Abel Tasman Tidal Crossings

In the morning we went down to the beach to see the sunrise. It was an odd day of 12 or so miles, most of which had to be done after lunch because there were two tidal crossings in the day (the first couldn’t be attempted until after 1:30 PM). We slowly picked up our things and hiked the few miles to the first tidal crossing at Awaroa Bay, an expansive flat that was flooded with the tide and that had a river running out to the ocean. We waited on the shore, looking at sand crabs, clamshells, and birds. About 1:15 a trail runner arrived at the crossing. She took off her shoes by us and then ran the few hundred yards to where the water had receded, where she took off her pants. We watched curiously as she waded through the water, which went up to her nether region for another 50 yards of slow moving. I was ready to go after that, but Ingrid asked that we wait for another half hour or so, which we did. When we crossed, we were barefoot, and I could feel hundreds of clams beneath my feet. I kicked a few out to show Ingrid, wishing to scoop them up and take them on for dinner; but all wildlife in Abel Tasman is protected. Ingrid got a few pictures of the beautiful clamshells and we headed on to the Awaroa Hut. A quick fill of water, along with showing our tramping pass to the Ranger (we met two rangers along our hike, both of whom asked to see our tramping pass, neither of whom were friendly), and we headed south to the second crossing at Okarito. Ingrid’s ankle and knee were bothering her by this point (probably started during our hikes at Lochmara) so I felt bad that we had to do so many miles in half a day (I felt so bad, I took all of the food in my pack—can you say heavy?—we took about 4 days too much food). The Okarito crossing was a lot smaller than the Awaroa crossing and had beautifully colored and rippled sand with a driftwood graveyard beyond. A few more miles brought us to Torrent Bay Village, a small village that was largely deserted leading me to believe it is a summer get-a-way village. We pitched our tent alongside the bay and ate dinner within to get away from the sand flied.