Day 51 - Saturday 24 February 2024

Today was the day that I returned to Picton; the scene of my arrival on the South Island on Monday. The original plan had been that I'd do a hike from Ship Cove to Furneaux Lodge; a 16.3km (10.1 mile) journey considered to be a challenging route. I changed this plan as I don't believe that calf would be able to cope with this distance ..... 4km yesterday left me pretty immobile once I stopped!

So, rather than doing the hike I just did the cruise portion to have a look at the starting and ending points and enjoying the beauty of Queen Charlotte Sound.

It was an early start, and I was on the road at 07:15. Through Blenheim and up SH1 for a half hour, and I parked in Picton where I had planned just before 08:00. There was a sign saying 4 hours only, and as I was due back at around 12:00 I figured that would do nicely. Over to the kiosk to check in, and I had time for a coffee and bit of lemon cake for breakfast before boarding at 08:45.

It was a mad scramble for the top deck as usual, and I managed to grab a seat on the right hand side. Away from the dock at 09:00, and into the beautiful Queen Charlotte sound. There are no roads into the sound beyond Picton, so the post boats have a vital role to play in keeping the communities connected. They also play a role in the hiking industry, dropping off and picking up hikers at the relevant points, and shifting their luggage so that it's waiting at their accommodation after a long days hiking.

The skipper gave us a lot of very interesting information as we motored along about the forests on Queen Charlotte sound, and how they were trying to eradicate non-native trees and animals and return the land to it's natural state. We heard about how they are poisoning the non-native trees so that no seeds are viable, and how the New Zealand government seem to be working against their efforts by paying companies to plant trees with no guidance that they should be native species. 

They have successfully re-wilded several islands, and have a target of 2050 to eradicate foreign species from the sound. The forests that were here before the Europeans arrived had been shaped by the New Zealand bird species, and this is now successfully happening on the islands now that the pests have been eradicated, so there is hope that they can succeed.

It was about an hours run to our first stop to pick up some people who had been dropped off at Motuara Island by the earlier departure. We then made the short trip to Ship Cove for the first dropoff of hikers. This is where I would have started the hike had I been able.

After a 15 minute stop, we were on our way again, and had a couple of luggage pickups before arriving at Furneaux Lodge. We heard how around the time of Covid a company had bought the two lodges in Endeavour Inlet and hiked the prices up, thinking they had cornered the market. Locals had other ideas, and opened up Air B&B's charging the original cost, thereby driving the prices down at the lodges. It's always good to see people power defeating the greed of corporates!

A couple more stops for the dropping off and picking up of luggage, and we were on our way back to Picton, arriving at 12:30. Looking at the landscape I'd have had to cover, I think I made the correct decision not to hike. There was no extraction point between the start and finish if something had have gone, and the deadline to complete the hike seemed challenging before factoring in a crocked calf! 

Back to the car, and I returned to my digs. I had a quiet afternoon exploring Blenheim on foot, which was pretty much closed because it's a Saturday afternoon. 

The video for Week Seven is now live, and can be found here.