Walking in the Marlborough Sounds

Day 73: Arrival in Picton

It had stopped raining by the time I got to Picton. Despite it being only a short walk from the ferry terminal into town, I was quite grateful that there was a courtesy bus for foot passengers, dropping me right outside the hostel. After checking in, I set to hanging up wet clothes, and leaving books and various other random soggy items out to dry, having negated to wrap everything in plastic. Lessons have been learned!

With my luggage drying, I called around the places I was due to be staying the coming evenings to confirm my bookings, found the water taxi terminal I would be using the next day, and went shopping to buy excessive amounts of food to see me through three days of walking. Unlike many walks in New Zealand where you have to carry all of your own things and stay in huts or put up a tent, you can cheat a bit on the Queen Charlotte Track, and arrange for a water taxi to take your things to your accomodation, thereby only carrying the things you need for the day. I subsequently stocked up on slightly more than the bare essentials, with tinned fruit, tubs of hummus, bananas, apples, muesli, fresh pasta sauces and ample cake and chocolate! Although I left most of my clothes and other heavy items in Picton, my food-filled backpack weighed rather a lot, and I doubt very much I'd have managed the first day of the walk if I'd had to carry it!

Despite having planned food for the coming three days, I had forgotten to buy myself anything for dinner and subsequently ended up at the local chippy for a nutritious chips, cheese and mayo, which I ate on Picton's tiny beach.


Day 74: The Queen Charlotte Track - Ship Cove to Punga Cove (27km), with a night at Grandma Noelines.

Despite being in a rather cramped dorm of eight, I thankfully got a reasonable night's sleep and was up before seven to get down to the watertaxi terminal for half-past. Although the weather wasn't particuarly summer-like, with grey skies, a strong wind, and low lying cloud, it wasn't too bad for walking and I was just glad it wasn't raining.

It was an hour long boat journey out to Ship Cove and the start of the Queen Charlotte Track, and by the time I got there, I was feeling rather seasick and in need of a rest before starting the walk. Not the best start! There were a few displays around Ship Cove, outlining the history of the area, and a monument to Captain Cook (it was the first place he anchored in New Zealand). After a wander round and a bite to eat from my plentiful rations, I felt a bit better and head off up to the start of the track.

The beginning of the walk was quite tough and mostly uphill. The heavy rain yesterday had made some of the track rather slippery, and I had a few near misses on some of the steeper bits. After a couple of hours, I stopped for a break and a bite to eat at a lookout point. Unfortunately I had company in the form of a family of Wekas, flightless New Zealand waterbirds, who were determined to help themselves to my muesli, and more than happy to climb up onto the bench next to me to try and stick their beaks in. It didn't take long for me to get bored of the intrusion and I soon gave up trying to sit down and eat and continued on up the path. I reached Endeavour Inlet, marking the halfway point of the walk, at about midday. From here, most people were either stopping the night, else getting a watertaxi round to Punga Cove. Admittedly I only found this out this evening that getting a boat to the cove was possible, wanting to walk the whole track, I probably wouldn't have taken it anyway; but I did start to wonder when I was walking after lunch why I hardly saw anyone else on the track.

The forteen kilometres to Noelines were rather tough and I was relieved when I saw the blue roof of her house far off in the distance from one of the ridges. From that point, it was still over an hour of walking around the path before I finally came to Punga Cove, and a sign to a couple of guesthouses and backpackers. It turned out that Noelines was the furthest away, a further forty-five minutes off the track. And it was a long forty-five minutes. With a couple of breaks on route, I was cursing myself for choosing the cheapest option. The last half an hour was a bit of an adventure (that I could have done without at the time), and involved walking past the posh Punga Cove Resort, down overgrown paths, climbing over broken gates, bypassing a bit of livestock, and finally descending some steep steps, before going through a gate with a handwritten sign indicating that I'd finally reached Noelines. On arrival, I found that a couple who'd been staying at the Picton hostel last night and who had been on the same boat, were already there having been dropped off by watertaxi. They offered to go down to the jetty and pick up my rucksack, which was very nice of them (although they soon regretted the offer having found my bag to be a bit on the heavy side. It turns out tinned fruit isn't typical treking nosh).

Noelines house was a lovely little cottage overlooking the sea. She lived there with her very small, blind Yorkshire Terrier, and had four or five guests most nights staying in the spare bedrooms! Having taken my boots off and got through the front door, I was ushered to the kitchen table where I was fed cups of tea and some freshly baked scones - Perfect! Although the day had had a bit of a miserable start, it was now bright and sunny, and after a wander down to Noeline's beach (one minute down the hill), where I went for a paddle and sat recovering for a little while, I cooked a giant serving of pasta and sauce, which was followed by some rather scrummy almond cake.

