I've just been a week down the Abel Tasman National Park, at the top of the South Island. I swam and hiked every day.
About an hour out of Torrent Bay, where I had rented a holiday house, and hiking through beautiful bushland, one comes across Cleopatra's Pool. It's a pool at the bottom of a little waterfall and there is a natural slide down through the waterfall and into the pool. However, for a couple of minutes, there are loads of boulders to scramble over to get to the pool. I managed getting to the pool okay but leaving it, I slipped and smashed my hand against a boulder. I sprained my thumb. Within seconds my thumb and the pillow underneath it were ultra-swollen. And oh-so painful. Still, no sprained thumb was going to get me down.
Within one hour of my leaving to hike back to Torrent Bay where I was staying, a helicopter had winched up an injured hiker who hadnt been successful clambering over the rocks. Apparently there are several injuries every few weeks. I realise now that I should have plodded through the puddles and streams, and little rock pools, rather than trying to emulate a mountain goat, leaping over the boulders.
I love Anchorage Bay and Bark Bay. I hiked every day to various places. There are loads of tourists walking the track. Some catch a boat from Kaiteriteri and just walk for a day, or just a few hours. Others hike for a week.
Here's a bush track.
I only took my phone with me so the photos arent that great, sorry.
Now I'm offf to complete the rest of My Great South Island Road Trip.....
