夏洛特女王步道

Beautiful Tramp. Hard work in 3 days, I'd recommend 4 days. Stay at Furneaux first night. Punga cove second. Portage third night or De bretts

Very pretty views from all vantage points. Nice to be able to come "home" to hot showers and real mattresses.

We booked our QCT 4 day package with Greg at natural encounters in picton, all ran like clockwork. I had to make some changes along the way & break the walk up & this was no problem at all, Greg organised this for me. All of our accommodation was nice & food was good, along the track. Really enjoyed it, the views are worth the climbs.We highly recommend Greg at natural encounters.

Stunning scenery and gorgeous views. Steep at times but well worth the climb. You can choose day walks or stay over at one of the many lodges along the Track. Beautiful!

We booked to Walk the Queen Charlotte Track over 4 days through "Natural Encounters" in Picton. They were fantastic! Greg met us off the ferry and drove us to our accommodation (I had separately booked the first night) and he went over the information pack with us. The following morning he picked us up and drove us to the Water Taxi area and went over the map and information with us again. We had a nice ride complete with interesting commentary to the bird reserve Island (I forget the name) and then 90 minutes later another water taxi picked us up and took us to Ship's Cove to begin our walk. We didn't want a guide as we wanted to set our own pace and with Greg's detailed instructions we felt confident about the walk. Each day the water taxi collected our bags and they were ready and waiting for our arrival at the following accommodation when we arrived. We only needed to carry day packs with us. Packed lunches were tasty and adequate. Accommodation that Greg had booked for us in Funeaux Lodge, Punga Cove and The Portage Resort was clean, comfortable and better than we were expecting. The staff at Portage Resort in particular made us feel welcome, greeting us with a cool water when we arrived (despite there being water restrictions in place everywhere due to lack of rainfall).The track itself was very picturesque. The first and last day had particularly steep parts at the beginning, but then flattened out. The views from the top were worth the steep climbs. Eatwell Lookout was worth the 30 minute detour for 360 degree views of the sounds. We were glad we did extra walking training for 7 weeks beforehand as this meant we were fit and able to fully enjoy this beautiful part of New Zealand.On the last day Greg met the water taxi and took us to the ferry terminal where we checked our bags in early before having a quick meal in Picton and then crossing over to the North Island.I highly recommend Natural Encounters - I did my homework and they provide a similar service to other operators but they were the cheapest and went over and above the call of duty. Everything Greg said would happen, happened. Things ran like clockwork. We had an awesome time walking the Queen Charlotte Track.

We enjoyed our time on this track. It was tough in some places but the views made it all worth while.

Take 8 women of ok fitness and combine with the Wilderness Guides Queen Charlotte Track 5 Day Boutique Guided Tour, fantastic accommodation, wonderfully hospitable hosts and a very patient guide (Sean). What do you get? An outstanding holiday where we walked over 70kms in total through stunning scenery, learnt so much about the flora, fauna and history of this little piece of heaven and talked and talked and talked. I highly recommend Wilderness Guides for their commitment to making sure that our holiday was the best it could be with good humour and patience. The track is well maintained with good sign posting and a fantastic system of picking up/dropping off luggage each day via water taxi leaving us with day packs only. A very easy way to hike!

the trees are too big to look over whist the ferry operators are great the accommodation is over priced and second rate rooms are badly servicd and food overpriced

Fantastic Track and Scenery one of the most beautiful places in the world! Walk was long in some places but very rewarding.

The track was in great order,amazing scenery and good lodges.it was a testing walk especially the 3rd day but I enjoyed the challenges.

A really lovely destination to visit but take care choosing accom providers as it really is a mixed bag!! Fantastic views at high points along the trail & quite varied vegetation at different levels. My partner & I did a 3 day combo of walking, cycling & kayaking with accomm prearranged. Next time arnd we'd omit the cycling as we spent a lot of time pushing the bikes up & down steep inclines/declines (not for beginners!) & we'd likely camp as it seems both food & accomm is often well overpriced. We experienced lovely weather & at times quite hot so it was arduous going for older or less fit travellers.A lot more could be done with some of the accomm alomg the way. A shame so much of track is harnessed into private lots making additional exploring out of the question.