Although knackered, I stayed up with the couple and a swiss guy who was also walking the track, and listened to our host's many stories. Despite not being able to get a word in edgeways, Noeline turned out to be quite a character, an ex-psychiatric nurse, at 76, she had visited more countries in the last ten years than I have (and I've been to a few...). Before bed, we borrowed her binoculars and went outside for a lesson on stargazing (although the only constellation I can remember is the saucepan, and I'm not sure that's a real one).


Day 75: The Queen Charlotte Track - Punga Cove to Portage Bay (23km), for some R&R at the Debretts

The only downside with the night at Noelines was perhaps my room-mate, a psychotherapist from Auckland. I don't mind people being antisocial (it has been said that I have my moments), but she was just quite rude with it. She'd just spent Christmas in a retreat somewhere or other. I'm not sure what it was meant to achieve, but there were definitely a few issues there, so perhaps she should have stayed a bit longer. I'm quite tolerant about sharing a room with people now, but her insistence that we had to sleep with the curtains open so that she could wake up at dawn, was almost too much. I went along with it anyway, and fortunately woke up at seven like I normally do, by which time she was nearly ready to go.

After a big breakfast, and having made my packed lunch, I left my, now slightly lighter bag, down on the jetty for it to be transported to it's next stop. It took a little while to get away and to be honest, I'd have quite happily stayed for another evening to be fed tea and scones, but after some drawn out goodbyes and a grandma kiss on the cheek, I followed after the other couple up the hill and back towards the Queen Charlotte Track.

The weather was worse today than it had been the previous day, it was quite cold, and with chilly gusts of wind, and a couple of brief showers, I kept my fleece on for most of the day. Despite the walk yesterday, I was still feeling quite energetic, and was soon overtaking people, eventually catching up with my psychotherapist friend and leaving her to make her merry way along the track behind me. Most of the walk was quite sheltered, one of the best bits had to be through a Blair Witch Style forest, which was all grey and dismal apart from little areas where there were clusters of bright red mushrooms with white spots. Again the track was quite slippery and a bit steep. Although it was a nice walk, cloud and drizzle did limit the views somewhat. I stopped for a lunch at a shelter, about halfway through the walk, just managing to miss a rain shower in the process. With the weather getting colder and wetter, I was quite keen to get to Portage Bay, and completing the track fairly quickly, I got there at about half-past two.

Again my accomodation at the top of a hill wasn't in an ideal location, but it was worth it when I got there. I was staying at Deb and Brett's (Debretts), another homestay/guesthouse, although this one didn't have scones ready on arrival, and our living quarters where kept separate from those of our hosts (did I mention that Noeline slept on the lounge floor when she had a full house)! Having tracked down Brett, I was shown around self-contained flat that I was sharing with the same couple from last night, and a french couple. Although there was a bunkbed in my room, it turned out that I was the only one staying there and would have the room to myself - Hurrah! Noone else was there when I arrived, so I had plenty of time to potter around, make cups of tea and look through the books that were lying around. With the weather still cold and miserable outside, I had to dig out my thermal undies (a great investment in the unpredictable New Zealand climate) and put them on under my pyjamas to keep warm. Feeling a little tired after all the walking, I climbed into bed and managed a good hour and a half's sleep before anyone else arrived, and with the heating on, we settled down to another nice evening of food and talking, already reminiscing about our night at Noelines!


Day 76: The Queen Charlotte Track - Portage Bay to Anakiwa (21km), and then back to the big smoke.

Despite my afternoon nap yesterday, I had a really good sleep and set off again at about nine for the final leg of the track from Portage Bay to Anakiwa. Today was by far the easiest day of the walk, with only one steep climb at the start leading up onto a long ridge, enabling views of the bays on both sides for most of the walk. The weather was a lot better too and probably about ten degrees warmer than it had been the day before, with warm sun and a blue cloudless sky. Progressing along the track, it soon became apparent that I was approaching 'civilisation' again, as the gravel road, far down by the beach, became tarmacked, and some of the bushland had been cleared for farmland. Even with aching legs and a stop for lunch, I arrived back at Anakiwa early and with enough time to visit the local cafe, where I had scones and ice lollies (couldn't decide which one I wanted).

With several other weary walkers, I finally boarding the boat back to town. After a few days on the Queen Charlotte Track, Picton felt like the big smoke in comparison, and soon after getting back, I went out to buy (more) food, before taking a well deserved in the hostel's hot tub for an hour. I spent the rest of the evening chatting to other people at the hostel and comparing notes on the trials and tribulations of the Queen Charlotte Track.

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