Congratulations, you've made it through the week!

29 March-31 March Island Bay to Air Bnb in Khandallah KM 1687.3, 2.6km off trail Distance: 28.8km  Elevation: ascent 1303m, descent 1138m Steps: 47,600 Time: 9:20am - 6:30pm We've had two good rest and admin days that got us all ready and back onto the trail. The first day was the ferry from Picton to Wellington, and we really lucked out with a smooth sailing. We also lucked out in that we met Shane and Charlene! We had met them back at Riverton (day 3), and followed them in hut books throughout, apparently we finished the South Island at the same time! Granted, they had done about three additional side tracks... They are also from Taranaki, although Shane is just starting a job in Auckland, so Charlene will be alternating between Taranaki, Auckland, and continuing some more long-distance hikes on her own. We spent the first night in Wellington in a hotel that we've stayed at before, and got to watch some mid-week rugby in a nearby pub. Yes, more greasy food, and ye...

March 28 Furneaux Lodge to Ship Cove!! (and then to Picton) KM 1714 Distance: 16km  Elevation: ascent 621m, descent 625m Steps: 27,800 Time: 8:55am - 12:50pm Significant milestones today, as well as a plethora of emotions as we reached Ship Cove, the end of the South Island section of the TA for us. Firstly though, the end of the South Island! Here we are at the Ship Cove jetty as proof. Check out those toned walking legs. Compared to 3 months ago, sweet summer children that we were, with no idea what we were about to encounter. Some more statistics though! (What's the definition of a statistician? A person who wanted to be an accountant but didn't have the personality :-) Love and respect to all the accountants and statisticians out there). We have completed 1,306km since we started in Bluff on January 1. According to hurriedly acquired data we have ascended 36,020m, and because we started 7m above mean sea level and finished at sea level, d...

March 27 Camp Bay Campsite to Furneaux Lodge KM 1730 Distance: 11.5km  Elevation: ascent 222m, descent 351m Steps: 18,000 Time: 8:30am - 11:40am Hardly a challenging day as you'll see from the stats. And the fact that we had finished a beer by 12:30 and were in a spa tub by 1:30 might give you the wrong impression about how challenging Te Araroa is. But I'm pretty sure we told you that the QCT section is flatter and a little more fancy than the rest. But yay, the bar was open this time! We had one last drink with Raewyn who finishes her TA journey tomorrow and heads home. It's been really enjoyable talking with her over the last few days, and getting a few gear suggestions from her. (We are also finishing this section tomorrow, but our ferry out is about 3 hours later than hers, which means that we can afford to stay further "into" the trail, while she had to walk almost to the end in order to make the earlier pickup time). The surroundings and scenery were more o...

March 26 Cowshed Bay Campsite to Camp Bay Campsite KM 1741 Distance: 24km  Elevation: ascent 1057m, descent 1015m Steps: 39,700 Time: 8:30am - 4:00pm We heard quite the cacophany of sounds from our tent last night. It started with the roaring of testerone-fuelled male deer bellowing out their challenges to other males, and their suitability for mating, from the surrounding valleys (this is known as 'the roar' in NZ). In the fading light these were joined by the haunting calls of ruru. As if to compete with them the local weka started up their screeching. And finally, at various times during the night, the possums let out their blood-curdling screams. Despite this, we both slept relatively well. That should have meant an early start, but we got chatting with other campers over our coffee and muesli and didn't get away till 8:30. Despite the Queen Charlotte Track (QCT) being an easier section an easier section we still faced nearly 1000m elevation gain.  The real story of the...

March 25 Davies Bay DoC Campsite to Cowshed Bay Campsite KM 1763.5 Distance: 17km  Elevation: ascent 815m, descent 683m Steps: 33,900 Time: 8:10am - 2:30pm Today we had the most wonderful of experiences, waking up to a dry tent! Despite that, we had a slow morning getting going, taking even longer than normal to pack everything up. The rest of the day continued in this vein, being a slow, lazy day, with gorgeous views all along. The views contributed to the slow day, because we made sure to give them all of the time and consideration they deserved. We even took a slight detour up to a lookout for lunch. This involved an extra 200m ascent that wasn't on the trail notes; we decided to drop our packs for this bit, which was definitely the right decision! (Lunch was still delicious.) Also some really cool bits of geology along the way The only problem with the Queen Charlotte Track, is that it is a joint mountain bike and walking trail. W...

March 24 Havelock Holiday Park to Davies Bay DoC Campsite KM 1780 Distance: 22.6km  Elevation: ascent 489m, descent 500m Steps: 32,900 Time: 8:40am - 3:40pm Today was a slow, lazy, relaxed amble down the road just past Anakiwa to the doorstep of the Queen Charlotte Track. Knowing that we had plenty of time to do this walk today, we had a lazy start at the Holiday Park, with breakfast (we are experimenting with muesli instead of porridge for breakfast, just for a change!) and a cup of (instant) coffee before we packed up. We then went across the street in Havelock to a cafe to have a "proper cup of coffee from a proper coffee shop"* before heading on our way. Since we passed the iSite as well, Eliza dropped in to purchase the Queen Charlotte passes - as much of this track runs across private property, there is a separate, but very small, fee to walk the track. Just as we walked out of the iSite, two women walked up, one working for the local business association; and the other...

March 23 Pelorus Creek campground to Havelock Holiday Park KM 1803 Distance: 21km  Elevation: ascent 214m, descent 243m Steps: 29,200 Time: 9:10am - 2:10pm Today's adventure began in the wee hours of the morning when steady rain began falling at our camp in Pelorus Bridge. Our site was on a slight slope and on hard-packed dirt. The result was sheet flow water coming down slope and testing the waterproofness of our tent floor. It did not pass the test. We discovered at least two corners where the seam seal has perished which allowed a small amount of water into the tent. It wasn't major but it has been difficult to dry things out this afternoon because of the humidity and more rain. The rain was also hard enough to splash dirt up onto all parts of the tent, so it's dirty as well as wet.  The main problem this poses is that we'll be much more reliant on the tent in the North Island because there are fewer cosy, dry huts. Additionally, we're now into mid-Autumn, with w...

March 22 Captain Creek Hut to Pelorus Creek campground KM 1824 Distance: 22.3km  Elevation: ascent 594m, descent 689m Steps: 32,600 Time: 7:55am - 2:05pm We both felt a little sad to be leaving Captain Creek Hut and its resident California Quail this morning. We'd had the place to ourselves and really enjoyed the location and the character. As you can tell we had the fire going, partly to dry our clothes and warm things up a little, but also for a little ambience. We made sure to replace the firewood for the next people. As we started out this morning we both commented that we would like to come back to the Richmond Ranges Forest Park another time and explore some of the other, easier, tracks, perhaps as day walks or overnighters. But probably not the Rintouls again. This track is definitely more popular because the quality improved the further we walked! It flattened and widened, and eventually joined up with the Pelorus River. We fair flew along this track after the f...