Week 7 - 6th Nov

Takaka Museum, Rawhiti Cave, Wharariki Beach - again
Friday Nov 6th, 2009

Today we stopped into the Takaka Museum. Here we read about Takaka’s rural backcountry and waterfront history. While in the museum, Alan notices a picture of a beautiful cave. After quizzing the clerk, we find instructions on how to get to the Rawhiki cave. We are going to make this our afternoon challenge.
At the Rawhiti cave, we easily find the farm yard where the trek starts and park the car. The trek sign indicates that the cave is 2.2 km’s in and will take 60 minutes to climb, so off we go.

The first part traverses a dried up creek bed into a mountain valley, then we reach the end and the sign points up. Up we go, and go, and go. We stop numerous times as the trail is very steep and the afternoon is hot. It takes us about 45 minutes to reach the summit of the trail and what we see is unbelievable.

There in the side of the hill is this cavernous opening like a great jaw waiting for food to enter. The opening is all covered in stalactites and they run down the opening as far as we can see inside. The bottom is very dark.

At the entrance of the cave there is a bee colony buzzing around, so we quickly skirt the trail and find another way inside. Alan and I climbed a little way down into the cave, but it was quite slippery as there is a constant drip of water from the stalactites. I stop and take pictures while Alan goes further down. He has to stop as it is getting too dark and much more slippery. While he had his flashlight with him, he felt proper gear was needed to go down further. We couldn’t see how deep it went. What an amazing cave. We were the only people there. We had our lunch at the opening before returning to the car. The return trip was much easier. At the bottom, I realized I had dropped my sunglasses…I decided it was not worth climbing all the way back for them…we went on.

To finish out the day, we race back up the coast (45 min drive) to Wharariki Beach to catch low tide. At Wharariki Beach we attempted our third visit. The first rained out, the second we had not kept the tide times in mind and now this one that gave us two hours before low tide. We hiked over the green sheep covered hills, through a kanuka forest and across the sand dunes to reach this magnificent beach.

We are successful and this time we take the beach trail to the beach. The trail starts the same, but quickly leaves the rolling hills and arrives at the north end of the beach. Our last trip we entered via the sound end. This end is composed of rolling white sand dunes and we walk for a long way through the dunes.
Alan eats the last cookie from Yummie Pleasures in Newcastle. The cookie was still delicious even after all this time!

In front of us are huge rock pillars jutting out of the sea. We take numerous pictures and walk up the beach toward the south end seen yesterday. It is still a gale force wind and the sea is boiling but the scene is so unbelievable that we lap it up.

We wander the beach for two hours walking in and out of the caves created by the sea. The rock cliffs are made of conglomerate and look like someone poured concrete a thousand years ago and the sea has been washing over them ever since. The beach is flat like glass and every now and then you find these filled crystal clear pools reflecting the sun and sand movement around the rocks.

Finally, on the beach we find a seal sunning himself on a rock and since the tide is going out we see the mile of flat, very flat white sand.

We don’t want to leave, but the tide turns at 19:30 and it is nearly that now so we wander back up to the North beach entrance where we came in. Along the way we take pictures of the amazing blown sand art. Nature is so creative when left to fend on its own accord. We have had a beautiful day and what beautiful sights we have seen today!

Week 7 - 4th Nov

The Golden Coast

This morning we wake up to a gale. There is quite a wind and with a high tide, we find the waves crashing along our shore right down the road from our cabin. There are extreme weather warnings out for later in the day.

Rain is in the forecast so we decide to drive up the coast to see Cape Farewell. The drive up is interesting with at least five one lane bridges, multiple cow crossings and the road is as twisty and windy as always. We find the road sign for the cape and follow the path to the gate. I open the gate the gate and we drive into a field full of bulls. We can see another car in the car park on the other side of the field so we proceed in.

The car park is a fine piece of grass with a road in the middle. Beside the small lane in long grass and are three large bulls lying down. At first all we can see is their heads.

We have to go through another gate to get to the trek up the hill. It is a step climb, but once we get to the top the view is magnificent. The Tasman Sea is so blue and raw, with the striking layers of rock jutting out of the green hill. It looks surreal. We watch the wave’s crash on the rocks far below. Despite the wicked sea there are some seals on the rocks. Even in a place so remote and unforgiving there is life. We were over 200m off the shore with sheer cliffs. The wind was extreme, so we were very careful of the edge.

On the way out we see a silly jackrabbit that teased us on the way in. He kept hopping back and forth across the road but now he is watching us sitting on the edge grooming his fur just like a cat.

At Farewell Spit we have our flat whites at the only café in the area. Their specialty is local cockles. Alan and I are going to come back for these in a few days. Its glass walls look over the bay and towards the Farewell Spit, which is a protected area. The point, as well has having beautiful rock outcrops has this incredible spit that extends 35 km out into Golden Bay. It is a protected area as it is part of the East Asian – Australasian Fly way creating a fueling area for migratory birds heading north towards Asia and points north. There is a little viewing area so we take time to look out the window, use the telescope and read some of the provided literature.

