Mārahau was only a 20-minute drive from our campground at Kaiteriteri, but it’s a totally different type of place. Situated right at the start of the Abel Tasman walk it’s a sleepy little settlement with a few modest baches lining the beach front – the beach being more of a tidal estuary. There are no shops and one café.

Vivien had just finished working for a couple of weeks at a small accommodation place in the Mārahau Valley run by a Frenchman called Jean Francois – two apartments, a cottage plus an organic vegetable garden. If you are a member of the NZ Woofing network you can apply to volunteer at any of over a hundred locations – the general arrangement being a requirement to work for 4-5 hours per day with one day off per week. Accommodation, food, new connections and a great experience are your reward.

We stayed at the Barn campground, a short stroll from the café. The Barn is awesome – a funky and laid back establishment with a collection of small huts and camp-spots, weekly yoga classes, kitchen and dining facilities and a big outdoor deck with a variety of games. I gave slack-lining (sort of like a low tight-tope) a go – fell off immediately of course while Viv managed to get all the way across, with an expression I felt was a little too smug.

Thursday nights are open-mic nights at the café. These evenings where anyone can basically get up and perform are dominated by locals – their big social evening of the week, usually going through to around 2am. It was stunningly good. We had a decent pizza feed with some mood jazz going in the background, and then 8pm was where it really got going. The stage was filled with drummers, guitar, sax, wooden flute and vocals – all jamming to create a sound which swelled up from the ground, filled your soul and got you up on your feet. Whoever coined the phrase “dance like there’s nobody watching” probably experienced an evening like this.

We had reasonably heavy heads the next day and so a walk in nature seemed like a good idea. Viv left on the water taxi early in the morning for Torrent Bay – around 15km up the coast, planning to visit Cleopatra’s pool (a popular river swimming spot with a natural moss lined water-slide) and then walk back to Mārahau. Jo and I decided to head about 6km up the track to Apple Tree Bay – hang out and then walk back.

From the campground and café we followed an elevated path for a few hundred meters crossing the estuary, teeming with birdlife and small scuttling crabs. Meeting land again you meander along the coast taking in the views, passing small, sheltered bays and campsites until arriving at our destination. We didn’t spot any apple trees but incongruously we did come across a couple of beach-side holiday houses. These are two of a small number of privately owned houses erected before the area became a National Park, and thus being allowed to stay but with strict restrictions on any further building and only until the current owner either gives it up or passes away.

For only three days we managed to cram a lot into our time at Mārahau. Next stop, Takaka . . .