30 January 2011
25 Km (on Foot)
I am looking at my watch, noting the position of the hands for at least the sixth time in the past 27 minutes. They are not moving round the face fast enough. I need them to read 5:30 pm and it’s now only 3:08 pm. Why do they need to read 5:30 pm? Because this is the time at which the Department of Conservation has estimated we should reach the end of the trail. The end of the Abel Tasman Track in Marahau, 21 kilometers from where we started our walk this morning at Bark Bay. As much as I’m enjoying the scenery, these dogs is tired and there’s Gina way ahead, practically skipping, her fastest part of any trail being the section where she’s headed back to the barn. Curse those long legs, I need to be done now.
We left the junkyard campground this morning to catch a water taxi out to the start of the trail, or actually, the start as we had selected, for the trail is twice as long as what we elected to hike today. These water taxis are delivered to the sea via Ford tractors. Pretty cool, we thought, the tractor drivers doubling as the boat skippers. Our skipper was a Kiwi card, informing us that should there be an emergency, we should be aware of the fact that the standard of the captain going down with the ship is a Northern Hemisphere thing and down here, he will be the first off.
The beaches along the Abel Tasman track are golden, sandy and downright lovely, fading into the aquamarine nearshore waters. None of this could quite be captured in photos, so you’ll just have to take our word for it. There’s a bit of sea life too, with fur seal pups hanging around the offshore waters, looking good for the tourists.
Compared to the other Great Walks we’ve done here, the Abel Tasman trail was a bit easier, mostly because (a) we didn’t walk the whole darn thing and (b) the surface was smoothe and wide, allowing for one to more confidently weave to and fro as their legs and feet started to give out without worrying so much about falling off a cliff and needing that $2500 medical evacuation helicopter. Goodness knows that would REALLY blow our already blown budget.