Queen Charlotte Track is a beautiful track with exceptional views of the sound. It is well marked and well maintained, with a minimum of roots or rocks underfoot to negotiate. It can be steep at times, but if you are moderately fit you'll be fine. Walking sticks are not needed, though water obviously is. It can get hot when not under cover, but the thick ferns and trees made it often cool, if not very cool.Many tour companies offer a guided option, but you don't need a guide- you really cannot get lost! A guide would be able to comment on the views and environment, of course, but if you want to just go on your own, then do so (but you do need to pay, organize lodging and have your 'ticket' with you at all times.)There were other trekkers, or trampers, as they're called in NZ, but the track never felt crowded. We were on our own for hours, but there were groups in front of us or after us, we just didn't see each other until we stopped to rest or eat.One day was quite long, 24 km, but manageable. Just a long day, not a hard day. Eatwells lookout is worth the extra time, so do take the path and head on up!

We took the lovely Queen Charlotte Drive over from Picton to Anakiwa which was a beautiful track following the Sounds. The track was mostly covered by trees making it a nice respite from the hot sun. There were lots of choices for how far you wanted to hike from the trailhead - we chose a 4 hour roundtrip version and saw plenty of great views.

I took my 8 year old son on this walk and we did over 3.5 days. We arrived at Ship Cove with Cougarline that gets in at 3pm, it allowed us time to walk up to the waterfall and some time to hang in Ship Cove, which is a must do, its beautiful there and peaceful and lots of Weka round. Don't just get straight into the walk take you time to enjoy Ship Cove as it simply is stunning. The waterfall walk only took up about 15-20 mins and it is a good warm up for the start f the track as it goes straight up hill pretty sharply form the word go, so its a nice way to ease into it. We walked just to Resolution Bay the first night and were there by about 5.30pm so well before nightfall, we stayed at the Cabins there and again highly recommend them, they area rustic but very very clean, Hosts are friendly, fantastic hot showers and good cooking facilities. The next morning we left at around 8.30am and I must say I'm glad we did as we had a big day ahead of us walking right through to Camp Bay taking into account I had an 8 year old with me, we stopped many times and there are plenty of picnic tables along the way and the odd toilet. This was a colder day and a little wet so we were glad to have our thermals and rain gear. You are under the tree canopy a lot so did not always get the sun filtering through when id di come it. Highly recommend to have small stops often, I found by doing this we kept our energy up and the DOC times were pretty well spot on for us allowing us the odd stop for food and toilets. We spoiled our selves and had a hot lunch at Furneaux which was great we were able to warm ourselves up for the afternoon walk and fill our tummys up as we had no gas cooker for our night in the tent at camp bay, so with a good lunch we were ok to just have snacks for dinner. We got to Camp Bay at 5ish and set up camp just before the rain came down. Its was pretty wet but fortunately with a good tent we and our gear stayed dry - there were a couple of other fellow trampers who did not have great tents and all their gear was soaked through and had to pack up and go home, which must have been awful for them - next day we skipped between Camp Bay and went onto the Torea saddle, which gave the 8 year old a well deserved rest and we set up camp at Mistletoe Bay which had a commercial camp ground - all our 3 nights were quite different with a cabin, DOC camp and commercial camp we got to try all. Mistletoe Bay camp is well managed and a great setup, nice hosts and a great place for kids. The final days work was the best for us, pretty easy walk about 3-4 hours and got to have a swim at Davies Bay along the way (watch out for bees) loved the scenery along this part, lots of views and also beautiful bush. Loved our time there and will most definitely be back. Highly recommend it for families with younger children as you have the safety net of the resorts and accomm along the way and having the boats able to collect you if anything goes wrong but gives kids a good taste of what tramping is about. By the ways Cougarline dropped our packs off at each nights camping and it was fantastic only walking with day packs. Only other tip is bring heaps of food we ate so much! Got hungry all the time!

We were blessed with good weather for the 4 days of walking the track. What magnificent views and wonderful vegetation. The track is in excellent repair and easy walking