QCT Day 4 to Lochmara Lodge

Late post due to lack of internet! This post should have been posted at the end of Tuesday, March 28th.

Morning at Raetihi Lodge

I did a little blogging from the patio.

Mike went down to the shore to play with his GoPro.

The view from breakfast

The front of Raetihi Lodge

Ros and Geoff on the water taxi back to the trail.

Geoff, Ros, Rosina - happy to get a ride!

Peter, the same water taxi guy, offered to bring us back up to the top of the road in his van. All three couples fit. The top of the road to the jetty, where it joins with the track, is called Torea Saddle.

QCT, Section 4

We were driven from the Portage Bay wharf to the intersection with QCT at Torea Saddle. From here, the day's path takes us two hours further on the track, then down a sidetrack to Lochmara Lodge. It's the short day (3 to 4 hours) but mostly uphill until we get to Lochmara's property, so the plan was to take it slow. We took the water taxi at 10 am, set off on the track at 10:20, and it wasn't until about noon that we remembered we had wanted to get to Lochmara Lodge early because they have animal feedings around 2 pm. We made it to check-in at 1:35 pm. Pretty good timing!

There's Picton

Shamrock Ridge

407 m elevation, the highest point of the day. That's 1335 ft.

The view from Shamrock Ridge

The view in the other direction

We sat at Shamrock Ridge for a while and met a curious weka. He pecked my leg and shoe a lot. Not sure what he thought that would get him.

The nicest part of the track! Wide, grassy, relatively flat.

The sign to turn off for Lochmara Lodge

An hour of downhill track to the lodge

Lochmara Lodge

Lochmara Lodge is a quirky resort with lots of art and an emphasis on eco consciousness.

It says to follow fish to reception but the fish are few and far between, causing some confusion and lost new arrivals.

Lochmara Lodge's property is a tangle of meandering paths. You don't mind getting lost on their property when you've already checked-in and gotten settled, but it's a bit annoying when you are in a hurry to check-in because you're convinced you're missing some interesting animal feeding.

The view from our patio

We settled in and ate our sack lunches from Raetihi which were really good. They used brie, lots of brie. We missed most of the feedings for the day except the kakariki feeding at 2:15 pm. You have to pay to get in and feed them, but they're just birds, so I stayed outside the cage and listened. Then I wandered the property while Mike stayed in the room to rest his blistered feet.

There were six large enclosures but I only spotted one lizard -- a gecko shedding its skin!

Tea Tree

Mommy weka and baby

I spotted 3 babies running around nearby

Eel

Seemed like a happy eel

Supposedly he talks, but I couldn't get him to

He walked up to me, sideswiped me (hefty!), and let me pet him for a while.

That blurry spot is a bee who wanted to have his picture taken.

Followed this guy down a hill where he found a puddle and drank loudly

After my explorations, I found Mike back in the room and we went to dinner in the cafe/restaurant.

Lounge in the restaurant

Dinner view

At Lochmara Lodge, Wilderness Guides guests get to pick a starter (which they call entree), a main, and a dessert. Dinner service was slow here, as it was at Raetihi, but they would probably call it "relaxed." Either way, it meant that we skipped dessert because we were booked onto the night tour of their underwater observatory. The server/host felt bad that we missed dessert so he gave us free cookies and comped our beers.

Kutai Tasting Platter: Moules Mariniere Mussels, Hot Smoked Chilli & Soy Mussels, Cold Smoked Mussel Mousse

Vanilla Confit Duck with Chinese Pancakes, Scallions, Cucumber & Hoisin Sauce 

South Island Eye Fillet with Dauphenoise Potatoes, Slow-Roast Tomato, Bacon-Wrapped Beans, Horseradish Mousse & Port Jus

Chargrilled Wild-Caught Venison with Galette Potato, Braised Red Cabbage & Red Currant Jus

Sunset lighting

Had to look this up, but it turns out it's only an American convention to use "filet" for beef and "fillet" for fish. In general, the words both simply mean "boneless cut" and in New Zealand they rarely use the French spelling.

 The underwater observatory is a ship they have permanently moored and built shelving for.

Touch tank

Underwater

Topside, looking down into the water, you can see the fish illuminated by the underwater level's lights

For a while they were mostly chaotic, but then a squid showed up...

... and they schooled up.

That was it. We called it a night and headed back to our room. The sky was so clear. The Milky Way was gorgeous! If I had a better camera, I would have tried to get a photo. This is all I got:

Such a clear night! This photo's for Bella.

Tomorrow is our last day on the track. It's supposed to be one hour back to the track (from Lochmara), then five hours to Anakiwa, where we catch the 3:30 water taxi back to Picton. Mike's a bit unsure of his blisters and my right knee is sore, so we'll evaluate when we get to Te Mahia Saddle (4 hours from Anakiwa). There's an option there to turn off to Mistletoe Bay and take a water taxi from there.

We'll see.