Spent the weekend Mountain Biking along the Queen Charlotte Walkway. We picked up a water taxi in Picton at the head of the Queen Charlotte sound, at the top of the South Island. It dropped us off just over an hour later in Ship Cove, at the foot of this ridiculously steep track, where along with a large monument to Captain Cook, there was a smirking sign which said “72 kms”. What it failed to mention was that a good deal was of the “up” type of kilometres. The good thing about doing the steepest part of the track first though, is clearly that you don’t have to worry about it ever again, however the bad part is, of course, that it’s only good news if you survive, and at times as I manfully struggled up and more often than not pushed (yes, OK, I pushed, happy now??) I did wonder whether my spitting might include some dislodged lung tissue. Don’t let me put you off though; if you have a little single track experience, can sit on a bike seat for 25 kms per day, don’t mind pushing occasionally then this track offers a fantastic way of exploring the sounds. Think of the positives over other tracks: your bags are carried by water taxi, there are good restaurants and accommodation along the way, with extremely good restaurants, hot showers and ample supplies of wine and beer.
