Before leaving Wellington, we got it into our heads that we’d like to do a multiday trek and that this would be a good place to do it. Boat drop off at the start and collection from the end, with free bag transfers along the way- perfect! And because it’s not one of the classic New Zealand ‘great walks’ we could just rock up at the campsites without booking (and as it turns out probably the hotels too, but we chose not to look into this option as we’d brought our tent all the way here and were determined to use it- and of course the difference between a campsite and a hotel equates to A LOT of beers)
To this end, we turned up at Picton and booked our ferries. We then had a very lovely afternoon ‘resting’ at waikawa bay holiday park (Aka drinking beer at the seaside local, the Jolly Roger), then cooking a carb loading feast at the campsite.
We caught the earliest boat the next morning to start our walk. We were dropped off in ship cove, where one of Cook’s ships had moored in the past and there were many infoboards, all of which I have forgotten. From here we started our trek through dense forest full of Weka and Fantails (local birds of which there are many- but these are the only two we can so far identify) with peeks of the coastline below, heading towards Furneaux lodge, to catch the boat across Endeavour inlet. We arrived in good time for a beer before getting the free boat transfer across, saving us a days hiking and landing us at Punga cove.
At Punga cove (a lovely looking hotel/resort) we collected our bags and headed to Camp Bay 5 mins away where we pitched our tent. We returned to the resort for a well earned beer and Pizza, and a good natter with a couple of auzzie ladies, two kiwi couples and two girls from Singapore who were also doing the trek and would continue with us the next day, before turning in as it got dark. We made a cosy nest out of all of our gear in our tiny backpacking tent, and were all 3 of us out like lights
Day 2 dawned bright and sunny after a surprisingly comfortable night and we packed up and got back onto the wooded trek up to the ridge line between Queen Charlotte sound and the southern section of Pelorus sound. We did the extra uphill slog to Eatwells lookout- as worthy a diversion as all the painted signs suggested, we had incredible views from all sides and it was even clear enough to see North Island in the distance.
The ridge walking continued most of the way to Torea Bay Saddle, where after 8 hours on the path we dropped down to The Portage hotel to collect our bags and set up camp in the nearby Cowshed Bay campsite. Once again we headed back to the hotel for dinner and beer, Cat choosing some of the local green shelled mussels that we’d been seeing the farms for from the ridge, while Eddie gobbled packet baby food and charmed all of the staff (no free stuff today, unfortunately. We will have to have words about him earning his keep).
The last day of the trek we awoke to the familiar sound of rain on the tent (thankfully not leaking through the hole they put in our tent when transferring our bag- thank goodness for duct tape!) but again we were lucky and it cleared up in time for us to pack our gear and then actually did brighten up! The day started with a steep uphill slog rewarded once again with incredible views of the surrounding sounds and islands, then dropped slowly down to follow the coast before arriving in Anakiwa after about 6 hours on the path, in good time for a beer before the last boat to get us back to Picton. An incredible trek, everything we had hoped for and more!
Parenting Responsibly 