We went to the I site in Motueka and booked the Heaphy tramp really looking forward to getting into the Kahurangi National Park. Before we left town we stopped by Royal Patisserie to have a pie. The pies were so good, so we also got a sausage roll and decided to try something sweet so indulged in an apple turnover! I will be thinking of the pie for days! With full bellies headed to Collingwood in Golden Bay, the drive was extremely steep over Mt. Takaka! As we drop into a beautiful valley we come across the town of Takaka, it is super cute and the biggest town on this side of the mountain. By the time we reached Takaka Valley we were pooped and blood sugar was probably below healthy levels so we stopped for Ice cream at the first creamery we could find. Having already polished off pies, sausage rolls and an apple turnover we decided to abstain and only asked for one scoop, little did we know the girl serving understood what a true scoop of iceream is! She gave us about 3 scoops of ice-cream each all rolled into one scoop, we are stopping by there on the way back for sure..
Feeling large and in charge we pulled into town with the wind howling out of the east and found the only motorcamp that was open and got our spot. The camp was the worst we have stayed at. The facilities are rundown and dirty, we did not even use the showers. For a large camp the kithcen was very small, I was making dinner and was crowded out by a few french chicks that were not very friendly (or maybe they just did not speak english well). The internet sucked and was so slow even checking email was a chore. After only seeing senior citizens, other than rude french chicks, around and all of them wearing rain boots with shorts and talking really loud we decided this is a camp for retired drunk fisherman and were glad we'd be out there in the morning.
After dinner and back in the van Paul was working out the logistics about the bus schedules and costs before bed. After a checking some web site and making a few calls Paul discovers this hike is a logistical nightmare and very expensive!
1 Bus from trail end to Karamoa - No bus out of Karamea till morning, have to spend the night so that is an extra cost, plus dinner
2 Bus from Karamoa to Westport leaves at 9:15am for a 1.5 hour drive into Westport.
3 Wait in Westport the shadiest town in NZ till 3:30 pm for the bus to leave for Nelson.
4 After leaving Westport the bus arrives in Nelson at 6:30pm meaning, spend the night in Nelson.
5 Leave Nelson at 6:30am on the first bus out and arrive back at car in Collingwood at 10:15am, whew!
We kicked around our options a little and decided we'd just go in the first night to the hut we had reserved, play around in the mountains the next day and head down to stay at the hut at the start of the trail saving us $300 in bus fares and 3 days of travel. We'd still see the mountains, get some packing in, use our already paid for hut and end up $40 dollars and one shuttle ride from the car rather than 300 Kilometers, 2 nights and a load of cash away, it was not a hard decision!
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