Split Apple Rock- From Every Angle

Split Apple Rock is a popular tourist attraction a few bays along from Kaiteriteri Beach and was the first place we headed to when we launched the Takacat.

Split Apple Rock is a granite rock formation that resembles it’s namesake. The Maori name for the rock is Toko Ngawha meaning “burst open rock”.

Split Apple Rock sits in shallow water just 50 metres off the beach and can be waded out to at low tide (in the summer!).  If not visiting the rock by boat or kayak there is a short 30 minute downhill walk to the beach from a track that can be accessed from the road between Kaiteriteri & Marahau.

It’s not only people who like to visit Split Apple Rock, there are a number of Spotted Shag (Parakareka) colonies along this coastline and a small group have taken up roosting on the surrounding rocks. They are obviously used to people passing close by as they stayed put as we manoeuvred around the rock.

We were not the only ones that were visiting the rock on this fine sunny winter's day. One of the tour boats called by, it is their first point of interest as they head into the Abel Tasman National Park.  Many kayakers also visit the rock, we could see a dozen or so kayaks resting on the beach nearby as we approached.

After a slow cruise past they were off to explore further up the coast.

Leaving us to move around & in closer so I could get the right angle of the apple. I love the little tuft of a plant that looks much like the apple’s calyx (blossom end)

The only problem with the photos above is that it’s low tide and all the surrounding rocks are showing too….

….so the next time we passed my ever patient skipper detoured so I could grab some more shots!

Now the only problem is that the sun is shining and I have a shadow.

Watch this space.......

Kaiteriteri & Surrounds

Kaiteriteri is a tiny seaside resort tucked into a beautiful little sheltered bay right on the edge of the Abel Tasman National Park. In fact our camp ground is the largest thing in Kaiteriteri, it looks out over the beach & bay with a large shallow estuary along one side and bush covered hills at the back and on the other side.

The camp ground stretches quite a way back tucked into the hillside and even though it doesn’t look like it in the photo there are over 400 powered camping sites along with 15 cabins. The camp ground can hold over 2000 people during the height of the season and if you add residents & day visitors to the mix, I bet the beach is wall to wall people then. A bit like Mount Maunganui at Christmas but on a smaller scale.

There are quite a number of unoccupied caravans & motorhomes in the park, they are being stored for winter. In the photo below only six of the vans you can see at the front of the park are occupied so we pretty much have the place to ourselves. Coincidentally one of the occupied vans is another Ultima (middle right edge) just like ours that arrived the day after us. More Ultima owners we haven’t met. We have now though and will likely see Sandy & Julie on the road again as they also live in their van full time but have now moved onto Golden Bay, where we’ll be heading in due course.

The weekends bring a few more people (& seagulls) to Kaiteriteri; Sunday drivers, families out for a walk or a fish ‘n chip lunch, kayakers paddling, cyclists on the cycle way or visiting the local mountainbike track.

Across the bay at the southern end is Little Kaiteriteri which can be reached by a walking track over a small bluff at the end of our beach. A lookout platform gives a great view back down the beach and out to sea. This photo (bottom right) is of Little Kaiteriteri bathed in the golden glow of sunrise.

Abel Tasman tour boats and water taxis leave from Kaiteriteri, the larger boats are moored in the bay, others are launched from the boat ramp just down the road from us. Each morning, the skipper rows out to his boat (above, bottom left) and then brings the boat into the beach where the ladder is extended from the bow and the guests board from the beach, this is how they dis-embark at the various beaches along the Abel Tasman Park too. None of the tour boats have been too busy, with just a handful of people a day catching the boats. A perfect time to do a tour without the crowds. There are dozens of tour options available from the various operators; day cruise, walk/cruise, kayak/cruise, swim with seals/cruise etc. Most include visiting the seal colonies that inhabit the off shore islands along the way. If you do a walk you can choose to do any of about 4 different sections of the Abel Tasman Great Walk.

Our first eight days at Kaiteriteri were fabulous although with a chilly start; crisp heavy frosts followed by cloudless sunny blue skies and not a drop of wind. Just what the doctor ordered, winter at it’s best. And it hasn’t been so bad since either, a couple of days of showers and a couple when a thick sea fog rolled in for an afternoon.

