There aren’t many locations in New Zealand that make me query my option to dwell in Wānaka, however Golden Bay undoubtedly did. Heat, sunny, and most significantly, low cost, Golden Bay piqued my curiosity as someplace I may simply dwell comfortably. I’m simply undecided I’m hippie sufficient to suit the native standards, however extra on that in a minute.
After ending the Heaphy Monitor outdoors of Takaka, I caught the shuttle from Golden Bay Air to the airport, the place I rented a automobile. These are the fellows who manage the logistics and flights across the space. Takaka is roughly a million miles and $500 value of petrol away from Wānaka, so after I heard you could possibly lease a automobile there, I assumed it might be a superb likelihood to lastly discover an space of New Zealand I not often go to.
I’ll preface this by saying that the time period “airport” is a stretch; it’s an workplace with just a little runway, which I can’t bear in mind if it was paved or not. These are small aircraft flights. It’s so chill and straightforward, precisely what you need on a vacation. The automobile was an outdated Honda that felt like you could possibly take it wherever. I rolled the home windows down and hit the highway to Takaka, the salty, heat air reminding me I used to be in paradise. It’s a spot the place that everybody is aware of one another’s names. And all of their enterprise, too. Like it!
The very first thing it is advisable learn about Golden Bay is that it’s like stepping again to the 90s. Which is saying one thing as a result of the remainder of New Zealand additionally seems like a step again in time.
Each few streets, there are fruit stands with honesty containers, and nobody is in a rush to do something. It’s such a pleasant feeling. Golden Bay is an space on the very tip-top of the South Island. It’s one of many sunniest areas of New Zealand and is residence to some epic impartial growers and farms. In reality, a lot of the high of the South Island is like that. I’m penning this as there’s frost a centimeter thick coating my energy invoice is within the triple digits. Why Wānaka, why?!
Golden Bay is a big bay that stretches from the highest of the Abel Tasman Nationwide Park all the way in which out to Farewell Spit, a 26-kilometer-long sandspit. It kinds nearly an ideal “C” form and is among the extra distant locations to get to in New Zealand. You must need to go there; it’s not on the way in which wherever.
The one occasions I’ve been to Golden Bay have been round mass whale strandings with Undertaking Jonah. Farewell Spit is a big hotspot for whale strandings, normally mass strandings by pilot whales. There was a large one seven years in the past with over 400 whales. We don’t actually know why they strand right here, however there are numerous theories round the truth that it has enormous tidal flows and really gently sloped sand across the spit with deep water on the opposite aspect. Irrespective of the explanation, it’s a whale loss of life lure.
You guys know it is a matter near my coronary heart after I got here throughout my very own whale stranding alone on Rakiura/Stewart Island years in the past. A horror of a reminiscence that’s helped form my work and impressed me to focus much more on conservation, particularly round marine mammals.
Large fucking bummer, I do know. However hey, I used to be tremendous excited to be up in Golden Bay and NOT be round useless and dying whales. Win-win!
Takaka is an hour away from Motueka on the coast and the gateway to the Abel Tasman Nationwide Park. However it’s a must to drive over a mountain to get there. Golden Bay and Takaka have remained comparatively remoted, largely as a result of it’s a large ache within the ass to drive over. Lovingly known as Takaka Hill (New Zealand is nice at each naming issues and minimizing them concurrently), it has tons of of very sharp turns and steep dropoffs. Zoom zoom!
However actually, you’re nice, and there are guard rails and tons of pull-offs and passing choices, one thing I want they’d do to the Crown Vary, an identical mountain highway connecting Wānaka and Queenstown. With just about no protected passing areas, it normally means you’re caught behind vacationers in campervans going 50 kilometers beneath the pace restrict and never pulling over to let the 20 automobiles queued behind them go. Christ, it’s SO annoying.
However I digress. The highway was broken years in the past in a storm and for the longest time (4 years!!), there was an extended part down to 1 lane, so that you needed to wait endlessly at site visitors lights to go. One native put up an enormous signal subsequent to it counting the variety of days the roadworks have been occurring. I gotta be sincere; I do love a petty combat towards forms.
However just like the locals say, it’s only a hill; recover from it.
I’ll allow you to in on just a little secret: it’s definitely worth the drive out to discover Golden Bay. Or fly in from Wellington or across the Heaphy with Golden Bay Air. It’s a particular place that also feels native and chill.
I made a decision to remain in Takaka for 3 nights, one evening at a bach by the ocean after my 4-day tramp, the place I decompressed, ate a shit-ton of fried meals, and showered for an hour. Sigh. Nothing is healthier than a sizzling, greasy meal and an extended bathe after being within the bush for days.
The following few nights, I stayed out at Rustic ReTreet, a comparatively new Cover Tenting glamping website simply outdoors of Takaka. Spoiler alert – it was like stepping right into a fairytale. I really like staying in these sorts of areas for thus many causes. Distinctive, cozy, and delightful, they’re mainly a vacation spot in and of themselves. You may simply keep there and be completely content material.
As a touring homebody, you’ll be able to in all probability see why these locations attraction to me—and lots of others, too—which is why they’re tremendous common.
I may really feel my breath go away my physique as I sighed, strolling as much as the doorway of the Rustic ReTreet.
