Why couldn’t there be a three and a half hour boat ride that was worth taking?
Oh wait. There was.
The ferry from Wellington to Picton was gorgeous. I’m pretty sure there was land in sight the whole time. And it was particularly beautiful once we got into the Marlborough Sounds. Very reminiscent of scooting around the islands around Seattle.
There were some stunning bays/lagoons, a few large fishing areas, and plenty of boats out.
I can’t stress how impeccable the weather was. Especially considering that it’s absolutely pissing outside as I write this.
I boarded the ferry in Rob’s camper van (the German from Paihia and Taupo). Once we docked, we had a mission to get more information about the main reason we were there: to hike part of the Queen Charlotte Track. In its entirety it would take 3-5 days (70km), so we were only looking to do a portion.
We drove straight to the i-Site (helpful info centers they have all over the country). We found out that we basically had two options…to start from the beginning and get an hour-long water taxi out to a 15km section of track OR have a shorter boat ride to do a 25km stretch with ridgeline walking and 360º views. The first option was substantially cheaper based on a deal we found. It was a real toss up. People kept saying ridgeline walking and 360º views — I can’t reiterate this enough. So that’s what we went with.
Fast forward 24 hours and I found myself a touch disappointed and sporting a major calf strain. 25km of walking is pretty extreme. Also, the “ridgeline” walking with “360º views” was an oversell. The vast majority of the track was covered and there was only one lookout with maybe 270º views.
It’s kind of shitty to be bitter about the experience since it was quite a nice walk and an amazing spectacle at the lookout. The thing that really turned the knife though, was when we were taking the water taxi back to town, we ran into Ellen, a Swede I’d met in Taupo and advised to do the cheap, shorter track.
Her and her walking mate saw dolphins and penguins on their water taxi, enjoyed an easy grade and had enough time to go swimming in a lagoon before boarding the boat home.
Damn.
Dolphins have been my white whale while in NZ. I mean, I guess whales have been too. Really all unique marine life, apart from seals and sting rays. Seals are a dime a dozen and I got stung by a ray back in San Diego so they can eff off for a while.
After getting over my bitterness, I had a soak in my hostel’s pseudo-warm tub. Rob was going to leave town but decided to stay to give the girls a ride to Nelson the following day. We then went over to their hostel and hung around in their scalding tub. It’s interesting that they can’t nail that temperature down.
Eventually a group assembled to go out for a beverage on a Monday night in Picton. First off, we all forgot/didn’t realize that it was a country-wide holiday (Labor Day). Secondly, Picton, while charming and cozy, only has about two streets. We walked around for all of five minutes before realizing we were going to have tough luck. Me and another American found a cafe that was in the process of closing up but willing to accommodate us for one beer. Fun times.
Then there were cartwheels in the street, singing under a memorial and talk of skinny dipping that never happened. It was a ghost town. Nice to follow up all the physical exertion with some socializing though.
Next up for me was, aside from hoping my legs would work again, catching a bus to Nelson and meeting my next Workaway host.