Nice weather for JANUARY!

I've just come off the Queen Charlotte Track which follows along the ridge between the Queen Charlotte and Kenepuru Sounds. It is just one of about 6 long peninsulas that make up the Marlborough Sound in the northeast of the South Island. The Maori call the area Totaranui- big Totara, because the fingers of land reach out like the branches of a giant Totara tree.
The weather was gorgeous- it rained some at night, but for the hike I had crystal clear days without a cloud in the sky. Ahh... summer....
In order to get out to the start of the track, you need to take a water taxi out to the mouth of the sound, and then at the end of the track, you can either hike along the road for another day, or catch another water taxi back. And so, most hikers opt for a round trip package with the water taxi. The nice thing about this is that they provide free pack transfers! They take your camping gear from one campsite to the next. Quite a luxury! It felt weird for about 5 seconds, then I just enjoyed it. Hiking with just a day pack is much nicer!
As I looked around at all the different companies who provided water taxi service from Picton (it seems like this is a rather large sector of the local economy...), I saw one company that, for a bit more money, would give a guided wildlife tour of the sound. It "sound"ed good to me!
I greatly lengthened my ornithlogical life list that day! I saw about 10 new species, most of which only exist around New Zealand: King Shags, Saddlebacks, Bell Birds, New Zealand Pigeons, Australasian Gannets, and a little Blue Penguin- all very cool to see.
Oh, and we also saw dolphins! Little Hectors dolphins, only about 4-5 feet long, swam and jumped and splashed all around our boat for about 20 minutes. I loved it! I got the whole boat of people clapping and cheering for the dolphins when they jumped, and they seemed to enjoy the applause, the little rascals! The tour guides were really excited too, saying that it was really uncommon for Hectors Dolphins to put on such a show. The dolphins are endangered- only about 1000 left in the world, so the guides were happy to be able to get some great, close-up photos of them to make a record of which individuals they saw.
After the tour, before the boat took the rest of the passengers back to Picton, they took the short trip over to Ship's Cove where they dropped me off to begin my hike. It was a funny start- I climbed off the boat with my big pack onto a very empty beach. I stood at the water's edge for a while watching the boat pull away, waving to the other passengers, thinking, "Hmmm... I hope I can find the way!"
Luckily the Queen Charlotte Track is VERY well marked, and very well travelled by through-hikers, day-hikers, and mountain bikers alike. I had good company at all of the campsites, and saw many friendly faces along the trail. And I had company along the trail on the second and last day- a German woman who was also traveling on her own, and two more very fun Israeli travellers (Tal and Hanan).
The last day, I opted for a slightly shorter route, which brought me through a beautiful, old-growth beech forest, and down to a sheltered bay where I had a chance to swim in the clear, blue-green water while I was waiting for the boat. It was nice, real nice...