Anatori - The End of the Road ; Part 1

Remember the three long Golden Bay roads I mentioned in a previous post?. Well, we've explored the two up the Cobb & Aorere Valleys and now we’re about to do the final one which also happens to be the longest one at 44kms. It’s also the most westerly road in South Island and probably the least travelled as there is nothing at the end of it other than a small settlement with a handful of houses. And even though we will follow the road down the west coast of the South Island, it’s still part of Golden Bay with no way through to the actual West Coast province.

It’s going to be a 116km round trip from Collingwood for us & mostly on a gravel road plus we’ll add another 20 kms to the total by taking a side road to check out the Kaihoka Lakes.

There are two small lakes in the Kaihoka Scenic Reserve and they are tucked in behind some dramatic coastal hills and bluffs, we can hear the rumble of the surf coming to us over some dunes at the top of the second lake.

A special feature of the lakes are the massed nikau palms which give the 10 minute walk between the lakes a tropical feel. The nikau also confirm we’re on the west coast now, where they are always a prominent feature.

The raft (below) was well made using mussel floats and was tethered just around a corner near the entrance to the walk, maybe the local kids use it or DOC to get to the other side of the lake. We've seen a lot of lost mussel floats on our travels; there’s a mussel farm out in the bay just north of Collingwood and they must break free on a regular basis. For some it’s finders keepers, others call the company who pay $10 for each recovered buoy.

We decide to drive to the end of Kaihoka Lakes Road as it’s skirts around the top western side of one of the largest estuaries in New Zealand, the Westhaven Estuary (Whanganui Inlet). Below is just a tiny section near Pecks Point, we’ll be following the road around the the edge of the estuary on the far side when we get back to the Anatori road.

The gravel road winds in and around the exposed mudflats for 6 of so kilometres, which, as I’ve said before, always feels like double the distance. There’s nothing much more than a farm at the end of the lakes road and they obviously get a few vehicles arriving at their farm gate as they've made a little turning bay with a helpful sign.

We head back to the Anatori road and start the journey south. It’s not long before this sign makes an appearance. Bloody hell, that’s a long way to wind!

Thankfully it’s actually an interesting winding road as it follows the estuary shoreline all the way, cutting across the many estuary ‘fingers’ over embankments and small bridges, where the mudflats reach far up into the hills and where rivers & streams enter. It comes as no surprise to see that the name of this road is Dry Road. Clouds of dust swirl behind us and I know David will be thinking about how much will be finding it’s way into the back.

This is looking across towards the Kaihoka Lakes Road, the farm gate was at about the low point in the hills, centre right.

There are a few isolated houses tucked up in the bush overlooking the estuary along the way and then, once again, we pass through a part of the Kahurangi National Park (kahu= hawk, rangi= God of the sky). At various spots we see three white herons (kotuku) feeding but they’re too far away to get any decent shots. We also pass the end of the Kaituna Track, that’s the track that started beside the Naked Possum Cafe in the Aorere Valley.

Finally I see the ocean's entrance to the estuary and we stop so I can get a shot. The NZ Post rural mail lady in her bright red car comes flying around the corner not long after and pulls to a stop to tell me it looks even better when the tide is in. Unfortunately by the time we return the sun is low and the tide has come and gone.

Up in the bush, high on the ridgeline, on the peninsula at the left side of the entrance is an exclusive luxury lodge, Westhaven Retreat. I only knew about it as the huge roof was catching the sun as we travelled past. I looked it up when we got back; a two night luxurious package in peak season; drive in, helicopter out will only set you back $4,770, and that is a discounted rate!

The estuary covers a total of 2648 hectares; 536 hectares at the southern end are a marine reserve with the remainder a Wildlife Management Reserve with limited access. The estuary is one of the least modified estuaries in New Zealand and a very important food source for wading birds and breeding ground for many fish species.

The old Mangarakau Wharf is within the marine reserve at the top end of the estuary.

We finally break free of the estuary & the winding road but not before meeting a fully laden stock truck & trailer on a tight bend in the bush. Thankfully we don’t have the 5th-wheeler on the back otherwise that would have been fun and games.

We follow alongside the Paturau River heading for the coast and passing the now familiar whitebaiters along the river banks; one in a small motorhome and two on their quad bikes. We cross over the bridge and take the indicated private road to the beach to have some lunch.

As you can see we were enjoying another fabulous sunny & mild day and it did really feel like summer as we sat on our chairs eating lunch, watching the world go by. This is a freedom camping area provided by the landowner but you must follow the rules, especially #3! A straight talking farmer with a sense of humour.

Originally we were going to bring the 5th-wheeler down to here for a few days but as it's turned out we've used Collingwood as our base and explored from there. It would be a great spot in the summer although exposed to the rough west coast weather.

Another two whitebaiters were near the river mouth, a couple, one on either side of the river (hedging their bets) with their friendly pooch patiently waiting.

