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Published: August 12th 2008
Sounds are a bit like Fjords, apparently. That watery bitch, the Sea, invades the land, flooding river valleys, drowning bunnies, and leaving cows stranded. But it's not all bad! The fish are happy, and you end up with some quite stunning terrain. Like the Queen Charlotte Sound. Just ask Captain Cook. The rum soaked old sea dog spent more time around the Marlborough Sounds than anywhere else in New Zealand, stopping here on 4 separate occasions before coming to a sticky end in the cooking pot of Hawaiian natives. A seasoned explorer, indeed - ba dum!
Our own landing in the Queen Charlotte Sound was slightly less historically significant than Captain C's, but I bet he had better weather. We took the boat over from Wellington in the midst of a pretty nasty storm that had knocked out most of the roads & trains south from Picton. An inauspicious auger, as we were planning to do the Queen Charlotte Track, a 71km 4 day hike along the coast of the Sounds themselves.
The best thing - apart from the gorgeous scenery along the way - is that you can do this trek without lugging your bags. Boats run the
length of the coast, and for a small fee will dump your giant backpack off at your next stopping point. Add to this some nice places to stay (i.e. no skanky tents), and it really is a top walk.
As luck would have it, the storms finally blew themselves out the evening before we set off. The weather on the boat ride to Ship's Cove, the starting point of the trek, was forbidding, but a sighting of about 20 bottlenose dolphins lifted our spirits. Dolphins are right show offs if you ask me, chasing the boat, leaping out of the water, and generally looking like they're having a whale (sorry) of a time. But if they were people they'd be annoying. "Look at me! Ma! Look at me!" "Shut up you little blighter, I'm having a FAG!". Or was this just my childhood? (Just kidding, mum...)
Anyway. As treks go, the QCT is totally gorgeous, and being that no other nutter does it in the height of winter we had the whole length of the course pretty much to ourselves. Where so ever we stopped there were about 2 other people staying, which fortuitously meant we got upgraded
one night to a semi luxurious apartment with an incredible lakeside view for practically zero New Zealand Dollars (which are worth bugger all anyway).
Not too much more to add, really. Hiking is quite good fun, and the views were very nice. We hardly saw anyone for 4 days, except for one strange chap with about 10 dogs. Most peculiar.
We had planned to do another trek in the beautiful Abel Tasman park on our return, but frankly we were too tired. In the time honoured tradition we went wine tasting instead. I like wine tastings, but they're not great blog material, frankly. This one had the good sense to end up in a brewery with a free run of the local beers and ciders. Yes, cider! We managed to have a Scrumpy Jack a gazillion miles from home. We went home pissed, and smelling of Bristol.
Next stop, Franz Josef Glaciers.
Si xxx
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