At the northern end of the bay is Kaka Pah Point and another short walkway and lookout with views looking north over tiny Breaker Bay and on to Marahau where the Able Tasman Walk starts. Ngaio Island is near where the iconic Split Apple Rock is located. And look at that bach (holiday home) tucked into a little alcove in the bay and only accessible by boat or maybe by clambering over rocks at low tide. I don’t think it would see very much sun in winter or even in  the summer. It’s a rather unusual place to build a house especially at what looks like sea level on sand.

At the lookout there’s also a destination sign post similar to the one in Bluff, another rather unusual spot to place one.

From Kaka Pah Point Lookout looking back over Kaiteriteri with Little Kaiteriteri to the left.

We drove around to Marahau one evening, a small settlement that marks the start of the Able Tasman Walk where there are holiday homes, farms, a couple of camping grounds, a few arts & craft galleries & a cafe. It’s Kaiteriteri without the tinsel, a more laidback rustic village and I would imagine a village without the crowds in the summer. It was deserted when we were there.

 

We haven’t actually been doing too much exploring while we’ve been in Kaiteriteri although on the day we had to go into Motueka to get our groceries we took a drive along the coast to Mapua Wharf which was once a busy coastal wharf servicing the regions orchards. It is now a boutique bar, cafe & arts & craft precinct that is very popular on the weekends but was virtually deserted on the week day that we visited. We sat outside The Smokehouse in the sun & had fish & chips for lunch.

I also bought a nice bag of tasty pears for $4 from a cart outside one of the shops. They were so tasty that when we found another stall on our travels selling the same pears we purchased more. I think the variety is Taylors Gold, smallish, rotund, brown and with a distinct “perfume” taste.

Mapua Wharf is located on the Waimea Estuary and across the channel from the large Rabbit Island. Rabbit Island reminded me of Matakana Island in the Bay of Plenty, covered with pine forest and protecting a large estuary.

Heading home after collecting the groceries we took a short detour to the Riwaka Wharf, a lovely sleepy settlement with quite a number of houses and well manicured gardens lining both sides of a tidal stream that emptied onto a very large mud flat (which I believe joins Outer Island, a sand bank further out in Tasman Bay).

Boatsheds & boats also lined both sides of the stream, the boats laying on their bottoms in the mud waiting for the tide to turn.

Blenheim, Havelock & Beyond

We stopped over in Blenheim for two nights after leaving Ward, staying at the Blenheim Racecourse which is another LCP (Low Cost Parking- $5 night) option available to NZMCA members. It’s a very popular parking spot as it’s just a short drive to Picton to catch the ferry, & it’s close to Blenheim’s city centre & has potable water, washing machines & toilets available if required.

It is rather an odd place to park at though, there are quite a few spots to park up; on the grass or the hard as long as you keep away from buildings. Well that was a bit hard as the grass was boggy and there were so many buildings about and 6 or 7 other vans already parked up on the hard under the trees and tucked into various alcoves and corners. We backed in beside an unused building making sure we weren’t in the way of any doors, which was later OKed by the caretaker. Making the racecourse available to members like this is a nice little earner for them, they only have two race days a year and not much else happening on the grounds although some of the buildings have been leased out. It's a win win situation for all.

Initially we thought we’d stop off in Nelson on our way over to Kaiteriteri but in the end we decided we’d drive all the way, we were ready to settle down & set up camp for more than a couple of days. Usually we only drive 50-80km between camps, sometimes much less. This was going to be about 180km through some narrow & winding roads so we left bright and early on another stunning winter’s day. We really have been very lucky with the weather since heading north to escape the cold down south (back at the beginning of June). Sure we’ve had a bit of rain here & there, some snow flurries & plenty of cold frosts but we’ve managed to either be ahead of or behind the major rain, wind & snow storms that have ravaged other parts of the country.

We stopped in Havelock for lunch, lunch that I was hoping to have at the famous Mussel Boys restaurant, the one that has huge Green Lipped mussels walking over the roof and down the fence line, the one that serves New Zealand's Green Lipped mussels in every which way imaginable. I wanted to compare them with my own “famous with friends & family” recipe. But alas it was shut and not just shut for the day but shut for the winter! It's not due to open until September.

