Ngaio Bay

Ngaio Bay is a ten minute drive from Kaiteriteri, which is a popular holiday spot for a lot of families, and less than an hour’s drive from Nelson. The road up to the bach is sealed but it’s skinny; it’s cut into the hill and there are parts where you wouldn’t want to come across a bus. There’s no public road access, so generally there are not a lot of people there. You can go to Kaiteriteri on a terribly hot day and there’s no room on the beach, and then you carry on to Ngaio and there’s just a few families dotted around.

The road down to the bach is through a canopy of trees. It’s like you leave the metropolis of Kaiteriteri and you come into this very secluded, private oasis. Split Apple Rock, one of the most photographed places in the Abel Tasman, is two bays over. At low tide, you can jump over a few rocks and walk around.

At Ngaio Bay, there’s maybe ten or so baches. It’s not even a minute’s walk to the beach. At the front of the house, there’s an attempt at growing grass down to a small walkway and a line of long tussock grass, and then it’s just gorgeous, golden sand. Directly out in the middle of the bay is Ngaio Island. There’s no beach to it; it’s a steep wee island with a rocky bottom. It’s maybe one hundred metres wide and there’s nothing on it other than bush and rocks, and occasionally a couple of seals.

To the right of our bach, there’s a creek that goes up around the back of some of the houses. We spent many years there playing, kayaking and boogie boarding. To the left, there’s a bit of a reef. We always used to go searching for mussels and starfish and any sort of creepy crawly things we could find in the rock pools. I spent many a day venturing out there at low tide. It all disappears during high tide and you can kayak over it and look down at the rocks and water beneath you.

The bach itself is pretty tiny. It has three bedrooms and a little living area with lovely old cane furniture. It has a washing machine, but no dishwasher, so it’s the kids’ job to clean up the dishes. There’s a big, old radio that struggles to find the newer stations. If the grandparents are around, it’s generally on the National Channel. There are many board games, although my parents were always hesitant to pull out Monopoly because they said it would likely end in tears. There never used to be a TV at the bach, but now there is a tiny, tiny thing – a 12 inch, I think – hidden away somewhere in the closet. I always found it a bit sad that there’s a TV out there now. As a kid, I loved reading books over surfing channels. I think we were so lucky to be outside all the time.

Growing up, my favourite activities at Ngaio Bay were swimming and spending time at the beach. We spent many summers playing beach cricket and swing ball, where the ball is on a string and you hit it with a paddleboard, and it goes round and round and round. We would explore the caves around Split Apple Rock and, as we got older, we could kayak around to Kaiteriteri and buy ourselves an ice cream.

It’s quite a community at Ngaio Bay. You feel like you know everyone. You are so secluded, and you just make friends. There is one lady, Rosemary, who lives there. She is in her seventies and is my Nana Liza’s first cousin. She’s been there for as long as I can remember. We would play with her wonderful border collie, Tess, all the time. Tess has passed away since I was last there, so it won’t be quite the same the next time I go.

The bach belongs to my Nana Liza’s family. She lives in Duntroon now but grew up in Nelson and when she was young, they would go out every holiday, as well as many weekends and day trips. One of Nana’s favourite memories is making bonfires on the beach. I remember doing the same when I was younger. We would sit around the fire, close to the water, roasting marshmallows in the evening.

As a family, we’d go up to Ngaio Bay most years, and if we were really lucky, we would go more than that. It was a wonderful opportunity for all of us to get off the farm for a few days and bring the family together. Now it’s a bit harder; I’m at university, one of my sisters is at boarding school, the other is abroad in Europe, and my parents are off living their life now they have no kids at home.

Even though I’m now older, it’s still so exciting to go to Ngaio Bay. It’s a place where you can disconnect from the rest of the world. There’s very limited phone service. If you really want to call someone you have to walk up the long, steep driveway. It’s somewhere where you are spending time just for you and those around you. It’s somewhere where you can relax. It’s time to talk with your friends and family and de-stress a little bit. I often yearn to be at Ngaio Bay and get away from the rest of the world. I realise now how lucky I am that I have this spot to get away to. It’s a place that I hope never changes.

 

This story appeared in the Takurua Winter 2021 Edition of Shepherdess.