Golden Bay (3rd to 19th Dec)

Bill relaxing after a walk over the hill to Ligar Bay

We left Nelson on the 3rd with the car set up for towing -the unit worked well up and over Takaka Hill without any issues.
Arriving at Tarakohe Sunday night, the NZMCA camp was quite busy. It was a beautiful evening with reflection of full moon onto the harbour, only the slightest ripple on the water.

Full moon over Port Tarakohe

Port Tarakohe on sunset

Our first day was just relaxing - reading and sorting things in Bus. Bill fitted a shackle to the back of the Bus so the A frame can be carried on the back when not towing the car as we will occasionally travel (like most of the time while we are over here in Golden Bay).
I had my first swim of the season when we walked from the Port over the hill to Ligar Bay, a 5km return walk via the Able Tasman Memorial / Lookout. The weather has been so settled, no wind, makes it very pleasant and surprisingly not cooling off in the evenings.
With such settled weather it was ideal conditions to do a paddle in our loaned kayak (thank you Diana) from Tata Beach across to Taupo Pa (an historic Pa site from early 1800's) and back around Wainui Inlet.  had a late lunch and a swim at a little beach before the return to Tata Beach and back to Port Tarakohe.

Lovely spot for lunch and swim

We are only allowed 3 nights at Port Tarakohe as part of the resource consent for this NZMCA site, so we had to move on. We decided to head off and park up under the Takaka Bridge along with a dozen other Camper cars and one other bus. Bit of a neglected area TDC have allocated for Freedom Camping for CSC (Certified Self Contained) vehicles. But with no one following up that only CSC vehicles are there, many were not. With a toilet onsite, there was no evidence of people abusing the area and no rubbish which was good to see. Vehicles coming in late evening and away early in the morning to make the most of the days.

The drive out of the Cobb Dam

Bill had been keen to have a look at the Doc Camp up at the Cobb Dam as an option sometime to take the Bus up the back of the Takaka area - a hydro scheme that was built in the 1940's providing power to the network which the government of the time thought was required to meet the need of the country.

Bill thinks it's warm enough
for a dip in the Takaka River

It was a very windy 38.5km road only half sealed to the Power Station at the bottom and very dusty gravel road up to the Dam.   We only took the Suzuki in and even at times that felt too wide for the road with the many outcrop of rocks! Unbelievable the big vehicles that must have come in here to build the power station and dam.

Barge at Port Tarakohe being
loaded with local rock for
Wellington's Transmission Gully

The dam was quite low and didn't appeal for a paddle or swim. The sandflies forced a short lunch break, then drove down to the bottom of the lake where the Doc camp was. Lovely scenic location providing a hut for many of the walks that commence from here.
Friday after stocking up for the weekend at Takaka's only supermarket, we headed on to Golden Bay Holiday Park ( Tukarua Beach - half way between Takaka and Collingwood). A lovely small camp where our children had their camping holidays as they grew up for 20 odd years. It was a lovely low key basic camp, and although there are a few additions (a couple of motel units and a self contained cabin) the camp looked very much like it always had.

Bill supervising the erection of the "new" tent

Dam construction - serious business!

Met up with nephew Simon and Nicki and their girls Lily (6yr) and Daisy (2yr) first time camping in their new tent (apparently a mansion after the their last one which was pre family days) and friends Pippa & John and daughter Annabell (2yr - and friends with Daisy) in their caravan also called Daisy.
It was almost a perfect weekend weather wise. Plenty of dam building and swimming with the Stingrays - bit of a panic (just as much for the Stingrays as myself), so there was lots to keep people busy but also allow plenty of time to relax too.  With a small playground nearby there was plenty to keep the Girls entertained - and the big Boys!
It was lovely seeing the next generation enjoy this little gem of a campground - although it is back on the market at $3.875 mil - hope it doesn't sell to any developer soon with it's beautiful little beach.
With the departure of the two families, Bill & I returned to Port Tarakohe and had dinner at the Boat Club. Next day we headed over the hill to Totoranui Doc Camp (Doc's #1 South Island Camp).
As it's a very windy gravel road, we decided to take the two vehicles over separately. There are still signs of the damage heavy rains did back in 2011, which isolated the camp for over 6 months before they could reinstate the road for campers to use once again.

Nigel No Mates in our camp field  at Totoranui

Colours are amazing in this part of the Able Tasman Park with the green clear waters and golden sands - perfect for a swim once we got settled at our camp site. This camp gets heavily used over the 6 week period of the summer school holidays - people are balloted to be selected for a camp site. We will move out just before schools break up for the summer and return to Nelson in time for Christmas.

Lovely Anapi Beach

We only managed the one kayak trip near the end of the week due to the wind coming up each day. The day we did paddle around to Araroha appeared perfect at first and there was enough tide for us to get in and nosey around the inlet. But when it came time to do the return trip, the wind had unfortunately come up and made it quite a choppy paddle back. Not fun!

Time for more repairs (leak in window)

Fresh baked bread - inverter working well with all this sun

Looking down onto Totoranui Beach and the Camp

We did manage a walk each day, enjoying the lovely bush scenery and lovely coast line. There weren't too many people or campers around yet, probably half the walkers would be foreigners.
Friends Vicki & Trevor came over for the weekend from Nelson, along with a friend of Vicki's - Kathryn.

Vicki's new bunks

To keep it simple for them to come over, we had put up our awning so they didn't need to put their tent up. Well! I had given Vicki the dimensions so she knew not to bring over their large air bed. But thought the stretchers would. Hmmmmmm not little stretchers are they Vicky! But you got them to fit and luckily not by making a bunk set with them!

Bill trying not to get his shoes wet on our walk to Anapai
at low tide

The end of the beach is a perfect spot for swimming

We had another relaxing weekend, with walks and swims and even fresh mussels from our walk over to Anapai. Delicious. It was just like our old days of camping but without the pressures of teenagers.
Bill & I had been fortunate to catch up with fellow campers and enjoy fresh crayfish and nibbles with Bill & Janette and friends Brian and Robyn. Yummy. I had actually worked with Bill back in the days of Johnson's Logging nearly 20 years ago so it was good to catch up on their lives and hear about  their childhoods on the West Coast where all four of them grew up.
We had one more night at Port Tarakohe before returning to Nelson Christmas week - how quiet it was now assuming people had headed off already to join family and friends for Christmas.
Pohara, just around in the next bay, was all go on the Monday night with big celebrations - 350yrs since the Dutch discovered this area, so we went for a walk to find something for dinner. On our way Drew, a friend of Rochelle's from Perth but in Golden Bay for Christmas with his wife Jana and wee girl Addie, passed by but quickly stopped and reversed back to us. Amazing timing for us to pass each other, let alone Drew recognising us after only meeting twice over in Perth. So the next morning we visited them in their home they are renting out while returning to Perth to make money they can't currently make in Golden Bay. Another couple of years they hope to be settled back here in some form of tourism capacity. It was lovely catching up with this couple who were so kind to Rochelle in her early years in Perth.

Jana, Addie, Bill & I with the puppy.