Doing Queen Charlotte.

Our water taxi dropped us off at one end of the peninsula and said that they would see us in 5 days at the other end. We were on our own. Hopefully we had enough food, fuel, and energy in our legs to last the over 70 km (45 miles).

We started here.

The QCT.

Immediately the track went straight uphill. After 45 minutes of panting and sweating we were wondering if we were going to be able to do this whole thing. The plan for the first day was to take it easy and just walk 5 km.

The first night we camped near here.

We didn't know that it was 300 meters in elevation change! Eventually we arrived at Schoolhouse Bay. There was a beautiful sailboat in the bay and we were envious of the owners that didn't have to walk to the track like we did.

One of the many waterfalls.

 

Mussels are everywhere here!

The owners of the boat came ashore the following morning and we quickly became friends. We packed up our camp and began the longest day of the trip. It was about 25 km and 8 hours of hiking that we were about to endure. Halfway we came across Furneaux Lodge. It was a fancy place where we indulged in overpriced chicken burgers with brie and chutney. We saw our friends that owned the sailboat (which was named Luna C) and they offered to give us a lift to our next campsite. Being the epitome of laziness we quickly accepted and spent the afternoon lounging on their boat instead of slogging another four hours through the beautiful forest.

Mojdeh on board the Luna C.

The third day was more climbing uphill. We could have hiked for 9 hours to try and make the furthest camping area, but we chose to stop sooner rather than later. We camped at the top of the hill (450 meters above sea level). There were wild pigs, annoying birds called Wekas that would carry anything that they could into the bush, and a couple of Germans camping with us. It was a cold night and we were excited when the sun came out the next day. The views from the top of the ridge were stunning and around every corner one of us would be heard saying, "Wow".
The fourth day we ended back at sea level and were able to drop our packs off at a resort for our water taxi to pick up. We even had expensive chicken and chips. It turned out to not be as rugged as we initially thought that it would be. This only left our last and final day. With only day packs, we thought that walking 20 km would be a breeze. Turns out that our legs were a little more tired than we anticipated. The last hour we walked in silence.

 

I look pretty professional on the move, but...

I prefer sitting to walking.

Admiring the beauty was replaced by the need to put one foot in front of the other. Hips, backs, legs, everything hurt. We were sick of our pre made pasta, dehydrated mashed potatoes, and even the delicious instant noodles. We made it to the end of the track and just waited for the water taxi to arrive. It was a bit strange to have nothing to do but wait. So of course we walked a little further. The boat picked us up and brought us straight back to the town of Picton. We had already booked our hostel that we had liked the week before so we couldn't wait to get back to it and it's hot tub. A bake-at-home pizza and bottle of wine later, and life was better than we ever could have imagined!

Finally. the law school apps are finished!