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Throwing In the Towel
- Sunday, December 15, 2002 |
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After sleeping off the affects of the wine, we headed north back to Picton and geared up for our 1st multi-day hike on the Queen Charlotte Track rewarding hikers with amazing views of the beautiful Marlborough Sounds. Hikers take a 1.5 hour water taxi ride to the start of the 67km track. Some playful dolphins followed the taxi part of the way to Ship's Cove, the start of the 3-4 day hike. Captain James Cook often stopped at Ship's Cove on his travels through the South Pacific for a little R&R. The QC Track follows the shoreline through many hidden coves and waterways allowing hikers to stay in one of the historic lodges or camp in their own tents at various points along the track. We travelled as light as possible, carrying sleeping bags, tents, rain gear, three days worth of food, etc. (~20 lbs each) since we elected to camp out. We were rewarded with perfect weather conditions for day one of the hike allowing us to soak up some sun and take in the great views.
The forecast for great weather was not to be as our bad weather karma met up with Mother Nature's fickle marine conditions. Day two hiking began with just a few clouds and ended a short three hours later in the pouring rain! With tired, inflamed legs, and packs that seemed like lead weights, we made our way home to Stella after the water taxi dropped us off in Picton in the pouring rain. We would've loved to have finished the 3-day Queen Charlotte Track hike, but there was no point since our camp spot that night was on the edge of a ridge. No tent is fully waterproof and it would have made for a pretty long night!
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