Day 39: Footprints on the Beach

The weather forecast today predicted heavy rain in the afternoon and, considering how lousy we have both been feeling, we decided to simply book a short boat ride up the Abel Tasman coast.  What a shame that we could not walk a section of the rainforest in the national park as we would have liked but, as we arrived at the carpark in Kaiteriteri, the rain had already begun.

We had a cuppa in the Shoreline Cafe and then went on board with a mix of folks who were either, like us, doing the Half Park Scenic Tour or were being dropped off at different points along the coast to walk. I envied those but felt dreadful and cold so it would not have been sensible to walk in wet rainforest.

Our ride took us first to Split Apple Rock which is not actually in the National Park but is a big tourist attraction.  Our guide told us the Maori story of the two warring gods fighting over the possession of the big boulder.  To settle their quarrel they broke the boulder in half, hence the split apple.

From there we went in to Apple Tree Bay where there was once a whole orchard which was wiped out by a large storm which drove saltwater on to the trees.  One remained for some years which was the reason for the renaming of the bay.  We paused briefly at Adele Island to seal spot and indeed there were some sheltering from the weather.

From Adele Island it was round to Anchorage to drop off some brave, walking folks and then to Medland Beach.  This was where we had to change boats for the return journey so we got to stand briefly on the very lovely golden Abel Tasman sands but sadly that was all there was to be, and on the return trip the cloud was so low that the views were obscured completely.

Regaining land, we had lunch at the Shoreline Cafe, a very welcome bowl of soup for me and a BLT for Tony, and then it was back in Oscar the Van to Motueka to do the laundry and relax for the remainder of the day whilst the rain continues to beat down on the roof.