Akaroa - Dunedin

Tuesday - 08/02/2011

Up at 0330 and away by 0400. We followed Kuri’s stern light down the pitch black Akaroa harbour. Good lead lights kept us on track and by the time we reached the heads daylight was starting to show. Venus was also bright in the sky.

There was about 5-10 knots of NNW wind which soon dropped and the sea was glassy for a couple of hours before the northerly built up to a steady 10 knots or so. At this point we put up the sails and for the first time pulled everything out of the bags. Mainsail, mizzen and jib. It has been a good couple of hours of pleasant sailing but now the wind has died and the sails are flapping uselessly.

The visibility today is incredible, on the coastline which is about eleven nautical miles off (that is about 20km) we can see trees and beyond the coast we can see the Southern Alps range and unbelievably the very distinct Mt Cook, New Zealand’s highest mountain at 3752m, at a distance of 190km.
I have now identified the beautiful huge birds that are gliding around us and sometimes sitting on the surface as the Shy Mollymawk. There are 3 subspecies and I think this is the Salvins mollymawk. They have been quite numerous today, drifting on the water and lumbering into flight as the boat approaches. Once in the air they are magnificent as they glide for ever without a wing flap.

Peter decided to tow a lure to see if there were any fish willing to take a bite. The only ones that did were small Barracuda (or to the South Africans, Snoek). While smoked Snoek in South Africa is quite a delicacy here in NZ people turn up their noses at this fish, mostly because the larger fish tend to have worms in their flesh so nobody is that keen on it. After we arrived in port Pete decided to try filleting a fish and fried some up to see what it was like. Flavour was good but in the end we decided it was not worth the trouble as there were so many bones in pretty small fillets and the remainder will be used as bait, hopefully for tastier fish another day.

We arrived in Timaru at 1700. Port control advised us that the port is not really set up for pleasure boats so we would have to tie up to the wharf against big tires. Kuri went in ahead of us and we were able to raft up alongside her again. 

A hole in the wharf to access the boats!

After a beer and some dinner we all went for a walk down town. Unfortunately none of us had dressed appropriately and found that the southerly wind that had kicked in just as we arrived was absolutely freezing. Still it was good to have a walk and the little we saw of Timaru around the Caroline Bay area is lovely. There is an amazing war memorial walkway and rose garden and also an aviary with a variety of birds, mostly brightly coloured Austalians that looked pretty miserable in the cold – well that’s how I would feel if I was an Aussie that landed up in this weather.. Towards the beach it has been planted with dune plants and there is a good boardwalk.

Back to the boat for a good nights sleep and the plan is to wake around 4am to see how strong the predicted southerly wind is.

Wednesday – 09/02/2011

Awake early and the general consensus was that we should take off , so after a cup of tea and some toast we cast off around 0445. Once clear of the port we set a course for Dunedin with waypoints to clear areas off the coast that are shown on the charts as unsurveyed.

A little bouncy once again to start with and the southerly wind started to increase and the sea state was getting rougher. About 3 hours later a front passed over us and the wind and seas increased. We had to reduce our speed in the big, short steep and confused seas as the boat was pounding hard as we hit a wave and green water shot over the bow and rolled up the deck covering the cockpit windows.

Dark clouds of the Southerly front after it had passed over us.

After about 4 hours of hard going the sea moderated a bit but remained pretty lumpy for the rest of the trip to Tairoa Heads at the entrance to Dunedin harbour where we arrived at 7pm.

We had a close up look at the Albatross colony under the lighthouse on Taiaroa Head. Along the rocks on the shore there were numerous seals and on the steep banks there is a huge colony of cormorants with burrows in the cliff face. Albatross were nesting in the grassy areas and countless other shearwaters and terns flew around the area.

Port control had advised that a gas tanker was on its way out of the harbour and when Kuri arrived at the heads we continued into the harbour following the excellent bouyage system to Port Chalmers where we tied up at the fishermans wharf.

Thursday 10/02/2011

The forecast for the next few days is pretty horrible for trying to go further south so we are going to enjoy a few days around the Dunedin area. Having arranged a berth at the Otago Yacht Club which is further up the harbour and not being able to get in there until closer to high water at around 7pm we went for a walk around the town of Port Chalmers.

Port Chalmers is the container wharf and while the town used to be pretty grotty it is now filled with some alternative shops – mostly second hand retro stuff, now quite in fashion.



Chicks Hotel



Interesting things to see...

 

Images of Port Chalmers


Also had to check out the Carey’s Bay Hotel which is an old historic pub that has been refurbished. It houses a great art collection, most notably a number of Ralph Hoteres who is a very well know New Zealand artist. (eat your heart out Jude!!)

Carey's Bay Hotel

We filled up with fuel and then headed up the harbour and scraped into the yacht club. The depth sounder read zero under the keel so we must have been dredging a new channel in the mud – luckily its soft mud. We  were met by Kevin who looks after the visiting boats and shown around. The OYC makes visitors very welcome. Also here is a Macgregor 65’ yacht just arrived from Tasmania. They had a good trip across the Tasman, reaching Puyseger in just over 4 days.

More on Dunedin in the next few days - looks like we won't be rushing out of here until we get some settled weather, whenever that may be.