In the mid-morning we took out the kayaks and explored the bays in the Sounds, drifting over turquoise water along steep green wooden hills with the occasional boatshed peeping out. We paddled out towards the open sea, though, where the waves grew high and there were strong winds and currents, and it took all my energy to paddle in place. It was profoundly frustrating, as I’d marked a landmark to cross and I kept swaying back and forth parallel to it, though this was partly because of the wash from passing boats. At length there was a time when there were no boats, so slowly I inched forward and passed one landmark and then another and another, and finally I was back in the sheltered bays and able to make some progress. Here I got disoriented as it was an open bit with scalloped bays coming off it, so not much in the way of conveniently located landmarks, and the hills seemed unmoving. Eventually, though, I returned (the Gentleman Friend confessing he’d been worried I would not be able to make it back and would need a rescue he knew I would find humilating). So I returned, after three hours of energetic battle with the sea instead of the leisurely one hour intended.
In the afternoon we climbed up behind the house to the Queen Charlotte Track. Accessing it is not easy as one must pass through thick gorse, over swampy ground and up some of the steepest climbs I’ve encountered. It takes a good 30-40 minutes to climb up and 10 minutes to return, the latter largely because it is too steep to go quickly. The track itself runs over ridges overlooking bays and we thought we saw a school of dolphins far below us. We went up to an overlook point (with the ominous and accurate warning that it was 900m straight uphill) and caught a sweep of the sound. Then return where after a quick, cold hosing in the garden we entered what the NZers call a spa and I would call a jacuzzi on a grassy spot overlooking the bay. Then dinner.
On returning the phosphorescence was out again so we lingered on the jetty, splashing water to watch it glimmer. The GF saw a couple of shooting stars and I spotted what could have been a satellite or perhaps a very high flying aeroplane.