Labour Day Weekend
Trip Start
Aug 13, 2007
1
84
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Trip End
Dec 31, 2008
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Picton, South Island, New Zealand
Monday, October 27, 2008
On Saturday morning we went to Nelson city centre to go to the famous Saturday Morning market that is held there every week. It seems to sell just about everything and we picked up a few different varieties of flavoured olive oil to use in our cooking.
After a spot of brunch, we headed out to Cable bay to have a go on the Skywire. It was a good ride and as it was quiet, we had another go, free of charge. It was actually quite peaceful and not the adrenalin rush I was expecting. Still good, but I think the Flying Fox in Gravity Canyon would be more of a thrill.
Afterwards we headed on our way to Picton, which is approx 2hrs drive from Nelson. We stayed for 2 nights at Broadway Motel. Again, we couldn't fault the accommodation and the staff were friendly and helpful.
Sunday morning, we had pre-booked on the tour Nature's Best Walk 1 - a tour that would cruise along the Marlborough Sounds and drop us off at the start of the Queen Charlotte track - Ship's Cove. We would spend a few hours on the track and make our way back to Furneaux Lodge in time to be picked up at a pre-arranged time. We'd booked on the earliest boat as we wanted to include a drop off at Motuara Island where we could spend 1hr or so on the island. It's a predator - free wildlife sanctuary and we were hoping to see the blue penguins up close and personal.
Anyway, as we got out towards the island, the waves became a bit too choppy to be able to dock at the island safely. Normally this wouldn't be a problem, but DOC (Department of Conservation) were in the process of upgrading the jetty areas, so there wasn't really a decent enough place to be able to get onto the island. Or as the skipper put it - he could get us onto the island but wouldn't be able to pick us back up. We didn't fancy spending a night on the island so we carried on straight to Ship's Cove.
As we were dropped off at Ship's Cove a lot earlier than expected, we had time to go in the opposite direction from the track to go and visit a waterfall - it's about a 30min round trip. Then it was time to start our walk.
Queen Charlotte Track is one of the well known tramps in New Zealand. It takes between 3 and 5 days to walk it, but what is special about this track is that instead of the usual DOC huts on the other multi-day tramps, this walk actually has a range of accommodation at the end of each day ranging from camping to backpacker lodges to luxury resorts. Now that is my kind of walk. We were only doing the first day's walk, but the aim is to go back for a number of days and complete the whole walk at some point in the future. The walk itself was really enjoyable. We had good views out to the Sounds and saw Weka and their chicks.
It was very peaceful as well, we only saw maybe 2 other walkers and a few mountain bikers on our way. I think it gets very busy over summer and I know there are restrictions on when cyclists can use the track. We got to Furneaux Lodge with plenty of time to spare, so we had some food and some drink at the bar there and just relaxed as we waited for the boat to arrive to pick us up, and take us back to Picton.
We had a relaxing evening after that and the next day we headed back to Nelson in the morning. Our flight wasn't until 4pm so we had a couple of hours just mooching around the city centre before returning the hire car to the airport. It's only a 25 min flight from Nelson to Wellington, so we were soon back home!
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