The Innlet north of Collingwood

From Punakaiki I made a sidetrip to Kaikoura driving via Lewis Pass this means that I managed to drive over all alpine passes on the South Island. From Kaikoura onwards I visited the Omaka Aviation Heritage Centre in Blenheim before continuing northwards to Golden Bay. From Kaikoura to Golden bay you drive through Nelson and alongside the Abel Tasman National Park. Which is once again a nice scenic drive crossing Takaka hill to drive into the Golden Bay area.
 
The Innlet is a backpackers 10 kilometers north of Collingwood, nice and quiet in the middle of nowhere close to the beach. At the first evening the guests decided to visit the Mussle Inn which is just south of Collingwood. The local pub has some good homebrewn beers, a really special one with a chili inside the bottle, next to that it was a really good evening. The next morning
still a little bit affected by the beer I went for a walk to Wharariki Beach which has towering arches. However during my first visit they were not visible due to the fact that it was high tide. After checking out the tidal times at the visitor center i walked to farewell spit and once again the beach was deserted not even footprints. By the time I reached the car it was almost low tide and I returned to Wharariki beach to admire the Arches. While walking along there was a group who spotted a baby seal. Once again a really nice encounter with the local wild life.

After all the walking of the previous day I decided that the 3rd day would be a more relaxed one. Visiting the chocolate shop at Collingwood and having a nice lunch at the Mussel Inn. In the afternoon I was so tired that I even slept a couple of hours. Before discovering 'The Web' which is like a big hammock but using a net instead. The local stream flows under the web so you can really relax just listening to the water. After discovering this I enjoyed it every day at least once.

In the evening we had a pot-luck dinner to celebrate the return of Jonathan one of the owners, he had been sailing to the cook islands and back. This is a great way of getting to know the other guests as well. In the evening one of the guests explained the basic sitting position for yoga and the plan was to visit the local yoga class the next evening. But before that we were supposed to go search for mussels and go kayaking.

The search for mussels ended up in the discovery of a beach similar to wharariki beach but unfortunatelly no green lipped mussels. And the kayaking was being replaced by a visit to a salmon farm to catch a salmon for the evening BBQ. The Wof'ers (workers on organic farms, working to pay for the stay and food) at the innlet were really fond of backing. On one day Dan the Man and Nathalie made fresh pita bread and the next day they and  made fruit cake. Everyone once again joined in for a joined BBQ this time.

Dahlia (the manager) mentioned that it would be a good idea to book the kayak trip at the abel tasman park. When contacting them it turned out that the trips would only go out on friday instead of thursday and that the 3-day one was fully booked, as such I booked the 2-day trip.

Now I am at an other backpackers near Motueka and on friday morning I will head towards Marahau to start the kayaking adventure.