Day 50 - To the Sounds They Said!

Pelorus Sound (Te Hoiere) is part of the Marlborough Sounds in the north of the South Island. Marlborough Sounds is made up of flooded river valleys that were formed in the ice age thousands of years ago. Absolutely stunning area. After getting a little lost, or rather just misdirected, we found our way to Cow Shed Campsite for the night. Once again arriving in the dark. The seasons are unfortunately changing, which means the sun does not like to shine for too long, making the days much shorter than we would prefer. We woke up in a quaint campsite, which included shower facilities, say what what! They were cold but getting clean was worth the ice cold streams of water that flowed from the luxurious shower head in the middle of the wilderness. We also discovered Weka at this site. Weka are another flightless bird native to NZ. These sweet looking birds are curious and mischievious little birds, intrigued by humans and their activities. They, like the sandflies in this country, are determined to steal from you. Unlike the sandflies, Weka fortunately do not attempt to steal your blood, leaving you with innumerable, indescribably, itchy bites. These birds want your treasured belongings. Sometimes so desperate to rip through your tent in order to steal from you. Thankfully we were highly aware of these curious beast that we were able to fend them off every time they attempted to attack. One bird was almost sneaky enough to steal one of our spoons but we were much quicker than he, leaving our site unconquered by these feisty little birds.

We made our way to the end of the Pelorus Sound to one of the best campsites I stayed at in all of New Zealand. This site is by far one of my favourite places in the country. Titirangi Farm Campsite will go down as some of the best camping of my life. It all started here, driving up to an incredible view point where we could see our final destination, which is the beach on the left hand side in the photos below. We stayed here for a quite a while taking in the incredible views.
    
Titirangi Farm Site is literally a pasture just off the beach, with toilet and shower facilities for the people accessing this fine campsite, sheep included. We arrived after a beautiful drive down to the bay to find that there were only about 12 other people at this site. Not surprising though considering how remote it is. The incredible thing is that the people who own the land have a sheep farm in this gorgeous land and so generously share it with travelers. Seriously amazing. It was a lovely couple of nights at this location. Definitely difficult to leave such a secluded and beautiful site.

       

Let me tell you, some of the best experiences in life are those that are most unexpected. On our way up Pelorus Sound we drove past multiple trail heads for the abundant hikes available to us in this area. Of.  course we had to attempt one and Mt. Stokes was the lucky winner. It turned out to be one of the most magical forests I have ever hiked through. The forest was so thick with trees you couldn't see too far a head of you, with so many that it was easy to lose the path. The trees were laden with thick moss of all shades of green. Unfortunately we were not rewarded with a beautiful view from the top due to thick fog and low clouds but that did not matter.

It was a stunning forest and a lovely way to end the trip to the sounds.