One in a Hundred
 

Words & Photos: Dave Mitchell & Ditte van der Meulen

The Marlborough Sounds was devastated by two major storms, one in July 2021 and the other in August 2022. These caused major damage to the roading network, triggered thousands of landslides and isolated remote communities, with access to many places only by boat or helicopter. More heavy rain since then, along with funding constraints and availability of repair crews, has hampered rebuild efforts but many roads have been reopened.

It was the late January and most of the local roading contractors were still on their well deserved Christmas break. We drove from Linkwater on Kenepuru Road towards the splendid Kenepuru Heads DOC campsite. It’s a windy road littered with roadworks and traffic lights. In places the carriageway barely holding by the skin of its teeth until the next weather event. Holiday homes dot the coastline. Boat ramps and jetties swing out into the clear calm water below.

We unloaded the bikes and got set up, with the quiet slosh of the incoming and outgoing tides, as they invaded then retreated from the mud flats that cover a good square kilometre at this end of the bay. Kenepuru Sound is one massive drowned river valley and an arm of Pelorus Sound/Te Hoiere. Its 25km length traverses northeast to southwest, joining Pelorus Sound about a quarter of the way down before heading out into Cook Strait.

Mt Stokes

Bleary eyed we pedalled from camp onto Titirangi Road. Cows marked our passing with a nod and a moo. The local farmer was making hay even though the sun was not shining. Hidden away behind dark clouds were the mountain tops but It was a clearing forecast. The road goes gravel and climbs to Kenepuru Saddle at 180m and the Queen Charlotte Track crossing point. We carried onward and upward climbing steadily through thick native bush to the Anakoha Road junction.

This is where the Mount Stokes track peels off, just below Mount Robinson. We hid our bikes and switched into tramping mode. The track traverses and then climbs steeply to one of the few open top summits in the Marlborough Sounds at 1203m. Beautiful ancient forest covers these steep slopes becoming stunted and covered in lichen and moss just below the top - a cloud forest that spends much of its life inside one.

We popped out onto the open tops, where an old fence reserve populated by snow-grass tussock and small alpine shrubs hunkers down in the harsh conditions. A vague track descends to an old bird survey hut hidden at the bush edge just above the 1100m contour. On the four previous occasions we’ve climbed Mount Stokes only once did we encounter a clear day, but on that occasion there was a howling southerly with a windchill of absolute zero.

We lunched, sheltered by the hut, and then followed the old rusting barbed wire back up to the top of Mt Stokes hoping the clouds were about to disappear. No such luck but we discovered something new. A careful descent on slippery roots delivered us back to the bikes and a speedy descent to our basecamp that was basking in full sun.

Secret Mine Track

After a lazy start we rode back up to the Mt Stokes junction but continued along Titirangi Road. This wanders vaguely north below the spectacular convoluted wind-swept ridge-top. Just below the unnamed 764m peak as marked on the topo map, and above Tunnel Bay. the infamous Antimony Mine Track plummets. A vague turn-off amongst a sea of beech forest. It’s an old 4WD jungle trail that heads for Endeavour Inlet and the Queen Charlotte Track (QCT) and follows the power line, but I think the mine track came first.

Ditte and I were expecting carnage considering the sorry state of the Sounds roading infrastructure. Damp forest leaf litter had made just the initial steep rock slab descent a bit dodgy but we managed to slide our way down to the Tunnel Bay and Gore Bay viewpoint. Mussel farms circled the azure blue bay and beyond it the ET fingers of Cape Lambert and Cape Jackson point accusingly at Cook Straight and the politicians in Wellington.

In 1986, at the end of a two week trip, the (luxurious) Soviet cruise ship Mikhail Lermontov hit rocks off Cape Jackson at 5:37pm on 16 February. With its hull sliced open in three places like a sardine can, the 155m vessel limped towards Port Gore, where it sank to the 30m deep bottom at 10:45pm. That was 40 years ago and we did not expect to see any sign of her from our aerial viewpoint.

The mine track is a bit overgrown in places but shows off its 4WD credentials under the tall canopy of beech, rimu and matai trees. Small creek crossings are numerous, many washed out but have been reinstated with section of singletrack. By the first mine entrance turnoff a dazzling array of wild flowering hydrangeas cover the track side where the open light permits. It’s a colour shock in a sea of greens. The lower section throws up some steeper terrain and deeper stream crossings down to the mine processing site at the back of Endeavour Inlet.

At its peak in the late 1870s, the Endeavour Inlet antimony mine was never profitable but goes down in history as being New Zealand's largest antimony producer totalling an impressive 3,700 tonnes. An aerial tramway connected the mine to the processing plant which was located on the valley floor. In Endeavour Inlet a large wharf served the mine, farm and adjacent township. With almost 100 men employed and their families, it included a school and a post office. Little remains today but a few mullock heaps and a cool MTB track.

