On Christmas Eve we caught the ferry over to the South Island from Wellington. The ferry brings you to Picton were we had decided to stay over the holiday. On Christmas Day everything was closed so we could not expect to do much that day. Only thing to do was to have a lazy day and cook some nice food and drink wine. This we did together with Jasmine from Austria who we met first at Tongariro and then by chance again on the ferry.
After our Christmas celebrations it was time to organize our next outing which was going to be the Queen Charlotte Track. The track runs along a ridge in the Marlborough Sounds in the northern most part of the South Island. It is a little different since it passes a lot of private land and there are no DOC (Department of Conservation) huts, only campgrounds. If you do not want to camp there are a lots of options, hotels, B&Bs and hostels. We decided to bring our tent though.
On the ferry to Ship Cove.
On Boxing Day we caught the afternoon ferry to the start of the track, Ship cove. From there it took us four days to reach Anakiwa from where the ferry was going to bring us back to Picton. Unfortunately the weather was not the greatest. The clouds were quite low but at least it did not rain heavily during the days but only at night. So we kept dry and happy for the entire time. Even with the low clouds it was a beautiful hike through native bush, along the water front and mostly on top of a ridge.
At the highest point of the track. On a clear day you are supposed to be able to see all the way to the North Island. We were not so lucky but it was still beautiful.
Somewhere along the track
What made us even happier was the fact that next to the campgrounds day two and three there was a bar. Almost like being in the Alps you get a beer at the end of the day! Nice! Even though we had to carry our tent which made the backpacks a bit heavier it felt like a luxury hike. We could of course have left some of the food and eaten in restaurants on the way but that would be like cheating. The beer was luxury enough.
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| Queen Charlotte Track |