[Marahau, New Zealand] That was a rough night. The wind had the van rocking so much it felt like it was going to tip over. Sand made it sound like we were being sandblasted and rain was being forced inside around the window rubbers by sheer air pressure. We hardly slept.

The plan was to take in the Wharariki beach arches, Cape Farewell (Northern tip of south island) and Farewell Spit (the longest natural sandbar in the world) even if the tide wasn’t right but the rain and wind had us waiting in the car park for an hour before we decided to give up and head back towards Collingwood. We were both more than a little annoyed. By the time we were approaching Takaka our moods, and the weather, were improving. We pulled in at the Paynes Ford car park to check out the crags. Some friendly Italian climbers let us have a look at their guide book. The area has over 200 bolted routes on great feeling limestone and the vast majority are moderate grades (just right to challenge my old bones). What a spot. After checking out a few of the crags we left wishing we had brought our gear.

After climbing back up the insane pass we had tackled yesterday we took a narrow dirt road off towards the Abel Tasman National Park and an interesting sounding sinkhole called ‘the hole’. It was slow going on the little road. Lots of traffic in both directions and plenty of idiots hauling caravans up and down the rocky track. We found the explanation for the traffic. A week long music/hippie festival not unlike Splashy Fen complete with tee-pees, hula hoops and circular gatherings of guru guided pow-wows. At $80 per person to catch only the tail end of the festival these hippies must being doing quite well when they put some shoes on and get back to the real world 🙂 BTW: This part of NZ is hippie central with village streets lined with organic food stores and the endless bead and art shops.

We cruised through the festival and eventually arrived at the Hole’s park area. The walk out took around 40 minutes on, as per usual, a perfect DoC trail. The Hole viewpoint offered views into the distance of dense forest. At the Hole itself we could not safely get a decent look at the drop-off, but it drops 178m! The largest such hole in the southern hemisphere (apparently) with some hectic caving opportunities a the bottom. Need to join a club and get back out here one day. Should be excellent. Walking back out we came across a couple we had passed on the dirt road. They had walked BAREFOOT from the festival. Got to respect that. One thing about hippies – they always make me smile.

Being the carpets that we are we got suckered into giving a lift to a young lady form Chile who was on her way out of the festival. Not that we have anything against hitchhikers, more that with no seats/seat belts in the back we could be fined. Anyway, we gave her a lift as far as we could and continued to Marahau on the coast. The campsite at Marahau is very popular being on the doorstep of the well loved coastal trail in the Abel Tasman but like every other place we have been to it was not full. I suspect it has been a terrible year for New Zealand tourism – amazing that the staff are still so happy and helpful.

[Pictures: Some climbers enjoying Paynes Ford and there is a beeeg hole just over that boulder]

– Posted from my iPhone via 3G