Blumine Island – Te Wai Pounamu Revisited

Debriefing: Queen Charlotte Sound

Different means of travel, different speeds. This sort of put trip planning off a little. On the other hand, not having to spend a whole day slogging on towards some distant goal had its benefits, not least of which was enjoying the scenery. More could have, should have been done, but I’ll happily leave that for another time.

Section (with links)	Distance	Track Time	Break	Mean speed	Median time\|distance
Picton – Mistletoe Bay	19.4 km	3:26 h	2:14 h	5.65 km/h	6.53\|6.76 km/h
Mistletoe Bay – Kumutoto Bay	19.9 km	3:44 h	2:54 h	5.35 km/h	5.74\|6.18 km/h
Kumutoto Bay – Blumine Island	21.9 km	3:42 h	1:34 h	5.94 km/h	6.60\|6.73 km/h
Blumine Island – Cannibal Cove	16.3 km	2:46 h	1:21 h	5.92 km/h	6.55\|6.68 km/h
Cannibal Cove – Ship Cove	7.8 km	1:34 h	0:54 h	4.99 km/h	6.04\|6.29 km/h
Totals	85.5 km	15:20 h	8:49 h	5.57 km/h	6.35\|6.57 km/h
Summary of paddling the Queen Charlotte Track

Way to go: Speed distribution by time, Queen Charlotte Sound

The boat was no doubt fast (and special thanks again to Marlborough Sounds Adventures for a very reasonably priced 5-day hire and return transport – $240 per person), possibly due to the fact that it was not packed to the hilt. A later trip in western Sweden using plastic boats and carrying all supplies for twelve days proved to be somewhat slower. Read more…

51. Auckland

Sunday, April 2: Variable during the day with some showers in the evening

Walking: 12.4 km

Tracy’s

The computer had worked its way through two folders quite successfully and needed to reboot to get into winter time. I was up @ 7:30 after a little bit of a lie in and went down to cook one egg and a trio of sausages for breakfast in a titanium nowo pan that appeared to be invincible. Coffee had half condensed, half fresh milk in it, and with butter used liberally on the toast those two leftovers from the tramping kitchen may well be finished by Wednesday.

I secured the use of a garden hose and the deck with Tracy’s permission to spray my tent down with and it dried for a short while on the deck until the drizzle appeared to want to last longer, then I hung everything up in the garage. Tracy had left after a short time to attend a baby shower and I was left to my own devices, mainly putting together the new panorama (Blumine Island) and chatting with Rayna. Read more…

48. Cannibal Cove – Ship Cove (Queen Charlotte 5/5) – Picton

Thursday, March 30: Low but light cloud in the morning clearing to sunny, hot & dry by the time we reached Picton; fogging over in the early evening

Sea kayaking: 8.3 km

Jugglers’ Rest

Graham & Warwick were quite circumspect this morning and although I could hear them talking I dozed on. No cramps in the night, even despite having to manoeuvre past the stuff in the tent (it was better organised this time, but the head end had changed, and there was a bit of a slope which caused me to slide down the tent in the course of the night).

Christelle’s alarm failed to go off for the first time, but we were in no particular hurry, so getting up @ 7:30 we were greeted by the empty space left behind by Graham & Warwick’s tents and no one else was about. Eventually the others were up as well, with many of them out for a skinny dip to start the day. Read more…

47. Blumine Island – Cannibal Cove (Queen Charlotte 4/5)

Wednesday, March 29: Cloudy overnight, becoming a bit lighter in the course of the day, freshening south wind, and rain showers in the later afternoon & early evening

Sea kayaking: 16.4 km

Cannibal Cove ($6, Doc)

Graham & Warwick were up extremely early to practise for getting up early on Thursday morning (their water taxi leaves at 8:30), as well as some very vocal wekas, and we slept in a bit until Christelle’s alarm clock went off at 7:00.

The weather was not promising for the deck camera, so everything was packed away until at least lunchtime. We were also quite early and Christelle was eager to go & not so much interested in the historical walks, so we pushed off just after 9:30. Read more…

46. Kumutoto Bay – Blumine Island (Queen Charlotte 3/5)

Tuesday, March 28: Cloudy to begin with, less wind than the night before, becoming sunny and fine with little to no wind by the early afternoon

Sea kayaking: 21.9 km

Blumine Island campsite ($6, Doc)

During the night I had cramped again and again, first in the left calf, then in the right. Nothing too serious or permanent, but in my contortions I had bent my glasses and trying to fix them I dislodged one lens. Managed to get everything back together and did get some sleep in the end.

We were up at around 7:30 and ready to go just on two hours later. The sea was much calmer, although the weather wasn’t promising that much. I set the camera up for time lapse and it did something (have since discovered that M mode had to be set on the A470 to be able to trigger continuous mode). We wanted to get to Ratimera and decide further from there. For the first bit Graham & Warwick were following us 10-15 minutes behind but they didn’t take the turn to Ratimera and we didn’t see them until later. I used the Travel Buddy pillow to support my back and that worked very well as long as I put the footpegs back one stop again. Read more…