A Golden Day in Golden Bay

Real-time

I still have another 2-3 blogs from our time at Pakawau to do but I thought I'd post this one now to let you know it'll be my last blog for a week or so- we're moving tomorrow to an area that has limited internet so it'll be a good opportunity for me to take a wee break.....providing the weather stays warm and sunny like it has done for the last two days.

We've been parked at the NZMCA Park at Port Tarakohe in Pohara, near Takaka, for the last two days. There was a POP here the last time we passed through, although we actually stayed at the Top10 Holiday Park back along the road. The park is overlooked by old Port Golden Bay cement silos from the long abandoned cement works. 

It's a great site overlooking the harbour and Golden Bay beyond. The only problem is it's very boggy underfoot because of all the rain we've had lately. There's a patch of gravel in the centre and that's where most of the arriving vans have been parking up. Not us! We don't mind a bit of mud (and a bit of space).

I said the only problem was the boggy ground but actually that isn't quite right. There's a short-term problem on the wharf opposite; trucks are arriving on a regular basis loaded to the gunwales with huge rocks which are then dumped in a pile on the wharf- they must be for a seawall somewhere. There's a massive crash and a huge thump as they up-end the trailers which gives you a hell of a fright when you're not expecting it. And then the bulldozer moves in; scraping, pushing and tumbling them into a row. 

The best bit is that they start at 6am and don't finish until 6pm! Though I can report that after a few hours of rumbles you suddenly don't hear them anymore....until they startle you awake again the next morning. It actually doesn't worry us too much, we've got used to so many different sounds while we've been on the road, nothing fazes us now. But I bet those on limited holiday time have silently cursed them.

ETA- a local FB friend has told me that the rocks are actually being barged across the Strait to Wellington and are for use on the new Transmission Gully motorway; a 2+ year project so the noise is going to around for awhile yet!

I walked to end of the breakwater last night to catch the sunset but it had been such a brilliant blue sky day that there was nothing to write home about. I'm not complaining though, it was so nice to see the sun, and to have a bit of heat in the day. And such a peaceful way to end the day.

I checked out the Little Blue Penguin nesting boxes hidden in amongst the rocks along the way; I wasn't wanting to disturb them by scrambling about the boulders. I didn't need to. I could smell the ones that were occupied. Poo what a pong!

Since I was already awake, courtesy of the rock dumping this morning, I walked back to the end of the breakwater again to see if the sunrise was any better and to watch the fishing boats leave for the day. This one's from the mussel farm just out in the bay.

Sunrise was nothing spectacular either but it was going to be another stunning day. I waited awhile watching the sky lighten as the sun rose, hidden behind the rocky outcrop at the back of the harbour. 

And then this afternoon I took a little tiki-tour up the road, I've taken photos along this stretch of coastline during our last visit but I'm always keen to revisit places and see them in different lights and seasons. This is Tata Beach- the last time I visited here it was well before dawn, I'd come to see the Spitting Shags.

Tata Beach from the top of the road with the Port Tarakohe breakwaters in the background.

And just over the hill from Tata is beautiful Wainui Bay and the gateway to the Abel Tasman National Park.  Can you see the two people exploring the sandflats. 

I headed back to camp stopping to take a photo of the 'hole in the rock' near the the harbour. And look who's taking centre stage, our happy little home 'Out There'. As a matter of interest, tomorrow, October 4th, marks our 4th year on the road, we've certainly found ourselves parked in some very interesting places. Here's the blog from that day- Shell Shocked.

And that's it for a few days, here's hoping for some good weather! See you soon.

“It’s Just A Hill, Get Over It!"

So says the Golden Bay slogan selling itself to visitors and referring to the huge Takaka Hill with the very winding road on both sides of the summit, and the only road in and out of Golden Bay. It is well worth the effort to visit Golden Bay and spend some time exploring. We’re thoroughly enjoying it so far and have had, once again, some brilliant weather while other parts of the country suffer from rain, flooding and high winds. I can't remember when we last heard rain on our roof.

Before we move further west around the large crescent of Golden Bay to Collingwood here are some random shots from around Takaka & Pohara.

We have come across a lot of abandoned Freemason Lodges on our travels, some in some very remote areas, it was obviously a very popular order in it’s day. I’m not sure if the Takaka Lodge is still used by Masons but I did see a group of ladies wearing exercise gear exiting it. I love the walkway, it’s was a built up bridge crossing the paddock. The cow and tanks look out of place to a visitor but this is at the end of the main street & seemed quite appropriate in dairy mad Takaka.

Built over 100 years ago the Telegraph Hotel has loads of character that speak of grander times but it still stands marking the entrance to Takaka township.

We took a short side trip to East Takaka where I knew there was an historic church I could add to my fast growing folders of church photos. I just have to find time to process them! An added bonus was the historic East Takaka Hall which was formerly the East Takaka School c1904. That would explain why the darn tennis court was right in front of the hall, like about a metre from the wall. There was no way to get a decent photo without the netting taking over.

