A family affair: Te Waipounamu begins

Days 74-79, Meretoto to Pelorous Bridge

DAY 74 - Te Whanganui-a-Tara / Wellington to Schoolhouse Bay via Waitohi / Picton (6km walking, a few more on the ferry)

This day wins the award for the shortest day on the trail so far, distance-wise at least. It started with a little burst of stress when, as we were loading our packs into the car to drive to the ferry, the ferry customer service person called us wondering if we were coming. Turns out we should have checked in five minutes before we’d even planned to leave the house, but luckily Mum is the speediest safest driver and got us to the terminal in a flash. Thanks, Mum!

People have previously asked me if I planned on walking the equivalent distance of Raukawakawa / Cook Strait by pacing the length of the ferry. The answer is no, I a) am not that hardcore, b) was too busy doing a crossword and drinking coffee and c) was resting my legs for Te Waipounamu. But it would have been fun to run laps around the deck (if they allowed running - understandably they don’t).

We had a couple of spare hours in Waitohi / Picton to run our final errands before the soles of our shoes hit the dry dusty Mainland ground on the track at Meretoto / Ship Cove. On board the water taxi to the start of the track we met a group of TA walkers - Rob, Kaz, Hone, Jason and Rhianna who were shared the same itinerary as is for the day. The rest of the taxi passengers were of a certain demographic who were going on a cruise of the Sounds.

I had no idea this boat, in addition to being a cruise, was also the official mail delivery service in the Sounds. We encountered some locals along the way getting their postal deliveries. The skipper, a sixth-generation Marlborough Sounder, gave us a running commentary of the history and quirks of each bay and cove. We learnt about gannets, the protected islands, and his love for dogs. It was the perfect weather for a smooth sunny ride to the start of the track.

At Meretoto we looked around briefly at the monument and the info boards. This cove, as the skipper reminded us, holds significance to both Māori and European explorers, though we typically only learn about the latter. We struck up some light conversation with the passengers who were getting out to stretch their legs about what we were in the middle of doing; namely, walking the country. The inquisitive weka (then non-alpine equivalent of the cheeky kea) popped out from the bush to say hi to us and to check if we had anything they might let us steal. We didn’t. Then, with no other way left to procrastinate, we set off on the trail, capturing those first steps of this next section in our memories.

The trail was an almost-symmetrical hill which we climbed up and down in less than 2 hours. Though this is simply a continuation of Te Ika-a-Māui (and we could even see Kāpiti Island from the lookout point which I’d walked past just the week before), the walk felt somehow different in those first few steps. Perhaps it was the sturdier shoes I was wearing and the natural anxiety that comes with change. Maybe it was that I was shifting from an individual walker’s minister mindset to a collective one now that we were three - my dad, Helen and me. Maybe it was that I’d walked the Queen Charlotte track in back in Year 10 and already some angst teenage memories were pouring into my mind.

Schoolhouse Bay is a small cosy campsite nestled in an idyllic bay. We set up camp, then Helen and Dad dipped in to cool off while I dangled my feet in the water for a few seconds and called it a bath (I’m definitely a land-dweller). We shared a picnic table with Rob and the team, who’d just returned from gathering mussels. I watched with equal measures of sadness and intrigue as they boiled and ate them. I’ve never been that up close to kaimoana (seafood) before.

The view I never got on Year 10 camp because the weather was so miserable

DAY 75 - Schoolhouse Bay to Camp Bay (22.5km)

If yesterday was the shortest day, today was the most leisurely. Still fresh, we flew down the breezy groomed trails and relished the fact there was toilet paper available in every long drop on the trail. As the Queen Charlotte weaves both DOC and private land, we passed by people’s properties and private jetties. We also passed a group of three women from Wellington whose partners were fishing on boats while they walked the track. We stopped off at Ferneaux Lodge for a drink. That this would not be our last café stop for the day speaks volumes about the nature of the Queen Charlotte track.

Frances, the volunteer camp warden, welcomed us to the Camp Bay campsite. As soon as our tents were set up, we wandered 500m down to the second cafe of the day in Punga Cove. Helen got a garlic flatbread and an apple cider accidentally - Dad thought was apple juice. I got a boring glass of water and stole some of Helen’s bread.

Some of the more mature forest on the Queen Charlotte Track

DAY 76 - Camp Bay to Cowshed Bay (23km)

The day involved a few steepish hill climbs, just to wake our legs up for the Richmond Ranges. This felt luxurious compared to what we knew lay ahead. The views on each side treated us to the milky blue of Kenepuru Sound to our left, and the inky hued bays and coves to the right. It’s amazing how quickly the contours of the land to each side changed as we passed over the ridgeline.

There were a couple of lookouts we had the option of walking up to, but we decided to stay on the path as we were pretty satisfied with the views so far. The next campsite at Cowshed Bay lay 600m down a path by a small settlement called Portage. To not break our cafe hopping streak, we got some fries at the local eatery after setting up in a secluded nook at the campsite. As we cooked our dinner, the DOC ranger came by to check if we’d all paid. He didn’t believe that we’d put cash in the honesty payment box, which we thought was a bit unprofessional of him. 10 minutes later, he drove by holding up the envelope with our cash in it. Should’ve looked harder the first time, mate.

DAY 77 - Cowshed Bay to Linkwater (25km)

The day began with a steady climb back up to the start of the track, and then some. We were soon passed by a couple of e-mountain bikers who instantly guessed that my sister, my dad and I were related (how could they tell!) before they zoomed off along the track. We were impressed that any bike, electric or not, could manage these steep inclines.

