Day 78 - more bliss

Cowshed Bay —-> The Queen Charlotte Tavern 26km

Despite the morning’s overcast sky, it was still wonderfully warm out as we set off on the final few km of the Queen Charlotte track towards its end point in Anikiwa.

We were treated to yet more glorious views of the sound, the water now a bright blue turquoise underneath the poofy grey-ish clouds.

We had lunch down at the water’s edge, almost losing some of it to the cheeky wekas who patrolled the track. Josh got stung by a wasp.

We were in Anikiwa by early afternoon, and as we treated ourselves to an ice cream tried not to stare as a very unconscious backpacker stripped naked and walked into the water for a swim. Our legs tired, we sat there long enough to then again, try not to stare at her walk out of the water and dry herself next to her van, still in full view of at least twenty people who all sat around eating their ice creams. I do not have any photos of this.

The TA trail continued on, following the water’s edge past the beautiful Okiwa bay…

…and onto the Link pathway where the mountains of blackberries were annoyingly just too far out of reach for me to pick without being prickled.

We’d be following this track all the way into Havelock, but this afternoon we had to go just as far as the Queen Charlotte Tavern; another amazing pub that let TA walkers camp for free.

Even though we’d only been on trail for three days, both Josh and I were absolutely ravenous for non-trail food, so we treated ourselves to a three course dinner at the pub.

A few drinks later and we rolled ourselves out to the tent where the cows across the road mooed us lullabies until we fell asleep.