The North of the South 2021

Today we’ve had the weather we’ve been hoping for for the last week: cloudless and warm, with a light onshore breeze. Bring it on!
We had a huge drive today to Seddon (NOT!) about 17km from Ward Beach. Found a very nice café for morning tea and the best cheese scones in a long while. You can tell we’ve hit wine country: the Awatere Valley is covered in vines as far as the eye can see and we passed many vineyards we’ve never heard of. We took a drive out to Yealands country and wondered how their business is doing since the scandal – they were convicted of adding sugar to millions of litres of wine that was to be exported to Europe.
We backtracked a little to go round to the south of Lake Grassmere (where they produce salt) and back out to the coast and another DOC camp, at Marfells Beach. We are parked about 2 metres from the start of the beach and what a fabulous spot. The sea has calmed off since the storm but is still discoloured.
We packed some sammies (and some of Mum’s fruit cake) into the backpack along with a flask of tea and took off on foot along the beach to the point at the Southern end. What an amazing walk! The shellfish are (or were) obviously abundant here as most of the way we were crunching through piles of shells. There is currently a rahui (or ban) on collecting shellfish (other than crayfish) all the way along the coast back to Kaikoura, so that the populations can re-establish themselves after the earthquake.
From the point we could see all the way south to the lighthouse at East Cape (about 90mins walk each way apparently) but we decided 45 mins each way was enough for us today. And the incoming tide may have cut off our return trip! We sat on a rock at the edge of the water and were munching our lunch when all of a sudden, up popped a fully-grown seal in the water not 5 metres away. He (or she) looked at us for a few seconds, then did a leisurely full barrel-roll and with a flip of the flippers it glided away. How special was that!
We also saw another seal frolicking in the waves on the way home. All along the beach there are clumps of colourful daisies and succulents growing, as well as wild silverbeet… of which we have picked a potful for dinner tonight. We’ve just come inside after our first full outdoor happy hour of the trip – the sun has only just dipped behind a tree and we are feeling very sun-kissed! Czytaj więcej

I was just opening up my laptop to start penning today’s update when the laptop skidded across the table and knocked a whole glass of dark red wine over – it splashed all over both the seat AND back of one of our couches!! Twenty minutes of frantic swabbing and scrubbing later, we are hoping that we have done enough to mitigate a permanent stain. Bugger!
Charlie was up at sparrow-fart this morning to try his luck fishing the incoming tide and - YESSSS!!! At last, his first gurnard. Two lovely fillets.
Totaranui is one of the DOC campgrounds on the Abel Tasman Coastal Walk. Today was another gorgeous warm sunny day and we decided to head out on another section of the track to the next bay along, Goat Bay, which according to the sign was 2km away. Unfortunately we didn’t realise that the track, which usually follows the coastline not far above the beach, was washed out recently by floods. It took us an hour to get there and only the first 10 minutes were flattish. The NEW track now zig-zags up a VERY steep hill and down the other side even MORE steeply! I was certainly not looking forward to the return journey!
But the beauty of Goat Bay was well worth the effort. It simply took our breath away. We were the only people on the beach, and we found a shady rock to sit on and drank in the views (and a cup of coffee) before walking the length of the beach and back. When we arrived on the beach, Charlie realised that the rocks at the northern end were those he had been fishing off (and gathering oysters on) yesterday, so we debated the pros and cons of rock-hopping across and around them to get back, rather than traversing that dreaded hill again. We decided to give it a go, and I crossed my fingers hoping that my knee would last the distance.
Well it did, and although it still took us an hour to get back to the Totaranui beach it was great fun! It gave us a completely different perspective on the beach and we spent quite some time peering into rock pools and marveling at the clarity of the water. We also noted where the next lot of oysters are for when the hunter-gatherer goes back with his toolkit!
Another evening feeling pleasantly tired and sun-kissed after our day’s exertions. Czytaj więcej

Today was a ‘rest’ day, so nothing much to report other than Charlie went above and beyond the call of duty fighting the elements to secure another huge haul of oysters off the rocks for dinner.
A strong south-easterly wind overnight and all day today has whipped up huge waves, transforming the previously tranquil beach into a surfie’s paradise! We were amazed to see the damage it had done to the beach: there had been a gentle slope of sand down to the water when we arrived, but overnight a wall almost 2 metres high had been gouged into the beach! Czytaj więcej