After a six day stay in Kaiapoi just north of Christchurch and everyday a wet day, we wanted to head to Blenhiem, however that six days of constant rain had washed out Highway 1 heading north to Kaikoura forcing us to take the Lewis Pass then turning north onto Highway 65 to Murchison where we stayed the night.
With Highway 1 out of action Murchison was a busy little town and fortunately we had a travel day with good weather. The first thing to do in Murchison was visit the local stores for a browse and then a cold Briggs Porter at the local Hampden Hotel the local pup and being fish’n’chip Friday we returned to the hotel for our evening meal.
The next day we headed north for the final 130 kilometers to Motueka with the only stop being at Wakefield for lunch and yes it was because of their bakery and it’s reputation of pies heaven of which we have visited before on numerous occasions. In arriving at the bakery due to their popularity there was a reasonable line up and a bit of a wait but eventually Jude was served and due to the fact there were so many people occupying tables we decided to eat at home (our Moho) which was better anyway as we had the warmth of the sun there.
We arrived at the Motueka NZMCA park mid afternoon for the rest of the weekend and were surprised at how many mohos and caravans were there and remembered it was school holidays. Once parked up it was around the estuary for a walk with a visit to the Motueka Market the next morning.
Monday rolls around pretty quickly and before moving on we Jude wanted to pop into Nelson for a couple of bit and pieces before heading to Kaiteriteri where we had booked our Moho into the Bethany Park of which we had pre booked a park with power for 7 days. Arriving at Bethany Park we were surprised at how lovely it looked and on a quick walk around after parking up and hooking up the power, we found the showers and toilets were clean and immaculate… not bad for $138 per week (Winter Rates for NZMCA members). The people we parked up beside were friendly… looking forward to the week here.
The next day we drove to Marahau to walk the first six kilometers of the Able Tasman Coastal Trail to Apple Tree Bay for a picnic lunch. With my backpack loaded up with 15kg of gear including a cut lunch, espresso coffee pot, hiking stove plus unnecessary gear to make up the weight to 15kg (just to make a short distance a good exercise) we headed of to Apple Tree Bay it was a lovely day and 1hr 25min later we got to the beach, right on time for lunch.
There were already some trampers who had already spent a couple of days walking from the other end of the Able Tasman Coastal Trail at the beach and it was fortunate that they were just leaving which freed up the picnic table for us to use for lunch. There were half a dozen locals scampering around so we had company for lunch… sandflies and Weka!
As I unpacked lunch I place my sandwich sized container on to the bench seat and a weka immediately had a swipe at it but didn’t quite manage to knock it to the ground however it was still sealed and I manage to save it (this should have been a warning for what was to come)
Five minutes later Jude and I were feasting on a lovely cheese and Marmite sandwich when I dropped a small piece of crust, a little weka with a leg missing got to it first but was beat off by bigger weka’s. Feeling sorry for the little fella I got another piece and walked closer to where he/she had retreated to, hoping I could give it some food away from the others… silly me as I reckon that was their sneaky little plan ‘make feel sorry for the little guy and when I left the picnic table to give him a bit the little pricks made their move and raided my remaining sandwich! All I heard was a yell from Jude as she tried to thwart their attempt, Oh well they got me and it’s their win this time…
With lunch finished and a good cup of coffee it was time for the 1.5 hr walk out and enjoy some of the views from a different perspective. Overall it was a great day with some laughs and a good 12 km workout with a medium weighted load on the back. Tomorrow we attack the mountain bike track at Kaiteriteri.
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