Queen Charlotte Track walk

Sunday 13^th December, 2015

Since we have a free day in Picton due to having arrived a day earlier than intended (all of the Interisland Ferry Sailings for Sunday were booked out due to an AC/DC concert in Wellington last night), Dominic and I decide to go for a walk to limber up in preparation for the proper walk. We head out along from the Marina towards The Snout but not before I stop in at a shop on High Street to buy a sun hat which I had forgotten to pack.

The walk to The Snout is quite pleasant as it parallels the Sound walking mainly through bush. It is a warm and pleasant day too. We turn around before reaching The Snout as there seems to be a lot of downhill to get to it and that will, inevitably, turn into uphill on the way back. We are probably only about 500 metres short of it anyway.

Walking back we take a different route down on the Waikawa Bay side of the peninsula. This takes us onto Waikawa Road back towards Picton where we find ourselves walking into the teeth of a gale – although they probably only consider it to be a light breeze here. The day's walking took us over about 14.5 km not counting walking around in Picton itself so it is a good warm up for what is to come.

Later on, after cleaning up and resting for a while at the Glengary B & B, we head out to Cafe Cortado for dinner. We get talking to a couple from Melbourne at the next table who, it turns out, are also starting the Queen Charlotte Track walk tomorrow but not as a guided option like ours. They will also be staying at different accommodation on the first night.

Monday 14th December, 2015

This morning, while we are at breakfast at the B & B, I make sure to contact Leonore in Masterton to talk to Patricia so that I can wish her happy wedding anniversary – 52 years ago today.

Ray, our guide for the walk, arrives to pick us up from the B & B and take us to the Adventure Company office. When we arrive there is just time to be issued with essentials – labels and lunch boxes etc, and have a photograph taken, before we have to board the boat. We also meet the other member of our party, Scott – a younger American guy who is coming along as a trainee guide to learn the track. So our party is just the four of us: Dominic, myself, Ray, and Scott.

Dominic, Scott, Me, Ray before the boat trip to the QCT walk

The boat to Motuara Island is a pleasant trip and once there, we walk to the top of the Island seeing NZ Robins and Native Pigeons on the way. We also see a Penguin in a nesting box. On the way to the island we saw a school/pod of Dusky Dolphins fishing in the Sound and they seemed to be having a good time of it.

View of Queen Charlotte Sound from Motuara Island

After leaving Motuara Island we take the boat across to Ship Cove named by Captain Cook in 1770. Ship Cove is where we will start the walk. While there we looked at the Captain Cook Memorial before starting the walk.

The walk takes us through thick bush and up over Ship Cove Saddle then down to Schoolhouse Bay for lunch. After lunch we continue the walk along to Furneaux Lodge via Tawa Saddle. All up, including the Island walk it is 19.09km, 26,830 steps in about 4.5 hours of walking on the main track and about 0.5 hour on the Island.

At Tawa Saddle we saw some cheeky Wekas - one with a young'un in tow. They don't seem to be disturbed at all by humans and behave much like chickens.

Weka at Tawa Saddle

View from Tawa Saddle

Afterwards my feet are a bit sore in a bony pressure point (left foot) and a small blister from yesterday's walk on the right foot.

Dinner at 6:30pm is welcome and I had a nice rib-eye steak while Dominic had a Salmon Fillet - both very nice. Dinner is served with a complimentary glass of wine each so Dominic ordered a red of my choosing which I imbibed after mine ;-)

I had worn my Teva sandals to alleviate the soreness in my feet but on the way back to our room after dinner my left sandal's sole disintegrated so I had to throw them out in the rubbish. They were only 21 years old too. They just don't build things to last these days – tcch!

During the night I keep being disturbed by a burning sensation in my left big toe base knuckle. Strangely it is fleeting and if I touch it or apply pressure externally there is no pain so there is no way it can be gout – just some internal inflammation.

Tuesday 15^th December, 2015

The walk for day two takes us from Furneaux Lodge to Punga Cove. We are greeted by Wekas and Tuis on waking up. We go to bar to prepare lunches at 7:15am as per Ray's

instructions last night but, unfortunately, he stuffed up and it was supposed to be 8:15! Ho hum! It must have been the Pinot Noir he had with dinner.

We left Furneaux Lodge at about 9:30am after breakfast and took a short side trip to look at some old growth Beech and Rimu forest. The Rimu trees looked like they had been through a fire due to a black coating on the bark but this blackness is caused by sooty fungus due to sugary secretions left by an insect that burrows into the bark. Bees apparently appreciate this bounty too and Honey Dew honey is the result. The remnant Beech and Rimu forest is quite interesting and has remained intact due to the original owner of Furneaux Lodge buying up the land to preserve it. At that time prime trees were big money and many were felled for profit.

