By Ruth
Distance: 15km, 20km
Yesterday was our first day of walking on the Queen Charlotte Track. This is a very popular and fairly easy trail with lots of “civilized” places to stop along the way. The perfect thing to ease us back into the TA.
First thing was to take a water taxi from Picton to Ship Cove. Ship Cove is where Captain Cook moored his ship on his various visits to New Zealand in the 1700s. I was a bit excited about this since I just finished reading an interesting book on the history of New Zealand which was very enthusiastic about Captain Cook.
After reading some history plaques we began walking. The trail is very nice. Wide, not steep, dry, and scenic. There are lots of benches along the way to stop and enjoy the views of the gorgeous turquoise water below.
Our first night on the QC track was at the Furneaux Lodge, a beautiful hotel on Endeavour Inlet. It was only 15 km from Ship Cove so we arrived nice and early, around 2pm. What followed was my ideal afternoon of luxury: we had a coffee, went for a dip in the ocean, soaked in the hot tub for a bit, then showered, took a nap, and read before dinner and a nice glass of wine at the hotel restaurant. It was incredible.
Elliot was having a bit of a harder time relaxing and enjoying the hotel because it was hard for him to forget that the next day, we would be back on the trail, staying in our tent at a possum-infested campsite.
This morning we got going pretty late again because the hotel breakfast didn’t start until 8 am. Well-fed and caffeinated, we set off around 9:30. The trail today was much quieter than yesterday because a lot of people just walk from Ship Cove to Endeavour Inlet as a day walk and get picked up by the water taxi at the end of the day.
Once again it was a beautiful day and an incredibly pleasant trail. At lunchtime we stopped at Punga Cove, another nice hotel where we needed to buy passes for the next couple days where the trail passes through private land. Since we were already there, we popped into the cafe to get a cold drink and they let us eat our lunch on the patio. It was really lovely.
After lunch the trail started going uphill quite a bit, but nothing too extreme. We made good progress and enjoyed the walking and the views. We reached a lookout over the Bay of Many Coves and stayed for almost half an hour, just sitting together, chatting, and looking out at the gorgeous view. It was a wonderful moment.
Tonight we are at a campsite with probably 10 other TAs, some of whom we had met just after Hamilton and not seen since Waitomo. They are nice and we caught them up on our recent trials and difficulties, and commiserated because they too had had a hard time in the Tauraruas and were feeling a bit down about the TA overall. Even though it can be stressful when there are lots of other walkers around, it was also a treat to have a social evening and to meet and reconnect with some nice people.