Roam Relax Repeat

March 04, 2020

Saturday Feb 29

Heading to Nelson today – only a couple hours drive, and it sets us up for a push to Abel Tasman National Park. Good drive on somewhat larger and straighter roads. Stopped for a stretch break at Pelorus River Gorge, that offered a short hike up the river to a suspension bridge, which we did. Then onward to Nelson, we arrived just in time for the farmers market where we picked up a few provisions. Really nice market with lots of fresh food and interesting vendors. After the market we had to stop for coffee and a treat, then to the supermarket for the rest of our provisions and then to the campsite which was beside the beach and turned out to be a good choice. Did a beach walk and then settled in for the evening.

Sunday March 1

Visited the Nelson Lakes today, about 50 km south of Nelson, nestled in the mountains at the start of the southern alps. We heard, you can hire a water taxi to provide transport to the end of the lake and then hike back, which was our plan for the day. On our drive to the lake, there seemed to be more traffic than I expected…and they all seemed to be in a hurry. Our little van doesn’t have a lot of power and I don’t want to drive fast anyway, so I was constantly pulling over to let anxious drivers pass us by. When we arrived in St Arnaud, the small town at the head of the lake, it became apparent that something was going on…actually it was a two day hydroplane regatta! I think there were four classes of boats and the big ones were super noisy and really fast. We went to the visitor centre to inquire if the water taxi was operating with the boat races in progress and thankfully, it was. We found a place to park and located Hamish, the water taxi guy. After a few minutes of our arrival there was a lull in the racing and Hamish was able to whisk us away in his very nice water taxi. The lake is 8 km long and in no time we were delivered to the dock at the end of the lake where our hike commenced. The track follows the edge of Lake Rotoiti, an alpine lake that was carved by glaciers much the same as lakes of the Rockies in British Columbia. We heard about the hike from some campsite neighbors that we met while staying at Ohope beach a few weeks back. It pays to chat with the locals to pick up good travel tips that are often not mentioned in the travel guides. The hike was easy, it followed the shoreline through a beautiful beech forest. The lake is home to a lot of birds – we saw several black swans and some ducks that are native to NZ. As we made our way back along the track, the din of the race boats became louder…but it was fine. We made a few stops at some rocky beaches and took a few pictures of the alpine scenery. After completing the hike, went over to the regatta area to check out the boats. The races were wrapping up but we managed to catch a couple of heats before they packed it in. We decided to head out as well and made our way back to Nelson, with a nice bakery pit stop in Wakefield for tea, coffee and treats.