Te Araroa Trail Queen Charlotte Track
Yikes! That was a windy night at Madsen’s camp on Endeavour inlet – I love being in my little tent when the weather is raging outside.
Endeavour Inlet
I woke to hear a few drops of rain on the tent, but thankfully it amounted to nothing. I, like most trampers, hate packing a wet tent!). After a quick breakfast I was back on trail at 7am. I called into Punga Cove resort as I’d forgotten to buy a Queen Charlotte track pass, and was being reminded by freqent signage to get one. I filled up with water too. Apparently due there being so little rain, the next 2 DoC camps had run out. This meant I was carrying almost 4kgs in water alone.
The trail was very nice, wide and easy going, if quite hilly today.
It climbed up to a few nice lookout points with great views over Endeavour Inlet, Bay of Many Coves and Kenepuru Sound. I saw a couple of goats along the way. I also saw plenty of Weka, a native bird which areare abundant in these parts… you have to be careful not to leave stuff lying around or they’ll take it!!
It was chilly to stop and rest even in the sun, so I pushed on and made good distance past Bay of Many Coves and Black Rock DoC camps on the trail.
Cowshed Bay
I ended up at Cowshed Bay DoC camp, which was a 600m steep climb down from the trail.
I was pretty tired when I got down to the camp. Immediately (and somewhat cheekily) I got chatting to the camp warden and asked him for a lift back up to the trail in the morning. Luckily he had some errands to make tomorrow, so my request was granted.
I set up my tent right next to the shore of the beach, and immediately got to work making dinner. As it turns out there was plenty of water at this campsite, so I had carried all that extra water unneccessarily today! I had trouble getting warm in the evening, so I had a ridiculously early night, and was in bed by 7.25pm.
