Riuwaka Resurgence & Abel Tasman

Sharyl was as excited as could be when we woke up this morning.  The reason - it is Saturday in Nelson, NZ - and that means one thing . . . the famous Nelson Farmer's Market!

We loaded the boys up and drove the 15 minutes from our rental to downtown Nelson, arriving at the Farmer's market around 8:45 am, while everything was still pretty low key.  The farmer's market wasn't quite as big as we were originally imagining -  it was probably 50% larger than Maui's Upcountry Farmer's Market in Kulamalu - but the difference was in the variety and caliber of the items on offer.  Maui does well for the core fruit and veggies grown on island, but there are only a handful of food vendors, and limited non-produce stands.  At the Nelson Farmer's Market on the other hand there was a solid selection of local fruit and veggies available, a multitude of food options, several craft oriented booths, at least 3 - 4 handmade soap vendors, and a variety of other interesting items which fall into the small food business category - such as a vendor selling dried kiwi - chocolate dipped dried kiwi, dried guava, and other such locally produced specialty snacks.  On top of all that there are at least three musicians playing at different spots around the market so you are always within earshot of some live music - all of which is pretty mellow (one musician was playing modern songs on her harp).

Sharyl was in heaven, finding a variety of local apples, pears, and peaches which have been a hit with the boys already.  Reef spotted a booth selling "crunchy cheese" - which is a packaged cheese that has been dried out or baked (we're not sure how exactly they make it), but it turns into a tasty snack.  And of course we visited Pic's Peanut Butter - which is a Nelson based Peanut Butter brand that famously got it's start at the Nelson Farmer's market.  Now Pic's is widely available, including at Whole Foods on Maui.  The Pic's Peanut Butter stand had several unique varieties which we picked up, including one mixed with 5 types of seeds - Pumpkin, Chia, and I'm not sure what the other three are but it tastes good!

After a good breakfast of waffles, smoothie (for Reef) and coffee - we met up with Marc and Kiely and set off for some hiking.

The drive from Nelson to Abel Tasman National Park is about an hour, so Marc and Kiely suggested a short hike on the way.  About 10 - 15 minutes before the park, we turned up a valley near the town of Riwaka.  Our destination - the Riuwaka Resurgence.  

The Riuwaka River starts in Kahurangi National Park at a spring then disappears under Takaka hill - passing underground through limestone caves - until it reemerges on the other side of Takaka at the place known as the Riuwaka Resurgence.  A short 10 minute hike from the parking lot took us up to a series of crystal clear fresh water pools - at the top of them was a cave, from which the river was reemerging from beneath the mountain.

Along the short hike Marc and Kiely were each pointing out native bird species as they saw or heard them.  The two which stood out on the hike were the Weka - a flightless bird native to New Zealand that is like an ancient version of a chicken.  The other bird was a fantail - a showy little native bird which jumps from branch to branch with it's beautiful tail fanned out - giving the bird it's name.

After the short walk to the cave, and to the gorgeous pools - we loaded back up, driving to Abel Tasman National Park.  

The Abel Tasman Coastal Track is a five day, 51 km track for those who do the full trail.  For us, at 6 km total -it was stunning, and a much more manageable few hours with a not quite 2 year old.

The trail departs the parking area, crossing a series of footbridges which go over the tidal zone for the first 1/4 mile or so.  Then the trail begins to get up above the tidal area, rising and falling gradually around headlands and between bays, inlets, and numerous tucked away beaches.  Along the trail we continued to see Weka - the same flightless bird we had seen near the Riuwaka Resurgence, as well as many other native bird species that either Marc or Kiely heard or spotted along the way.  The trail passed over footbridges spanning streams, and the forest opened up every little while with a fantastic view of the coastline from above.

Eventually Marc and Kiely lead us down to the water level, over some rocks along the shore until we reached a large tunnel / cave along the beach which we all walked through- much like the shoreline cave at Wainapanapa.

After walking through the tunnel it was back up to the trail for a little more hiking before we decended back down to a beautiful golden sand beach.  Reef immediately started working on a sandcastle, and Kiely built one along with him - both adorning their creations with clam shell tops and various shells along the sides. Meanwhile I jumped into the ocean, which though cold was a bit warmer than I expected it might be.  River was running all around on the beach throwing handfuls of sand into the water.  During all this time there was a Weka down the beach trying to steal something from a backpack someone had left there while they went off for a walk.  The Weka sneakily made its way over toward us - in hopes of nabbing some shinny object from one of our packs - but River had different plans.  With a stick in hand River proceeded to chase the Weka around, effectively shooing it away from our bags.  River followed the bird down the beach, up the trail, all over the place . . . it was fun to watch how excited he was about the bird, and how little the bird wanted a 2 year old following its every move.

Eventually it was time to head back, and I reloaded River into the backpack, Reef dismantled his sandcastle creation, and we were off back down the trail in the direction of our car.  Once back we headed toward dinner - but only after a required first stop for paper . . . Reef is very excited about making a Flip Book for M&M Superheros, which he plans to video tape and have Disney+ Air as a new Show.  So, AFTER we had obtained the proper paper for a flip book we made our way to Eddyline Brewery.  The brewery had no less than eight IPAs, APAs, or Hazy IPAs on draft - and everything we tried in our beer flight was top notch. Importantly they also make great pizza - which, after a day of hiking made everyone, especially the boys, very happy.