The Queen Charlotte Track is a 71km hiking trail at the northern tip of New Zealand's South Island (near Picton - nearest international airport is Wellington, a lovely ferry ride away).

A few weeks ago, I did a 24.5km (15miles) hike in 8 hours along the steepest section of it. Even though the weather was perfect and it wasn't too warm, I was rather exhausted by the end (not helped by the large blisters that formed on the backs of each heel about 5km (3miles) in, nor by having done 15km (9mi) of sea kayaking the day before). I've hiked previously in those boots in South America and Africa without problems :-(

Carrying my 5D3, 27-40F4 and tripod was quite an effort, though I did re-purpose my Gitzo 3542LS as a walking stick on a few sections. The mail boat was coming to pick us up at 4:30pm, so we had to hike hard or pay a fortune to hire a water taxi to get back to our hostel if we missed it. I can recommend the Tombstone Backpackers in Picton - more of a flashpackers than a hostel, with great staff :-)

I did get some time to take a few photos during the first half of the hike - perhaps that's why we had to rush the second half.

Here is one of the stitched panoramas I took. This is during the middle of the day whilst we ate a hurried lunch, so not the best light, but I didn't have time to camp out overnight to get the best mood lighting ;-) Maybe next time!

Please let me know what you think - this is heavily re-sized for uploading. The full version is 10360px wide :-)

Anakha

What a beautiful scene, Anakha. Nicely done. Glad you made it back on time.

Cheers,
Ed

Excellent use of topography. Well seen!
Douglas

Thanks Ed.

Thanks Douglas. That whole area has beautiful topography. The Sounds result from the tectonic pressures which have shaped New Zealand. Most of the South Island is rising upwards, but the Sounds at the northern tip of the South Island have been forced downwards, gradually drowning river valleys to create the beautiful landscape we see today.

Anakha



douter wrote:
Excellent use of topography. Well seen!
Douglas

beautiful greens and blues!

Thanks Sachman - I didn't amp up the colours in post-processing. This is quite representative of what it looked like to the naked eye.

Anakha


sachman wrote:
beautiful greens and blues!