Queen Charlotte Track DAY 2

December 2, 2015

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Camp Bay Campsite->Black Rock Campsite

18 km - Overcast/Rainy

It rained even more than the first day and the trail turned out even more sludgy. Though we hiked 9 km less than the previous day, it was still challenging and our legs were very sore. Around 5:00 pm, when it was still quite light, we were happy to find that a quiet night seemed to be guaranteed in Black Rock Campsite, located high up on the mountain with a great vista of the sound. A kiwi lady Grace whom we met the previous morning in the hotel in Picton during our breakfast was the only one whom we shared the campsite with. She was probably in her 60s and had planned to spend three months hiking from the north to the south of the South Island of New Zealand on the Te Aurora. Queen Charlotte Sound track was just the starting section of her odyssey. It is something to really look forward to if someday we could have sufficient time and savings to travel back. Grace also told us that the fearless food-chasing big bird that often bothered us during the hike was a type of local birds named Weka. Similar to kiwi birds, wekas have lost their fly-ability due to the lack of natural enemies on the island. Later a storm raged outside of the tent for almost the entire night while tons of mosquitoes kept buzzing relentlessly under our rain cape like bombers …