TA Day 91: Starting the South Island along Queen Charlotte Sound

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Greetings from Queen Charlotte Sound Ecocamp 1758 km away, where we will be camping in a yurt tonight.

Today marks three months on the Te Araroa trail, along with the start of our hike around the South Island of New Zealand.

To start, this morning we took a water taxi from Picton to Ship Cove.

In the rain and fog, I felt like I was boating through Alaska or the Pacific Northwest (minus the bears and bald eagles).

Totaranui, or Queen Charlotte Sound, has been an important area for generations of Māori. It is believed that this is where Maui raised the North Island using a fish hook made from his grandmother’s jaw.

Kupe, the first human to discover Aotearoa (New Zealand), also came here chasing a giant octopus.

In more recent times, Captain Cook’s Endeavor first entered Ship Cove in 1770. The cove offered a safe space to repair, resupply and explore vessels.

For us, Ship Cove is the first stop on our South Island walk to Bluff. Along with the rain, weka birds greeted us upon our arrival. Wekas ​​are known to be mischievous and steal anything left unattended. Without fear or discomfort, it seemed as if the wekas were evaluating us and seeing what equipment to take.

Rain fell during the first few hours of our hike. Then the sky began to clear in the afternoon. Waterfalls, magnificent views of the coast and the sometimes deafening sound of a chorus of cicadas colored our trip.

We also enjoyed catching a glimpse of an ancient rimu tree and taking a nice break by the water in the sunshine before continuing with camping.

Now it’s just after 10:30 p.m., the wind is whipping and it’s raining again. I feel lucky to spend the night inside a yurt on a real mattress. Hopefully we’ll sleep well tonight and have better weather over the next few days along the Queen Charlotte Sound track.

Cheers to new adventures and the start of our trip to the South Island!

P.S. I recently discovered the speech to text feature to make blog posts faster than typing everything on my phone’s keyboard. That said, I know I’m behind. I’m usually busy, out of commission, or draining battery, which makes it difficult for me to post regularly. However, I have several drafts that I just need to edit and upload. Hopefully there will be more soon. In the meantime, thank you for your patience and happy holidays!

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