Sat 23 Jan - Sun and Sand on Golden Bay

We bade farewell to Collingwood and drove back south to Takaka, a place that had intrigued us on our drive up two days previously. Indeed there appeared to be a significant number of people (old and young) sporting dreadlocks and ponytails and dressed, shall we say, unconventionally. After coffee at the Wholemeal Café and a stroll through the Saturday market – another similarity to Totnes being the ‘White Elephant’ stalls – we headed to Pohara Beach and checked in at the ‘Top Ten’ Holiday Park. This was located right behind the beach so we were able to walk from our cabin about 40 metres to reach the beach where we spent the afternoon. Despite lacking the excuse of having no swimming costume Christine was still unable to summon the courage for a dip! After enough hours in the sun we decided to explore the road into the Abel Tasman National Park and discovered some truly astounding golden sand beaches. As a lot of New Zealand is formed from volcanic rock many of the beaches have dark sand – particularly on the North Island – so the colour of the Abel Tasman beaches was particularly conspicuous. After our 15 mile drive on dirt tracks we were ready for our first home cooked meal followed by a planned coffee at one of the café/restaurants nearby. To our surprise we discovered that Kiwis retire to bed early, not one of the places was open at 10.00 pm. Another similarity with the USA!