Oh my goodness are we having a fabulous time in New Zealand. We hiked the Queen Charlotte track over four days from Ship Cove to Furneaux Lodge, stayed there overnight in a supremely comfortable bed after a wonderful dinner, then the following day hiked to Punga Cove and stayed there in a quaint little chalet overlooking the bay and a beautiful dinner with a fabulous view in the restaurant!
Next day we hiked to Ngahere Hou where we had a very different but equally marvellous experience at an eco-friendly BnB with once again those beautiful water views, and this time a home-cooked pizza which was utterly delicious. On the way along the track we took in captivating views of the Queen Charlotte Sound and the Kenepuru Sound, hiking along trails that were steep in places, both ascents and descents, shady at times through beautiful lush forests, long and arduous in some cases, hot too out on the open trails, but absolutely beautiful and so many times, glimpses through the trees of the most wonderful blue water, and around so many bends absolutely stunning views as far as the eye could see! We also saw loads of pretty little birds and delighted in listening to their songs as we were walking. And of course, I cannot forget to mention the Wekas, cheeky birds who will steal from you if you are not careful!
We made it to our last stopover quite tired and weary but managed to celebrate with a wonderful dinner and a glass of champagne at The Portage to celebrate what was to us a massive achievement, 55km over four days and our very first four-day hike!
After all that hiking, we decided we deserved a bit of a rest and so we travelled a little further south to the wine country and stayed in a lovely little place right in the middle of a whole bunch of wineries! They had a little dog called Bella who we made very quick friends with, missing very much of course our Miss Lily! So, Bella received lots of pats and love and attention from us whenever we saw her. We had a lovely couple of days sitting in the sunshine and admiring the different wineries we visited and of course, sampling the product! When wine tasting you must have a cheese platter too, you have to soak up all the wine somehow. It was a very picturesque region and we were a little sorry to be leaving but we had more places to visit and next stop-off was Mt Somers, but more about that later.
