Ola all,
Guess what: I actually found a beach so nice that I granted it the My Favourite Beach title despite its freezing cold waters!
We left Windy Wellie and took the ferry between the two islands. Needless is to say that during the last part of the journey we were blessed with lovely sights as the boat made its way through the narrow canals leading to the port of Picton in the South Island. This country is just ridiculously beautiful, even the cross channel ferry is a scenic ride!!
We decided to spent two days hiking in the Abel Tasman Reserve and enjoy the glorious sunny weather. By the way, as far as I'm concerned, the all those stories about how much it rains in New Zealand are just a myth. We now had three weeks of solid sunshine, except for a couple of days in Taupo. And it only rained in two days for the whole five weeks we spent here. Back to Abel Tasman, we took a water taxi which took us to the middle of the national park. On our way there we passed by the famous Split Apple Rock and visited a colony of New Zealand's fur seals. Only the males had arrived at this point, and were ferociously guarding the best rocks so to lure big numbers of females when they arrive in a few week's time. It seems to be an evolutionary conserved fact of nature then, females like big rocks! However, I've also learnt that the females arrive, give birth (they have whole year of gestation) and then have only four days of rest before they get pregnant again! No wonder the numbers of fur seals are recovering well...
We got dropped of at the Onetahuti beach (another amazing beach) and trekked for a few hours through the forest. On our way we had glimpses of the sea, sometimes on coves only accessible by boat. We also passed by a few other beaches, each as stunning as the previous one, all tempting us to stay for a swim. Unfortunately we had to press on in order to arrive at the hut where we were staying for the night, at Anchorage Bay.
What makes Abel Tasman's beaches so spectacular is the fact that they are untouched. When the park was created in the 50's, some houses were allowed to remain (ie, the government did not have enough money to buy the owners out), but there are only a few of them and are today worth millions. So the beaches are surrounded by forest, including palm trees and ferns, instead of houses (as it happened everywhere in Tahiti, for example). The sand is very light and the water is clear and turquoise blue. Add to the mixture the fact that humans are very rare while wildlife is abundant and you have the perfect beach! Especially if you like cold water beaches - thats my only complaint. It was in this setting that we enjoyed sunset, while the birds noisily settled down in the background. Latter we got to try and identify some of the multitude of stars looking down on us but we still haven't learned what the Southern Cross looks like.
We woke up to another bright sunny day. We had to walk for three hours to reach the point where the bus would pick us up, on the edge of the park. After breakfast on the beach it became obvious it was going to take real inner strength to leave it in such a perfect beach day... We had come there to trek, after all. Hum... But the beach was so nice, the sun so warm... Hum... In the end we shamefully succumbed to temptation and stayed there the whole day. Late in the afternoon a water taxi picked up two very pleased and tanned individuals from the beach. :-)
Beijinhos,
Vania
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