HozNews

Nov. 7 (Bloomberg) — My helicopter pilot maneuvers out over New Zealand’s Tasman Bay, then turns, swoops in over a perfect curve of sand beach and lands in a small grassy field. Ready to get away from it all, I clamber out and walk the sandy path to a remote lodge in Abel Tasman National Park on the northern shore of the country’s South Island.

I’m taking a two-day break from touring New Zealand wineries to hike part of the park’s famous 52-kilometer (31-mile) Coast Track — without giving up decent wine, first-class food and luxurious digs, thank you.

A deliciously isolated, eco-friendly cluster of low-key, one-story suites nestled in native bush, Awaroa Lodge can be reached only by air, by water or on foot (no roads!). I feel miles from anywhere — which, in fact, I am. Rooms have no TV, and when I flip open my mobile phone, it doesn’t work. This is the place to forget about the credit crunch.

As I learn, of course, no paradise is perfect.

My light-filled “superior suite” is private and soothing, all white, wood, and earth tones. (It costs NZ$320, or about US$190, a night; after Dec. 1, NZ$400.) From the deck, my view is of wetlands filled with swooping tui birds, swamp hens and long- leafed harakeke plants. The shower has a rounded-pebble floor.

The Coast Track, one of the country’s eight premier hiking trails known collectively as the Great Walks, passes right by Awaroa Lodge’s front door. Open year round, this track (unlike the others) offers easy trekking in a mild climate with lots of sunshine. I’ve wanted to walk part of it since my first trip to New Zealand six years ago.

Hiking in Comfort

Most people stay in the national park’s camping huts (NZ$30) or campsites (NZ$12) and walk the whole thing in three to five days. I’d rather sleep in comfort and do the track in sections.

German-born Lothar Winter, the lodge manager, suggests I catch the noon water taxi to an endpoint and hike back, warning me about timing — you can only cross the wide Awaroa estuary a half-hour away at low tide, between 2 and 5:30 p.m.

No time to lose. It’s a totally perfect day, with cloudless sky and calm turquoise water shading to deep green. Even with the intense sun, the air is cool. It’s early spring here.

Water taxis ply the park’s coast, collecting and dropping off passengers on a set schedule. Aqua Taxi’s jet boat buzzes me 15 minutes up the coast to Totaranui (NZ$29), another long, spectacular curve of deserted golden sand. For a beach worshipper like me, this is heaven. I wade to shore, coat my face with sunscreen (essential because of New Zealand’s high level of ultraviolet radiation), hoist my daypack and head down the beach barefoot.

Eventually the track climbs a headland, where I peer down through native manuka trees at vistas of beach and sea so beautiful that I feel stunned. After climbing down through nikau palms to Goat Bay’s beach, I meet a New Zealand family exploring rock pools and eat lunch in the shade of huge rocks.

Beaches, Headlands

The track is repetitive — beaches, headlands, then inland by a burbling stream — yet since the views are dazzling, I have no complaints.

I check my watch, wondering how much farther it is to the estuary, then glimpse two people dragging a white weighted net between them as they run up the stream. They’re catching whitebait, they tell me. Their blue bucket is full of tiny translucent, worm-like fish that are a kiwi delicacy, costing NZ$50 a kilo. You eat them in an omelet with the whole fish thrown in. The couple has a “bach” (slang for a very simple beach house and pronounced batch) on the estuary.

“If you were staying longer,” they say, “you could come over and try one.” I don’t mind passing.

Streams, Bites

It takes me 30 minutes to cross the estuary’s rippling sandbanks, including wading across several knee-deep cold streams. At 5 p.m. I finally reach the lodge and discover my feet and ankles are covered with itchy red bites. No one at the lodge warned me about sand flies and the need for insect repellent.

Nor is my dinner perfect. The fresh Nelson Bay scallops with pea puree (NZ$26) are tender, but the loud rock music in the cafe, open to weary walkers not staying here, wafts into the lodge residents’ cozy dining room. Service? Definitely hit or miss. It turns out the lodge changed ownership in August and almost all the employees are new.

Still, I savor my blue cod (NZ$35) and salad of lush greens (NZ$12) from the lodge’s organic garden, soothed by several glasses of delicious 2006 Selaks Founders Reserve pinot noir (NZ$86 a bottle), a warm driftwood fire and the day’s beaches.
source bloomberg