The Queen Charlotte Track (Q.C.T.), was created and is supported by a trust of 10 private landowners who together with the Department of Conservation (D.O.C.) and the Marlborough District Council formed a Public/ Private Partnership: Queen Charlotte Track Land Cooperative (Q.C.T.L.C.). They maintain the track with programs to manage invasive species (pests), and educate the public about the beautiful sound, its history, inhabitants and the importance of conservation.

Walking the length of the track requires the purchase of the Q.C.T.L.C. pass which costs $18 NZD each and is valid for five consecutive days on the track. The fees collected help support maintenance and improvements on the track.

Various companies offer the option of pack and luggage transfers between locations with jetties the boats can access. So for us, we only had to carry day packs with our lunch, water and some snacks each day as the remainder of our pack contents were shipped along the route and waiting for us at each destination, at the end of the day. The Cougar Line provided excellent service and we were VERY happy to pay them money to transport our packs during the walk!

The first day was a short day on the track since we started the morning in Wellington, then took the Interislander Ferry for 3.5 hours to Picton and then took the Cougar Line boat to start our walk at Ship Cove, arriving around 2:30 PM. Day one was about 4.5 km from Ship Cove to Resolution Bay. We took a small side trip to walk to a waterfall at Ship Cove and arrived in Resolution Bay around 5:00 or so.

The entire track is graded as an “Easy Tramping Track”, but the first day gave us a little glimpse of the climbs and descents waiting for us further down the path. Ryan recalls only complaining on the second day, in the afternoon of our eight hour walk. I remember hearing him complain about the weight of his pack before leaving Wellington as well as on the climbs and descents of days one, two, three…

One of the first views from Ship Cove. The first place we were winded and then passed by walkers twice our age and fitness levels.

A side note: we passed an 83 year-old man walking back from a viewpoint at Ship Cove dressed in jeans and a sweater, just out for a stroll and he seemed to have no trouble navigating the path. I think that moment was a glimpse into the reality of what our fitness levels actually were compared to what we thought they were.

Remember, “Easy Tramping Track”. I said that to Ryan a lot on the trail. I’m not sure how much it helped motivate him. He was fine by the end of it. Perhaps because we were nearing the end of the walk or because he allowed himself to believe he could walk 50km up and down hills over four days and be OK.

Originally we planned to walk and camp the entire track. However the boat carrying our bags wasn’t able to access the camp sites because not all of them have jetties. Also, we planned to catch a 30 minute bus from Picton to Blenheim at the end of the walk but the bus only ran once a day at 1:00 PM and the boat from Anakiwa would have dropped us off at Picton at 4:50 PM.

We amended our plans and decided to walk from Ship Cove to Resolution Bay, then Camp Bay, Cowshed Bay and Mistletoe Bay where we stayed for two nights to rest and recover from the walk. Leaving from Mistletoe Bay allowed us to catch a boat back to Picton in time to catch the 1:00 bus to Blenheim.

Despite the challenges of walking over 30 miles over four days up and down hills after sitting on a beach in paradise for a month and doing almost nothing to prepare for this sort of thing, I think we had a great time on the Q.C.T. We really enjoyed the opportunities to meet the folks who run the sites we stayed at.

This is our camp site at Resolution Bay. The first morning we were greeted with a rainbow.

Resolution Bay had a great family who were lovely hosts and have lived there for three generations. The night we camped we were the only guests and spent some time chatting with them over a giant, windy, swirling camp fire. One of the children who lives there exclaimed “Grandma loves to kick the fire!”. And then she proceeded to kick a giant pile of burning leaves, sticks and logs to stoke the flames.

Resolution Bay is also the first place we were introduced to the “cheeky weka”. I think of them as the racoon of the South Island of New Zealand. They are large, flightless birds that sort of look like chickens, but have longer beaks and are the opportunists of your picnic spot or camp site.

While stepping away for a moment to wash dishes, I returned to the picnic table to find an empty utensil holder dragged away from the table and near a some shrubs, not too far from the site.

Cheeky weka!

They also like to peer into the tent under the vestibule area in the morning and shout “HELLO!”.

This awesome bartender at Furneaux Lodge gave us some STRONG pours in our Irish Coffee. It was POURING rain during this part of the walk.

At Camp Bay we arrived after walking 22 km, some of it in the rain, to find more rain, more wekas and also met two other folks traveling around the South Island. K and M are cycling around the South Island of NZ on their bikes!!! I was super impressed with their gear and determination. Ryan and I struggled at times JUST WALKING WITH DAY PACKS. Can you imagine trying to ride a road bike with four panniers loaded for a total of 40 lbs each, in the rain, up and down hills? And this was mostly a walking and mountain bike track!

One of the views from Portage Bay. This walk reminded us about the PNW a lot!

We saw them again at Portage Bay and then shared some time over dinner chatting at Mistletoe Bay, where they decided to camp for the evening on their third day of the ride. They are good people and I was very impressed with their plans to cycle around the South Island!

Looking forward to the end of the last day of our walk. Mistletoe Bay is out there in the distance.

Mistletoe Bay was a great place to camp and also serves as an education center for school children from the Picton School District. We met one of the private landowners working there, who is part of the Q.C.T.L.C. and was a principal in the Picton school district. He said 10 years ago at a school assembly, he asked his students to raise their hands if they had visited the Queen Charlotte Sound and less than a third of them did. He and others like him got together to form the Q.C.T.L.C. because they felt it was important to the community and for conservation efforts to bring students over and teach them about the environment and give them access and opportunities in their own backyards that were limited to them. Also, the day after we left Resolution Bay a school trip of 54 students was arriving for a week to camp and learn about life on the Q.C.T.

The Q.C.T. was the first of several walks we will be completing on the South Island. Although not always an “Easy Tramping Track” for us, we learned a lot about it’s history and got a look into the work that’s being done to help educate the community and preserve what’s there.

In a lot of ways the place reminded us of Seattle!

View from the Eatswell Lookout. You can see the ocean from up there!