Antimony is a brittle, silvery-white metalloid element (symbol Sb, atomic number 51) known since ancient times. It exists primarily in the sulfide mineral stibnite and is widely used in flame retardants, lead-acid batteries and as a hardening alloy in metallurgy. Reputably used as eye makeup in ancient times. Used for coloured glazes and glassware and, in the Middle Ages, alchemists used it to turn lead into gold. Today it’s considered a critical mineral for technology and defence, specifically in semiconductors and mindless military applications. It’s mainly dug up in China.

The bay is home to the only swing bridge on the QCT, an inviting Eco-Camp, a short jetty and a venerable ancient Fordson tractor - which for eons has been marking the incoming and outgoing tides, along with the coming and goings along the QCT in a rusty sort of retired way. We lunched in the sun where tree rounds provided seating. Alas the Eco-Camp store was devoid of any treats.

With round bellies we pedalled south happy in the knowledge that the whole QCT is now open all year round to mountain bikes. The track was firm and dry and flowed like mercury on a copper plate, picking up gold dust along the way. There was gold found in many places in the Malborough Sounds but not a lot of it.

We love this section of track to Punga Cove with a mix of open views, manuka forest and regenerating broad leaf. Groves of nikau palms populate the shadier gullies with baches and boats bobbing along the coastline. A final climb before Camp Bay makes its way up a long ridge to Kenepuru Saddle to close the loop for another descent back to camp where more food presented itself.

Ship Cove Baby

The non boat QCT option for decades has always been an in and out pedal from Kenepuru Saddle. With the Ship Cove Saddle section re-routed and groomed from Schoolhouse Bay, the north end presented an attractive option. This time we parked at Kenepuru Saddle judging the length and amount of climbing to be within our reach. 
It’s never good to start on a downhill knowing it means an uphill as the final act at the end of the day. With an early start we made good progress around Big Bay and past Furneaux Lodge to where the first real climb of the ride begins. It is pretty progressive winding up the lower slopes above Tawa Bay to a low saddle at just over 200m. A gradual flowing descent crosses multiple side stream and returned us back to sea level at Schoolhouse Bay.

From Schoolhouse Bay a new track has been cut heading out onto the headlands before zagging its way back to claim another low saddle. This new track replaces the super steep washed out original that was only fit for quad bikes and pushing. The descent into Ship Cove is endless and epic with tons of grip and smooth corners.

We checked out the jetty and lunched by the calm sea relaxing in the sun. A favourite spot for Captain Cook and crew in the 1770s when he did the inevitable grand tour around NZ. There is a monument to our first British tourists. We headed for the hill and back the way we had come. Like any return journey the climbs, descents and views were diametrically different. We rolled up the last climb weary and ready for a hot shower and some grub. A fantastic day out and awesome riding clocking up 1500m and 63kms.

Black Rock

After that beautiful coastline ride we were heading into the hills along the central backbone of the QCT. This section also starts from Kenepuru Saddle but climbs relentlessly to Eatwells Lookout at 474m. We started the day calm and collected but soon felt the burn from the steep climbing through the tall old-man pine forest. On a carpet of pine needles and leaf litter the track really steepens up above Deep Bay and doesn't let up until you reach the open top of Eatwells Lookout. From there we spotted one of the Cook Straight ferries cruising match box like towards Picton. A land of sunken valleys and islands lay out before us.

From this high point we wander further along the ridge top on a roller coaster without the clowns and the candy floss. Fleeting views down into the many small bays and coves around the appropriately named Bay of Many Coves revealed themselves. Scores of baches and jetties reside resolutely above the high water mark with boat only access. White streamers followed bouncing miniature arrows as the boats head for their favourite fishing spots. We were transfixed and fascinated by the scale of place with the coast of the north island in plain sight.

At the Bay of Many Coves campsite there is tank water and shelter. A couple pause from packing up their tent ready for a leisurely stroll down to Punga Cove. This centre section of the QCT follows a much more direct route straight up and down, compared with the less aggressive Ship Cove section that mimics the coastline in and out and up and down of every bay.

Open tops above Blackwood Bay descend steeply with a short climb that takes us to our lunch spot at Blackrock Campsite. There is a picnic table in a large clearing with commanding views of both the Kenepuru and Queen Charlotte Sounds. Tank water was also available but you wouldn't want to count on it during a long hot summer. After lunch we headed back the way we came hoping for less climbing. The track rode in reverse, the scenery a new canvas but the many ascents seemed just as unforgiving, just like Clint Eastward.

The End

With road workers back on the job that Monday and residents-only entry it was time to motor back out. We parked up at Anakiwa to complete the final section of the QCT and make the most of our $50 multi-day track pass. This was a bargain and it helps to develop and maintain one of NZ’s unique MTB trails. An annual track pass is $75 and a total bargain if you plan to visit often. www.qctrack.co.nz