Day 74: Umungata / Davies Bay to Black Rocks

We pitched tent down at the beach part of Umungata/Davies Bay, rather than at the inland shelter. A couple of nights ago, this would not have been possible, as there were winds gusting to 140 km/h. These winds had trapped one of the ferries out at sea and done some damage to the docks at Picton, the people setting tent even inland had something of a rough night.

Throughout the night I was ufortunately quite easily able to confirm that my air mat had indeed developed a slow leak. I'd needed to pump it back up in the middle of the night. More investigation will be necessary.

We'd had a small taste of what the Queen Charlotte track conditions would be like when we were heading in last night. The conditions did not change today. Wide, hard packed, easy gradient. We started a climb up onto the low lying ridgeline, where we were afforded views over the Queen Charlotte Sound.

Crossing out over to the other side of the ridge, we found views over Pelorus Sound.

The track continued with some gentle undulation along the ridge for the majority of the day. We saw a lot of people heading toward us, but packs were few and far between. It seems most people make use of the taxi pack shuttle service, where they'll pick up your pack at the dock in the morning and drop it at your intended accomodation for that night. Often, the places that people have them dropped at offer private rooms, and have restaurants and so forth. Real glamping territory here. The first such place that we would have the option of going down to was at Cowshed bay. We elected not to take the short detour down to it and continued along the tops.

Our campsite for the night was only 10 km or so further on, and it was not long before we get there. Blackrock campsite offers views out over both of the sounds. From the southern side, looking over Queen Charlotte Sound we could see Picton, and the ferries going north and south both.

There are a lot of Weka along the QCT track, in particular they like to hang around areas of human habitation as these offer the best opportunities for them to get into mischief. Blackrock was no exception, and not long after sitting down we had one chap come and inspect our gear to find anything not sufficiently nailed down. They left empty beaked.

We pitched tent on the north side with views over the Pelorus Sound, and had our Weka mate in and out of our tent vestibule all night. A very vigilant Weka, they got the better of Emma. At one stage it was successful in collecting an avocado skin/stone, and a squeezed lemon from the rubbish bag in Emma's pack.

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