Our second day on the track was another beautiful clear summers day, which promised to get warm pretty quickly. We had another long day of hiking ahead of us, but had booked to spend the night at a hot springs resort in the mountains on our way back home, so were keen to get started.
After leaving Bark Bay, the track headed inland a little way crossing the Falls River on a large suspension bridge. Despite not being far from the coast, it felt like we were much further in the bush on this section of track. The early morning sunshine and clear water made for some great shadows – you can spot Eric and I on the bridge in the shadow.
After climbing the next headland, we started out decent into Torrent Bay, one of the few bays in the park with holiday homes in it, despite not having any road access.
As we made our way down to the small settlement we kept a keen eye on the inlet, to determine whether we were going to catch this tidal crossing. Although there was a high tide route around the estuary, if the tide was right we would be able to shave a few kilometers off of our hike by heading across the mudflats.
As luck would have it, we arrived at the crossing point pretty close to low tide and knowing that the water would be dropping for a little while longer, we knew it would be easy to head across. The main channel still had a little water in it, but with the sun already pretty warm, it wasn’t an unpleasant paddle across to the other side.
After getting our feet cleaned up and our shoes back on, we stopped for a quick snack before setting off on the final leg of the track. The path from Anchorage Bay back to Marahau, the start of the track. The path meandered along the coast, passing a number of coves and bays.
As we got closer to the start to the track, we noticed a change from the quiet bush, with increasing numbers of people on the track and boats out on the water. Nevertheless, the beautiful views continued with each bay we past having a different feel.
We made it to the final inlet at Sandy Bay and were pleased to see boardwalks stretching out ahead of us to take us back to the start of the track in the settlement of Marahau where we had left our car at the water taxi depot. We hit the road in search of some ice cream before heading off to the hot springs for a nice relaxing soak. Not a bad way to finish walking the Great Walks on the South Island!