This track is one of the most well known in New Zealand, and internationally famous. It goes all along the coast, from the east part of Golden Bay (already figured out why is called so, with help of the pictures? ) until almost the northern part of the south island.
We decided to walk the 50 km in four days, having our overnights in our tent, across the several campsites provided. As it is not a circuit track, we booked a water taxi (a fast boat) to sail back to where our van was awaiting us. We heard on the weather forecast that one day was expected rain, so we got prepared...
The walk is rated as easy, because of how many people walk it, the path is in very well condition. No trees crossed whatsoever. In peak season, we read that an average of 250 people walk this track daily.Uyy...
But we were lucky, and in the campsite (Te Pukatea) we stayed on our first beach-night, we were 7 in total. That night we were glad we bought such a good tent. It rained the whole night, the type of rain which you feel it can not rain all the time like that strong, but it did...
The tent was a real bargain for what it is. If you are living in Germany and you need a good, 2person, rain resistant and light(2kg) tent you may want to search Amazon.de for "Salewa Ultima 2". They were selling them for half the price.
Anyway, the next morning it stopped raining, and the pause was just enough to dry the tent a bit, then it started a soft rain.
The colors of the sand at the beach are spectacular, being formed from granite stones, it has a orange color that contrast with the green and blue from the sea in a very beautiful way. Also good is to see such beaches almost completely empty, since the only access to them is walking the track.
The 2nd night we would sleep in a long beach(Onetahuti), and we stayed alone! There was nobody else, we couldn't believe it. In the afternoon we walked to the rocks at the end of the beach and Daniela found a massive starfish, it was probably as big as a steering wheel! It hadd ten legs and was the start of our strange animals list that we would see during the walk.
After dawn, Daniela got scared after hearing a strange noise coming from the bushes behind us, after all we were alone, with no mobile phone coverage and no closer that 1 hour by foot to other camps. We directed our torch beams to the noise and we saw two red eyes observing us. It was a Possum, later two more would come. New Zealand is full of them, they are a non native specie that was introduced in thee country and now it not only has become a pest, but also threats the bird native species.
That night rained again, but we did not care since the camping ground had a shelter to get dry, and the tent has proven to be reliable.
Next morning we had to walk a couple of tidal crossings, that is that in the walking track there is some part of it which you can only pass when the tide is low (Ebbe, marea baja). So we had it programmed and that meaned we have to start walking not later than 9am.
At about 10am it started to rain heavily, we could make a pause and wait for the rain to pass because of the tidal crossings. By 10.30, our GORE-TEX stuff said goodbye. Whether shoes or raincoats, it didn't make any difference, we were very wet. So wet that for the tidal crossing we did not take our shoes off, with water almost to the knees.
Anyway, the views were astonishing. And after three ours we arrived to Totaranui and the sun was shining, so we dried almost everything. By the way, why a backpack rain-cover is nother waterproof I don't understand, neither mine nor Daniela's did stop the water entering to our rucksacks...
Next day we walked to the "separation point" rocks, for 5hours return. We were told there was a fur seal(seehund, morsas) colony that we could view. At the beginning Daniela was a bit deceived because we saw none, but looking carefully revealed them swimming and lying in the rocks just next to us. They had some puppies too, they have such big eyes, it reminded me about tennis balls.
The fourth strange animal to see was the Weka, a flightless native bird, which is as big as a chicken. And it runs, and how fast!
Later on the water taxi we saw our last animal for this track, while next to the shore we could clearly see a stingray next to us. Really exciting to see so many exotic wild animals .
Uf, this post was long, but it was worth to remember!
Cheers and until next post!
Juanma & Daniela.
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