To be continued....Part 2

Heading for Heaphy

Exploring Golden Bay is made much easier by the fact that there are very few roads with just three longer than about 30kms and they all head inland; two ending in the Kahurangi National Park and the other one on the west coast at Anatori (that’s if you don’t count the 4WD road that can take you further on past Anatori). The rest are reasonably short and usually service the beach settlements and farming communities in the area.

The Heaphy Track, another “NZ Great Walk”, begins right at the end of one of the longer roads, at the head of the Aorere Valley. And while we aren’t going to walk the 78km, 4-5 day walk we wanted to check out the beginning of the track and explore a few areas along the way.

First things first though; it’s lunch at the ‘Naked Possum’, a well known cafe at the end of a side road surrounded by cow paddocks. Lucky the sign points down the road to the café otherwise we might just have thought this was it. There's sure to be a few very naked possums in there though.

Unfortunately there aren’t too many people about at the cafe. Well in fact, there’s only us but we had an enjoyable visit, we both had their signature venison pie which was very tasty indeed. Apparently during the summer (and over the weekends) this is a busy place, the cafe is also located at the start of the Kaituna Track, a 15km tramp up and over the Whakamarama Range ending out near the west coast (we’ll pass the other end later in the week). But for the moment it’s just us & the lunches they supply to the builders of a new dairy shed down the road.

After lunch we’re back on the road and heading towards Bainham and the ‘famous in NZ’ Langfords Store. The store is thought to be the oldest operating shop in New Zealand. But it was not operating when we visited. It’s been closed for winter, reopening this week. The store first opened it’s doors in 1928 and it’s still in the same family with the original owner's great, great grand-daughter running it now. 

With no visitors and the shop shut, it gave me a good opportunity to take photos. But I’d love to see inside so I’m hoping to head back there this week sometime to check it out.

Further down the road a sign post pointed down another side road towards a historic bridge which of course we had to check out. The Salisbury Bridge was a suspension foot bridge that crossed a narrow gorge over the Upper Aorere River. But all that remains of it, is one of the supports (middle right), the 37m long wire bridge, built in 1902, was swept away in a huge 14 metre flood on 28th December 2010, only 6 years after being fully restored and becoming one of Golden Bay’s tourist icons.

It would seem that the 2010 flood (the biggest in 150 years) was horrendous and probably the cause of all the new embankments on rivers and streams, and a couple of new bridges, that we’ve seen in the area and also why there are so many whole trees and huge tree trunks littering the estuaries in all directions. A tour guide we spoke to told us that the Aorere River has an average water flow of 80 cubic metres per second and at the height of the flood it was 8000 cubic metres per second.

What an interesting little gorge; very narrow with deep clear pools of forest green water. I can imagine the water raging through here in a flood, it would be quite terrifying crossing it on the swingbridge (especially if it was during the 2010 flood!). Can you see our shadows on the rocks? A short side walk to the end of the gorge reveals the Salisbury Falls located on a stream that enters the river near the bend. After nearly a month of little more than a few light showers, Golden Bay needs a heavy dose of rain, that would be certain to increase the flow of the falls. The whitebaiters back at camp are also wanting a good dousing to flush out the rivers, they think this will improve their catches. Going by the quantity we’ve seen some come back with we aren’t convinced the lack of rain is the reason others haven't started to fill their freezers yet.

The road to the Heaphy Track has now turned to gravel and narrows down considerably, it seems a long way in too. Travelling a dusty winding gravel road always feels twice as long as it actually is. It must be to do with all the bouncing about in the cab at half (or less) the usual speed & the taste of dust. I know David curses everytime we hit gravel as the wellside fills up with dust leaving a thick coating over everything we store back there and he’ll have to get out with the hose when we get back home. But needs must, and gravel roads are very much a part of our journey. We wouldn’t have explored half the area that we have if we kept off them.

This is Mt Olympus (1519m) and for LOTR fans this was the "Rugged Country south of Rivendell Eregion Hills"

Finally we reach the Heaphy Track carpark and as it’s getting on into the afternoon we decide to walk to the first hut only; Brown River Hut. Once again it’s deserted although there were 3 vehicles in the carpark.

This hut is very clean & tidy compared with most of the others we’ve visited but it still doesn’t make us want to stay over anytime soon. The next hut is 17km further on and the walk to it is the steepest on all the Heaphy, climbing from 500m above sea level, here at Brown River Hut, to 3000m at Perry Saddle. It’s the reason we’ve decided we’ll do a day walk on the Heaphy Track from the other end, when we get to the West Coast early next year.

I walk a little further on up the track to a wooden bridge that crosses the Aorere River, no swing bridges here. I wonder how this one faired in the flood.

Then it’s back down the track to the ute and a quick shot of the sign board at the carpark. What? You weren’t expecting us to put in a long walk late in the day were you? Our shortest walk ever! Just what we needed at the end of another day exploring.