Motueka's raison d'etre is as a hopping-off point for trampers to the Abel Tasman National Park (opened in 1942, 300 years after AT first sighted the NZ coast).
After a fine home-cooked eggs and bacon, we headed north via pretty beachside Kaiteriteri
and through the Park up windy SH60,which tops Takaka Hill, giving great views of the wooded hills and occasionally the coast (and Motueka)
and down at Takaka itself, which is the formal start of the
Golden Bay region.
As we were headed to the far north for the Farewell Spit, we decided to by-pass the local "town", Collingwood, and go out-of-the-way by getting in some supplies and holing up at a very tidy little studio at Puponga (which isn't even on the map! Our Swiss-Belgian host tells us it has 15
permanent inhabitants). So naturally we were fully prepared with the bare essentials : cafetiere, fizz, strawberries, savoury muffin (pepperoni and cheese)...
Cape Farewell, Farewell Spit and the surrounding wee bays are just gorgeous.
Farewell Spit itself is mostly sand dunes, 26km long; all but the very first little bit is visited only by day-trip sand buggy. We were satisfied by clambering up the hill and admiring the view.
Very very lovely. Added to which : how cool is it that the top of the south island is in fact shaped like a kiwi?
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