After a slow start Enid and I got dropped ashore so we could go for a walk from Resolution Bay to Ship Cove which is about 4.5km.
This track is part of the Queen Charlotte Sound walking track which runs the length of the peninsula between QC and Pelorous Sound. The entire track takes about 4 days.
The section from Resolution Bay climbs gradually up to a lookout point at about 200metres which gives a fantastic view of both sides of the point looking south towards Blumine Island and North East to Ship Cove and Motuara Island and on a clear day (this was not one of those days) you can see right across to Kapiti Island some 60km away.
Also on the wharf was a family waiting for a water taxi however it seemed that the boats were not coming in that day so we gave Inga, Rinke, Jitse and Ibby a lift back to Punga Cove in Endeavour Inlet. They are living in NZ for a year and were taking a camping holiday and trying a bit of hiking with the children. Five year old Ibby was very cute in her pink fairy dress, never stopping still for a moment ..
After dropping them off we continued on towards Picton but as it was blowing pretty hard by this stage we decided to go into Hitau Bay instead. We picked up a mooring there and I went for a swim – quite chilly. Great location with deep water right close to the shore.
Monday – 17/01/2011
Wind had dropped of during the night and it was a magnificent hot, windless day which was quite a contrast to the previous day.
Wendy, Peter’s sister came down to the boat for a visit after which we went for a walk uptown to buy me a birthday present. Found an Irish pub for a very good fish and chip dinner and great live music which kept us there until nearly midnight.
A wet day but we still decided a walk would be good so we headed off to Waikawa. Decided to wear our wet weather jackets which seemed like a good idea except that it was pretty hot and humid and while they were keeping us dry we were also steaming inside them. Had a walk around the Waikawa marina and then headed over to Wendy’s.
We borrowed her car and went to find Dennis and Marka. Dennis is an old friend from our days at Mana and now owns an old ex tug boat. They are also heading down to Fiordland and Stewart Island and so it was good to catch up and exchange notes. We will probably be leaving at a similar time and so will no doubt be seeing more of them further down the track.
Birthday dinner at The Barn in Picton. Good food, good company. The less said about turning 50, the better!
Washing day, shopping day and then as the forecast looks like we won’t be getting back across Cook Strait until at least Monday or Tuesday we decided to get out of the marina and find a sheltered bay in the Sounds.
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| Superyacht 'Bliss' in Picton |
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| Picton's "Coathanger" Bridge |
(Diesel - $1.46/Litre. One month ago when we filled up in Auckland the price was $1.30/litre.)
We spotted the Canadian yacht Inspiration Lady that we had met in Napier but after a couple of circuits of it could see there was no one home and so we went to look at another boat in Waterfall Bay.
We then heard that other friends from Mana had returned from their trip to the UK and were now on their boat in Ngakuta Bay so we joined Wray and Heather for the night.
Thursday – 20/01/2011
Weather pretty dismal so it was a lazy day. Stayed in Ngakuta Bay and visited Jan and Tony on their yacht, Foxy Lady 2. Also old friends from our days at Mana so it was a good few hours of chatting, drinking tea and catching up with news.
Dinner that night was for 8 – once again on board Antares and the remaining two pieces of Venison were cooked up. Enid roasting her piece and Pete opting to slow cook in a pot. Both were delicious.
Friday – 21/01/2011
Weather today even worse – grey, overcast and raining but we decided it was time for a change of scenery so we headed up the Sound to the Lochmara Café for a coffee. This is at a lodge at the top of Lochmara Bay and a great spot with accommodation, café and bush walks.
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| The lodges chef picking his fish direct from the fishing boat. |
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| Large Groper |
There are a number of lodges in the Sounds that offer moorings for boats to tie up to and will pick you up from your boat and take you ashore.
We then headed further up to Wharehunga Bay for a quiet night. Seems that the weather has been pretty horrible around the country and some fishing boats were having a hard time getting into Greymouth which is on the West Coast.
After watching this video I hope we never have to go in there.
http://nz.news.yahoo.com/video/watch/23899171
Saturday - 22/01/11
The day not looking too bad but still windy and the forecast for Cook Strait just gets worse. Decided to go for a walk with Dick and Enid and then go for a dive to get some scallops.
