Picton to Ships Cove to Furneaux Lodge

15-20k depending upon whose gps you trust.

When reading the official website this sentence keeps coming to mind: “the QCT is not so much a steep track, but a long one...” I want to meet the person who wrote that as I believe they reversed their descriptors. It should read it is not a long track, but a steep one.

We boarded the water taxi at 9:00am. The journey started with a bang and a jolt as the skipper gunned the engines without realizing that the ropes were still in place, the fore end of the boat smacking into the dock. That wasn’t a comforting moment, but was soon forgotten as we made stops along the way, delivering restaurant supplies to lodges without road access. We were reminded of our years when C was Executive Director and I was relief cook at Camp Fircom on Gambier Island, BC, also accessible only  by boat.

We took a brief detour to investigate a pod of dolphins.

Then we were dropped at Ships Cove, a long dock leading into a hole in the jungle, where the Track began.

We took brief detour to the Captain Cook monument and a stop at the flush toilets, the last ones we’ll see along the hiking portion of the track for a couple of days. It was a simple pleasure right in the middle of nowhere.

Then we started out on our hiking adventure. The first hour is quite a steep upward grade through the jungle with beautiful birdsong. It reminded me of a cross between Hawaii and our own BC rain forest.

I’m going to have to look up synonyms for uphill, steep, inclines, grades and elevation. Get the picture? What went up did come down in the same manner. Not like our Caminos, going in and out of civilization, these were remote jungle trails with walls of rock, clay and ferns on one side, steep drop offs on the other, and the reward of spectacular views along the way. Today’s two hill day, calculating baby steps over loose rock, was exhausting.

We met “trampers” from Bremen, Australia, the US and and a class of 40 maybe grade 9 students, out for a five day camping trip with their teacher and a couple of volunteer moms. It was the German girl’s 20th birthday and within minutes of her actual birth time she reached into her backpack and shared a piece of cake she baked last night at the backpacker’s hostel, celebrating at the top of the world on the QCT.

After 5.5 hours we arrived at Furneau Lodge where we booked backpacker rather than resort accommodation, a series of small rooms with either a double bed or four bunks, linens, kettle, coffee and tea included. Shared bath was similar to a provincial park campground with hot showers. It ended up as a private bath as we were the only ones booked into the backpacker’s.

Dinner in the dining room was very good, NZ pricey, but includes tax and tip: $38 entrees, $10 bread basket, $10 glasses of wine, $18 egg brekkie. We kept to our budget by ordering entree and wine for dinners and sticking to pack food for breakfast and lunch: OSM (one square meal) bars, protein bars, baby belle cheeses wrapped in wax, smoked beer sausages and fruit or carrots.

We were pleasantly surprised that our less expensive room was waterfront instead of behind the others back in the woods. It was a comfortable spot except for the actively biting sand flies and we overlooked bug spray. Oops. Time for sleep.

Comments

[Karen]

Once again, great photos and descriptive writing, making us feel we’re right with you.