Heaphy Great Walk Day 4

Steven!

The last day of Heaphy began like all the rest, at 5:30am. After 3 days we were unfortunately used to it, and begrudgingly accepted its absurdness. The rain cloud from the day before showed signs of clearing, and although it stayed overcast we were lucky enough to get no rain the entire 4th day. The coastal walk would take us 16km south to a carpark north of the town of Karamea. This marked the end of the track and is where we would meet our bus transport at 130pm. The walk started off awesome and just kept getting better. The beaches went from white and sandy to covered in boulders and then back to sand. Rivers flowed out of the jungle and carved their way through the beach and into the sea. On our left the jungle hills climbed up into the rainforest and were covered in thick plant growth. Every once in awhile we had to stop just to stare up and down at the gorgeous coastline. As the clouds rolled by and we got glimpses of the deep blue sky the setting only became better. We made a point to walk slowly even though our feet and shoulders ached from days of walking. The coastal scenery was gorgeous and the best we had seen since the enormous cliffs on the Banks Peninsula exactly one month ago. We had an amazing walk and as we climbed over one last hill we finally looked down on the car park and the end of the track. Heaphy was pretty freaking awesome. Even though the first day was lacking, the final 3 days just kept getting better and better. The coolness of hiking for 4 days through 4 completely different environments was great.

 At the end of the track we parted ways with Steven, but not before he wrote down in detail a back country track he thought we would enjoy (the first day was 11 hours of hiking...) He also wrote a personalized note to a sales girl in Nelson to tell her to give us a big discount on gear. The van ride back to our car took 6 hours, which was 6 hours too long considering we had not showered in 4 days. We are now safely back and showered in Nelson and plan on doing one more adventure before we head to Marlborough and start working at the vineyard.

Later this week we head to Abel Tasman National park at the very northern tip of the South Island. It is home to the Tasman Coastal Great Walk, and we will be doing it, but with a twist. Instead of hiking the whole thing we are renting sea kayaks and paddling up the coast. We will then leave the kayaks at a campsite and hike out. It should be pretty great and we cannot wait to get up there.