Recently bought a 2002 Toyota Hiace van and have been excited to try it out for trips around New Zealand to see new places. It will hopefully be a good base for tramping and travel. Its a long time since owning a van but the ability to travel and sleep in it is exciting as there are many places to see on a budget. Having recently done a very difficult tramp up into the foothills of the Southern Alps #1070764 it was decided to this time take a more leisurely approach and just drive somewhere and explore the area...and test out the utility of the van as a mobile home. The destination was eventually decided - the Mouth of the Hurunui River- a major river which empties into the Pacific on the East Coast of the island and rises up to a pass in the Southern Alps where it meets with the headwaters of the Taramakau river which then flows down to the west coast between Greymouth and Hokitika. This path was used by the Maori to access the greenstone deposits found on the west coast and prized by Maori- Greenstone was perhaps the closest thing Maori had to money and it was carved into various tools and ornaments. The Hurunui River also leads up to a major national park area around Lakes Taylor and Sumner which is an area with many huts and several natural hot springs which I want to explore in the near future, so starting with a look at the river mouth seemed like a good idea. So while the plan was a leisurely drive and trial of the vans comfort some exploration of the river mouth area was also planned. Just north of the river mouth is Gore Bay- a famous and popular holiday and fishing/surf casting beach and before Gore Bay is a smaller bay called Manuka Bay. Between Manuka and Gore Bays is Port Robinson which once served as a port to load and unload cargo from early shipping before the railway inland was built. So the plan was to drive to the Hurunui river mouth where there is a small and basic camp ground and then explore Gore Bay and Manuka Bays.

The drive there went well and on arriving at the campground all looked good. The camp ground is on land owned by the local council and you pay $10/night/site via an honesty box putting the cash in an envelope and using a card provided to show payment on the windscreen. Real old school value for money and we had the entire site to ourselves, being late winter.. It would probably be quite different in the summer. The campground is basic with about 20 small sites big enough for a car and small tent, or van.

Near the campground there is an old swingbridge which is used to access the remote farms and beaches south toward Motanau Beach. Its a true relic and rare to see such an old structure still in use.

So before dark we went to look at the track that takes you from the end of the road to Manuka Beach. At the end of the road was a sign saying the track is closed.

View of Manuka Bay and the Hurunui River mouth from the start of the officially closed track

From maps I had seen the track goes through reserve land above Manuka Bay to the point between Manuka Bay and Gore Bay. The land is steep and limestone with obvious slips. But The start of the track is already directly above Manuka Bay and so it was decided to walk along the forbidden path to see how far we could safely get. It turned out the track now goes fairly directly down to the beach from where you could walk around Manuka Bay, (rather than the track proper which goes via the bluffs above the beach) although at high tide a rocky point between the two sections of the beach would be impassible.

Spent the night at the campground and was cold in the morning with heavy fog having come down the valley overnight but the van was warmer than a tent would have been. Thought about starting the motor and turning the heater on about 3am but didn't, and survived.

The next day went to the North end of Manuka Bay where there is a road access shown on the map, but again nearing the beach found a sign warning that past that point the road is not maintained. Not far past that point the road was badly eroded and it was decided to park the van up and walk the rest of the way down to the Bay. It took about 20 minutes to reach the north end of the bay and another 40 minutes to walk across the northern half of the bay to where the rocky point divides it- being low tide it was possible to get past the 100 meters or so of the rocky point- but beware of the seals who live there- they are not dangerous but I don't like to get too close to them. They were almost hunted to extinction by early European visitors and some might say they should have finished them off- but today they are repopulating and are protected. From a distance they can look cute but up close can smell of rotten fish.

Once you pass the seal checkpoint you are on the southern half of Manuka Bay and could walk to the end and take the short track back up to the road and then walk a few hundred meters back to the campground. We instead turned around to walk back to the van which was still parked somewhat precariously on the track 1/3 of the way down to the beach from the point above the bay. On arriving back at the van a contractor with a 20 tonne digger was working close by at restoring the track - he said the council had contracted him to fix the road up to the sign which says it is not maintained past that point, but since he had time and diesel he was going to fix it all the way down to the beach! I wanted to buy him a beer, I still do - a true Kiwi legend overcoming the petty penny pinching track closing bureaucrats who would otherwise quarantine us in red tape and cotton wool.