others had left us behind and we continued at a leisurely pace. We arrived at the pick up point in plenty of time. DOC do an amazing job keeping the tracks etc well maintained. It was a great day and well worth doing.

This is a black beech tree. They look as if they’ve been burnt but the blackness is a natural occurring fungus that does no harm. I tried without success to get a photo of the small hairs protruding from the fungus with a small drop of liquid on the end. This liquid is called honey dew and is sweet to the taste. It is good to know though, that this liquid is actually the excretion of a scale insect that lives in the bark and those little hairs are the scale insects anus.

These are wasp poison stations. Wasps are a major pest consuming honey dew, and they also kill the scale insects reducing honey dew production by up to 90%. Honey dew is a  major food source for birds and insects. We did not see any wasps in our travels.

The next day was my birthday and we drove over to Marahau, (the next bay over towards the ATNP), and walked up the track for an hour and a half to Apple Tree Bay. Had lunch on the beach and returned. There were 300 runners on the track that day so we made room for them as they shot by. They were running from Araroa Bay to Marahau. What some people do for fun.

That evening we went out to dinner for my birthday at the local vegetarian restaurant. The venue looked over the Kaiteriteri township and the food was fantastic. The lovely lady in charge made us welcome, sat us down with the menu, and asked if we would like something to drink Seeing as it was my birthday I thought I would like a wine to go with the meal. I asked her what she would recommend and she pointed out a nice red. Now I’ve ordered wine before and know that a glass is not quite enough, so asked for the bottle with the intention of taking the remainder of the bottle home with us. She gave me a funny look and returned with the bottle and poured out a glass each for us and disappeared with the screw cap.  As she was passing by later I asked for the cap back and let her know my intentions with the bottle. Well you can imagine my surprise when she informed me that the drinks licence would not allow me to take the bottle away. Big problem, what to do with 1/2 a bottle of very nice wine? Only one solution really, and we.left the restaurant with a nice glow. But next time I’ll stick with the glass.

First time I’ve seen this pic. Are my eyes glazing over?