We had the usual morning tea stop along the way with Ray boiling up his billy for tea. Time for a nice quiet sit in the sunshine to reflect on the beautiful surroundings. Later on there was also, of course, a lunch stop which was welcome after a few hours walking. The walk so far is well protected by bush with very few exposed places. Occassionally we can catch glimpses of the Sound from some of the higher places. There are quite a few (<12 but="" font="" on="" other="" the="" track="" walkers="">they are well separated so it still seems a wilderness experience. Along the way we are entertained by Tuis and some other birds which I can't identify. A lot of the NZ native birds have fairly subdued (drab?) colouring which makes them sometimes difficult to spot although they can usually be heard.

Altogether for the day we do 21232 steps and 15.17km in about 4 hours of walking.

Punga Cove Resort where we will be spending tonight is something else. It is built on the side of a hill leading up from the jetty with average gradients in the pathways of 15 – 20% (by my estimation) and our room is almost at the highest point - the only thing higher is the restaurant. Fortunately our overnight bags have already been carried to the room for us so we don't have to lug those up the hill.

View from our room at Punga Cove Resort

Later on, while down in the bar using wifi (the only place where it is available and even then it is flaky) we meet up with the Melbourne guy that we sat next to in Cafe Cortaldo in Picton and have a good chat about shared experiences on the day's walk.

Dinner is again very pleasant. I have Cajun Lamb Loin and Dominic has Salmon along with Ray and Scott. And, of course, the obligatory complimentary glass(es for me) of Pinot Noir.

Just before sleep I take a paracetamol/codeine tablet so that my toe will, hopefully, not trouble me in the night.

Wednesday 16th Dec, 2015

I am woken by the alarm at 6am out of a deep sleep so the paracetamol pill I took last night really worked.

It is a grey day outside with cloud down low over the ridges and threatening rain.

We get dressed and pack our overnight bags then go down to the bar to prepare our lunch boxes. At this stage I tell Ray and the others that I am going to take the boat to Portage instead of walking this longest leg because of my foot discomfort. Just before we go back up the hill to breakfast light rain starts.

After breakfast the others start on the walk while I go back to the room to wait for the

boat to arrive around 9ish.

The boat duly arrives about 9:20am and, after an uneventful trip down the Sound, arrives at Torea Bay for the ride up to the Portage Hotel.

I am in our room by 10:45am. On the way down the Sound the boat picks up an elderly lady at Pahau and we get talking. It turns out that her husband and some friends were mountain biking on one of track sections a few years ago (I'm not sure how many but he was 69 at the time). He was leading the group so he disappeared around a bend ahead and when the others caught up they found him tilted against the side of the track, still on his bike, and dead from a heart attack. What a great way to go. Another thing that she comments on with the boat skipper is that she has been getting some wild piglets coming into her garden and is of a mind to catch some and pen them for fattening up. Wild pigs, descendants of originals dropped off by Captain Cook and other sea-farers, still abound in parts of New Zealand and are a favourite hunters target. They still go by the soubriquet of 'Captain Cookers'.

View over Keneperu Sound from below Portage Hotel

Later on I go for a walk up the hill where the road intersects the Queen Charlotte Track. It is a steep pull up but I do it with no stops which is good. I meet a young European couple who are trying to decide which part of the track they want to walk so that they can catch some of the great views over the Sounds so I tell them which way our party will be coming and they take off in that direction.

Portage is accessible by road from Picton but I don't know how long that takes. The road also continues on and terminates above Punga Cove where we spent last night.

Road intersection and road signs near Portage Hotel

Dominic, Ray and Scott arrive before 4pm. Dominic is tired but otherwise Ok after a walk of 26km – partly in the rain to start with.

Dinner at 6:30pm is (chosen from the menu) Chicken Curry which is nice and spicy. We wash it down with a nice Pinot Noir. I also buy a bottle of Central Otago Roaring Meg Pinot Noir to take back to the room as we will be here for two nights. Yummy.

Thursday 17th December, 2015

Today is our 'rest' day so it is a latish start (8am) to prepare our lunch and then breakfast

at 8:30am. At 10am we will meet to go on our kayaking adventure. Scott is heading back

to Picton by mountain bike today so we may see him once we get back to Picton tomorrow

night.

Just on 10am Ray arrives at our room to present us with neoprene wet shoes and waterproof over jackets to wear in the kayak and then we follow him down to the beach where the kayaks are waiting – his is a single seater and ours a two-seater.

