Abel Tasman Great Walk - Bark Bay to Awaroa

Today is the longest day of hike, 4h20min with a few ups & downs. My ankle is good and I am eager to go. Contrary to yesterday, the sun was with us from the very beginning, we had a stunning sunrise.

It also meant, this day was going to be very hot. It was one of my favorite part of this trail. It's hard but you go through beautiful viewpoints and long sandy beaches with turquoise water. The Awaroa inlet is very deep, so walking up to reach the back of it, where the hut is, took more than an hour and as the tide went up, its landscape changed and the sandbar disappeared, replaced by a shimmering blue and turquoise bay.

There are a few private properties along this trail, 1h45 min before the end, you could stop by Awaroa lodge which has a café and a restaurant. It's also where the water taxi stops, at the very mouth of the bay where the water can have some depth. That's what a lot of the other walkers did, that we found out later.

We arrived among the first ones at the hut, which was great because a steady cold wind started to blow and some clouds appeared. It's funny how it gets chilly fast. Because we were so early, we could use the ( freezing ) beach shower for our first shower of the trail. ( For the one wondering, we usually refresh ourselves with an old school shower glove, in French we call it doing a cat bath ).

We pretty much took a nap, chit chatted with the few others and read our books. The wind didn't make taking a swim all that inviting today.

It was nearly 7 pm when we started to see people arrive. We were wondering if we were going to be alone tonight. No, most of the others hikers had their pack delivered to Awaroa lodge and they waited there until the evening low tide. Crossing from the lodge to the hut through the sands only took 30min at low tide ( vs 1h45...). They just enjoyed hot food, coffee and the beach there. I think it's very smart!  Apparently, the lodge doesn't overcharge for the food and beverage, so definitely something to consider.

We have some network today, so we could check our emails and do some dumm scrowling tonight. The wind has died down, which means some hot but quiet night (the windows in our bunk room didn't close.) A big group of women arrived last, and since they were last, they couldn't have a whole bunk room for themselves. And no one really wanted to accommodate them, because it would mean sleeping with the group that was diabolical snorers. The very ones anyone in the same group walking since day 1 was strategically avoiding. They were not happy so they decided to set themselves up in the kitchen. Which was mighty inconvenient for everyone.

As our result, our bunk room was the smallest and mostly empty , we will have a good night.