What kind of business can run like that? It was a beautiful day and while I was taking photos at least four hire campervans & motorhomes stopped to have a look. I know that some restaurants shut for a couple of weeks or more over winter to give staff their holidays but to shut for the whole of winter seems to be a bit crazy. Especially as it’s not an out of the way place on a summer tourist route, this is a main highway between popular destinations. Oh well, another thing to add to the growing list of things to do “when we come back round again”.

Next door to the Mussel Pot was this outdoor & marine shop with an awesome paint job on the building’s facia.

Havelock’s main street is quite short, a little more than a blink & you’ll miss it kind of place but still quite short when your driver is on a mission to get to the next camping site in a reasonably quick time. So when the co-pilot (& tour director) shouts out “stop for lunch” we’re very nearly round the end corner and gone. But somehow my ever patient driver manages to pull the rig up in time to turn right and, all the while muttering under his breath, we head down towards the marina whose carpark we then have to drive through to get out the other end and back onto the main street.

And there also happens to be, just up the road from the marina, Havelock’s churches. How convenient. One in particular, the Catholic Sacred Heart Church looked very familiar.

 

It must have had the same architect as the Catholic St Peters Chanels Church in Ward which is on the east coast in South Marlborough and where we’d come from a few days ago.

Although I shot the Ward church back in November when we passed it on our way south. Unfortunately the Ward church had been damaged in the August 2013 Seddon Earthquake and was fenced off with danger tape. Coincidentally the Ward church will receive a service of decommissioning in it’s grounds today (Sunday 3 August) as it’s formally shut for demolition. Such a shame, another little piece of history gone.

The rest of the trip was uneventful and we made good time passing along the waterfront through Nelson without stopping (another, "we will return") and continuing on around Tasman Bay heading for Kaiteriteri. This part of the South Island is new to us both although it feels and looks a lot like Hawkes Bay as we pass through hectares & hectares of orchards and vineyards along the way.

We finally arrive at our winter paradise, the sun is shining, the water is a brilliant blue, the sea is a millpond, there’s not a breath of wind, there’s hardly anybody about and we have a prime site overlooking a golden sand beach. This could well be Fiji except for one thing. The temperature, it’s a reasonably chilly 10 degrees celsius outside. Oh well, we can’t complain, six out of seven ain’t that bad.

The Road to Sawcut Gorge

It was a pity we were passing back through this part of Marlborough in winter because there is a very interesting walk I had earmarked to do the next time we were in the area. While it is possible to walk to Sawcut Gorge in winter it would be extremely cold as there is no track as such, the walk is mainly through a rocky river bed with multiple crossing of the Waima River before reaching the DOC Reserve boundary & then following a track to Isolation Creek and the gorge. You then walk through a very narrow gorge where the sun (if it was shining) would only beam in for a very short time each day. It’s also not recommended to do this walk after heavy rainfall for obvious reasons.

Sawcut Gorge by all accounts is spectacular. The chasm is 50m deep, 50m high and at times only 2m wide and is New Zealand’s finest slot canyon & comparable to the slot canyons of Utah in the States. The “Sawcut” itself is a short and narrow canyon passage where Isolation Creek has eroded through a 50m high wall of limestone, leaving a unique slot that’s higher than it is long.

As it was a lovely day we decided we’d drive the road to Sawcut Gorge anyway and check out the conditions and have a look at the beginning of the track. The Gorge is located at the base of the Blue Mountain Range and at the end of a 12km gravel road that winds it way inland along the Waima River finishing at Blue Mountain Station.

We head back down State Highway One for about 8kms before turning inland at Ure Road, just before the Waima River bridge where there is a concrete shelter with a bike on top advertising a local backpackers accommodation.

The road turns to gravel within a few metres and it’s very corrugated, the ute & it’s occupants are bouncing about like jumping beans in a can. The thought that it would be like this for the duration nearly had us turning around but we gave it a couple of kilometres and it soon smoothed out. This isn’t the first road we’ve come across with this phenomenon, we wonder what happens to make the first few hundred metres so corrugated.  Perhaps there are lots of vehicles turning in and then deciding not to go any further, perhaps they hit the beginning of the road at speed, God knows but we sure don’t.

There’s a deer farm near the beginning of the road but the farmland soon turns to vineyards which stretch along the river flats. This is the southern reach of the Marlborough grape growing region and it’s great to see that the first vineyard is one of my favourites!

