Day 155 Te Puketea Bay-Onetahuti Beach, New Zealand

Woke up around 7am and I seriously had forgotten how uncomfortable it is sleeping on a thin piece of foam especially when its compared to a nice warm bed. Still here we were in this amazing place with the sun already shining and the gorgeous golden beach completely to ourselves. After eating Dennis’s strange but very enjoyable mix of oatmeal, chocolate, fruit and nuts all mixed together for breakfast we were on our way for what turned out to be a totally crazy and at times very tiring walk.
Again like yesterday the walk was amazing but today there was a hill near the end that totally crucified me and in the heat as well I was so happy to eventually make it to the campsite. Tonights campsite was at Onetahuti Beach which was actually quite a luxury one as it had a undercover cooking area and also flushable toilets as opposed to the hole in the ground the night before, what more could you ask for while camping.
The walk today was around 7 hours and after we pitched the tent all I wanted to do was go for a swim in the clear blue sea and after initially thinking it was way to cold I decided to brave it and go for the plunge and after the intial shock it wasn’t actually to bad. However around 20 minutes later I noticed some huge black/grey coloured object in the water within 5 metres of myself. Not sure at first what it was I decided to get out of the water on then realized it was a huge stingray fish swimming about, so I thought I would call it a day and give the swimming a miss.
After Dennis cooked yet another delightful meal we both sat on this huge rock next to the sea and after chatting for several minutes neither of us could believe what we were about to see. Looking out towards the sea and around 50 metres in the distance a pod of around 15-20 dolphins appeared and we spent 20 minutes watching them dive out of the water and play around with each other. To be there on the beach as the sun was going down and no one else around was absolutely amazing and to then see these dolphins was mindblowing. Then after the sun had gone down and the stars came out I sat staring at them for what seemed like forever in my own little world, thinking about what an amazing day it had been and looking forward even more to tomorrow.

Abel Tasman

Onetahuti Beach, Abel Tasman