We went ashore and had a nosy around a house on the shore (nobody home), and then up a DoC track for a few miles. Great views of the bay and Pattens Passage.
Pete had a good find which was a huge lump of molten lead. Apparently the price of lead has rocketed so there was a bit of a project to retrieve the 50 kg lump and get it onto the boat.
Dick was happy with his find of a fly sheet from a tent – not sure what he was going to use it for but fossicking around the shoreline is all part of the fun of boating.
We then took off for another bay to go scallop diving. The wind was gusting pretty hard as we crossed a large bay and while I was at the wheel I suddenly heard a yell from Pete. I looked round to see the dinghy which we had been towing was upside down and flying through the air like a helicopter. The 10mm thick painter (rope) broke like a piece of string. We turned round and went alongside to retrieve the dinghy. I managed to get the boat hook on one of the handles and pulled and was left holding the rubber handle of the boat hook, the rest of it dropping into the sea.
Grabbed the second boat hook and got alongside the dinghy again and managed to grab it only to see that one of the oars had come out but we managed to hook that out of the water. After getting the dinghy turned the right way up and tied on again, we found that the first boat hook was still floating on the other side of the boat so hooked that out and carried on our way. Not long afterwards a pod of large dolphins swam across the bay behind us.
Got to our dive spot and Enid and I were the two that were diving. I managed to squeeze into my old 7mm thick wetsuit and don all my gear as we arrived at our dive spot. I was diving with Enid and she was ready and waiting so in we went with our catch bags attached to a long string and a buoy that would float on the surface. This gives the person on the boat something to look for to indicate where the diver is and is also used to retrieve the bag full of scallops once we had finished collecting.
Visibility was not great so once on the bottom at 30-40ft Enid and I didn’t see each other again until we surfaced. Scallops are plentiful in this area (note I am not telling you the name of the bay!!) but it takes some swimming around looking for ones of a decent size. In this area the limit is 50 scallops per person per day and the divers can collect for someone on the boat who is helping or looking after the boat, meaning that we each had to collect 100 scallops. The bag gets pretty heavy towards the end but we were both successful and surfaced after about 45 minutes and used up a full tank of air.
Back at Wharehunga Bay we shucked the scallops, kept some out for dinner and froze the rest of them. Another great meal from the sea.
Sunday - 23/01/11
Heavy rain today and with the wind blowing us around and a forecast for 50 knots tonight we have moved to Endeavour Inlet. After tying up alongside Antares for a while in Bakers Bay we decided to move elsewhere as the boats were rocking around too much for comfort and likely to damage each other. We have moved to a bay a little further along and have spent the day checking stores and compiling a shopping list. We have definitely decided on the West coast route so will need to do a major stock up before leaving Wellington.
Monday – 24/01/11
Definitely a better day today but still a bit windy in Cook Strait so we went up Endeavour Inlet to Furneaux Lodge. The old house is set in park like gardens and there are various cottages providing accommodation. This lodge has been part of the Marlborough Sounds history for many years and its fortunes have come and gone with various owners.
We went for a couple of hours walk to the waterfall in the valley behind the lodge. The track warned that it was not maintained by DoC and that was obvious as it was fairly overgrown in places but was among some beautiful bush and huge old trees. Small ferns and moss covered the ground and underfoot the path was spongy from layers of leaves from the huge beech trees. Big old rimus housed all sorts of ferns and epiphytes; rata vines twisted around trees and supplejack vines threatened to trip us up especially when we lost the track for a while.
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| Lancewood |
The waterfall cascaded down the rocks to crystal clear pools and it reminded me of a walk we used to do to the Grotto in the Drakensberg Mountains (some of you South Africans will remember that).
On the way back we got a radio call from a boat who we didn’t know but which turned out to belong to the son of a previous owner of Gunner. They had seen us cruising past the bay they were in and wanted to take some photos.
Spent the night on Coopers mooring near to the entrance to Queen Charlotte Sound ready for an early morning getaway before the predicted 30knot northerly arrived.
Tomorrow - back across Cook Strait.
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