Warning: the following blog post consists mainly of show-off holiday pictures. Anyone suffering from a severe case of the winter blues had better stop reading at this point.
- Days 62-64
- This section: 71 km
- Total: 1773 km
After four rest days in Wellington we took the ferry across to Picton on New Zealand’s South Island.
From Picton we travelled by water taxi through Queen Charlotte Sound to Ship Cove, where James Cook came ashore during his South Seas voyage in 1770 (and where, according to the information board, he most liked to spend his time).
This is where our South Island adventure began on 5 January – exactly two months after we set foot on the Te Araroa for the first time at Cape Reinga on the North Island!
And just like the start of the trail on the North Island, the beginning of the South Island is – there is no other word for it: picturesque. For 66 km the immaculately maintained Queen Charlotte Track runs along the sound of the same name. Are we really on the Te Araroa right now?!?
Keep your fingers crossed that the South Island continues to live up to this first good impression! We would have no objection to the weather staying this promising either. Given our complexions there is still room for improvement.
Only Jan’s feet are slowly starting to worry us for real… We can barely think back to a day when he had no pain when putting weight on them. We had hoped that the break in Wellington would help, but sadly new sore points keep appearing rather than old ones disappearing. Since the next section takes us into the New Zealand Alps, from that point on we will only have the chance to hitchhike into the nearest town roughly every seven days, to see a doctor, for instance. Hmmm… In two days we have the last opportunity to get to the nearest town at short notice. We will have to decide there whether to let good sense prevail and take an enforced break…