Abel Tasman- Day 2

Day 19- February 24th

We packed up early that morning and had granola with powdered coconut milk for breakfast. We passed a nearby campground at Anchorage Cove. This was one of the more popular campgrounds, and we could see lots of people camped there. It has a hut where you can sleep on a mattress inside (so you don’t have to carry a tent) and filtered water. Most people travel from Marahau to Anchorage Cove, then to Bark Bay, then to Onetahuti, then to Totaranui. All of these campgrounds have filtered water and huts. In this way they save the weight of a tent and water. Some people also chose to send there bags on the Water Taxi, so they could hike all day and pick up their bag that night. The water taxis only stop at these campgrounds, so this adds to their popularity.

We had decided not to go this route, since we preferred less crowded campgrounds. We also avoided the noise of a water taxi coming in every hour or two. Tonight was the only night that we would be staying at a popular campground, Bark Bay. We had heard that this was a nice campground and it would save some weight in our packs.

Today, there were two routes we could have taken: the high tide route or the low tide route. The high tide route visited a bunch of cool waterfalls and streams, but took an extra couple of hours. The low tide route was a lot shorter, and we had gotten up early enough to catch the tide so we went this way.

At the other side of the bay was Torrent Bay. This was a community of inholdings: private property that had been there before Abel Tasman became a park. The houses were very fancy and expensive, and it looked like a nice place to live. We had a small snack, and then continued on our hike. On the way we crossed a swinging bridge and stopped at a swimming pool.

Above Photos by Eli White

Above (1) Photo by Russ White

We got to Bark Bay around 12:00 and spent the rest of the day swimming and relaxing. We had fried zucchini and other vegetables with rice, then apple crisp, made from died apples, for desert.

It was so flat that the tide made a extreme difference. This is the same place at high and low tide.