We cross over the Waima River which is crystal clear and sparkles against the white limestone mix on the riverbed, considering it’s winter there’s not much of a flow but we can see the tidemark of debris on the banks and road edge which had been left by recent storms.

Limestone is a prominent feature in the area, there is a belt of limestone that extends from the coast near Ward, south down through the Clarence Valley and between the Seaward Kaikoura and Inland Kaikoura Ranges. And in fact there is a large limestone quarry just before Ward Beach where we are staying.

The road soon narrows and climbs & winds along following the river gorge far below. The scenery & views are spectacular.

At regular intervals there are gates to open & close but so far we haven’t seen any stock.

 

I like gates, gates give me the opportunity to take more photos!  I'm a dab hand at wrestling a large camera & stubborn catches.

Welcoming party, imposter or stunt (stud) double?

 

Coming around the last bend in the road we see that the road ends ahead of us right in the front garden of the Blue Station’s homestead. The gate has instructions attached that say to drive on in and sign the visitors book on the front veranda. This seems a bit odd & we do feel like we're intruding as we drive in but I had read that the station owners have granted permission to cross their land to get to the Gorge which is on Conservation land.

We pull up beside the veranda where a lady is hanging out washing. We stop to talk to her and after an initial reluctance to chat (she must see so many people), we can’t get away from her as she tells us all about her & the farm’s history. Her & her husband (who we’re not sure was still alive- we didn't like to ask) sold the station to her niece who lives in the original homestead down below on the river’s edge.

They built their house up on the hill above and retired there quite a number of years ago. During their farming days there was no road into the farm, they got there by driving along the riverbed, stock was driven out the same way. She tells us of the resident NZ falcons that fly through at house height down the river valley and watching them catch smaller birds on the wing, birds that she feeds at the dozens of feeders she has dotted around the garden. The bird song & chatter are quite extraordinary.

There was a small carpark beside the house but those that had 4WD could drive down into the riverbed to park. She tells us that 76 is the most vehicles she has had visit in a day, they were lined up all over her lawn and along the banks down to the river & along the river bed. We told her we’d only come for a look and would be back in the summer to do the Gorge (hopefully not on a day that would see 76 cars!) “Wise decision” she said, “the water is ice cold, I’ve just walked over to my nieces to feed the animals”

It was a short steep track down to the river where we parked up on the beautiful stones to have our lunch. A toe test confirms the water is in fact colder than ice!

Sawcut Gorge walk starts near the cliffs at the back of the photo where you can see a rope strung across the river (at river level), the higher one is a telephone wire. The new homestead is up to the left by power pole.

A small flock of rams (the ones that featured on the sign back up the road) were rummaging about in the willows at the bottom of the track. They weren't too impressed to see us and took off before I could do a decent photo shoot!

Just over the river behind the poplars is the old homestead, the niece has to drive across to get in and out of the farm. It was lovely and sheltered down in riverbed, we had our lunch sitting on the tailgate enjoying the warm sun, bird song and the solitude. This surely is the life!

We climbed back out of the riverbed, opening and closing two gates on the way that contained the house animals; two alpacas, a goat, some coloured sheep and ducks & chooks. Spring must be on it’s way; blooming snowdrops, jonquils & daffodils were sprinkled about along the banks and under trees.

Back on the road we come across a flock of sheep that are feeding and resting beside the road. We slow & inch closer. Most take off down the steep side of the hill and I wonder if any might break a leg doing this. They virtually fly down the side, I even wonder if one was to take a tumble would they then bowl others over as it went and then they’d all drop in a pile on the river bed below. They really are very silly & skittish. This small part of the mob seem to have the brains to stay on the road and take the route up the hill…spoke to soon….one thought it would be good to run up the bank but his mates weren’t looking and we ended up herding them across the bridge before they scattered in all directions on the other side. Silly as a sheep.

One last stop to get a photo of the road twisting ahead of us and the river far below. We definitely will be back to walk Sawcut in the summer, it’s too unique of a walk to miss.

Back home and our last night at Ward Beach brings us a beautiful cloud formation with the pink glow of sunset. The sun might have disappeared behind the hill but the colours are sometimes better in the opposite direction.

