Archer's Track
All the walks along the Marlborough Sounds offer delights in terms of glimpsed views of the inlets, the crystal-blue waters, distant islands and headlands between the thick canopies of fern trees and beech. Some, though, have to be hard-won against the terrain, and some are frustratingly brief. Archer's Track suffers from neither of these drawbacks. It is an easy track but satisfyingly long - about 9 km in total - so there-and-back makes for a good full-day walk. It's also varied, and links two neat settlements - Elaine Bay in the north, Penzance Bay in the south - so whichever way you walk it, there's a nice sense of arrival at the other end.
My preferred direction is from north to south, because the best part of the walk is probably the southern half, where the track runs through beautiful native bush, and the because the grassy reserve above the wharf at Penzance Bay provides a great picnic spot. The only disadvantage of doing it this way round is that it entails a long drive in - about an hour in total from SH6, at Carluke, first to Okiwi Bay and then along the winding road over the headland to Elaine Bay. From the carpark at the south end of Elaine Bay, however, it's an easy walk along a private road to the start of the track amid the pine trees of a youngish plantation. For the next hour, the track is a wide bench that runs more-or-less level around the headland, typically with pines on the inland side and native trees on the coastal side, and grass beneath your feet. One hour in and the track drops down into the grassy area beside Deep Bay - a misnomer in many ways for the waters are shallow and - if you don't mind the occasional jelly fish - fine for swimming. Amidst the grass is a private bach, and a useful bench which may or may not also be private - as well as a long drop of similarly uncertain ownership.
After that, the track crosses a narrow stream and then climbs back onto the flanks of the headland, to wiggle its way around a headland, and into the next valley - a refrain it repeats five or six times over the next hour or so, until you swing round the last headland and catch a view of the wharf of Penzance Bay. The whole of this section of the track is in native bush, shaded above by the fern trees and beech, made soft underfoot by the leaves, and always well-graded. There are plenty of small streams to cross, several of which provide a good opportunity for the dogs to tank up, and frequent views of Tennyson Inlet and the headland beyond.
My preferred direction is from north to south, because the best part of the walk is probably the southern half, where the track runs through beautiful native bush, and the because the grassy reserve above the wharf at Penzance Bay provides a great picnic spot. The only disadvantage of doing it this way round is that it entails a long drive in - about an hour in total from SH6, at Carluke, first to Okiwi Bay and then along the winding road over the headland to Elaine Bay. From the carpark at the south end of Elaine Bay, however, it's an easy walk along a private road to the start of the track amid the pine trees of a youngish plantation. For the next hour, the track is a wide bench that runs more-or-less level around the headland, typically with pines on the inland side and native trees on the coastal side, and grass beneath your feet. One hour in and the track drops down into the grassy area beside Deep Bay - a misnomer in many ways for the waters are shallow and - if you don't mind the occasional jelly fish - fine for swimming. Amidst the grass is a private bach, and a useful bench which may or may not also be private - as well as a long drop of similarly uncertain ownership.
After that, the track crosses a narrow stream and then climbs back onto the flanks of the headland, to wiggle its way around a headland, and into the next valley - a refrain it repeats five or six times over the next hour or so, until you swing round the last headland and catch a view of the wharf of Penzance Bay. The whole of this section of the track is in native bush, shaded above by the fern trees and beech, made soft underfoot by the leaves, and always well-graded. There are plenty of small streams to cross, several of which provide a good opportunity for the dogs to tank up, and frequent views of Tennyson Inlet and the headland beyond.
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The walking is easy, and it's easy to lose yourself in your innermost thoughts as you walk along watching the sunlight dappling around you. After all this, the release into the brightness of Penzance Bay - across a small bridge and into a gravel parking area - comes as a bit of a shock. But in a hundred metres or more you see a grassy field to your left. Hidden in the bushes at the end of the fence there's a path that runs downslope into the reserve, where there are picnic tables and a beach, and another chance for a swim.
Lunch over, it's time to retrace your steps: something our young springer pup couldn't understand the first time we did this walk with him. "What?" his look said: "You mean I've got to walk all the way back again? You must be joking!"
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