Travelling In Circles

We started our six weeks on the South Island of New Zealand on the Queen Charlotte Track. This is where we will end it. Tutukaka’s foot is lame. The brakes are squealing worse and worse and need to be repaired soon. But he still manages the last winding 60 kilometres out onto the outermost gravel tracks of the Marlborough Sounds.

The last hike takes us to the highest peak in the Sounds. At 1203 metres, Mount Stokes is not particularly high. But the hike starts close to the sea and the path is definitely one of the tougher ones. It begins steeply through the jungle, becomes steeper and climbs steadily up to the summit over rough rocks, roots and fallen cowries.

Once again, we almost give up. Then the forest clears. The sun shines over the little hard greenery on the summit of Mt Stokes. The sounds around us in all directions: green in front. Blue below. Green again at the back, and eternally blue above. You can follow almost the entire 82 kilometre Queen Charlotte Track. On the other side of Cook Straight we can see Wellington’s wind turbines. To the north, Mt Taranaki, over 200 kilometres away, can just be glimpsed. We were on its summit two months ago. We are travelling in circles.

We spend the last night at Anakiwa Lodge. At 4.30 the next morning we leave for the ferry in nearby Picton. In the sparsely populated Marlborough Sounds, the stars shine as brightly as in the Sahara. The first dawn breaks over the mountains of the sounds just before Picton. Tutukaka rolls onto the ferry with a loud croak.

Nowhere else in the world does the land merge so slowly with the sea. Past high mountains, the horizon turns red. The highest peaks shine in the light of the rising sun. We were up there. Seagulls circle fishing boats. The mountains get lower. Now the lower grassy hills are also glowing gold. That’s where we were. Red clouds over the last cliffs of the South Island. The sun rises over the open sea…