Wild Ward Beach

Our next stop was at Ward Beach in Marlborough, just south of Seddon and just around the corner (Cape Campbell) from Marfells Beach where we stayed way back in November when we first arrived in the South Island.

The camping area is beside the rugged & wild Ward Beach and is located on land that belongs to a local farmer. The site is actually right next door to the Ward Beach Reserve where no camping is allowed, but open the gate and drive on through & anyone can camp on the other side of the fence for a small donation to the farmer, to be left in his letterbox back up the road.

What a great spot this would be in the summer and by the look of the signature stones left behind in the rock garden it looks like a lot of other people think so too.

The only problem we had was that the sun disappeared behind the high hill behind us early in the afternoon and with a cool southerly wind blowing the temperature dropped rapidly. We stayed for two nights over the weekend & were the only campers there although there were a few cars each day arriving in the reserve to check out the beach or have a break at the picnic tables.

I loved the isolation, it was great to walk the wild beach, dodging waves and climbing over piles of driftwood & logs beachcombing & looking for seals and being the only person for miles. The very first afternoon I found a seal pup curled up fast asleep on a rocky ledge above the beach, it was gone the next morning and was the only seal I saw on this part of the coast.  I love laying in bed at night, all warm and cosy, listening to the crashing waves, tumbling gravel & howling wind just outside the window. I've always loved wild beaches and especially wild beaches in the middle of winter. But being so close to the surf does come with it’s challenges, the ute & “Out There” had a heavy coating of salt spray over them by the time we left.

The Flaxbourne River mouth is beside the reserve and would be an ideal safe swimming spot in the summer. The river & beach have been used as a boat landing & launching spot for many years. In the early days wool, tallow & flax were shipped out from the beach, nowadays local commercial fishermen launch their fishing boats from the beach. And the boats aren’t that small either, at other beaches we’ve seen an assortment of old tractors lined up to haul the boats, here there were two or three large rusty bulldozers backed into the hillside.

At first we wondered why there were dozens of large bulldozer tracks on the beach and down to the water’s edge. We thought someone must have been rearranging the foreshore….. and in fact I suppose they were and on a regular basis. It would take a lot of skill & fast work to drive the boats onto the trailers which would have been backed into the surf by the bulldozers. Further back down the road we saw some of the fishing boats in yards beside large sheds. Crayfish is obviously the catch of choice here.

It’s amazing how often we are stumbling across little pockets of history in the most unexpected places and how the local communities are keeping their history alive. We drove through the settlement of Flaxbourne on the way to the beach, well in fact it’s more a collection of farm buildings & a few houses now. Established in 1847 the  23,000ha Flaxbourne estate was “the first great South Island sheep run”  which ran over 60,000 sheep.  A thriving community once lived here, with a huge tallow plant and up to four flax mills in production. One of the old boilers was on display beside the information board, between 8000-10,000 surplus sheep were slaughtered and rendered down for tallow each year which was then shipped to England from Ward Beach. Eeuw yuk!

Across the road from the boiler was another  historic building, it was built in the early 1850s for wool storage and later used as a telegraph station, and where the districts mail was received and sent. Stage coaches also stopped to change horses. The shed then became the site of the first school when Flaxbourne Station was cut up into smaller blocks. Inside the shed and behind a security fence was a whole range of old farm equipment that had been donated by the locals and on the wall were information boards and photos from the past.

In the sheep yards near this spot there was an odd building (left middle photo), a square building with a little square vent on the roof. It had a stone wall to about thigh height, wooden sides and a corrugated iron roof. I’d love to know what it was used for, it looked a bit like a dove cote or perhaps a animal nursery or stables. The stone wall gave the impression that it could have been a reservoir too (but not likely as it was sited in the middle of the yards).

Further up the road was a paddock that contained a small herd of Highland Cattle, a mix of cows & bulls I think but because of their super shaggy locks it was hard to tell. They seemed to be very docile but I’m not sure I’d like to be on the receiving end of a gentle nudge from these guys. They were very cute all the same.

These two were obviously good mates, the one on the right was nuzzling, licking & tugging the others ear.

It was funny how they stayed in their own colouring even though they were all in quite a small paddock. "What short legs you have.......but your horns make up for it....."

This fellow was definitely a bull.

Built in itch scratchers!