VictoriaApril 4
We left Meadowbank at 8:30 a.m. en route to our next destination, Torrent Bay Lodge.
The most succinct way to describe our hike today is a climb up the mountain, descend the mountain, land on the beach. Repeat three more times for a total of 12.5 miles.
The longer version is we left and crossed Awaroa Beach and Bay and walked in the drizzle and pouring rain along the Awaroa Inlet. We hiked through thick bush and trails up hills and around bends overlooking the Sea. At first the tide was out in the inlet, so it was dry when we left.
We hiked this first segment of the trail today through Onetahuti and just before we arrived at Tonga Quarry, we came to a long boardwalk that took us over wetlands and down to the beach, where the trail continued on the golden sand.
At the end of the shore at Tonga Quarry, the group split. Those who signed up to kayak left to do that, a few escaped the track and took the ferry all the way to the lodge and the remainder of us continued our hike. We were all meeting up at Torrent Bay Lodge later in the day.
There were only five of us left hiking the whole way along with our guide, Sarah. We walked together as a group after we left Tonga Quarry, but after a mile or so, Mitch and I broke away from the group and went ahead to walk at our own pace. We found they were stopping too often for breaks and explanations of the forest and it broke our hiking rhythm. So Mitch and I forged ahead.
The problem with that is we didn’t get clear tidal instructions about which trail to take at the Bark Bay crossing and came to a fork in the road for a low tide trail and a high tide trail. We stood there at the sign for 10 minutes discussing options hoping the group would catch up. No such luck!
Onward we decided. We looked down, saw a lot of sand and not much water, so we opted for the low tide trail as it was at least 30 minutes shorter. Oops! We chose wrong.
We got down to the sea basin as the tide was rolling in, so that would have meant taking off our hiking boots and socks and swapping to our water shoes for the water crossing, and then putting our boots back on after walking with damp feet. Nope! We decided that wasn’t for us, so back up the hill we went, walking 15 more minutes uphill to the high tide trail and wound up with a bonus 30 minute hike extension, plus another 30 minute hike on the high tide trail to Bark Bay. Yay for us!
Back at the fork in the trail, we ran into another Wilsons guide and group walking in the opposite direction. We got good directions from him (too late for us) and asked them to let Sarah know we were alive and headed to the lodge.
We were treated to some great views on this part of the track and more suspension bridges with waterfalls.
We finally arrived at Bark Bay and had a short rest to eat our lunch and some snacks with the wekas.
We had two more big mountains to climb, another 4 miles, and we were eager to get to the lodge. The group still had not yet caught up, so we left on our own.
On this section of track, there was a tree avalanche that took out part of the trail along with some erosion. It got a bit tricky up and around the corners. Tree avalanches are caused when trees with shallow roots break free and start rolling down the mountain taking out other trees with weak root systems as they collapse and fall. We’ve seen the aftermath of these avalanches on our drives and on many of our hikes. We’re glad we didn’t see one of these in real time.
Reading about the Abel Tasman hike beforehand, I thought it was more of a meander from beach to beach, traipsing through golden sand, waves breaking at my feet, flip flops jauntily thrown over my shoulder. Wrong! The elevation gain was more significant than I anticipated and I was glad to have brought my hiking poles. It didn’t come close to the difficulty of some of our other hikes, but I was still caught off guard and out of breath on multiple occasions. The climbs were steep and long at times.
We passed over bridges and through more forest sighting Medlands Beach and at last arrived at Torrent Bay Lodge. We snapped a few photos before our final descent down to the beach.
We’ve realized now that any hike over 10ish miles is too long and no longer that enjoyable. Good to know for future hikes!
We arrived at the lodge, checked into our room and had a chance to relax before dinner.
Here’s a look around our lodge as captured by Wilsons.
We had our 6pm briefing and unfortunately the tides worked against us again as we can’t kayak without water. We had a few more hiking options for tomorrow. We’ll consider those in the morning as we couldn’t fathom hiking much more on our lazy day.
During dinner we enjoyed a beautiful sunset.
Dinner was excellent. We ate on a long family-style table and it was nice as we got to know our fellow travelers more. I had steak and Mitch had a medley of grilled fish. The chef at this lodge is also a professional baker and her chocolate chip cookies are divine. I’ve eaten way too many and I am hoping she’ll share the recipe.
Tired and exhausted from the walk, we went to bed early and slept well until a few of the sandflies found us in the dark.