After getting prepared with spray skirt and Personal Floatation Device (PFD) and

stowing our lunch etc in the waterproof compartment we are off paddling into Keneperu Sound. Initially I start out in the rear, steering, position but I keep losing the steering controls from my feet. The seating position is also very uncomfortable with not enough back support. We head back to the beach and I swap places with Dominic. The front seat has been 'hacked' so that it can slide backwards and forwards so it is quite easy to set up a better sitting position and soon we are off again.

Our destination is a mussel farm on the far side of the Sound. The idea is that we pick up

(ie steal) some mussels for lunch. Apparently the mussel farm owners don't mind mussels

being taken from the top of the lines as these often get smashed anyway during harvesting. We use our kayak to hold the lines up while Ray does the harvesting. After Ray has collected enough we head across to the other side of an island where there is a little beach where we can have our lunch.

Dominic and Ray on the beach at our lunchtime stop

Duly arriving at the beach we have our lunch and then Ray reuses his tea billy to cook the

mussels in a little seawater. This does not take long and there are enough for us to have a

few each and they are delicious – they could not be any fresher.

After lunch and reloading the kayaks we start to head north to go around the top of the island to a small overland portage but as we get near the top of the island there are white-caps visible ahead due to the freshening wind. Ray decides we should turn around and head back around the south end of the island and thus back across the bay to the hotel. This turns out to be a lot easier to say than to do.

Turning, with great difficulty, around the bottom of the island we are straight into the teeth of a gale (locally known as a stiff breeze) and it is non-stop paddling for probably half-an-hour or so to get us back onto the beach below the hotel.

It is a hard slog back to our departure point but eventually we are there, beaching the kayaks and getting everything ready to pack away. It has been about 3.5 hours all up and, somehow, the arms have managed to survive - although they are very tired from the unaccustomed workout.

Back in our room a nice hot shower makes things feel much more normal and then a nice coffee in the bar is very welcome. It provides a fitting cap to the new experiences of the day as we look out over the bay from the comfort of the hotel lounge.

At 6:30pm we experience another good dinner at the hotel - fish chowder followed by fish of the day (Orange Roughy) with vegetables. Oh – and some red wine ;-)

Friday 18th December, 2015

We are up early for our last leg which is from Portage to Anakiwa - about 20+km.

After preparing lunch and having breakfast the hotel minibus takes us up the road to the

start of the track which avoids the boring trudge up the tarmac that I did on Wednesday. It is raining again so we are dressed in rain gear to start off.

On the track the first hour is all uphill steeply and is slow going for me. However, the few rest stops I have to let the heart rate drop give us a chance to take in some of the wonderful views. After we reach the tops we are able to shed the rain gear and walk more comfortably.

At about 11am Ray leads us on a side detour down over knarled roots through a delightfully spooky Beech forest to Mistletoe Bay where he boils the billy for morning tea. After a half-hour break we are on our way again and, you guessed it, uphill again. When we reach the intersection with the QCT there is an indicator post indicating 11.5km to go to Anakiwa. Ray tells us to take note of this distance for when we come to the next distance indicator post. Walking at a pace which I estimate conservatively at 3kph we reach another post after 20 minutes which indicates 11km to go – so one of these markers is lying! 20 minutes at 3kph = 1km and Ray think we are probably doing more like 4kph+. He says that he thinks that the track needs to be resurveyed and properly measured.

After another half-hour or so it is time for a lunch break at a bench overlooking the Sounds. This bench was apparently one that Ray was instrumental in placing when the track was being built. It originally had a clear view over the Sound which was why it was placed here but, in the intervening years, the bush has grown up to obscure the views somewhat.

After lunch it is a downhill-on-average walk to Davies Bay where it is about 6km to

Anakiwa. On reaching Anakiwa we have a good, welcome coffee from the lady at the

coffee caravan while we wait for the Cougar Lines boat pickup.

Anakiwa is where the NZ Outward Bound schools was established in 1962. From some of our conversations with Ray we learned that he had done two two-year stints as an instructor there followed by two ywo-year stints as deputy warden.

The boat arrives on time but we are delayed, waiting for some mountain bikers who are running late. After about 25 minutes delay we are on our way to our final stop in Picton. After finalising the formalities and receiving a copy of the picture which was taken before we started off, Dave from the walk company gives us a lift to the ferry terminal. We already know that the ferry is running about an hour late, so we check in our bags and walk back to town for a meal.

Eventually we settle on a pizza at the Irish pub (where else?) - smoked salmon which is quite nice and then head back to wait for the ferry.

The ferry turns out to be 2 hours late by the time we get away so it is about 11:45pm by

the time we get to the hotel in Wellington. A quick shower then into bed – zzzzzzzz!