As we passed Mistletoe Bay, we encountered many day walkers and mountain bikers enjoying the Anakiwa end of the track. We marvelled at walking through beech and punga forests. The final bend slowly revealed the busy township of Anakiwa and the boats in the harbour. We inhaled some ice cream to celebrate completing the first stretch of Te Waipounamu, and said hi to the cohort of Outward Bounders on a run along the waterfront, each of us pushing ourselves physically in different ways.

The final push of the day was the last 5 km to the Smiths Farm Holiday Park. On separate occasions Rob said he had heard about a community orchard along the way with apples and pears, and Helen asked if there’d be any chance to buy fruit or vegetables along the way: clearly we were craving fresh food. Luckily for us, we stumbled upon a fruit and vegetable roadside stall which had two unidentifiable vegetables left on the shelf. I thought they were marrows and Rob and Kaz thought they were kamokamo. We slipped a koha into the box and carried the heavy vegetables the last few kilometres and ate them, fried, with our dinner that night.

The rainbow fruit and vegetable stand, post-marrow/kamokamo haul

DAY 78 - Linkwater to Havelock (16km)

We said bye to the holiday park we’d once stayed at before in 2002 (after my aunt’s wedding) and set off to Havelock. The thought of getting tacos from the taco truck there was the carrot to our walk. My morning was made by two cheeky piglets who crossed our paths. One looked up at us with a snoutful of mud, and just as if they knew they were not supposed to be there, they trotted straight back into the bushes of Linkwater School. Maybe they were the school pets enjoying some freedom?

Helen and I plugged our earphones in and powered on to some podcasts for the rest of the roadside walk. I picked an apple from an overhanging tree (is that stealing?) and savoured the rare delight of eating something fresh as we walked along the low tide estuary.

The Link Pathway that connects Waitohi/Picton to Havelock turned into a bush track and veered us away from the road. The morning was getting hot and the track was dry, so we stopped a few times along the way to replenish and refuel. Havelock, a small seaside town (and the greenshell mussel capital of the world, because every NZ small town has to have a unique thing) lay ahead of us below. The anticipation of whether the taco truck was open got us in to town, and so we were relieved to see the distant TACO SHACK sign standing on the pavement. To top it off, two beautiful pups lay in the courtyard shade, overjoyed to be patted.

Our tummies full of tacos, we headed to check in at the holiday park. Helen’s tonsils were a bit inflamed so she wanted a cabin to rest up in, but it was Waitangi weekend so everywhere was booked out. We settled on a tent site for all of us and set up for the evening. Then came the most exciting part of the day: a resupply at Four Square for the next 10 days until St Arnaud. Resupplies always take a little longer and can be more stressful than planned (for me at least), but we managed to get everything sorted. Helen decided to take a rest day the following day and be dropped off at the trail head. Luckily for her, she’d be skipping a day of road and farm walking.

Our dinner consisted of all the heavy stuff that’s hard to pack in our packs: baked beans on toast with silverbeet and my first belated corn on the cob of the summer. I had trouble getting to sleep because two people were having a late night talking about how to prepare a fishing rod and bait. Only in Havelock.

My first ‘Pukeko crossing’ sign - do the have one for every indigenous bird?

DAY 79 - Havelock to Pelorous Bridge (20km)

We said bye to Helen and headed off. Today consisted of one of the relatively few road walk sections of Te Waipounamu. Though hot, the shoulder was wide enough for it to an an okay and safe-ish walk along the state highway. We soon turned onto a dusty gravel road. It had clearly not rained for ages, and we hoped no cars would pass and cause dust nuisance (a term I’ve learnt and heard multiple times through walking TA). We stopped under a tree for lunch, crossed a few bridges, and then began Dalton’s Track.

Dalton’s Track was created by generous farmers who allow walkers to walk along the edge of 7.5km of paddocks in a straight line. Only one of them had cows in them the day we walked it. Every other field contained rows and rows of radishes. We followed the track which inevitably meant trampling on some of them (sorry farmers!). Unlike the apples from the day before, I didn’t harvest any.

Towards the end of the track we walked parallel to a long single-file line of cows on their daily walk to the milking shed. It was reassuring to notice that we were walking slightly faster than the cows. Seeing them plodding towards the shed reaffirmed my original reasons for being vegan. I still cannot get my head around the idea of extracting resources from an animal’s body meant for their baby animal for human consumption and profit. There was a group of cows nearby not in the production line who I like to think were part of a bovine resistance movement against the human exploitation of cows’ bodies. Anyway, back to the trail...

The boundary between the farmland and indigenous forest surrounding Pelorous Bridge was stark. Suddenly we were taken from dry paddocks into a lush forest, over a swing bridge, then out onto a busy road pumping with people making the most of the long weekend and again sticking out like a sore thumb with our packs and poles.

In typical fashion, we headed straight for the café (to be fair that’s where they sold the camp tickets, too). A couple of older men were sitting and eating something hearty. They approached us and asked if we, too, were walking TA. We also met our first people walking NOBO (northbound), a mother daughter duo called Jo and Tui. More walkers! Rob and Kaz joined shortly after and we enjoyed the last real food we’d have before heading into the mountains. We all headed to the cheaper campsite which lay by the river. As we arrived, a big party were packing up. They were singing waiata in harmony, which made for a beautiful soundscape.

I heard some unsettling noises in the night, one of which Rob and Kaz later told me was a man riding his e-scooter in circles through the campsite and playing a techno song called ‘I like your sneakers’ over his loudspeaker. At night night, I also heard trucks illegally scraping up and stealing rocks from the riverbed. I’ve had better sleeps.