Greymouth was uneventful for us, as we essentially stayed long enough to eat, sleep, wake, eat, fill up with petrol (kiwi word of the day), and head north. It was a gorgeous, hot day, and the scenery, once again, did not disappoint.
One of the main differences between New Zealand and the rest of the world is that New Zealand has no indigenous land mammals other than the seal, so birds sort of took the place of small mammals in the ecosystem. There are a lot of flightless (or relatively flightless) birds here, that forage on the ground, and seem more like giant rodents than birds. We encountered our first roadside Weka, though, in truth, I think this was taken the night before, on the road from Arthur’s Pass to Greymouth, but I didn’t want to leave the little guy out, so here he is…
One of our stops along the way was to see the famed “Pancake Rocks” at Punakaiki, and while we didn’t see them in their full, high-tide glory, we are a family who appreciates a good geological display, and were so glad we stopped…
After getting our fill of crazy rocks and Dr. Seuss trees, we hit the road and didn’t stop (ok, we stopped once for ice cream) until we got to Marahau, and pitched our tent at ‘Old MacDonald’s Farm’
We were right next to a small river, and more importantly, right next to Abel Tasman National Park, which is one of the most beautiful places on earth, without a doubt. We found a few different ways to pass our time there…
The highlight of our time there, though, was awesome burgers at the Fat Tui.
No, actually, that was pretty good, but much to our surprise, the Powers That Be wouldn’t let us rent kayaks for a day, because our kids were under 14. 14!!! We’ve kayaked several times with our kids, and the water here seemed calmer than a few of our outings off the coast of BC (remember THAT uncles?!?!?), and seeing as how the kiwis are usually pretty lax about safety issues, we were more than a little surprised and disappointed, and not at all beligerent with the kayak rental staff in our frustration. Not. At. All. We chalked it up to the fact that the conditions change so rapidly, thereby making it unsafe for kids to go out of the protected bay they offered us for an hour’s kayak amid swimmers and not much else. nah.
So, we moved on to plan B, which was taking a water taxi into Abel Tasman park, which was a lot less effort anyway, right? Along the way we enjoyed (or endured, depending on whether you were a pullyblank with control issues or not) another boat ride, and saw Split Apple Rock.
Then they dropped us off with our swim gear and food and beverages on the beach at Te Pukatea Bay, where we lounged, ate and drank, swam and sandcastled…
…until it was time to set off on our 30 minute “tramp” across the Pitt head Peninsula from Te Pukatea Beach to Anchorage Beach…
…where we met up with a Kereru, or New Zealand pigeon…
…and landed on Anchorage Bay for more fun in the sun while we waited for our water taxi to take us back to camp.
We all swam and lounged, dexter busied himself building a sandcastle city…
…and then toyed with the idea of total destruction of his newly created empire. He leapt around amidst the villagers for about 10 minutes without once damaging any of the lodgings. (Seriously? you don’t want to smash even a few of them? You’re a better monarch than I, my friend)…
…and just generally enjoyed this little slice of heaven. We all felt really lucky to be here that day.
that’s it for tonight, I’m extending this to a 4 part post, and wishing for more time in the day!!
two triple kayaks 
