It was perfect weather, sunshine with a warm breeze for the most of the walk, and only raining slightly as we dropped down to The Portage Resort Hotel, where we dined at the Retro Bar, indulged in the spa and spent a very pleasant comfortable night in the Kowhai Rooms. Many thanks once again, Alison & staff at The Portage Resort Hotel. We had our rucksack ferried to Portage by Cougar Line to save our backs, and enjoyed their boat ride home  to Picton in the morning, ready for work, refreshed.

Check out other Queen Charlotte Track options with Marlborough Sounds Adventure Company, their office is just down by the foreshore.  Enjoy!

Tika

Cruises leave from Picton Town Wharf for Ship’s Cove at 10.15am on Monday’s for the two night Backpackers Cruise.This cruise is available from 4 October 2010.

The vessel M.V. Flightless is an ex Navy Inshore Patrol boat, originally named Moa, which has been converted for your enjoyment.

Alternatively you can charter the entire vessel for a bare boat day rate private boat charter with skipper and one crew member provided or a tailored exclusive boat charter cruise. Catered or non catered, it’s up to you.

Just contact Backpackers Afloat – Picton Charters for more details.

In addition they will be offering Rugby World Cup cruising & accommodation options for central city Viaduct Harbour Auckland so book with them quickly and secure your holiday accommodation now.

Okay I’d best away and do some work… I might have to make do with a walk to Bob’s Bay to get my Marlborough Sounds hit for the day……bon voyage….tika

Sit back and relax on the Sounds Delivery Cruise, enjoy 80km of beautiful coast line in 3 hours, seeing coves and hidden bays, not seen from the Interisland ferries, whilst Cougarline deliver walkers to the Queen Charlotte Track and freight and fresh supplies to the remote homes and resorts along the Queen Charlotte Sound. Enjoy the skippers commentary on the natural environment and local history.

For more details and information please contact the Cougar Line office:
enquiries@cougarlinecruises.co.nz
+64 3 573 7925 (NZ free calling 0800 50 40 90)

Book now

Thank you for their watertaxi sponsorship of Indigo, Grace and Cloe on their fundraising run on 10th April 2010 for African kids with HIV.

See Mission Facebook

See previous blogpost on this event

Marlborough youths Nicky Smith and Indigo Greenlaw  with friends Grace Hookway and Kristie Digglemann are aiming to raise funds for Aids affected children in Africa.

Nicky Smith will head to Kenya in June to work in an orphanage  and then 3 months later on to Ghana to teach for a further 3 months. Her determination to do something directly in a hands on way started in 2007 with her involvement in Gavin Richards powerful theatre production War Child. Held to great acclaim here in Marlborough,  the play showed  the impact of war on child soldiers. Nicky and Indigo were both in the production.

Now Nicky wants to raise funds to buy supplies for the children she will work with in Kenya and Ghana with International Volunteer HQ.. Every bit helps-$9 can buy 50 books in Africa.

I hope through this blog to encourage you to support Nicky by giving cash to the cause.
If you’d like to donate to help, please contact Nicky on 027 306 4661 email her on nickynu809@hotmail.com or

.

For their part Indigo, Grace and Kristie will run in relay the 72 km Queen Charlotte Track from Ship Cove to Anakiwa in 12 hours, and will be paying their own expenses so please support them in their bid to raise funds.

Their fund raising run in the Marlborough Sounds will be on 10 April 2010.

If you’d like to sponsor them per kilometre or simply give money to the cause, please contact Nicky… posters should be appearing locally within Marlborough soon. You can check out the article, Planning a run for their money by Rachel Young on www.stuff.co.nz on the Marlborough Express site and also on Facebook.

Ciao for now, thanks for listening  Tika x

A big thank you and thumbs up to COUGAR LINE  Marlborough Sounds water transport provider for sponsoring the girls’ water transport transfers. You are awesome!

Hi guys,

Adventure is about expanding your comfort zone (great programme on TV3 about kayaking the ditch last night!), transforming your inner world. Well I knew mountain biking would be a challenge for me, but hey my sister was here and I see her so rarely, a mission was on the cards for sure, and it was a more likely option for me than skydiving in the Abel Tasman (though Annie rated that very highly too).

So we booked in with Marlborough Sounds Adventure Company to bike the Punga to Portage stretch of the famous and wonderful Queen Charlotte Track (way easier to navigate and book than the Abel Tasman options!!). Fitted out with bikes to match our heights, Annie 19″ me 17″, & bikes stashed aloft  we took the Cougarline boat, sitting outside to catch the spray and stunning views of  Picton as we departed.

It’s quite a ride out to Punga, so inspite of an early boat we arrived midmorning, and  just had to have a caffeine fix at the cafe just past the wharf… very peaceful, chilling there listening to the birdsong..
Pre bike toilet stop, it’s straight up just up the path and to the right, a fair way up.

Then no more delays it was time to get on the bike…follow the track just past cafe through bush.

Annie had done mountain biking before so she gave me a few valuable pointers, which I shall relay here as they saved my bacon on more than one occasion… track can be freaky at times on the downhills when you haven’t done it before – be warned! It is a level 4 track.

If it’s  muddy keep pedalling..don’t stop or brake, your wheels will slide out from under you.

If traversing stony track at speed downhill, keep your pedals a similar level and your bum high and back not on the saddle. If one of your pedals catches a rock you may come a drift, and the repeated bumps make your bum sore!!

Don’t let this put you off, I actually  loved it once I’d got the hang of it, and learned to go with the speed.

It’s worth taking a MSAC map $2 from their office as it has the water taps marked, which when it’s blazing down and you are parched becomes a major.. we’d only taken one bottle of water each, trying to travel light.

Yep in case you are reading this after having just done that stretch we did push our bikes up the uphills quite a bit… not as fit as I could be maybe but still I walk at least 3 – 4 times a week and gym occasionally so not a total office bound geek.

Eatwell’s Lookout is worth the extra trip up for the view, and the idea is to have fun, so do drink in the stunning Marlborough Sounds’ views, take time out to see the wekas, take a swim etc..it’s part of the mission! The visitors books are worth a keek too, whilst munching on your scroggin. Love the blufflike signpost, bet that will feature in so very many holiday snaps from now on! (see gallery soon!)

Cruising down tarmac to Portage was also way good fun… we camped at Cow Shed Bay DOC camp site, but you can also enjoy the luxury of The Portage Resort Hotel. We dined there at the Snapper Cafe and Bar, the lentil salad with falafel and rocket was simply delicious. Feasting like kings, watching the sunset and drinking down ice cold coke was magnificient after a great day on the bikes.

We walked to Anakiwa the next day, swimming at Mistletoe Bay en route, filling up our water bottles at the taps there, (lovely walk down through beech woodland, though do mind the roots!!) and  enjoyed the change of pace. It’s such a beautiful experience whether walking or biking, so do book and make some memories of your own.

Anyway I’d best away and walk… have to keep up the exercise – maybe just Bob’s Bay today!

Tika

I’ll try and post a gallery of pix soon… some awesome scenery, but don’t wait, get out there and have some fun!