The East Takaka Church c1868 was built for the Church of England but was always made available to other protestant religions too.

 

Just around the corner from our campground is the Pohara band rotunda, in a rather odd spot on the side of the road. I can understand it being on the beach and that the road etc would have probably been added around it since it was built but the beach isn’t that nice. A great big tidal flat at low tide with no sand or dunes, I wonder if the harbour breakwater as altered the beach over time, similar to Westshore in Napier. Still a nice spot to stop and rest as you walk by.

Further on past the harbour on the top of a rocky outcrop is the Abel Tasman Memorial. Abel Janszoon Tasman discovered New Zealand in 1642, he sailed his ship around Farewell Spit and into Golden Bay where he anchored. It all makes sense now, I became aware of Project Janszoon while staying at Kaiteriteri and wondered how it got it’s unusual name. Project Janszoon is a privately funded trust that works with DOC in protecting Abel Tasman Park’s native birdlife.



The view from the memorial looking back towards the marina & harbout.

I wonder how long this rustic home has stood here on a narrow finger of land in Ligar Bay where the tide laps at the bottom step on both sides of the property. Floundering would only be a matter of stepping outside the kitchen with a spear in your hand.

One last walk we wanted to do before we left Pohara was the track to Wainui Falls in the Abel Tasman National Park. We had intended to do the walk on our way home from Totaranui the other day but we got waylaid with the "motorhome off the road" crisis. A dairy farm surrounds the carpark and the first part of the track passes by the paddocks alongside the Wainui River.

It’s not long before the track disappears into beautiful native bush with tree ferns and nikau towering over us and we catch glimpses of beautiful emerald green pools as we pass gaps in the bush.

At one of the slip sites where we have to clamber over fallen rocks I hear a soft bleating and looking up high on the rock face I spot a family of wild goats; Dad, Mum & baby. The kid is just too cute, he keeps bleating and trying to get to Mum but everytime he jumps up on the rock Dad butts him down. They are so sure footed, its very steep and they jump about no problems at all. They have moved on when we come back along the track but I can still hear the baby bleating in the bush high above the track. They are very lucky nobody with a gun has spotted them yet.

A walk with two rewards! A swingbridge & a waterfall, our kind of walk. Flash floods must come roaring down this valley, all the way along the river are great piles of wood and debris including these two huge logs balanced atop a rock in the riverbed just below the swingbridge.

After clambering over a couple more large slips that had dumped whole trees into the riverbed and sidling along a narrow section of the path we could finally hear the roar of the waterfall, then around one last corner & there it was thundering into a deep pool sending spray all over us.

I can’t imagine how mighty the falls might be in full flood but I do know you wouldn’t be able to get anywhere near them without getting wiped off the rocks.

Lands End, Banks Peninsula

I bet you didn’t know New Zealand had a Lands End, well not quite, but it does have a Lands End Road. It’s an isolated gravel road (another one) that runs along a ridge out to the point on the south side of the entrance to Akaroa Harbour. To reach it, one must first wind one’s way around the bays on the south side of the harbour, passing through settlements with the familiar names of French Farm Bay & Wainui.

It is usually just past Wainui that most people would turn around and retrace their steps back to tarseal & civilization. A U turn is normally performed just below the sign that reads ‘Road suitable for 4WD only, no campervans or towing’. Not us, we drive on, climbing sharply up & up we go, until we finally break out of the bush and discover this magnificent view down the harbour and out the heads.

Before we disappear over the top we pull up and take in the 360 degree views up the harbour, Akaroa is in the first bay on the right, Wainui on the left & Duvauchelle is up at the head of the harbour.

And now that we are higher up we can see down to the coastline below and can see five salmon pens that belong to the Akaroa Salmon Farm. Through the binoculars we can see a boat nearby and men working at the nets.

At the top we turn into Lands End Road but decide after just a couple of hundred metres to turn around. It’s blowing a howling southerly gale and quite miserable outside, the tussock is shimmering in waves as the wind sweeps across the ridge & I just about get blown off my feet when I get out to take a photo. And even though it doesn’t look like it here the road runs a fair distance along the top. Looking at the map we can see it doesn’t quite reach the point so we’ll not achieve much by driving to the end.

We head south west along the top of the hills, easing our way around Bossu Peak until we now have a view down both sides; the harbour & Akaroa township on the inside…..

…and Peraki Bay and the Pacific Ocean on the sea side.

 

In this photo taken from Akaroa township you can see the ridge we are travelling along and Bossu Peak. You can see the line of the road just below the top of the ridge.

 

 

There are many coves & inlets along the southern side of the peninsula, the valleys are narrow & steep as you would expect from an extinct volcano. There are a handful of houses in some of the bigger valleys and from the sign posts we see that there are at least two farm stations on this wild & windswept side.

We see a car parked up, the only one we come across while up the top.

