Abel Tasman and Back

Dec.2

I couldn’t take a step without extreme pain in my back and leg this morning. I couldn’t possibly hike or tour or even drive far. The driving has just been too much on my back I guess. I had to find a chiropractor. I asked Neville where the nearest ones were and I picked a woman who seemed, from the Yellow Page ad, to be like mine back home. When I get there and was shown into her office I saw an adjusting table that looked just like the one my chiropractor uses. Amazing.  I’ve been to three different chiropractors in Milwaukee and they all have different techniques. But the one I found here happens to have the same technique as the one I use back home. God is watching over me! She checked me out and basically my spine was locked from the neck to the base, my pelvis was locked up and my knees and ankles too. The scrunching and leaning forward and driving those mountain roads had completely locked up my entire body, along with the help of my arthritis. She spent a good amount of time unlocking as much as she could and I made an appointment to come back tomorrow. I still hurt, but at least every step is no longer jarring.

On my way home I decide to drive by the beach. I find a small road that leads to a parking path on the beach. This sandy beach goes all around a huge bay for miles with mountains in the background. I decide to get out and walk in the sand even though I planned to take it very easy today. It is just so beautiful and the sun is shining and people are out walking their dogs. I walk down to the water’s edge and immediately take off my sandals and start wading. It’s warm!  I can’t believe how nice the water is. I stroll for about five minutes one way and then turn around. The people with their dogs are letting them run without leashes. The dogs are having a wonderful time. Most of them are chasing balls and sticks into the water and splashing and going wild with excitement. They meet another dog and do the doggie meet and greet and then take off like cannons chasing each other. I stand and just watch the dogs for awhile.  As I’m sitting drying my feet one of the owners comes and sits and remarks on the beautiful day. We strike up a conversation. Turns out he’s a carnie and saved his dog from the pound, (a beautiful well behaved dog I had fun watching) and she loves riding around the country with him as he moves from town to town, and this is one of the few beaches they allow dog unleashed. This is very typical of all New Zealanders -- friendly and nice and always willing to strike up a conversation.

 I spend the rest of the day on my patio watching the world go by, reading and writing and researching the North Island of NZ. I see the para- surfers go surfing on the bay while the sun is sparkling all around their boards and gaily colored kites that pull them through the water. In the evening I finish my bottle of champagne and watch the sunset and the children’s teams playing soccer in a nearby field.

Dec. 3

I awaken to more back pain and limp to the chiropractor. She says I’m better than yesterday and loosens up even more joints. She loads me up with some natural anti-imflamatories and says she wishes she could keep working in me. I do too, but I leave on Sunday.

I get in my car and head for Abel Tasman Park. Pain or no pain, I’m going to see this famous park. It might only be from my car, but at least I’ll have said I have seen it. I hope the drive isn’t too curvy so it doesn’t undo what the chiropractor just did. Most of the way is pretty easy even though Mrs. Tomtom needs an upgrade on her maps; she didn’t know about the new highway in one area and really wanted me to turn around for about 5 miles. And, I actually got to go on a divided highway for 5.3 kilometers. It wasn’t a real expressway, but it was divided so I felt like I was back in America albeit on the wrong side of the road and the slow lane is the left lane. Weird. And it’s cherry season! I drove through orchard country and the cherries are ripe and for sale. Acres of trees are covered over with netting to protect the fruit from the birds. I stopped and tried one and they were great. $10 a kilo: pretty costly, but exciting.

I was heading for the town of Kaiteriteri, (I can’t pronounce any place I’ve been to or am going to) to take a sea shuttle into Abel Tasman. The park itself is accessed by water, air and road, but is easiest from where I am by water. It is the busiest tramping track in the summer, probably because it is the most accessible to both islands and large cities. Many people will kayak the park, or sail or motor themselves because so much is accessible by water. It has crazy tides with up to 6m difference between low and high tide which has a huge impact on walkers. After driving the last 5 miles of a really winding road (ow!) into Kaiteriteri , I head to one of the shuttle stands and ask about easy walking tours and they show me where they can drop me off and I could just sit on a beach or I could walk an easy track. I decide to go - I got this far. In for a penny, in for a pound.

