Sunday 24 February

Kenepuru Head, Marlborough Sounds
We are camped at the head of Kenepuru Sound, so far from the sea that it feels more like a lake. It is a branch of the Pelorus Sound, and is more than 20 kilometres long. From the point where it branches off the Pelorus Sound there is another 30 kms to go before open sea. So in a roundabout way, the water flowing to the head of the fiord has a 50km journey from the Cook Straits to get here. When we arrived at about 12 midday there was quite  bit of water at the head of the fiord. Over the course of the afternoon the tide slowly went out and the water drained away until by 4ish we were able to walk on mud flats to the actual head and could have walked over to the other side of the fiord if we had wanted. All the birds swooping and diving over the water had disappeared. Now at 5.30 the water is starting to flow back in, it will be very interesting to see how full the head of the fiord is at high tide, such a difference in levels.
We left rather busy Elaine Bay this morning and drove round to take a look at the eastern branch of the fiord system. To our surprise the DoC sites here were much less full, we drove to the final one in the run to find only 2 other groups of people there, and discovered that one of those was the volunteer onsite 'hosts', we decided to stay. The site is being upgraded and had new flush toilets and an undercover area for cooking is being built.
We have had a very lazy afternoon, sitting in warm sunshine, looking out over the fiord, and it's changing tide levels, and reading. I have finished my biography of Patrick Leigh Fermor and have enjoyed it so much that I will buy it as a 'proper' book when I get home. I have found that e-reading a book which requires extensive use of footnotes and references is clumsy. I also wanted frequently to flick back a few pages to remind myself of a detail. I shall enjoy reading it again.
The scenery in the eastern branch of the Marlborough Sounds doesn't seem as striking as the more westerly, but that could just be that I have become accustomed to it all and the impact has worn off. It is still amazing though. We are undecided about what to do tomorrow, which will be our last night on the South Island, we have a ferry booked for 14.00 Tuesday afternoon. We could stay here for another lazy day or make our way slowly back to be closer to Picton. We'll probably wait until the morning and see what the sandflies are like tonight!