Kumutoto Bay – 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…

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…

45. Mistletoe Bay – Kumutoto Bay (Queen Charlotte 2/5)

Monday, March 27: Foggy to begin with, clearing about lunchtime, with a lively east wind coming up in the afternoon, a couple of clouds

Sea kayaking: 19.9 km

Kumutoto Bay Campsite ($6, Doc)

It had rained a little during the night, but nothing too serious and when we were up at 7:30 the bay was very still and shrouded in fog. The door to the kitchen had been & remained closed for the night so our food was ready for eating. Christelle offered up her porridge and I supplied some sugar. We took all that she had left of it, microwaved it, and it was enough for the two of us. I put some condensed milk in as well.

Everything had to be packed up: The tents as wet as they were, then everything carted down to the boat. I had estimated high tide @ 11:30 and it was just on 9:30 so that whatever time we decided to leave the tide would be highest as near as dammit. I elected for trying the camera and its mount out and got everything together, except that I had forgotten how to put the camera into continuous mode (yet again) and left the camera running for the first part of the trip without taking any photos. Read more…