On our third day in Abel Tasman, we slept in a bit since we didn’t have too far to hike and didn’t have to worry about tides. All of us were either sore, sick, or just hurting in some way. Luckily for me, only the bottoms of my feet were really bothering me from walking on the rocks in the estuary the day before. After getting all our packs together and eating some breakfast we headed off.
The hike was definitely more up and down than the previous days, but since we were relaxed with our time, we stopped at a couple of the beaches that we hiked to and spent some time relaxing and exploring. We first got to Tonga Quarry, which is a beach that used to be the site of a marble quarry. There were large blocks of marble still on the beach. There was also a Weka (a brown, flightless bird) that kept following us around and hoping for us to give it food. Bryn decided to name him Gerald and fed him some cashews. He even posed for a selfie with us.
Gerald, our Weka friend
After about an hour on the beach, we got ready to keep going and hiked to Onetahuti Beach. There, we had to walk down the beach to get to the next part of the trail, which included having to hop over a little stream which ended up being difficult for everyone since we had heavy packs, so I think almost everyone got wet feet.
We finished up the last part of the trail to get to Awaroa, where we would be staying that night. In Awaroa, there is a lodge and café that Thomas had told us about and we were all looking forward to getting pizza. Sadly, we found out that because it is the winter the lodge and café were closed. It makes sense since there were not nearly as many people in Abel Tasman as there are during the summer, but we were all a little disappointed.
We only had to walk a little further to where we would be staying the night, so we got there pretty early in the afternoon. We ended up sitting on the porch of the hut and talking and listening to Disney music (my suggestion, of course) and then went inside to warm up by the fire. Everyone was pretty tired and Brian and Kaelyn were not feeling well, so we played Contact for a little bit but then we went to sleep pretty early.
Hammond Adventures 