7 Waitapu Road, Takaka, Tasman

Golden Bay Visitor Information Centre Takaka

Takaka, though little, is the main town in Golden Bay. Its rural servicing function is being subsumed into a wider role catering for the local arts and craft people and the summer tourists. You will find several eating places and galleries here. At the Visitor Centre you can get a 'Guide to Artists in Golden Bay' as well as the "Golden Bay Visitor's Guide'.

Described by some as a hidden Shangri-La, Golden Bay is in fact a bustling little region based on a solid farming economy, a growing tourism industry, and a community of easy-going life-stylers. It’s a pleasant two hour drive from Nelson – if you don’t mind big hills – and once you’ve crossed the divide into Golden Bay you’ll notice the differences straight away. Sheltered by the Kahurangi mountains, the bay enjoys weather that’s warmer and wetter than the Nelson side of the hill, with avocados and tamarillos grown in sheltered gardens to prove it. Although the beaches aren’t golden, the light often is, but it was Golden Bay’s early mining history that gave the area its name.

These days the best places to visit are all nature-driven.

At Waikoropupu, just a few kilometres west of Takaka, the Pupu Springs bubble up from beneath the ground with some of the world’s clearest fresh water highlighting their huge bowl-shaped garden of mosses, liverworts and weed. The springs are sacred to local Maori with no swimming allowed, but divers can visit the 11-degree water under controlled con- ditions.

Farewell Spit – Onetahua - is a giant curve of sand dunes pushed up along the west coast and out into Cook Strait by the relentless long- shore currents. Creating a natural shipping hazard, the spit has had a lighthouse flashing off its seaward end now since 1870. Four-wheel- drive tours take visitors along the 21-kilometre spit to visit the light- house settlement and to watch the significant numbers of migratory and native seabirds that feed in the shallow, sheltered waters on the inside curve of the spit. This area is also appealing to whales, which often strand on its sandy coast.

Wharariki Beach, just south of the spit, is a magnificent west coast ocean beach, with walking access only. One of New Zealand’s Great Walks, the Heaphy Track, begins inland from Collingwood and attracts walkers from around the world. A string of safe swimming beaches east of Takaka - Pohara, Tata, Ligar Bay, Wainui - lead round to Separation Point, which divides Tasman Bay from Golden Bay.

But if the weather is bad, there are art and craft galleries, museums and cafes to idle a few hours away.

You’ll quickly find that you fall into Golden Bay time and the weather and travel time- tables slip into a hazy, unhurried oblivion.

Image Credit (1,2) Derek Smith and Maclean Barker Photography, and NZPlaces.

GOLDEN BAY IN A DAY - TOUR FROM NELSON

![Hometown New Zealand](http://www.fishpond.co.nz/affiliate_show_banner.php?ref=1323&affiliate_pbanner_id=81893596)Hometown New Zealand Photographs by Derek Smith

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