I think this must be the highest  “No Beach Access” sign I have ever seen. I can’t imagine that anybody up here would be looking for a beach. I’m assuming it would be great diving & fishing down there in the coves & I suspect that this is the reason the sign is there. As you can see the sun was low, I thought I’d leave my shadow in there to add interest!   The green bush area is a DOC reserve and this was where we saw the one & only car on the whole road. It was parked near where I am standing but there was nobody in sight. We assume they must have been down in the reserve although there was no walking tracks, just a predator fence. Maybe he was checking that out.

The road along the ridge….

….and as we start to drop down the other side

Looking back towards Bossu Peak (712m) on the left & Carews Peak (794m) in the middle & some of the road we have just travelled.

It’s about here that we hit snow again, I check ahead at the first section, the white stuff is soft (as it should be) but the tracks are ice & I nearly slip arse over kite when I step out onto it. I walk ahead urging David to bear right as there’s a steep drop off on the left. At the next section David goes to check & nearly ends up on his butt in the snow. I don’t think he believed me before. It’s treacherous, one wrong step and you’re over in an instant. It fascinates me that I can see a cycle track through the snow. You got to be keen to cycle all the way up here.

There are two roads that can take us back down to the valley floor & the settlement of Little River on this side, the recommended one is on the other side of the last section of snow, you can see it running along the face of the hill below. You can also see the outline of the Southern Alps top right, Lake Ellesmere in the centre, the Pacific Ocean and Kaitorete Spit on the top left and the dirty brown sliver in the sunshine middle right is Lake Forsyth near Little River.

We decide that the last section of snow ahead of us is too icy to drive on so we turn around and head back along the road a few hundred metres to the start of the other track. Talk about steep and narrow and with dozens of short switchbacks, it’s just about a vertical drop. No wonder this is not the recommended track. If we’d met anybody coming up we both would have been in trouble, the track was barely wide enough for the ute & with no areas to pass, one of us would have had to back up & I’m positive it wouldn’t have been us. Finally down on the lower slopes the road levelled out and we found ourselves in Okuti Valley where there was quite a number of secluded houses tucked into the hillside in amongst the bush.

At the end of the valley road is Little River, where we stop for a coffee. It was a Saturday and the cafe was full of city folk; cyclists, bikers & lunchalot ladies- lycra, leathers & pearls! Little River is obviously the destination for weekend warriors! It felt rather strange knowing that just a short while ago we were up above Little River, high in the sky exploring a wild & isolated area with not a soul in sight and here just a few hundred metres below us was the noise & chatter of civilization. I wonder if they know what they are missing.

Top- Silo Stay, ecofriendly Little River accommodation. My first thought was ‘I hope they are insulated’ (they are, with natural wool). A rather strange concept to my mind and I’m not sure they’re in the right area. Perhaps they are hoping to attract cyclists of the cycle trail.
Bottom left- Historic Little River Railway Station
Bottom right- St John the Evangelist Catholic Church, Little River. Another casualty of the Christchurch Earthquakes.

After our coffee we drive out to Birdlings Flat & the Kaitorete Spit to have a look, you’ll remember the spit separates the huge Lake Ellesmere from the ocean. The road along the spit is 18kms long and after seeing that it flat and  barren & there’s not much of interest that we can see, we turned around after about 5kms.

Boy racers obviously know about this strip of tarseal going by the amount of wheelie marks on the road. Heading back down the straight, Te Oka Peak (685m) on Banks Peninsula ahead of us. We didn’t quite reach the top of that peak, turning down the steep track just before it.

 

Right beside the spit and on the edge of Lake Ellesmere is the Kaituna Lagoon and when we drove past it on our way to Banks Peninsula the other day we spotted three white herons(Kotuku) feeding near the road. We drove back to the lagoon to see if we could spot them again. We pulled into the carpark after seeing one white heron feeding beside the cycle track that ran through the middle of the lagoon. As we walked up the track fourteen Royal Spoonbills flew in and started feeding and then we spotted what looked like a small white heron with the larger one. I couldn’t contain my excitement when I realised that it was a Little Egret, another very rare visitor to New Zealand.

“The little egret is a small, hyperactive ‘white heron’ with a slender black bill. First recorded in New Zealand in 1944, there are 2-3 little egrets present here most years, with single birds often staying at the same site for many consecutive years.
Little egrets are scarce annual migrants to New Zealand, arriving in autumn and departing in early spring, with some individuals remaining over summer. They are usually seen as single birds, with the largest New Zealand flock being five birds.” - NZBirdsOnLine

In this shot below there are five species; 3 herons- the White Heron, the White Faced Heron (can you spot it?) & the Little Egret, Royal Spoonbills & Black Swan.

Top left- Here you can see the size comparison between the White Heron & the Little Egret
Top right- The Little Egret takes flight
Bottom left- Little Egret, unfortunately he was very flighty and I couldn’t get too close. It was still very windy & I think this helped me get some shots at least. I’m sure he would have flown sooner if there had been no wind.
Bottom right & centre- White Heron (Kotuku)

The Royal Spoonbills decided they didn’t want their photo taken either.