So here I am back in Brisbane international airport, safe and sound – well sort of. I am meant to be flying to Indonesia for work but the plane got sent back after electrical problems – sigh! Oh well, at least it gives me time to catch up on blogging in the Qantas lounge during the almost 8-hour delay!
It’s hard to believe it was less than 2 weeks ago that I headed off early Monday am…
But how lovely the Abel Tasman track is. Beaches, headlands, and estuaries are the terrain we cover. And because the weather is so gorgeous and dry, we swim 3 to 4 times a day in the warmish calm ocean . We skinny dip wherever we can find a secluded part or we think others won’t be too offended. I don’t carry any swimming cossies – it’s just extra weight!
Mostly on the track we bump into Germans, generally in a hurry to get somewhere quickly, or loud happy Americans. There are few Kiwis or Aussies.
One day, we bump into a party of Japanese covered from head to toe in the latest gear. And as you do when you hike and stop and then start again, we keep running into them until we cross the estuary at low tide late in the day at Awaroa Bay. They remain in the hut and I think that’s the last we’ll see them.
But wait, very early the next morning at Onetahuti Bay when asleep in my bed I wake up to see the Japanese group building a fire and having breakfast just a few metres from my open tent. “Good morning,” they shout cheerfully… as I just roll over an groan.
But too soon it is the last day of the Abel Tasman and its glorious beaches and time to hike almost 6kms out of our campsite near Whariwharangi (pronounced Farifarangi) Hut and get picked up to start our next hike up the Heaphy trail.
We make it to the crest of the last big hill and sit to catch our breathe and take photos… 3/4 of the way down the other side I realise I have left my camera behind but there is no time to go back as we are being picked up in 20 mins. I meet this older (well they seemed older) European couple and ask them to collect it and drop it in at a DOC office for me. I’m not confident I will ever see it again or my photos.
David arrives to take us to the Heaphy track and we’re packing our gear into his van when this woman yells out my name. And it’s that older woman who has walked up, retrieved my camera, and ran back down in time to catch me – just!
The absolute kindness of strangers overwhelms me again.
Abel Tasman track
Glorious weather and sea
Home sweet home for 8 nights in my one WOman tent
Me on the trail
Helen takes a break wt Awaroa waiting for the low tide
Helen crosses the estuary at Awaroa
Final campsite and hill
(1090)