There aren’t many locations in New Zealand that make me query my option to reside in Wānaka, however Golden Bay positively did. Heat, sunny, and most significantly, low-cost, Golden Bay piqued my curiosity as someplace I might simply reside comfortably. I’m simply unsure I’m hippie sufficient to suit the native standards, however extra on that in a minute.
After ending the Heaphy Monitor exterior of Takaka, I caught the shuttle from Golden Bay Air to the airport, the place I rented a automobile. These are the fellows who arrange the logistics and flights across the space. Takaka is roughly a million miles and $500 price of petrol away from Wānaka, so after I heard you possibly can hire a automobile there, I assumed it might be a great probability 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 keep in mind if it was paved or not. These are small aircraft flights. It’s so chill and simple, precisely what you need on a vacation. The automobile was an outdated Honda that felt like you possibly can take it wherever.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 you already know that everybody is aware of one another’s names. And all of their enterprise, too. Find it irresistible!
The very first thing you could find out 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 appears 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. Actually, a lot of the prime of the South Island is like that. I’m scripting this as there’s frost a centimeter thick coating my energy invoice is within the triple digits. Why Wānaka, why?!
Golden Bay is a large 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 types virtually an ideal “C” form and is without doubt one of the extra distant locations to get to in New Zealand. You need to 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 large hotspot for whale strandings, normally mass strandings by pilot whales. There was an enormous 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 big tidal flows and really gently sloped sand across the spit with deep water on the opposite facet. Irrespective of the explanation, it’s a whale demise lure.
You guys know this can be a subject 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.
Huge fucking bummer, I do know. However hey, I used to be tremendous excited to be up in Golden Bay and NOT be round lifeless 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 important to drive over a mountain to get there. Golden Bay and Takaka have remained comparatively remoted, principally 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 a whole bunch 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 might do to the Crown Vary, an analogous 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 below the velocity restrict and never pulling over to let the 20 vehicles queued behind them cross. 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 a protracted part down to at least one 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 in opposition to paperwork.
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 night time 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 scorching, greasy meal and a protracted bathe after being within the bush for days.
The following few nights, I stayed out at Rustic ReTreet, a comparatively new Cover Tenting glamping web site simply exterior of Takaka. Spoiler alert – it was like stepping right into a fairytale. I like staying in these sorts of areas for therefore many causes. Distinctive, cozy, and delightful, they’re principally a vacation spot in and of themselves. You would simply keep there and be completely content material.
As a touring homebody, you may in all probability see why these locations enchantment to me—and lots of others, too—which is why they’re tremendous widespread.
I might really feel my breath depart 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 way of picturesque farmland, I felt like I had stepped into the Shire. Many places from Lord of the Rings films have been filmed within the space. Bucolic and delightful, with mushy woodlands, fairly cows, and fruit timber in all places, 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 foremost home, and it’s utterly 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 fantastic house owners, Janine and Simon, who constructed all of it themselves with timber milled from their land, and different repurposed supplies. Expertise. I wrestle to place collectively IKEA furnishings (although, in my protection, there are loads of steps).
There’s the primary constructing with the bed room subsequent to a lounge with a built-in nook to learn by the window. As a guide girlie, I’ll at all times stan a great window nook for studying. There’s one other constructing with an open-air kitchen on one facet and an open-air lavatory on the opposite searching into the forest.
Above it’s a little secret second bed room with two single beds tucked in, surrounded by books. It’s excellent for teenagers, however adults might completely slot in there, too. As somebody who loves being cosy and bundled up, I might have simply stayed up there and been comfortable as a clam.
There’s a hidden bathtub out on the deck, and the location is adorned with considerate touches and artwork. It’s completely homey. I didn’t need to depart. However the climate was so good I knew I needed to take benefit and discover the realm. After an enormous lie-in, after all. Screw mornings.
The Nelson-Tasman area, significantly 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 carried out 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 known for its blackwater rafting. That is whenever you float on an innertube guided by way of cave programs at various levels of scary. Undoubtedly kind two enjoyable.
I’ve spent loads of time down there photographing glowworms (tough), and also you do begin to go a bit loopy after a number of hours at nighttime. I don’t know the way 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 way of 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 Seashore. I can’t consider I’ve by no means been right here. Or I’ve, and I don’t keep in mind.
It is without doubt one of the screensavers for Home windows 10, or so I’m informed. I haven’t used Microsoft since highschool. There are a number of rocky islands, one with a pleasant arch that resembles an elephant. Relying on the wind and tides, I feel you may 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 similar to the film Dune. The spotlight for me was some fur seal pups enjoying within the tidepools. I like watching them doodle round; they’re tremendous cute.
On my means again to Takaka, I ended on the Mussel Inn for dinner. Guys, this place is famous. In the course of nowhere, there’s this lovely macrocarpa wood constructing with in depth outside areas that moonlights as a music venue. I sat inside by the hearth 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 among the clearest water on Earth; the water visibility of the springs is as much as 81 meters, as shut as you will 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 observe circles the springs. It’s fairly outstanding; the blue is unreal.
Earlier than I knew it, it was time to move to the airport and fly again to Karamea. There have been 4 of us inside a snug 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 observe. Nonetheless, I did drive ten hours afterward again residence to Wānaka. Sigh.
The additional south I drove, the decrease the surface 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 at all times, I’m conserving it actual. Like you possibly can anticipate much less from me!
