TA Day 57

TA Day 57: Thursday 13 February 2025

Davies Bay Campsite - Cowshed Bay Campsite

Lukas woke up several times this morning, and slept very lightly. First by possums, then by wekas and finally by the sound of loud birdsong. Kim woke up early and stayed awake. Unusually enough before Lukas!

At one time, there was a curious weka coming a bit close, but once Kim sat up in the tent, it took off and didn't come back again.

We stayed in bed for a long time before getting up. It was hikecation after all!

We had breakfast by a table in the sun - our regular granola breakfast but with fresh blueberries and semidried apple rings. So nice!

Lukas also talked to the carpenters that were renovating the campsite's shelter in the morning.

Our first destination was Mistletoe Bay. We had heard they had ice cream and soda so we wanted to go and have a look. Unfortunately, once we arrived there, there was no one around. We could see the sodas inside the door, but we didn't know how to find to owners to ask if we could buy something, so we sat down by a table and had a rest and some snacks.

Then we decided to go all the way up to the top of the ridge and all the way down on the other side, to Te Mahia Bay. Here there was supposed to be a food truck, and according to FarOut and the website, it would open at 17:00. We were there just before 16, but felt like we could wait another hour for food!

We found a girl in the reception/shop, she looked quite young, it was hard to tell if she was 18 because she looked younger and seemed very timid. Lukas asked her if the food truck would open at 17, but she seemed a little confused by the question, and her English didn't seem very good, but Lukas asked again and now she said that it would open at 17.

We bought some soda and ice cream and waited. Charged our phones and did some Internet chores. After some time an older woman, maybe the owner, talked to us, and we found out that the food truck wouldn't open until 18! Dang. We had already waited half an hour but weren't very keen on waiting another 1,5 hours. We still had some more hiking to do today. We weren't even halfway. But luckily we could buy a little bit to eat at least. So we bought a pie, more soda, coffee and a piece of cake.

Then back to hiking again. Up the hot and sweaty hill, up to the ridgeline again. We followed the ridge, ascending to a small summit with beautiful views.

Then we walked down, down, down to Cowshed Bay, in the beautiful golden hour.

Here there were flushing toilets, and an accessible toilet which even had a SHOWER!? Cold water, yes, but a shower!

Kim made dinner and we waited for the darkness of the night. We wanted to see bioluminescence as we had heard that you could do that here on QCT. We had also heard you could see glow worms.

The sky was incredibly beautiful, but no bioluminescence and no glow worms unfortunately. So we hoped for better chances tomorrow.

Today's:

Distance: 23.19 km

Ascent: 922 m

Descent: 907 m

Tent nights: 38/57

Weather: Sunny