Mārahau

We loved Mārahau. We lucked out with our booking: a cabin up on the hillside with wonderful views and lovely owners, and the place was so peaceful. We stayed 3 days we liked it so much.

Mārahau translates to the windy garden: Māra - garden and hau - wind, and is pronounced: Maaaa-ra-ho. (We learnt that without the macron the meaning/pronunciation changes: Marahau - scrap wind). Easy to see how the name came about with the large sand flats providing a bountiful source of shellfish, and with the daily sea breezes.

We’d come to walk some of the ‘Coast Track’ in Abel Tasman National Park. To walk the entire track (37miles/60 kms) takes 3-5 days from Mārahau in the south to Wainui in the north. It is the most popular of NZ DoC’s Great Walks, with most of the NP’s 200,000 visitors walking at least part of the track. Like us, many do a single-day walk, as many points are accessible by boat from beaches along the track.

We opted to get a water taxi up to Torrent Bay and to walk the 10 miles/16kms back to Mārahau. The water taxi was fun - you get on the boat on land and a tractor rolls the boat out to sea until it can float and then we were off at speed! First detouring south to see Split Apple Rock, across to Adele Island (a pest-free bird sanctuary) to see the fur seal pups and then north for half hour to Torrent Bay.

We arrived at low tide so got to walk across the tidal flats watching the tiny tiny crabs scoot into their burrows in the sand and the thousands of shells that littered the floor.

The track took us over to Anchorage Bay - a beautiful sweep of golden beach - before turning inland. Along the way the track offered views out to Fisherman Island and there were bays you could dip down to from the bush track - Watering Cove, Akersten Bay, Observation Beach (climbing down we were accompanied by birds loudly singing), Apple Tree Bay (we dipped down to), Coquille Bay, and lastly Tinline Bay before crossing the estuary of the Mārahau River.

Durmont d’Urville, the French explorer, named a lot of the coves in the 1870s. He named Observation Beach as this was where an observatory was set up to view the transit of Venus across the sky. Tinline was named after John Tinline, who acquired a block of land from Marahau to the stream in 1857 and was a much respected local figure who devoted his life to government service, farming and philanthropy. Best of all, Tinlin was commonly known as 'Old Fizzlebilly' because of his long flowing beard.

At the end of the track we saw an amazing cage-like structure - which we later found out is the basket fungus native to New Zealand, Australia, and Chile. In New Zealand, this fungus holds cultural significance for Māori, who have numerous names for it, such as tūtae kēhua (ghost droppings). Some names, like tūtaewhatitiri, relate to its appearance after thunderstorms, linking it to Whatitiri, the god of thunder.

We were also impressed to learn of Mārahau’s zero-carbon pledge that all businesses operating in the area have signed up to. A portion of every paid experience ticket (water taxi, kayaking, guides, camping, etc) goes directly into local projects. Last season, the Pledge raised around $790,000 to invest locally: that’s not pocket change for a small village. Investments have included trapping and pest eradication, track enhancement and signage, wetlands restoration and native plantings establishing kai gardens and a native nursery, funding practical local improvements, and backing a local sculptural project.Leggi altro