Treking the Track
Day 10 – Pichton to Queen Charlotte Track
And so we began our mighty tramp. We woke up around seven in order to have enough time to get our things together and get to the water taxi by 7:45. We’d gotten most of our gear together already, which just left showing and getting breakfast. After we did that, we walked over to the water taxi and caught the boat to ship’s cove where the tramp would begin. The boat ride took about 45 minutes and brought us through the bay. It gave me the opportunity to see a variety of birds as well as the scenery of the Pichton area. Once at Ship’s Cove, we were confronted with the rain forest-like path that ascended steeply upward. We took a few moments to check out a monument to Captain Cook. After hiking for about thirty minutes up the Queen Charlotte track, both Tory and I were already quite tired. His shirt was utterly soaked in sweat while I was just trying t motivate my feet and legs to continue moving. Fortunately after reaching the top of the hill, we began a fairly level path. The path continued to climb some, but not so much that it was too tiring or painful. There were several nice viewpoints along the way. The weather was absolutely delightful. The sun was out and there was only the occasional cloud to provide us shade. A breeze kept us cool while we hiked. After reaching the top of the first hill, we descended down the opposite side of the hill and entered into some private property. I was struck by the fact that much of the property surrounding the Queen Charlotte track was owned privately. Each viewpoint was picturesque, like the scene from some tropical postcard. We were totally surrounded in rain forest as we walked, or at least it looked like rain forest. Calla lilies and foxglove grew wild all over while the birds constantly sung as if they had their own private song they were offering to us. At one point when we stopped for a bite to eat, a large ground-dwelling bird called a weka came out to look for handouts. We decided to move on and avoid the unwanted visitor. As we got farther and farther into the descent down the hill, my knees began to ache more and more. The feet for both Tory and I grew weary and by about four or five hours into the hike we were both ready to stop. Fortunately after many more scenic spots (and many more ascents and descents), we had reached the end, Punga Bay Cove. Not before we were joined for brief walk with a young German girl named Liz. She spoke quite good English and had been going to school in a Bleinheim high school for the past year. She was talkative and took our minds off how much our knees and feet hurt for the last section of the journey to the resort. The resort, we discovered, treated backpackers as a kind of second-rate citizen. We put our gear away and just relaxed for a while. Tory and I ventured down to the bar for a couple beers before finding our way up to the very glamorous and very expensive restaurant. The meal was the most expensive I’d had in a long time, but fortunately Tory helped pay for it a little. After dinner, we were both so utterly exhausted that we just felt like passing out. And that is exactly what we did. After getting ready for bed, we both laid down for an early sleep at around 9pm.
Tags: Hiking, New Zealand, Pichton, Queen Charlotte, Travel
gregbilsland
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