Queen Charlotte Track

---

15/06/09 Monday Day 304 Ship Cove to Endeavour Inlet 15 kilometres
After getting up early, we headed down towards the harbour area in Picton where we booked our boat trip and accommodation with Beachcombers. This is a great service as they will transport your bags to your accommodation each day. Our first section to walk today is 15 kilometres from Ship Cove to Endeavour Inlet where we would be staying the night in Furneaux Lodge. At the very start at Ship Cove is a big climb. We had a great day weather wise for the walk, blue skies and dry. The scenery and views along the way are amazing. Some of the track even goes through farmers land. Every 5k’s they have a kilometre to go sign to the end. There’s loads of little bridges to cross too as you go over small streams. Eventually we got to our accommodation. The time’s that are advertised for the walks are very generous. Today the signs said that our walk would take 5 hours. We started at 10.35am and finished at 1.50pm, just about 3 and a half hours. Our accommodation was a resort style on the bay with backpacker accommodation also. Basically they were cabins with either a bed or bunk beds in them. They also had a heater which is needed because even though you’re warm while walking, it’s actually very cold here. Eventually we had to turn down the heat as it got awful warm in the room. The only poor thing was that the showers were 2 dollars to turn them on. Not very fair at all! This place also has a restaurant and bar. It’s the only bar within miles and people just pull up in their boat and have a drink. Also there’s loads of backpackers working here. They get free accommodation and food and pay. The Scottish girl behind the bar counter told us that at the weekend they bar gets very busy. And also we and another guy were the only 3 staying in the place but during the summer is gets really busy. We had a bite there and a few drinks and also a game of cards with the staff who were off for the night. There’s 12 working there with 2 more coming tomorrow. Strange really since it’s extremely quiet during the winter months.

16/06/09 Tuesday Day 305 Endeavour Inlet to Camp Bay 11.7 kilometres
Since the signs were saying that today’s trip would take 4 hours, we weren’t that worried about not starting too early. However in saying that, we did head off around 9.15am. We had blue skies again starting off but very soon after mist started to come in from the sea. Luckily it only lasted about 10 minutes. Some more walking through farmers yards was needed. We found some kiwi’s on the track too which is apparently a rare enough sight, or so someone told us at some stage. Also about the last 45 minutes, it started raining quite heavily. By the time we got to our accommodation, Punga Cove Resort, we were well cold and wet. Also that last bit of walking was quite difficult, very wet, slippery and muddy. We’re staying in a lodge kind of cabin with a number of rooms, a kitchen and dining area, and lounge with a gas fire (which is pumping out some heat at the moment) but every other room is freezing. Tomorrow we have a massive day, a huge 23 kilometres to do. We had dinner in the restaurant because we had run out of supplies and the “shop” in reception had nothing really. We also met the same guy we saw in the Furneaux Lodge last night here. We found out from him that he’s also doing the walk and he’s also staying in the same place as us tomorrow night.

17/06/09 Wednesday Day 306 Camp Bay to Portage Bay 23 kilometres
Early start this morning. We set off at 7.50am as we have a massive 23 kilometres. Extremely cold and frosty this morning. We seemed to be reaching each 5k mark exactly at 1 hour 3 minute intervals which was very strange. Again there’s some amazing views on the way. On one side of the hill near the sea is lovely and clear. On the other side is covered in low cloud. We didn’t really stop much at all, just for a minute every so often because the minute you stop you get cold really quickly. We flew through the 23 kilometres. We managed to do it in 5 hours and were so glad to get to our accommodation, The Portage Bay Hotel. This also had a backpacker section. Again the building was freezing but they supplied a fan heater for our room which was left on for our entire stay! We did however make use of their hot spa. At 39 degrees it was heavenly. After a half an hour though you’d be pretty warm and hot from it. We did have a shop close by so we were able to cook our own lunch and dinner. We did however go down to the hotel for a drink where again we met the same guy. He said he took his time with the walk today, leaving at 8.30am and arriving at 3pm. Tomorrow is another big day with 20 kilometres to do.
18/06/09 Thursday Day 307 Portage Bay to Anakiwa 20 kilometres
Yet another freezing start. We had a 10 minute uphill walk from the hotel by road to the start of the track. The first couple of kilometres were all up hill with some very steep parts in places. Tough going. There’s great views as you go up the hill too. And just when you think you’re at the top, the track goes slightly downhill for a moment before going back up. Again the kilometres slowly went down. We were able to walk 5 kilometres an hour so by 12.15pm we finished our massive 71 kilometre trek. There was a shelter with a phone beside the wharf so we rang our water taxi crowd and they sent a boat over. Once we got back to Picton we headed for the YHA again and booked a room for the night. The rest of the day was spend recuperating. We did however end up in Seamus’s Irish Bar for a few well deserved sociables.

---