DAY 66: It's Raining, It's Pouring, and We Thought We Would Hike In This?

We got up early and packed our things. We lined our packs with plastic bags and double bagged the food and electronics and walked 15 minutes in the rain to the wharf.


The Queen Charlotte track begins at Ship Cove, which no roads can take you to. So we bought ourselves a ticket with a water taxi company to take us to the start, then pick us up 3 days later at the end of the track in Anakiwa. It would be about 7-10 hours of hiking everyday, but we were getting used to days like that. Plus, the water taxi would carry our big hiking packs to each of our camping sites and drop them off for us. At the end of each day, we would find the shack they placed them in and set up camp. That way, we only needed our day packs and saved our backs from being sore.

Like I said, that morning, it was raining. But I don't mean normal rain. I mean, I expected to find Noah building his Ark because it was coming down in sheets. But Emma and I are stubborn people, and we decided to go anyway.

The water taxi ride was about an hour to the start point, and then we were off. It took a solid 30 minutes, and I was soaked to the bone. It got to the point where I stopped avoiding puddles- my feet were swimming as it was. When we got hungry, we found a small cabin on the trail and sat on the owner's front porch to take refuge from the rain.

As we ate our peanut butter sandwiches and trail mix, we saw a Kiwi! Like I've mentioned before, Kiwi's are nocturnal and flightless. They also have really ridiculously long beaks. The Kiwi was rummaging around in the brush, and we had never seen anything like it before. It was flightless, two legged, and weird looking - - it had to be a Kiwi! We figured it was dark from the rain and clouds, and that's why it was roaming about. (Oh how foolish we were...)

We kept hiking, and saw 7 more! We were in shock.

 "Seeing Kiwi's totally makes this hike worth it."
"I know, right! Otherwise this day would have seriously sucked."

We couldn't see any of the views, we were soaked to the bone, and we were slipping and sliding up and around these mountains for 9 HOURS!

What the Queen Charlotte Track Views are supposed to look like...

We passed a few more unfortunate souls on the track as it got darker. And the darker it got, the harder the rain would fall. I didn't think the sky could possibly hold anymore!

There was a small town a short distance from where we found the campsite at Bay Cove, and we debated trying to find a place to sleep there. But yet again, the Rodolfy stubbornness took its toll. We found our bags on a pier under a small shack and brought them to the campsite. There was a large 3 walled lean-to with sinks and a concrete level floor. We decided to set up our tent inside it to keep us dry and set about making dinner and trying to dry out our clothes.

The Queen Charlotte Views that we saw. The rain was very mild at  the time I took this picture

Shortly after, we met the people we had passed on the trail. We moved our tent over a bit and made room for theirs. There was a couple from Denmark and their Kiwi friend from University. They were hiking the track for their mid-semester break as well. We all got to talking, and Emma and I remembered the Kiwis.

Me and Frank, the Sheep

"Did you guys see the Kiwi's on the trail!?!"

"No way! We didn't see it!"

"Yeah! We saw EIGHT!"

"Um, did you say eight?"

"Yeah, eight Kiwis..."

"No, you didn't. Not eight of them. Maybe one. What you saw must have been a Weka."

WHY COULDN'T THEY JUST LET US BE IGNORANT HAPPY LITTLE AMERICANS!!!!

FUN FACT #30: A Weka is an obnoxious little bird that looks eerily like a Kiwi, but does not have the long beak. It likes shiny things and is considered a nuisance to campers because if its ability to steal your things.

We went to bed that night utterly defeated. My stubbornness ended when I discovered I had not seen a Kiwi. Emma and I decided that if it was still pouring in the morning, we would try to find a way out of there.

Luckily, I brought my ear plugs which drowned out the rain slamming the aluminum roof and I slept surprisingly well. Emma wasn't so fortunate... Thanks for the ear plugs back in Boston Dad!