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Published: March 17th 2023
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Tramping the Queen Charlotte Track, and sea kayaking with Jamie Monday morning bright and early saw us on the bus to Picton. The bus driver did a running commentary en route to stop him getting bored. Tales of gold rushes and frost protection windmills in the vineyards as we passed through Blenheim. Great afternoon in Picton visiting the oldest surviving boat that took convicts to Australia. Fascinating construction, amazing what you can do with string and caulk!
We were off early on the 0800 boat on Tuesday to start 4 days tramping on the Queen Charlotte track. We felt very intrepid but one of us was a bit nervous! Our backpacks were shuttled daily between campsites by the coastal boat, what luxury (we thought)....
Beautiful countryside, all shades of blue and green in the Sounds. Quite tiring though, with 7 to 8 hours tramping each day. On the second day, having already walked 23km with 1100m elevation, we realised that our luggage was on a jetty on one side of a saddle and the campsite was at sea level on the other side of the same saddle.....we had to descend for 20 minutes to get the packs from
the jetty before then tottering up the blasted hill with all our gear (30 minutes) and then a killer decent to the blasted campsite on the other side. AND our packs had to be back on the same blasted jetty by 0900 the next morning. Not such happy days.... Thankfully the last two days were much shorter so we were able to enjoy the views more!
We passed a few Te Araroa walkers on the QCT too....this is the long distance path that Jamie and Ellie completed in January....1500km of arduous tramping with multiple river crossings staying in huts and camping. Madness! There appears to be little appetite for a short Sunday afternoon stroll in New Zealand.
We hitched into Havelock ( the green lipped mussel centre of the world) to meet up with Jamie and enjoy a mussel supper together. Turned out mussels were by request only and when requested they were "off".
With typical Jamie enthusiasm, there was no time to waste. Next morning saw us sea kayaking in the Marlborough Sounds with an overnight camp. The first day was sunny with a stiff headwind. We bagged a few mussels from the rocks on the
way for supper. The camping site was very small but with idyllic views of the beach and surrounding sounds.
We all squidged into Notso Tiny Tim for a good chat but sent Jamie packing at bed time as we decided that he was just too tall for our tent. The next day brought heavy rain with very limited visibility and we couldn't work out where to aim for to get back to the car as we couldn't see across the sound.
It will come as no surprise that the Lowes are always very sure of their map-reading ability and this was perfectly evidenced on this final leg of our journey. Jan was in charge of the map as we turned a headland and prepared to cross the sound. It was raining steadily and visibility was very poor. We could dimly make out the mountain skyline across the water. Jan was oddly unclear as to our heading. Taking the wrong route could add hours of paddling through the rain. She had the map, so she should surely know where to head! Prompting remarks and helpful questions bore frustratingly little fruit. We needed a bit more certainty and all Jan
could come up with was that it was difficult!
There was nothing else for it, Pete had to have the map and get it sorted. Slightly hurt, but compliant, Jan handed over the map. A long pause followed as Pete puzzled over the map. Turns out Pete found it all a bit tricky too. The map contours were as blurry as the skyline across the sound.
After a further pregnant pause, Jamie stepped up to solve the old timers problem. He took the map. Further pondering ensued. There was no blinding flash of enlightenment. Having all scrutinised the map we agreed it was definitely tricky. We all reached slightly differently conclusions about where to go, so we took an average heading into the gloom and hoped for the best. We paddled for half an hour until Jamie spotted his car roughly in front of us, long before us oldies saw it. Phew! Well done Team Lowe!
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