Week 7 - 7th Nov

Saturday 7th November - Happy 24th Birthday Lisa!!

Went back to Rawhiki caves. I had dropped my sunglasses and we decided to go back in the morning to look for them. The hike was much easier in the morning. It was cooler. The cave was even more amazing as the morning sunlight was shining in the cave. This certainly is the place to visit. Even the bees were quiet. We found my glasses inside the cave.
Inside the caves the water has dripped down forming terraces of solidified rock.

Onward to Tataranui. This is part of the national park the Abel Tasman. We began the drive from our cabin heading north past Pohara harbour.

There are signs to watch for the penguins. We haven’t seen any. I spoke to a local and apparently they nest on the other side of the road away from the bay and are often hit in the evening and early morning. The town has put up penguin boxes down in the harbour to encourage nesting there.

To get past the harbour you end up driving through a hole in the rock. It is quite pretty.

To get to Tataranui we travel on a very windy, narrow road with steep edges to the sea. Then with 10 kms to go, it turns to gravel! There are warnings posted that there are slips along the road … rock slides. Also, this even more narrow and has areas that are barely one lane wide. It was interesting.

We decided to take a 4km detour to see Awaroa Beach. It turns out to be more of a boat ramp and drop off for hikers than a spot to explore. We then head 8kms back to Tataranui beach.

At Tataranui beach the sand is golden orange. It is beautiful. The pictures don’t pick up the turquoise blue shades in the water.

Alan and I hike for half an hour up the Abel Tasman trail to Skinner Lookout. Here we can look back at Tataranui beach. The trail is quite easy to traverse unlike the cave trail.
Hiking a bit further along the trail to the next beach we have to cross two rather large washouts. That was scary as sand was running down one of them. Of course, I had to return the same way. The coast line is breathtaking with stone outcrops into the sea and beautiful beaches with palm trees.