Monday at Cowshed Bay near Portage on Kenepuru Sound was a bit of a catch-up day. We had a few emails to sort out and some planning to do. There are worse spots to spend a Monday. We were keen to have a walk. The most obvious walk was one way or the other along the Queen Charlotte track. The thing was that it was marked as one where you have to pay for a permit to walk. Even for an hour or so. We were debating the merits of having to pay to walk on tracks. While I am oppose to the concept, I was keen to try out the permit system to make a nuisance of myself. Wyn just wanted to go for a walk. We eventually decided to go for a walk around the road.
Sheltered beach on Kenepuru Sound
This (obscured) sign reminded us of Northland which must have more Uneven Surface signs than the rest of the country put together.
Kenepuru Sound
Kenepuru Sound
Kenepuru Sound
From Cowshed Bay we went over to Portage and then onwards, towards wherever. Over the first headland there was a lovely little beach on a very narrow isthmus to a much larger headland. This was sheltered from the wind that was blowing from the north. There was a house on the first headland that was blaring out some nice classical-ish singing music. It was a good stereo and good music and there was a couple sheltering on the beach enjoying the afternoon concert.
We headed on the 3kms or so to the twin DoC camps of Picnic Bay and Nikau Cove. This is a lovely bay and they are lovely camps, albeit a bit small for Suzi. We sat for a while at Picnic Bay and were amazed to watch a couple of wood pidgeons zooming through the forest. Maybe it is courting time. Whatever, they were very agile dodging through the trees. We’d never seen a performance quite like that.
The day wasn’t getting any younger so we made our way back to Cowshed Bay after a pleasant 3-hour ramble along the road.
