The very north east of the south island has a very rugged
coastline, high forested, sparsely populated mountains dropping straight to a
calm turquoise sea, with lots of inlets
(called sounds), numerous coves and hundreds of tiny islands, in short, very
picturesque!
Picton, our base, is actually the ferry terminal for
travelling between north and south islands, so we’ll be here again when we go
north, but on this occasion it’s to see a bit of the Queen Charlotte Track. Picton is a really nice small town, with lots
of shops, bars and cafés and lots of tour companies offering diving, fishing,
boating and walking trips, so we spent a good few hours on Monday afternoon
checking out various companies to decide on a trip for Tuesday.
The Queen Charlotte track is a 4 or 5 day 71km tramp over
the spine of this long peninsular, separating Queen Charlotte Sound from Pelorus
Sound. I was quite keen to do the whole walk, but it’s necessary to get a boat
out to the start and, as we haven’t got camping gear, stay in lodges and the
whole things works out to a lot of money (probably the best part of $1000
each!), so instead we opted to go with Beachcomber Cruises on a day trip.
I absolutely wanted to go right out to the head of the
peninsular to a place called ‘Ship Cove’, so named as this was the place
Captain Cook anchored for a total of 168 days over his three voyages of
discovery in The Endeavour (1768-1771), The Resolution and The Discovery,
before being killed in Hawaii in 1779. Right opposite Ship Cove is the island
of Motuara, on which Cook raised the Union Flag on 31st January 1770
to claim the entire New Zealand territory for King George III (he who went ‘mad’!),
naming the Sound ‘Queen Charlotte’ after the King’s consort.
On the 8:00am boat ride to Motuara Island |
We booked Beachcomber Cruises to take us to Ship Cove on
their 8:00am departure and pick us up at the Furneaux Inn at Endeavour Inlet at
4:30pm (about 15km and quite a bit of ascent and descent), but on the way, we
were accompanied by a very knowledgeable (but also quite opinionated) NZ guide
and two Aussie clients (from Melbourne), plus another older bird watching lady.
They were all going to Motuara Island first, so we asked if we could go there
as well, before being picked up later to go across to Ship Cove. The skipper of
the boat was a hell of a nice guy and readily agreed, arriving there just after
9:00am.
Motuara island is rare in that all mammals (rats, possums,
stoats and weasels) have been eradicated, allowing the now very rare ground
dwelling birdlife and trees to flourish. New Zealand is unique in that it has
no natural mammals (except for 2 species of bat) so over millennia the birds
have evolved to become flightless and nest on the ground. The accidental
introduction of rats, possums, stoats and weasels by Europeans (and Polynesian rats
by the Maori) has devastated the natural species, including the Kiwi, which is
few in number. They are also responsible for the destruction of trees (along
with clearances by Europeans for logging and conversion of land for sheep and
cattle grazing). Several islands have been selected for this treatment and are
proving to be a real success as natural trees have re-seeded and rare bird
species reintroduced with great success. Apparently the Maori are thought to be
responsible for the extinction of 35 species, the Europeans for a further 55!
Motuara Island from Ship Cove |
Our 1½ hours on Motuara was a nice free guided tour, the NZ
guide and the Aussie couple were quite happy for us to tag along so we saw lots
of wildlife, as well as the monument showing the place Cook planted the Union
Flag on 31st January 1770 (apparently with the agreement of the
Maori chief – but he didn’t understand the significance until it was too late) and
a raised platform at the summit, above the trees giving superb views all
around, including a good view of Ship Cove. Here’s a picture of a South Island
Robin and a baby blue penguin in a nest box (lots on the island). We saw a few
other rare species, but didn’t get photos. We didn’t see any Kiwi, although
there are some there we believe (but they are nocturnal!) or a saddleback, but
it was fabulous! We also saw the very ugly and huge weta, an insect that grows
up to 6 or 7 cm in length
The South Island Robin |
Little baby blue penguin in his nest box |
At 10:30am the boat picked us up and took us the 5 minute
ride across to Ship Cove where we had time to look at the Cook monument.
The Cook Monument at Ship Cove |
This
is the place he anchored the Endeavour , resting his crew, carrying out
essential repairs and planted the Union Flag on the mainland. Apparently he
turned the Endeavour onto its side in this bay to repair rotting timbers,
cleaning and replacing the caulking.
After some minutes of reflection we left the others and
headed off uphill into the regenerating jungle. It is recovering remarkable well
and, higher up, some of the original large beech trees remain as they were too
inaccessible for Europeans to plunder.
The walk took us 3½ hours (against an advised time of 6 hours),
plus a half hour detour to School Bay for lunch by the sea and it was fabulous.
Fantastic views all the way with isolated bay after isolated bay! We arrived at
the Furneaux Lodge a little after 3:00pm, with 1½hours to wait for our return
boat. Ah well, we’ll just have to go into the bar at the lodge and have a beer!
Jackie beneath a giant fern (photo for my sister Denise who has a small one of these in her back garden! |
School Bay |
Another isolated bay! |
A baby Weka and his mum block our way.... |
And demand food. Mum gave all hers to her baby (but gave my finger a sharp peck at the end!) |
I felt I had to take this shot |
The boat picked us up and on the way back we did their mail
boat run, stopping off at various bays to pick people up, drop people off and
deliver mail and shopping to various isolated communities (a vital service for
these people). All very laid back and a friendly, chatty, very experienced skipper
who knows the area like the back of his hand and happy to show us anything we
want.
We got back around 6:00pm, had a quick shower and change and
headed for the ‘Flying Haggis’ Scottish bar we had spied for sausage and mash
for me, ham egg and chips for Jackie and a pint of local Tui beer. What a great
day!
Today (Tuesday) has been wet and windy, so we’ve chilled out
and caught up with the blog. I’m now so glad we didn’t try to do the full 4 or
5 day trek – today we would have got soaked! That’s all for now, is 5:30pm and
the wine has just been opened by Jackie who thinks I have been typing for far
too long! She is now sitting with Thomas the big black camp cat (not camp, but
camp resident!) on her lap, feeling very chilled!
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