QCT Day 2 to Mahana Lodge

Late post due to lack of internet! This post should have been posted at the end of Sunday, March 26th.

I think most of these posts from the track will be primarily photos, so prepare yourself for a photo diary.

Morning at No Road Inn

We got up around 7:30 and our priority was packing so that our duffels (to go ahead to the next lodge) were in the lobby by 9am. Then we could dig into our breakfast basket and test this soft boiled egg machine.

They ooze out the tops a little, but perfectly soft-boiled!

Breakfast on the patio. Notice the mist before the rain.

The rain started and the mist got flushed away for a bit.

After breakfast, I went upstaits to settle our tab and pick up our sack lunched. I met the Schnauzer that Mike calls rupert, but I didn’t get his real name.

Oh, there's the front door! We all used the back door to the big patio.

And here's that sign as we head back up to the track

QCT, Section 2

Here's the track again:

Today we're walking from No Road Inn to Mahana Lodge. It is meant to be 4 hours but the rain caused some very slippery patches which we took slowly, especially after Mike slipped. There was a lot of mud, but never very deep, just squishy. We wound up taking just over 4 hours.

Ready to ford the stream! (Kidding. We went back and took that bridge.)

It stopped raining briefly, just some mist, and you can see that the fog came back

The water is so clear!

Bouncy bridge

There are lodges all along this track

There was antimony mining out here

They didn't do very well

Sheep with undocked tails

Those chickens are where our breakfast eggs came from.

Mike waits for me a lot

Manuka hardwood walking poles. We wanted one but would be super sad forfeiting it at the airport.

Would be a nice spot for lunch.

Even in the rain, the water is really clear.

Harder rain called for a more serious backpack configuration.

Weka

My towel was a hat, then a neckband, and then a hair band.

Found a bench for lunch around 2pm, right when the rain stopped.

Lunchtime view

We met a British couple walking the other way and shared the bench with them. They had just done 2 weeks volunteering for the Dept of Conservation on a tiny island near Stewart Island.

Dolphins! Pretty tough to photograph from up here on this camera.

Just Mike

People watching dolphins

Looking toward the future. That jetty on the right belongs to Punga Cove Resort and it's where we stop for coffee and beer about 25 minutes after this photo was taken.

Camp Bay campsite -- it's a nice campsite with a clean bathroom and covered and uncovered picnic tables. Just 5 more minutes to Punga Cove from here.

Met up with Ros and Geoff at the cafe

Made a friend

Muddy boots. My legs were muddy, too, but I picked at them while we were sitting.

Almost at the lodge

Mahana Lodge's jetty and rope swing

Mahana Lodge

View from the patio during check-in

Walking to our rooms

Our room

Welcome basket from Wilderness Guides

Our view

Common room

Covered patio for dinner

Mussels

Salad

I had the beef; I didn't read the menu carefully so I didn't know it was a pasta dish.

Mike had the salmon.

Peach cake

At Mahana Lodge, we met the owners, John and Ann, who recently sold the place. We also met two other couples doing the track. One couple, whose names I didn't catch, are on a 4-day schedule, so we won't see them again after tonight. They aren't booked through Wilderness Guides. The other couple, Christiana and David, are doing the same 5-day Wilderness Guides schedule as we are, but they had friends who did it last year and had advised them to add a night at Mahana Lodge, so this is their second night here. They'll be with us at the remaining accommodations. This place is picturesque, very peaceful, they have a vegetable garden they use for meals, and there are glowworms, but there are sand flies (and lots of other insects) all over the place. I killed at least 10 in our room but still got bites all over my legs. After dinner we went 2 minutes from our room to see glowworms, but didn’t get photos.

Time for bed. Tomorrow is the "big day" -- 8 hours!