Kaiteriteri

Of course we took the detour. We were in no hurry, we planned to start the Abel-Tasman Great Walk tomorrow, so we had the remaining day left for exploring.

Kaiteriteri

The detour is not big, but totally worth it. Kaiteriteri is a small village between Motueka and Marahau (the entrance point to Abel-Tasman). The village is not very spectacular, but the beaches of Kaiteriteri certainly are.

They are not as golden as at Golden Bay or as picturesque as at Abel-Tasman, but they have their very own unique character because of countless little clams. The tide at Kaiteriteri allows clams to spend the low tide on large rocks at the beach. Thus when walking the beach at low tide, the beach is almost black of clams. It is hard to move without stepping on them. There are just so many. They also come in all kinds of different sizes. From clams so small you can barely see them to real big ones.

Bilge Rat and I further went on an exploration tour. There are so many rocks, that they block most parts of the beach. But pirate explorers like us don't let us be stopped by some pile o' rocks. So we just climbed over them and discovered a secret hideout and a cave.

after some rock climbing...

...we discovered a hidden hideout

It seems not many people do the detour over Kaiteriteri, since we've been the only ones at the beach, safe a fisherman trying his luck fishing from the rocks.

the secluded beach behind the rocks

we also discovered some really strange maritime insects