Since it is such a rainy day, we decide to drive down all the no exit roads to the shore. We found the Onekaka wharf built for the gold mining days, but when we get to the end of the road the wharf is gone, except for the steel skeleton of the original. It must have been quite the scene years ago in its glory as it stretches far out into the sea.

We walk the beach at Onekaka for about 30 minutes over the course stone. The colours are beautiful in the soft rain. We meet a couple of local women carrying a pail; they have been out collecting mussels for their dinner. They give us directions on how to cook them, but we are a bit leery of collecting our own. There are so many marine reserves along the shore; the fines are extreme if caught. May be we will just go to the store and purchase a few.

Everywhere we go there are cow crossing signs. Today we watched a farmer bring his cattle across the highway, in to be milked.

We stop on the next road down the highway and see some beautiful sand beaches and a rock outcrop. On this rocky outcrop there are lots of mussels. This is a protected area! We check on the way out and sure enough, we have been in a small reserve (protected mussels). That explains why there are so many large untouched ones.

Later we walk down the beach towards the cement plant. The tide is out so we can walk a long way on the sand. Several small creeks cross our path, so we tiptoe through the stream trying not to get our shoes wet. Actually jumped through them and ran through them. Of course we soaked our shoes. The evening was a bit cool and taking them off didn’t seem like a good idea…guess it was.

We at last are able to walk around these large stones. Unfortunately we are dive bombed by a couple of oystercatchers. They are bigger than a pigeon, with orange beaks about six inches long. I had to wave my rain coat to get out of the way of the birds. They were very upset and kept dive bombing Alan. I was certain they were going to hit him, as they were very close to his head. We later saw where their nest was. It was on top of the very rock we wanted to explore around. We were invading their territory.


To get a better look at the shore we had just missed, we climbed up to the road and walked around for a better view of the coast and the large pier. A popular place as we meet another other walkers. The mentioned to us that they had a group with children who were climbing around on the shore. We knew that the tide was quickly coming in, so we retrace our steps and discover that the other group, on the sand, is getting penned. Alan helped them safely climb up these steep rocks to the road. There was no path here, so they had to scramble through bush, gorse and steep rocks to the road. Here we find this beautiful sign, penguins. We have not seen any!!

Week 7 - 5th Nov

PuPu Hydro, Wharariki Beach

Thursday Nov 5th, 2009

What a wonderful day. PuPu Hydro has a walk up and around the whole instilation. We walked on a narrow wooden bridge between the water race and the outside of the cliff. There was a small railing to prevent you from falling. Oh and it was 1.7 km long. We had no idea that this was at the top of the tramp. Alan was quite impressed.

Alan and I head back to PuPu Springs and on to the PuPu Hydro trek. The trail is more like a four wheeler road that we take up to the top. It is an hour’s hike to the top but the road goes up forever and we are wondering if it will end. It is very hot out and this is a sunny hike so we stop frequently to cool down. Finally, we are at the top of the hill, but it looks like we have to go down the other side. Not far down we find the end and this beautiful pool with a direction weir and a race way off the side. We stop and have lunch here.

The water race snakes all along the mountain for 1.7 kms before arriving at a head pond where the water is filtered prior to the dropping to the valley below. As was mentioned in the display boards, this water race was originally built by the Takaka Sluicing Company for sluicing gold from river gravels. At that time the race was 3.7 km long and the end of the hose was used to wash the side of the hill down while looking for gold bits. At the end of the gold rush, possibly around 1929, the water was converted into hydraulic pressure for a generating station and the people of Golden Bay were connected to the grid.

We walk the now converted water race (1.7 km) and upgraded piping to the generating station and the trail is beautiful. It follows the side of the mountain, and at some points the trail is only wide enough to walk on. The water race is beside the mountain and there is a narrow one foot wide path on the outside in wood to walk on with a railing between you and the cliff. At first this is a bit nerve racking. At the end we were both in awe at what they had accomplished with their engineering feat at the turn of the century.

The trail down the hill was a bit dicey, we were glad we went up the other way.

We are off again, this time we headed back out to the coast and Wharariki beach.

We arrived at the parking area and the gale off the highlands just about blew us back into our car. Alan and I put on every jacket and sweatshirt we could find. Then we crossed the stile to get to the lower trail we headed out across the sheep field. Up, up, up we go but thankfully the trail is wide and an easy climb. We do have to shoo a few sheep and cattle off the track, but eventually we get to the end of the trail and follow the sign to the beach. Over another stile, up the hill. This is a sheep hill with little pathways going across it. They are very narrow.

Over the hill, down the other side, over another stile and wow……..we are at the opening to Wharariki beach. It is unbelievable with its white, windblown sand, the raw weathered look of the sea caves and cliffs, and the deep blue pounding surf. We wander for about one hour in and out of the caves then the tide turns and we start to head back to the car. We will have to come back to this again.

On the way back Alan wanted to find the hill trail, so we head out through the sheep fields and walk to the crest of the hill rather than follow the trail. It was quite difficult climbing up and down the hills as it is vertical. The little sheep pathways are narrower than my foot. The trek proves interesting till we get to the end of the hill, then we have to find a way down thorough the bush. Eventually after much climbing we do end up back at the parking lot and after a long day we are glad to be back.

See the pictures on a later blog.