Kai's South Island Adventure

April 19th ... I just woke up from a night at the Mistletoe Hut and I am in their community kitchen eating Cluster Crisp Sanitarium Cereal. It's my favorite and I wouldn't mind having it for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

This morning, we are going to go on a little boat and we're also bringing our bikes so we can ride a section of the Queen Charlotte track. I am sure you are wondering what the heck is or who the heck is Queen Charlotte right?

Anyways Queen Charlotte was the wife of King George III in England but it's also a famous place to tramp in New Zealand's South Island. Now, some of you might wonder what tramping means. It doesn't mean being a bum, but it's a Kiwi word for walking. Oma, my grandmother, and my parents are going to tramp today and Maya and I get to bike.

But now I need to finish my breakfast and board the boat.



We're on the boat for about 30 minutes then we got dropped off at a place called Portage Bay. Maya and I started to ride up the trail but it was too steep to ride and we started walking and walking and walking and walking. Eventually the trail got easier and we started riding but then there was more uphill. We rode for a bit, walked for a bit and finally found a fun downhill where we waited for the others. Here's Maya waiting.



They eventually came. Here's Oma and my Mom enjoying the view.



My Dad, Tim, suggested eating lunch. Good idea. Tim took out the lunch and Maya and I had a peanut butter sandwich. I don’t know what the others ate. I'm sure Oma had some gum drops.

The next part was another downhill and Maya and I went way faster than the trampers. We zoomed ahead and planned on meeting everyone back at our hut, which was about 10 kilometers away.

It was quite a steep downhill and we had to walk around the corners but it was really fun. Eventually we made it to a grassy downhill with an uphill at the other side. "I’m first," I told Maya and rode down the hill fast all the way up to the other side. But then we had more uphill.

After a lot of biking we found a sign for the James Vogel Walkway with an arrow to Mistletoe Bay, our home for the night. We decided to take the trail but pretty soon we knew why it was called a walk and not a place for bikes. There were stairs, a super steep trail, tons of tree roots, lots of bush and even bees.

As we struggled down the path, Maya said she hated this James Vogel guy. I just wished we didn't have our bikes on this trail and my parents weren't there to help. We continued to lug our bikes over bridges, streams and stairs.

Finally, we saw the clearing out of the thick forest and we were both excited. I jumped back on my bike. We made it!