Ten minutes out of Takaka, down some slim backcountry roads by picturesque farmland, I felt like I had stepped into the Shire. Many areas from Lord of the Rings motion pictures have been filmed within the space. Bucolic and delightful, with tender woodlands, fairly cows, and fruit bushes all over the place, it evoked a sense of nostalgia inside me. Not that I grew up with any of that, however I’m going to run with it.
Rustic ReTreet evokes a treehouse vibe however for adults. It sits in its personal little space away from their fundamental home, and it’s fully non-public and quiet.
Perched on a wood platform on the fringe of an oak forest, you’re surrounded by nature. It sits on the property of the great homeowners, Janine and Simon, who constructed all of it themselves with timber milled from their land, and different repurposed supplies. Expertise. I battle to place collectively IKEA furnishings (although, in my protection, there are plenty of steps).
There’s the principle constructing with the bed room subsequent to a lounge with a built-in nook to learn by the window. As a ebook girlie, I’ll all the time stan a superb window nook for studying. There’s one other constructing with an open-air kitchen on one aspect and an open-air rest room on the opposite looking into the forest.
Above it’s a little secret second bed room with two single beds tucked in, surrounded by books. It’s good for teenagers, however adults may completely slot in there, too. As somebody who loves being comfortable and bundled up, I may have simply stayed up there and been completely satisfied as a clam.
There’s a hidden tub out on the deck, and the positioning is adorned with considerate touches and artwork. It’s completely homey. I didn’t need to go away. However the climate was so good I knew I needed to take benefit and discover the realm. After a large lie-in, in fact. Screw mornings.
The Nelson-Tasman area, notably across the Kahurangi Nationwide Park, is cave nation. There are heaps. The longest and deepest caves are right here, although why on Earth anybody would go in them is past me. Nothing good can come out of one thing that far down into the Earth.
I’ve achieved some vacationer caving right here and there, like across the Waitomo caves on the North Island and even over on the West Coast round Karamea (the opposite finish of the Heaphy Monitor). New Zealand is legendary for its blackwater rafting. That is whenever you float on an innertube guided by cave techniques at various levels of scary. Undoubtedly kind two enjoyable.
I’ve spent plenty of time down there photographing glowworms (troublesome), and also you do begin to go a bit loopy after just a few hours in the dead of night. I don’t understand how correct cavers do it, however Golden Bay is residence to many caves of various levels of entry. There are many child caves which might be accessible to vacationers.
Simply down the highway from Rustic ReTreet, by some paddocks and down some dusty roads, is the beginning of a path as much as the Rawhiti Caves. It was a correct grunt of a climb as much as the doorway of the cave. Barely creepy as I used to be the one one there. You don’t go contained in the cave a lot; there’s an unimaginable opening lined in stalactites with a pleasant viewing platform.
With some daylight left, I drove to Puponga close to Farewell Spit and visited the super-famous Wharariki Seaside. I can’t consider I’ve by no means been right here. Or I’ve, and I don’t bear in mind.
It is among the screensavers for Home windows 10, or so I’m instructed. I haven’t used Microsoft since highschool. There are just a few rocky islands, one with a pleasant arch that resembles an elephant. Relying on the wind and tides, I feel you’ll be able to usually get good reflections of the islands within the surf.
After I went, it was a howling gale, however it was lovely. The seashore is expansive and surrounded by dunes. Backlit at sundown, watching the sand blow round throughout the dunes was mesmerizing, like glitter—very very like the film Dune. The spotlight for me was some fur seal pups taking part in within the tidepools. I really like watching them doodle round; they’re tremendous cute.
On my approach again to Takaka, I ended on the Mussel Inn for dinner. Guys, this place is known. In the course of nowhere, there’s this lovely macrocarpa wood constructing with intensive outside areas that moonlights as a music venue. I sat inside by the fireplace with one of many beers they brew themselves and a giant outdated pile of green-lipped mussels. Yum yum. It was pretty quiet because it was low season, however they did bust out on the piano for some singalongs. It was so superior.
My final morning, I spent having a pleasant brunch in Takaka earlier than heading out to the Te Waikoropupū Springs. These are the biggest chilly water springs within the southern hemisphere. Pupū Springs are fairly unimaginable and are residence to a few of the clearest water on Earth; the water visibility of the springs is as much as 81 meters, as shut as you may get to pure water.
The springs are thought of a taonga (treasure) by native Māori. Nobody is permitted to the touch or get into the water. A pleasant, straightforward monitor circles the springs. It’s fairly exceptional; the blue is unreal.
Earlier than I knew it, it was time to go to the airport and fly again to Karamea. There have been 4 of us inside a comfortable little aircraft with Golden Bay Air. It was about half an hour’s flight to Karamea, the place I left my automobile after I began the Heaphy Monitor every week earlier. So a lot better than a seven-hour drive between the beginning and end of the monitor. Nevertheless, I did drive ten hours afterward again residence to Wānaka. Sigh.
The additional south I drove, the decrease the skin temperature turned. Possibly I ought to have stayed in wonderful Golden Bay a wee bit longer.
Many due to Golden Bay Air for serving to out with my transport prices. Like all the time, I’m holding it actual. Like you could possibly count on much less from me!
