Queen Charlotte Activity Extravaganza :)

Hello hello!

We're now in Blenheim, after spending a fantastic few days in the marlborough sounds. From our little stop in Nelson, we drove east and north, up towards the Queen Charlotte Walkway. Gavin had been planning a bit of an activity-extravaganza, so after our day or two of 'relax' in Nelson, we were on our way for some serious mountain biking. We spent the first night near our starting point, a gorgeous, lazy easter monday...we even blew up the inflatable kayak and launched it (with both of us on it!) in a little bay, where we chilled out sipping beer / cider before the sun went down, floating amid the jelly fish (there were hundreds!). A relaxing start before the activity! We had stopped to get some mussels in the 'greenshell mussel capital of the WORLD' (haverlock), and roasted them for dinner on the bbq (although
they weren't particularly good - but we tried them! the hugest mussels I've ever seen as well!)

The Queen Charlotte Walkway is a 71km hike that meanders through the hills/valleys of the sounds, and crosses a few saddles, with gorgeous views of the ocean and the sounds (which is basically like cottage country in Ontario, with less cottages, and ocean instead of lake, and big hills/mountains on either side). Most people do the hike in 3-5 days, getting dropped off at one end, and picked up/getting to their car at the other end. We chose to do it in 3 days, but biking / running the trail (and sleeping in our camper each night), which caused some backtracking, as it basically meant that we did the trail twice...this is what the extravaganza looked like:

Day 1: Started at Torea Saddle, and mountain biked UP 400m (I pushed my bike up 400 meters of switchbacks...fun times...gavin would bike up, and wait for me at the top of the hills. I've realized I can mountain bike, but not uphill... :) then we meandered down through about 20kms of single track to the end point of the trail. Gorgeous mountain biking. I then chilled out with a latte at the end of the trail, and Gavin proceeded to bike BACK across the 20kms to get the van, and drive to where I was, picked me up, and then we dropped our bikes up at our starting point from the day, and drove further down the trail for our next section start for day 2.

Day 2: Started at Kenepuru saddle, and ran 23 kms across this section of trail (about a total of 300m of height - I learned I'm also a slow runner-up hills), to where we had put the bikes (and started the previous day). We then biked about 20kms back to the beginning of the run (on the road, not the trail).

We were going to hike that section, but decided it would be more fun (and challenging!) to try and run it...it's the longest I've ever ran! I even got my congratulations from Lance Armstrong on my nike running thing on my IPOD...now I just have to beat that... :) We got back to the van, EXHAUSTED, and rinsed ourselves off with our buckets of water and rinsed out our clothes, in preparation for day 3!
(doing activity and not having access to showers is a bit of a challenge :)

Day 3: We started from the same point as the day before, but went the other way to the end of the trail - this time by mountain bike. About 40kms (there and back) of glorious single track. Despite the run the day before, we were feeling pretty good, and I only fell once (damn roots and rocks...but I really had no excuse this time, as I was too chicken to clip in for most of the trail! :P) We got nice and muddy, so
the bright spot in the end of the day was that we even managed to score a shower from one of the lodges along the track...our first real hot shower in a few weeks!! :)

Yesterday we gave our legs a break and had a 'rain' day in the camper, which involved a pancake breakfast, movies and popcorn. And now today we're on our way through Picton and Blenheim (stocking up, doing laundry, getting groceries), before we head off tomorrow on a bike ride around the vineyards in the marlborough wine region. Very excited about it! :)

We're coming to the end of our time in New Zealand - so sad, but we've had an incredible time! We have a few more things planned before we leave (a hike or two, a few more bikes, and some time in Christchurch), and then on the 1st of May we're off to Australia!

Huge hugs to everyone back home!

a