Wainai Bay, Taupo Point, Not

As noted earlier, I had wanted to do a bit of the farther reaches of the Abel Tasman Coastal Track, as a day hike, so we camped at the car-park at Wainui Bay, the terminus for the track. Next morning, we set forth with high hopes of having a positive experience on the Abel Tasman. Unfortunately, a member of our party apparently misread the tidal charts, confusing "high" and "low," and so our hike, though enjoyable, did not go exactly where we had planned.

We were to walk up the left side of the peninsula to the left-side
point, Taupo Point

Ominous note at the entrance to the track: washouts north of
Totaranui, campgrounds on the AT closed; this was February
18th, after the heavy rain we had experienced at Anchorage;
it was to get much worse in succeeding days as tropical cyclone
Gita moved through...but I'm getting ahead of the story

Beach totem

Maori rugby goalpost on the beautiful sand beach

Other structure

Beautiful Wainui Bay

Here we astutely noticed that the sand beach has given out and
that we are being pinched up against the cliff

There is a high-tide trail ahead, but, now suspecting that it is
a rising tide, and not falling, we eschew the higher route,
since taking it would entail waiting out the entire tidal cycle

As I'm taking these pix, water is beginning to cover my feet

We retreated a bit and erected a little stone to show us whether
the water was rising or falling (some were still skeptical)

Within a minute or two, the little stone was gone

So we decided to do a bit of the Gibbs track, up over the
beach

Looking toward what might very well have been Taupo Point

And the Bay again, now filling with water

Up in the bush again

In the next life, we will explore Abel Tasman via kayak

Everything getting wetter now

Including the little beach structure; after a couple hours' hiking,
we returned to the camper and drove on, past Takaka, over
arduous Takaka Hill, with stops in Riwaka and Motueka, to
Nelson and another night in Montgomery Square...