Abel Tasman Coastal Track

What an amazing day! We decided a cooked breakfast would set us up for the day so it wasn’t the earliest of starts, but we set off from camp with our walking poles swinging. Slathered with sunblock and insect repellent (we are still expecting to hit swarms of sandflies – though we haven’t yet!) we hit the start of the track around 10.30. The weather had finally come right – it was cloudless, sunny and very warm, and the resulting contrasting colours of the sea, sky, beach and bush were a joy to behold.
The track initially crosses a very large estuary (the tide was out) with multiple boardwalks raised above the swampy bits, before heading into the bush and winding along the coast. There was quite a bit of up and down, but every corner seemed to be another ‘oh wow’ moment.
Charlie was keen to try some fishing, so as well as his rod, he was carrying quite a bit of fishing gear in his pack along with our lunch! He had been sold some newfangled synthetic soft-bait that look like little crayfish or prawns when dangling off a hook, with lots of little arms and legs, and was interested to try them out. He had heard that Tinline Bay was a possible spot, but the tide there was still too far out when we got there, so we carried on. We got to where the track to Coquille Bay headed down the hillside to a beautiful little beach, but it looked a bit steep and treacherous (especially for someone with a dicky knee) so we carried on for another 15-20 minutes hoping to find an alternative route down. There wasn’t one, so we backtracked and decided to give it a go, slowly and very carefully!
What a magic spot. There was only one other couple on the beach when we got there, and we took up a position by the rocks at the far end of the beach and spent a lovely 1.5 hours there. Sadly, apart from one small bait stealer, he didn’t land any fish. But the new soft-bait seemed to be a hit with these tiddlers – they nibbled all the little arms and legs off, so all that was left were the little chubby bodies!
Our walk home was a bit quicker as we didn’t loiter at all the lookout points, but it was a fairly solid hour and a half’s walk. We reckon we did close to 8km today, and some of it was pretty rugged, so needless to say we were pretty hot and tired by the time we got back to camp. I know I’m going to sleep well tonight!Baca selengkapnya