Picton & the Queen Charlotte Track

A small town, but a wealthy town. It's the gateway into the South Island or to the North Island via the ferry. This is a picture of photo hanging on the wall of the lodge.

Part of the harbor, with the Interislander Ferry coming into port.

The Sequoia Backpackers Lodge is so named because it sits on the edge of Nelson Square, in the center of which is a 110-year-old giant sequoia.

Still, despite the fact that Picton has a skateboard park, it must be challenging for the teens.

Picton is surrounded by hills.

One must take a water taxi to the start of the track, which then picks you up at various points along the way. Thus, one can walk for one day or all three. I chose one. After all, how much coastline and forest does one need to see? :-)

When Captain James Cook first landed here, where the Track starts, he and his crew were so pleased with the site that they named it Ship's Cove. He returned several times, spending some 110 days here all told. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Captain_Cook

A reproduction of a Maori totem, which actually may have greeted Captain Cook, a story goes.

Looking back from the start of the Track.

Not quite the start of the track, because it was too dark a shot. But it gives you an idea of how "up" it was for the first 45 minutes.

At the top of the ridge is a lookout. Facing north, you can see the North Island way off in the distance. Unfortunately, it doesn't appear very well in this photo. What you see in the foreground is a smaller island off the near coast.

Looking south from the lookout.

The gulches between the ridges contain mostly fern trees.

A couple of weka were walking down the trail towards me, and were unafraid to approach. At lunchtime, I learned why. They know that trampers carry food, and if they hang around long enough, they can sneak up behind you and steal something from your pack when you are not looking. Fortunately, I was looking, and the bird only got a taste of the plastic bag.

The goal was to get to the Furneaux Lodge in time to have a brew before the taxi came to pick me up. Frankly, another hour on the trail would have been nice, but this taxi came at 3 pm and that meant picking up the pace after lunch.

No, I'm not belching. The kiwi and I got distracted when the waitress asked if we wanted anything else, and I decided not to do a retake. People at the other tables gave me a thumb's up!

That kiwi generously told me to go ahead and drink her half.