This is another pic of the walk from Moonraker Way to Split Apple Rock beach. I can’t help but think the guy who named Moonraker Way must’ve been a huge James Bond fan. Or was he a Wiltshireman? An old story goes that revenue collectors caught some Wiltshiremen raking a pond to retrieve kegs of contraband [...]
Kaiteriteri
This is Kaiteriteri Beach, as seen from Kaka Point. The sky is blue, the sea is flat, and the beach looks beautiful and inviting, almost like summer, but it’s not. What’s the giveway? No kayaks in the water, no people on the beach. On a typical day at the height of summer, Kaiteriteri and its [...]
On the road from Kaiteriteri to Marahau lies Tokongawa Drive, a side road that goes down towards Split Apple Rock beach. From the turnoff to Moonraker Way, it’s only a 600m walk down to the beach. The area surrounding Tokongawa Drive is covered in manuka and kanuka scrub, but the track down to Split Apple [...]
At the northwest end of Kaiteriteri Beach, Kaka Point rises above the town, looking out over Kaka Island and towards the hills on the eastern side of Tasman Bay. Archaeologists have found evidence suggesting that Kaka Point was used as a kainga, or undefended pā. Today, there’s a reserve on the site that includes this [...]
Summer’s coming! And that means soon there will be lots of babies, including quail babies, which are about the size of bumblebees when they hatch. California quail (Callipepla californica) were introduced to New Zealand in the 1860s and they’re now found in shrublands throughout most of the country. This family was shot (in the photographic [...]
This is the outlet from the Kaiteriteri Inlet at low tide. The exposed rocks are covered in little black mussels (Xenostrobus neozelanicus), shut up tight, waiting for the next high tide so they can start sucking plankton from the water once again.
Dummy Bay is a small beach tucked between Stephens Bay and Kaiteriteri. Wave action has left a lot of interesting shapes along the shoreline at Dummy Bay, including this hole in the rock.
Golden sand beaches are typical of the coast around the Abel Tasman National Park. This photo was taken above Little Kaiteriteri beach, looking north towards Kaiteriteri, with the hills of the Abel Tasman in the distance. In the foreground, if you look closely, a tui (Prosthemadera novaeseelandiae) is flying over the beach.
Little Kaiteriteri beach is just south of the main Kaiteriteri beach and there’s a brief walk between the two that goes over a rocky hill, through some bush. The track was closed in February after ex-cyclone Fehi came through. This is the start of the track on the Little Kaiteriteri side just a couple of days after [...]
These plantings near Kaiteriteri are part of an ecological restoration project being run by Kaitiaki o Ngahere. The plastic sleeves project the young plants as they become established. The view is out over Tasman Bay, with Nelson/Marlborough in the distance.
