Karamea

With another weekend without call, We took advantage of yet more beautiful weather and traveled north to Karamea, a tiny little secluded town that is at the end of the road of the Coastal Highway on the west coast. Karamea is a little haven for outdoor enthusiasts including hikers , backpackers, fishermen, birdwatchers and bikers. Most famously, it is one end of the Heaphy track, one of the great walks of New Zealand.

Carolyn and I hiked the last 8 kilometers of the walk to one of the little shelters along the way and then returned, we walked through beautiful Nikau Palm forests and stunning beaches, all completely deserted.

The weather was perfect and the views outstanding. The true trampers will continue the walk for three or four days, climbing away from the coast, over the southern Alps and down into the Tasman area. Someday we hope to do that as well but for now we are content with our day hikes. Sunday we drove the slightly nerve wracking road up to the Oparara Basin, famous for the beautiful rainforest and the large limestone arches.

There we were fortunate to add the endangered Blue Duck to our list of sightings, at some point we will do a blog about the Birds as, living on the estuary, we have become quite the amateur birders. We did not quite get a good picture of it so this will have to do for now.

The photos always fail to live up to the actual beauty of the landscape, unless of course you are photographing road signs, then it is actually quite representative. Coming home Sunday evening we had made reservations to perhaps on of the world's most remote gourmet restaurants. The Cowshed cafe is situated halfway between Karamea and Westport, 45 KM from a town of 900 people and 45 km from a town of 8000 people, yet it was run by two young women with experience as private chefs in the Mediteranean.

As it was the Sunday before Valentine's Day, they had a special menu, check out the appetizer tray:

It is astonishing to find places like this and try to figure out how they stay in business and such. Apparently 100 or so women are gathering there this Sunday for a formal tea with fancy dresses and hats. You never know. A great weekend. Boring alert: look for the next blog to cover a little more medical stuff that I find interesting. Here's us on the Heaphy: