Headed off at 8am this morning as it was going to be a good 6hrs walk and I wanted to get a fair way before the heat picked up. It was a warm day with some cloud cover.
The first 3hrs was undulating terrain crossing both private and
government land. Some fabulous views from the top looking back down into bays and coves. For a section it felt 
like I was back on Turonfels with the track covered in pine needles. Some of the pines absolutely dwarfed anything else around it. I felt I was walking but getting nowhere as things started to become familiar. Stopped at a rest stop above the Bay of Many Coves for a snack and had a little feathered friend wanting to help me eat my food. He was rather upset when I had no more left and started making noises which then attracted another bird and then the competition began as whose territory was it. They obviously sorted it out as when I was putting my sunscreen on he turned up again hovering at my feet, not too worried about me at all.
A little further along the track the top was closed off by the owner so had to go straight down the hill to the road and follow it around to Portage Bay. The information being given as to w
hy the track was closed was for ‘pest control’. However the night before the local guide of a group that was also doing the walk had said that it was actually a bit of a standoff situation. The owner wants to run a horse riding business on his property and I guess also use part of the track. The park conservation people are refusing to allow the business to go ahead - hence the owner now closing his section of the track. If not resolved the parks conservation are going to have to redirect that part of the track which probably won’t happen till winter. How true any of this is I don’t know - but a good story!!Anyway the path down the hill follows the powerlines and is a direct 300m+ steep descent. Whilst walking along a road wasn’t as nice it was at least flat and a relatively predictable surface. It was nice to walk
along the waters edge - or fairly close. A couple of nice beach moments along the path - it was certainly tempting to take a dip, but the concept of putting the shoes back on once rem
oved wasn’t as appealing. After a couple of hours along the road and thinking I still had another hourish to go made the plan to stop at the next bay. Luckily as I hit the turn in the road there was one in front of me - a little more public than I was thinking but I needed to stop for a bit. Anyway you’ll never guess- it certainly took me a while to get my head around it - I was there!! 5 ½ hours. Thought I was walking slowly found out I must have been walking quite fast particularly since the times say minimum 5 ½ without stops!! Why I also thought I had further to travel is because I thought the resort was back up the hill on the Queen Charlotte side, not on the bay, and not on Kenuparu Sound.So I was grateful to now be able to fully relax. Yes there was a spa and a pool at the Portage Bay Resort!! The walkers accommodation was good.
I also had the entire area to myself, bar an older couple. I had met a lot of older couples and groups. Seen very few younger walkers and those that were were doing the camping stint. I’m quite enjoying doing the upmarket style backpacker walk!!Thurs 29 Jan, 2009 - End of Marlborough Sounds (Portage Bay to Mistletoe Bay ) to Picton then onto Wellington
Slow start to the day as only had a couple of hours to walk. Had decided to finish at Mistletoe Bay rather than Anakiwa which meant not doing the last 10km. I was starting to think would be good to do the whole way but glad I didn’t: 1. My
feet were sore, 2. The walk down to Mistletoe was really pretty, 3. Nice to have a relaxed start to the day.So read on the balcony overlooking Portage Bay till 11.30am. The next section of the track w
as the highest mountain on the walk. So went from sea level straight upto 400m+. Well not directly the path kept weaving its way up. Hard work with some great views once reached the top. Got to look out over both the Kenuparu and Queen Charlotte Sounds. No sooner though were you at the peak than the path started leading back down. Got into Mistletoe Bay after a couple of detours (self inflicted) at 2pm and had an hour till the ferry came. So shoes off and feet in the water (I had thongs in my bag!!). Had a snack and a duck very quickly became a friend - I was a little concerned about my toes, as the duck was ready to try and eat anything!! Once I moved back from the water to the bench it walked itself up a few sandbags and came back to stand near my feet and waited, with the odd reach and nibble on my toes. Gave up eventually and jumped back into the water.
The ferry went from Mistletoe Bay around to Anakiwa where it collected more passengers then went back to Picton. I then got the last flight of the day across to Wellington. I’ll do the ferry crossing in a couple of weeks when I return to the south island. The views from the plane were wonderful - pity it was overcast. Just as the south island was disappearing behind the plane than the north island was appearing. 25mins and arrived at Wellington airport - thankfully … windy Welli lives up to its name with the little Cessna 208 (or was it 308) being
thrust around by the wind. We had to do an extra circle before landing as well which again was good for the views but not for the stomach - at least it wasn’t full!!
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