Li Downunder: Queen Charlotte Track

Day 1 started off on my bike with my loaded pack on my back at 5:30am in the dark. And it was 23F. This was perhaps the most interesting start to a backpacking trip I've ever had. Negotiating the gravel driveway was the hardest part. Once I was on the icy road, I was a strange moving black outline of inertia with flashing red and white lights. Quite a scene. I got weird looks from the only 2 people I saw. So where was I going? To my friend Lisa's house. There weren't any buses to the City Centre at this hour from my house so I had to bike 15 minutes to Lisa's house to get the bus from there. Two buses, one boat and eight hours later, we arrived at Ship Cove, the start of the Queen Charlotte Track. It was a gorgeous day. Calm and sunny. We hiked an hour and a half to our campsite right on the water, arriving just before dark. The trail was a bit slick from the rain earlier in the week... I fell down in the first hour. Little did we know, it was only going to get wetter. The highlight of the night was fending off the Wekas, birds endemic to New Zealand that like to steal campers food (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weka). One got away with a big ziploc bag of Lisa's sundried tomatoes and apricots, but she ran after it and retrieved them. She happened to have a tent stake in her hand at the time, making the whole scene quite hilarious for Will and I to watch. Again, little did we know, we'd be battling Wekas all weekend for our food.

Day 2 was rather uneventful. The skies were cloudy, but it was a nice, long walk (14 miles), mostly near the water. Again, we got to Camp Bay just a bit before dark. And then it started raining. We rushed to get the tents up and then cooked dinner in the rain under a tree. After shoving some food in, we climbed into our tents. I think this was when Will started belting the Backstreet Boys from his tent. Lisa relaxed. I played some solitaire. It rained hard all night. The wind howled through the trees but the tent maintained its structural integrity (too nerdy?).

We woke to Day 3 and more rain. The camping area was beginning to flood. We had a few options to get a water taxi out early, but decided it didn't make much sense. It seemed much more sensible to hike 15 miles in a torrential storm. Isn't that what most people would conclude in this situation? We set out and the rain lightened for a bit. And then... it poured and poured and poured. And was it windy! We hiked along the ridge most of the day. The wind funneled over it. Trees fell down on the trail. A rain jacket, rain pants and waterproof boots meant nothing. I was soaked to the core. Just keep moving! That's the only way we could keep warm. But it wasn't so bad. Whittaker's dark chocolate and PB & honey sandwiches helped too. We arrived at our final campsite in Portage Bay at 5pm. Portage Bay is a small town just over the hill from where the boat was picking us up the next morning. A quick change of plans occurred once we saw the campsite. It was flooded, extremely exposed, and there was no cooking shelter once again. Another wet night in wet tents wasn't sounding so appealing. But we did see a sign for a backpackers hostel on the walk to the campsite. We stumbled over there and knocked on the door. By this time, it was dark and everyone was getting cold. They let us in!!! It was a beautiful spot, more like a bed and breakfast, perched up on a hill and we had it all to ourselves. Hot showers! Warm food! Yahtzee! And in the morning, a beautiful view!

We enjoyed a relaxing morning, drinking tea and eating oatmeal before heading to catch the water taxi to Picton and then the bus back to Christchurch. This time I caught the bus straight home and picked up my bike from Lisa's the next day. Just in case you're wondering, I don't recommend riding a bike with a loaded pack on.

Kaikoura. A reststop on the bus trip north.