The Mussel Inn Area

The Mussel Inn Area is known to most people as Golden Bay, but for us the Mussel Inn was so representative of the area that we stopped using its proper name. The Mussel Inn is a brewery-café where business first, suit wearing, BMW driving people rub shoulders with vegan, dreadlocked, jalopy driving hippies. There is a pole covered in crucified cell phones and a sign that says, “Get the point?” The beer is brewed on site and the food is almost all caught or grown locally. The staff is friendly and their mood is contagious so if there is a bonfire burning or live music playing your are sure to make a new friend or two.

It is fitting that you have to cross Takaka Hill to reach Golden Bay because crossing the hill involves enough turns to make any San Francisco Street proud and makes you appreciate the effort that people go to live in the area.

Admittedly we did do more exploring in Golden Bay than just the Mussel Inn. We visited Farewell Spit, a 35km stretch of sand that includes some of the most important wetlands in the world. We intended to hike to Wharariki Beach to see its incredible rock formations and small seal colony and somehow overshot and ended up on Green Hill Beach. Finding our way from Green Hill Beach back to Wharariki Beach ended up being an off track adventure involving a few cliffs and a number of scratches on Jenni’s legs. We stayed at the Innlet and had an outdoor bath next to the creek before stopping at the Naked Possum for dessert. In Collingwood we bought chocolates from Rosy Glow Chocolate House where the chocolates are made not only with fresh ingredients right off the local farms, but also with love.

Takaka is the business center of Golden Bay, but that is a little like designating a rugby capital of the States. It is an arts and crafts town that does business because it has to. The incredible art galleries around town and relaxing atmosphere made us wish we were staying longer. We saw the clearest freshwater in the world at Te Waikoropupu Springs, visited the geological formations of The Grove and drove out to Tata Beach to find out why most people call the area Golden Bay.

We wanted to extend our time in Golden Bay to take up the rest of our trip, but the Nelson Saturday Market and other adventures dragged us back over Takaka Hill. If we ever come back to New Zealand we are going to make sure that our time in Golden Bay takes up a larger portion of the trip than it did this time.

If you get a chance make sure you try the Mussel Inn’s Happy Jackal Pumpkin Ale which tastes like pumpkin pie in a bottle.