A series of fortunate events – Part 3

Welcome to Part 3 of our fortunate events. If you haven’t read Part 1 or Part 2, you may want to.

After our day cruise of Abel Tasman, and our nature spotting of Sea Lions, we were apprehensive to use our one free day to drive 2 hours north just to see the “best beach in NZ”, but we had nothing better to do other than hike or be beachy (and I have trouble standing still when I’m traveling). So off we went.

Jan 18:

We hit the road, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches in tow (that VIP peanut butter factory experience has paid us back in spades!). We head for Takaka “Hill” (with emphasis on the “Ta”, not the “kaka” – think “TA-ck-ck”). The road through this hill was, in a word, thrilling. It offered the most windy, extreme elevations of any road we’d taken. The view from the top was stunning, the view from the bottom was impressive (we’d survived!). One of the sharper corners was called Eureka Turn, which we felt was appropriately named after having survived it! Needless to say, it was a rollercoaster of a drive over what kiwis (shockingly) call a hill. 

We later arrived in a town called Takaka, what a local referred to as “the end of the road (of humanity)”. I would call it the type of place one moves through.. shoeless, with a backpack, torn clothing, tie dye everything, and in need of a bath #dreadlocks. Miranda has been on a quest to find a new dress and thought, with the plethora of second hand stores, that perhaps “someone else’s dress would fit better”. She disappeared into the many shops. I say disappeared because she was gone for so long that I started to consider what story I’d have to tell her parents when she didn’t turn up.

• “She loves you both, and me, but loves ta-ka-ka more and has decided to stay! All I could find was her shoes. She’s joined a drum circle.”
• “One minute she was in the dressing room, the next these crazy kiwis came out of no where, in an old Volkswagen van and nabbed her!”
• Or something more romantic like “She just fell in love with the shoeless ways of New Zealand and became one with the land, I can only assume she’s wandering the hills in search of inner peace and love.”

After searching every store I’d seen her near and the dressing rooms, I opted to get an iced coffee and wait her out. After another 15 minutes she emerged, dressless. We shared some words of worry and continued on our journey. On the way, we drove through Collingwood, just as enthralling as the Collingwood back home, but with a nicer view.

We then drove up the coast to Golden Bay (Murderers Bay) and stopped at a random beach. The view looked cool and I wanted a break from driving. We wandered along the beach, surrounded by breathtaking rock formations being eroded by the water, we strolled across a newly exposed river bed that was covered with holes. CRABS! There were crabs everywhere, hiding in holes, moving between holes, digging holes. It was so cool. #nature (we also crossed a river and I almost lost a jandal in the mud, but this is largely irrelevant).

Then onto the Farewell Spit visitor centre, pretty much the most northern spot on the South Island. The view from the centre was, unsurprisingly, awesome – endless beach, retracted ocean, beautiful sand. And the guy working the counter offered some advice. Leave now! There was a beach (the beach we’d come for) and the perfect time for a visit was now. When you arrive there are two paths, the 25 min path (which most people take) and the 60 min path (which is only accessible before high tide – now) – “Take the longer one!” He urged.

We arrive, and start down the longer route, alone – well, there were sheep staring down on us from the hilltop on the right. No beach in sight. To the left there are grassy rolling hills, and a steep cliff down. It’s windy, sunny, and isolating. We spot water! It’s a lake, no beach. More walking, more sheep, more lakes, more cliffs, still no beach. Finally, there’s a drastic change in the landscape, the path takes us over a fence and into a sheep farm, sheep are everywhere, staring at us as we apprehensively continue on our path, scattering as we draw near, no beach in sight – at this point, beach or not, the journey was worth the story, we carry on. Another drastic change, the path takes us over another fence and into a dense forest – where the hell are we going? Unmoved, we carry on. Several minutes later, a beach emerged over the foliage. Finally.

We carefully make our way down the rocks, it’s a one-way trip. Our feet hit the sand, finally beach, no one is around. The beach has protruding rocks and boulders on the sand, sheer cliffs eroded by harsh winds and waves, and large rock formations some on shore with large caves, some out in the water with giant holes, again from erosion. We are in awe. The tide is coming in, and if it keeps coming (which it will) we will be trapped on the no-return side of the jagged rocks. We quickly snapped a some photos before frantically moving to cross over the rocky barrier that would strand us. Then this happens.

We cross over the rocks, now on the MUCH wider side of the beach and are informed that on this side of the rocks we have well over an hour before we have to worry, but there’s definitely no going back the way we came. We snap some more breathtaking photos. 

And then we encountered more nature.

So there you have it. Three amazing days, each better than the last. What else can New Zealand do to top that? Not much, but we’ll certainly try.

Oh, and it’s now confirmed, Wharariki Beach is the best beach in NZ. Confirmed.

Side note: I’ve been on the immigration website a couple times. There are a few visa options that we might qualify for. Just sayin’.

So for those keeping track:

• The hotel suggested Bike2Wine
• Brisbanians suggested Abel Tasman Charters (which we booked)
• We got to see Sea Lions and a pup in the wild (OMG)
• Captain on the Charter boat suggested the alleged “best beach”
• En route we stop at a random beach and see a live crab show!
• We also randomly stop in at a visitor centre and get a tip to take the long route to the beach (most people go the short route and the experience is less interesting, and most of the epic rock formations and wild life are hidden)
• We walked amongst sheep!
• We encountered a sea lion up close and personal!
• We saw families of sea lions with pups!
• We consider an extended stay here 🙂

And so one domino led to the next. In the end, getting intimate with strangers over a coffee led to getting intimate with countless sea lions. Thanks for coming along for the ride!

BTW, many days have past since this chain of events, so I’ll be playing catch up. Stay tuned.