You know those places that you imagine, but don’t think can possibly exist? Umm. They do! I went there – the Queen Charlotte Sounds, NZ.
I thought my partner was definitely making it up when he described his childhood holiday house (or bach as the Kiwis call it). I’d probably call it a shack but I’m from Australia and we have a million names for things, so there’s a tangent I won’t go on. Anyway, I digress. He described the journey to his bach in Endeavour Inlet and it evoked such mystery.
- You can only get there by boat.
- There is very limited wifi connection (hooray!).
- You can dive in the water and grab these things called paua (which are like giant black abalone).
- It’s a place so remote that you can completely disconnect.
- There was an unsolved murder in the area (by the Furneaux Lodge). This was the one that completed the mystery and eeriness for me.
So, turns out my boy was not lying! All these things were 100% true, and my goodness what a place. The trip there in itself was epic and unlike anything I’ve ever done before. From Auckland we flew to Wellington (a place I would love to explore one day), then caught a 3.5 hour mega ferry to Picton across the Cook Strait. Then from the tourist town of Picton, we caught a tiny ferry (the Cougar Line, did they name that after me? lol) to Endeavour Inlet. This took a further 3 hours, but my goodness it was beautiful. The lush green ferns on either side, completely swallowing up the landscape and the deep, cold indigo blue below. Every inlet had a bach. Some were particularly fancy and OTT and other were gorgeous little huts that had not been changed since they were built – probably because it must be such a logistic nightmare to build there! Not only the rugged fern, mountainous (complete lack of any flat surface) landscape but also the difficulty of getting in building supplies by boat.
The bach where we stayed, my partner’s grandparents, was a gorgeous spot built by his grandad and his lads in the 70s with the classic 70s decor remaining in the interior design. Green carpets, dark wood panelling, nautical maps and photos of the boys building the place in between beers (DB Double Brown’s of course).
Not only was the view from the spot a highlight, the fishing didn’t disappoint. We free-dived and picked a ton of Paua for Paua fritters, fresh oysters and the blue cod were bloody delicious! Such a gorgeous fish, I didn’t want to catch it because it was too pretty – the irony being, I did want to to eat it over and over again!
The Queen Charlotte Track is the main drawcard to this area. We walked a couple of sections of it – namely from Ship Cove to Furneaux Lodge (so we could be rewarded with an ice cold beer and fish burger) and also from Endeavour Inlet to the Bay of Many Coves (where conveniently there is another amazing eatery). I was desperate to do the whole track but that takes 5 days and we were too time poor and unprepared. It really is a walk you should take your time to do and enjoy. You can either camp along the way or book yourself into some lush accommodation. I’d probably do the later, not because I’m a princess (well I kind of am), but mainly because of the dreaded sand fly’s that took a particular liking to my ankles and gave me days of agonising itchiness.
So back to my point, The Queen Charlotte Sound is a little piece of untouched heaven and I’ll probably get in trouble for writing this and even letting you know it exists! But, given how hard it is to get there I think it will stay fairly safe from the hoards and only those truly up for an adventure will be rewarded… if they make it… or return.
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