I head to my car to get my provisions: hat, walking shoes and stick, insect spray, sun block, rain gear, water, nut bar, cell phone and bag. Enough stuff for a week, not three hours. Then back to the beach where I meet the boat. They have a really nifty catamaran that has an electric ramp that unfolds onto the beach so they just drive up to shore, hit a button and the ramp unfolds. You never have to get your feet wet. We take off into gorgeous turquoise blue water on a sunny 70 degree day. The park unfolds to our left with great cliffs, rock formations and tropical forests, and eventually is on all sides of the boat. I am awed by the immensity and the beauty and the fact that there really is no flat land to walk on. Hmmmm.The boat will take me to any of six stops and will also pick up trampers and campers, so some people have lots of gear as they are going out camping and some long haul campers will get picked up on this trip. My stop is the second landing and I am the only one dropped off there. It is a huge cove with a semi-circle of golden sand backed by waving grass and palm trees and cliffs rising behind it. It’s right out of all the photos you see of south Pacific island paradises. As I go down the ramp the guide tells me where the easy walk is, where to be for pick up, and what time they will come back. I’m not too concerned. There are several other boats in the cove, people and a ranger station here too. I am not at the end of nowhere.

As I stumble through the thick sand I note that it looks like pretty y low tide right now. I look at my map and notice that there is another, more difficult walk, which can only be done at low tide, but you get to cross a inlet marsh or mud flat. That sounds really cool to me as I’ve never crossed a low tide pool before. So I go the opposite way I’m supposed to go and hope it’s not too difficult. As soon as I get off the beach the wind dies down which is nice as it was a little wild and cool. I find myself crossing a small bridge into a sunny, quiet and lush jungle. Beautiful. Then I turn right and the path leads straight up a steep hill. Well, I think, I’ll see what happens to my back and turn around if things get bad. I gasp my way up and am really grateful I brought my stick. At the top there is one of those incredible views through the palms of the beach and the ridiculously blue ocean. It’s indescribable and that alone was worth the climb and the whole boat fee and trip. As I tear myself away from this view I see the path now goes perilously downward; this is even harder than going up as it kills my knee. But I see the tidal area beyond so I figure I may as well try. The stick prevent a full out fall and I make it to the bottom which is actually stairs it gets so steep. Once there I find a backpacking couple and the young woman looks very wearily at me and asks how steep it is. I tell her it is very, very steep, but goes down after that. I ask how long they’ve been backpacking and she says this is their second day, but the backpack is much heavier today. I don’t envy them.

I walk out on to the sloppy sand and am awed by its size and see why trampers want to take this shortcut. It cuts out about one and half to two hours if you can get here when the tide is out. This area must be about 20 acres. It is mainly sand with a few rock formations jutting up and some grass near the edges. When the tide is up it fills with water. At that moment there were just a few skinny, shallow streams flowing toward the sea. Quite a few hikers are crossing the area plus a large school group from Germany. I move to where few people are and start looking in the sand. I notice all sorts of little holes and tiny movements. I stand still. They are tiny sand crabs that climb out of their holes when no one is around. I see thousands of them because they glisten in the sun when they sneak out all wet from the sea water. I have always loved sand crabs and now I’m surrounded by them. I start trying to catch them. I stop one from going back in his hole and another one jumps out of his hole and grabs him and holds him. Suddenly the grabber pulls the other one into his hole and they both vanish. Oops, they might be cannibalistic. I keep walking around playing and having a great time. I notice all the other people are very intent on getting across this huge inlet. So intent they are missing this spectacle of the crabs. No one is seeing this. Once again people have a future goal in mind and are missing the moment. They are not present to what is happening right under their feet and I feel sorry for them.  Now I know the tide will rise and the real trampers need the get over the inlet, but many of these people are short hikers like me and really don’t have to cross the inlet at any special time. So why not enjoy it? And guess who I find are the only other people enjoying it? Along comes a couple with a little 2 year old boy. He is having as much fun as I am and his mother taught him how to pick up the crabs, so the two of us find all sorts of them hiding under logs in the streams.  We all stop and talk because the mother noticed my shoes and asks about them. She then notices I have really bad arthritis –very observant woman- and says they have something in NZ everyone takes and I should ask at the pharmacy.  Her husband shows me the baby flounder in the little streams. I couldn’t find them for the life of me, but he kept showing them to me. Very cool! They then gave me advice on where I should go on the North Island and that really helped me decide what to do with my limited time there. They move on to find lunch and I play a little longer. What a nice encounter.

Eventually I know I have to face the big hill so I tramp through the squishy sand and start up. My stick is my faithful companion and pulls me to the top where the view is still phenomenal. I get back to the beach and hike to the ranger station where there is a toilet. Nothing interesting there –sorry. Back on the beach I lay out my rain jacket, sit and drink water and eat my nut bar. Thus refreshed I don my hat and lay down to await the boat. After a 25 minute nap the boat arrives and its back to my car and back to my penthouse. I then clean up and walk down the street to the German restaurant I scoped out the other night. It is early and I am the only patron. I order a wheat beer, crispy schnitzel and spaetzle. I’m starved after only the nut bar so I eat most of the quite good meal and all the beer and walk back home. Then it’s therapeutic bath time and off to bed.