14km Day : 756km Total
2 February 2015
-40.864769, 173.018568

I extended the stay in Nelson for a couple of days due the forcasted rain over the weekend.  I checked out a lot of the cafes and restaurants in town and just had a lazy few days.  I even saw the third Hobbit movie. 

At 8am this morning I caught a shuttle from Nelson to the track head at Wainui Bay to hike the Abel Tasman Track.  This is one of the Great Walks of New Zealand and it required me to book my campsites in advance of starting.  I booked my camps with the expectation of starting to walk at 10:30.  The trick here was that my camp for the first night (tonight) is on the other side of an estuary crossing with only a 4 hour window of low tide for crossing.  By my estimation the 10:30 start would put me about 1 hour into the crossing opportunity.  I got a message last night from the shuttle company that there would be a 2 hour layover in Takaka.  Then this morning the driver informed us it would be a two and a half hour layover in Takaka (I managed to catch 10min of the Super Bowl at the pub).

It turns out I didn’t start hiking until 2:15, nearly 4 hours later than I originally expected.  So this afternoon turned out to be a power walk to beat the tide instead of the leisurely sight seeing stroll I expected. 

It started with a 400m climb up to Gibbs Hill with great views of Wainui Bay.  Then a bush walk to the estuary.  The trails were well developed, smooth and wide enough for two to three people to walk abreast.  A big change from the Richmond Alpine track that I just completed.  But this was expected to be a relaxing side-trip after all.

Fortunately the DoC is conservative with their safe crossing estimates for the estuary.  I arrived 30min outside the window and was able to cross with just a few knee deep streams to get my feet wet.  The camp was just on the other side.  An hour later the kilometer-wide estuary was full of water from edge to edge.

There is a hut and a large camping area here.  The hut is nearly full but there are only 3 tenters tonight so I had my pick of the many choice spots for my tent.  Nice campground with potable water and flush toilets (and even a foot-washing station!).  The only drawback are the sandflies and mosquitoes of which there are swarms of both competing for my limited supply of blood.  I crossed the estuary in shorts and sandals so my legs were devoured before I had a chance to rug up and apply deet.

The DoC warden came by around 8pm to check our reservation tickets.  He was nice enough to give a description of the upcoming trail and the expected weather for the next couple of days.