Portage to Anakiwa to Queen Charlotte drive

When I left Portage at 0600hrs, it was fixing to rain and I wasn't disappointed. 

I almost trotted past 14 drowned teenagers carrying enormous packs, probably learning to be brave at Anakiwa. 

In 20kms, what did I risk getting the phone wet for? Well, Mosquito Bay looks nicer than its name,

and there's a tract of old growth forest on a schist slope that would be lovely on a dry day. 

The Track winds down to the sea at Davies Bay, 

and after three more kilometres, it's Anakiwa. 

I kept walking though, because I am staying at Smiths Farm, a camp along QC Drive. 

The sun emerged and humidity was intense along the way, 

which passed this brackish inlet, pretty dairy farms, 

and an intensely scented  Veilchenblau rambling through an apple tree. 

Yesterday a cyclist told me he had to turn back when his bladder burst. Today, five Jehovah's Witnesses in the DOC shelter at Anakiwa told me DOC is useless (uses poisons) and anyway, man's world will be destroyed. First time I felt something in common with them.