Abel Tasman > Barrytown
Graham got up early and booked a flight from Christchurch to get him up to Auckland the day before he was due to fly home. The express bus trip through the North Island the day before the long haul flight was just too much for him to face!
Jonathan and Sophie decided to have an easy morning and hung around camp.
Graham and Seb (IT bloke from England) took a water taxi to Watering Cove for a
dander. A water taxi is a RIB speed boat that departs from something
approaching a bus station. Nowt odd about that you may think… except that when
you board the boat it is on a trailer behind a tractor. When everybody is on
board the boat you are hauled down the road to a beach where the tractor
launches you into the surf and off you go. The water taxi brings you out to see
the Split Apple Rock before heading up the coast at a great rate of knots before
the driver calls out a destination. Watering Cove was the first drop off
point. We had to take off our socks and shoes and roll up our trousers, the
driver reverses the boat as close to the beach as possible and then in between
waves you jump into the surf and run ashore trying not to get too wet. The
driver has thrown an anchor out at the front of the boat and uses a winch to
pull the boat out from the beach a little so he can drop the engine and drive
off again.
The 3 hour walk back was through some stunning rainforest and around fantastic
coastline. The pace was quick to enable us to get back to the bus in time.
Abel Tasmin gave some of the best scenery thus far. Graham was a bit gutted not
to have more time to spend here.
The rest of the day was spent on and off the bus doing short walks to see a seal colony, the Truman Track and Pancake Rocks.
We stayed in the All Nations Pub in Barrytown. Barrytown really only has the bar and a couple of houses. We grabbed something to eat, watched a cracking sunset out on the porch then after a couple of beers we went out to inspect the moon with some of the locals.