On our hiking list was the Tablelands Circuit in Kahurangi National Park. The access road is a narrow and very steep dirt and gravel climb to over 900 meters elevation. Upon arriving at the car park (a Sunday morning), we found it completely full! With only a few bunks in our ideal first hut, we decided to come back at a later date. After visiting the track, we discovered that most of the cars were likely from hunters and mountain bikers who were doing day visits.
With our first option on hold, we decided to drive up the coast from Nelson, and across Takaka Hill. The whole of Takaka Hill is an enormous outcropping of limestone which is riddled with sinkholes and streams, making an enormous cave and waterway network.
They apparently have a feral hog problem.
Our next stop was Harwoods Hole. Starting out as a sinkhole, it eventually became a waterfall and underground river. After the river found another route, the hundred-plus-meter-deep hole and canyon approach were left high and dry.
Evidence of the river that once raged through here abounded.
Don’t want to trip!
At one point a torrent of water fell, starting in the upper right, and slowly eroding down and back, eventually starting its fall from where we were standing.
Cavers will repel down into the depths, before exiting several km away via Starlight Cave.
Check out the moss prints on the rock.
Our next stop was the Farewell Spit. A narrow strip of sand dunes jutting out into Cook Straight, this 27km-long sliver of land is a bird haven. During nesting season, hundreds of thousands of seabirds nest on dunes, and probe the vast mudflats at low tide.
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