New Zealand III: Golden Bay, the Abel Tasman National Park and the Pu Pu Springs

Jan 5, 2011

After sleeping in our car in a parking lot and catching a 2:00 a.m ferry at Wellington, Laura and I arrived at the South Island at 5:00 a.m. to a town called Picton. We drove Madame Vitz off the ferry and set off to a place called Golden Bay, located in the northwest corner of the island. If you ever plan to drive around the south island, let me warn you: the drive to and through Golden Bay is a bitch. There is only one road, and it is the most windy, twisty, narrow thing I have ever driven on. My driving consisted of me literally turning the wheel from left to right to left to right in a methodical motion. It required such concentration to stay on the dang left side of the road. After every bend I was praying that there would finally be a straight stretch of road, even if only for a couple of meters. This drive also required crossing a ridiculously high mountain with equally curvy roads, but also had the added fear-factor that if a massive tractor trailer (or idiot driver) were to swerve me off the road it would be a long and awful plummet down the mountain side to our disastrous deaths. But, being the calm individual and skillful driver that I am, I pushed these thoughts from my mind and safely guided Madame Vitz to our first destination in the bay area: The Abel Tasman National Park.

Where the Picton ferry dropped us off

The beach at Nelson

Park at Nelson,a town along the drive to Takaka

Abel Tasman National Park

The Abel Tasman National Park is New Zealand's smallest national park, renowned for its golden beaches, granite cliffs and coastal track (which they claim is world famous).  The park offers many activities to tourists, including biking, kayaking and sailing. Laura and I chose to walk the Abel Tasman Coast Track, which is 54.4 km long and takes 2-3 days to walk. Clearly we didn't have time for that, so instead we just went on a 2 hour walk. This was just as good in our minds. The track took us through a thick forest, one which I can best describe as a mixture of a rainforest, Never Never land (from Peterpan), and Jurassic Park. It was full of babbling brooks and creeks, as well as breath-taking views of the tiny islands and teal blue ocean on our perimeter. We walked as far as Apple Bay Beach. Here we descended from the track to the beach where we rested on a log and ate, fittingly, an apple. Then we turned around and headed back to the starting point.

The start of the Abel Tasman Coast Track

The coast

The track's forest and brooks

Apple Bay Beach

After this morning walk Laura and I headed to Takaka, the main town of Golden Bay. It was a small, one street town lined with many cute shops and cafes. While I was back in Sydney, I met a man from New Zealand who insisted that we go to Takaka. He said we must a) eat at the Wholemeal Cafe, and b) see the Pu Pu Springs. I took his recommendation very seriously, and so our first stop was to the Wholemeal Cafe for lunch. This man knew what he was talking about. We had the best veggie lasagna I have ever eaten. Simply delicious. I would endure that unbearable, windy four-hour drive over mountain tops just to eat another piece of this lasagna. It was that good. Laura can back me up on this one. Once our tummies were fully satisfied, we went off to find the Pu Pu Springs.

The Pu Pu Springs

The Pu Pu Springs, or Te Waikoropupu (its full name- good luck pronouncing that one), are some of the largest fresh water springs in the world that produce the clearest water in the world. "It is one of those rare places on Earth where crystal clear water streams in copious quantities out of the bottom of a natural pool and out of many vents around"(according to Seafriends). I can't explain it better than that. I was enthralled with this place. The Pu Pu Springs were beautifully mesmerizing and tranquilizing. No wonder it's a sacred place for the Maori People. I could have stared at it for hours. In fact, we probably did.

The Pu Pu Spring

The Golden Bay

Once we had our fill of Pu Pu, Laura and I decided to find Golden Bay's bay. The entire time we had been in Golden Bay, we hadn't seen any water. Everywhere we looked we saw farmland, forests and mountains, but no water (excluding the Pu Pu Springs). I knew we were by the coast, and logic told me that they didn't call the place Golden Bay for nothing. So our burning question was a reasonable one: Where was the bay? We made it our mission to find out. We hopped in Madame Vitz and took off in the direction of the coast. Eventually, I saw a sign for a beach and turned down the long, pebbled path until we reached what looked like a parking lot. We hopped out and ran eagerly towards what we hoped would be the bay. Well, we were right; it just wasn't what we had expected. The ocean was at low, low tide so there was a massive stretch of sand between us and the water. And there was absolutely no one there (probably because no one else could find it!). We enjoyed the entire bay to ourselves, walking the distance of the sand until we finally dipped our feet in the cool ocean water. Mission accomplished.

Golden Bay- looking inwards

The bay water! It does exist!