2 Walk On!: Queen Charlotte Track

Saturday, January 15: We head off from Picton on a hired boat for the beginning of the Queen Charlotte Track. This is a hike some thing like the West Coast trail. It's 71 km long and runs along the ridge up above the water. The difference is that you can access the track in a number of places. Boats stop in at these jetties to drop off or pick up and you can have your hiking gear/equipment transported also. There are camping spots marked on a map or you can plan your route. Usually done in 4 days. We split into 2 groups again with group of 9 who were doing a longer hike dropped off first at Ship Cove. We chose to do the shorter hike with the 2nd group of 11 and we were dropped off at the next cove along, Resolution Bay. We had Steve the bus driver hike with us as our guide. He is so good with interpretation of plants and birds. Sets a good pace too. The hike was 12 km for our group, 20 km for the other.

Our boat in Picton. The boat ride was about an hour

It was a great hike in the woods with the occasional view of the ocean. The trail was very good. What I will remember most is the sound of the cicadas. I can only suggest it sounded like they were screaming at each other. Unbelievable racket! I have never hiked with that background noise before. Lots of birdsong too: the bellbird, the fantail, and the tui were some of the birds we actually observed perching and flying around.

The ferns are incredible. I love looking at all the different types.

This is a weka. We decided it is kind of like a whiskey jack in Canada. Hangs around the picnic tables hoping for handouts or bits of cookie dropped on the ground. We share our lunch site with two of them. But they are flightless as many of the New Zealand birds are.

This twiggy looking plant is a Lancewood. It looks like this until it's above the height of where ground birds could reach it to nibble on, then the leaves change into much bigger leaves.