Birthday for Mr Perkins

Diesel engines don't make good companion way ladders

May in Blenheim

Autumn vineyards in the Wairau Valley

It’s amazing the difference a half-hour drive can make around here. This morning found Waikawa marina clammy with cold fog, but over in Blenheim, 25 km south, the sun was out. And whereas the steep hills in Queen Charlotte Sound are mostly covered with dense green native bush, in Blenheim most native vegetation seems to be history. Instead the town and surrounding areas were vibrant with the autumn colours of introduced tree species along the roadsides, and surrounded by miles and miles of grape vines turning various shades of gold.

A few Chardonnay grapes the harvest left behind

Wine vats and a Wairau vineyard

O-baa-stacle course

We have just acquired mountain bikes and got a chance to try them out on some pretty steep climbs in the extensive Wither Hills Farm Park just south of town. This marks the first time we’ve had to dodge sheep while riding!

Looking SW toward the Inland Kaikoura Ranges from a ridgeline trail in the Wither Hills Park.

And now for something completely different: a restored German WWI triplane at Omaka Avaiation Museum (developed in part by Peter Jackson of Hobbit/LOTR fame). Look at the cockpit closely and you can see the machine guns.

April in the Queen Charlotte Sound

These dolphins weren’t interested in riding Picara’s bow wave. Instead the pod of 8 or so blasted past on some kind of important mission!

Check out the baby!!!!

  Maybe it’s been the progressively shorter days that have made April seem to go by so quickly. The weather here has been blustery but we were still able to make our way off the dock a few times for a little sailing and a little walking on the Queen Charlotte Track.

View from the Queen Charlotte Track above Torea Bay – that’s the Interislander ferry steaming in from Wellington on the left.

Mamaku or Black Tree Ferns line the Queen Charlotte Track

A slow downwind sail with the last of the afternoon light.

Picton at left, and Waikawa to the far right, with the trail-filled “Domain” park in the middle: a view from the Tirohanga lookout.

 

Happy Easter

Happy Easter from Onahau Bay, Queen Charlotte Sound, Marlborough, NZ!

At anchor in Kumutoto Bay with the lights of Picton in the distance.

This has been our first weekend out of Waikawa Harbour in more than a month, and it’s exciting to explore many nearby anchorages and to get a chance to set foot on the famous Queen Charlotte Track that extends 70 km along this convoluted peninsula north of Picton.

We spent our fist night at anchor in Kumutoto Bay, which was lovely but didn’t give us access to the main trail. Friends Tracy and Mike on the lovely cold-molded Kauri boat Allegresse joined us that evening, having sailed across the infamous Cook Strait from Wellington for the weekend.

Allegresse hauling anchor in Onahau Bay. She is a lovely example of the Kiwi-designed and built boats you see here - she is of triple-planked cold-molded Kauri. And she's pretty quick too. They sailed down from Northland to the Cook Strait at the same time we did in January.

Saturday brought strong, gusty winds from the northwest. We wanted to get onto the main track, so we moved a few miles southeast to Onahau Bay where we explored a good section of the trail both north and south of here. The peninsula is very narrow and hilly along this section, providing views down into both Queen Charlotte and Kenepuru Sounds.  The other cool thing about the track is that for most of the year, mountain bikes are allowed on it as well as hikers, and in fact on this busy Easter weekend at least half of the trail users were on bikes. 

Looking SW along the Queen Charlotte Track - Kenepuru Sound on the right and Queen Charlotte Sound to the left.

There is a lot of territory to explore here,  and if all goes according to plan we’ll have all winter and spring to do that....

Best Easter wishes to everyone!

A month of land life

This was our view for the month of March.

We had a stroke of serendipitous luck on arrival to the Picton/Waikawa area.

On a whim we responded to an ad in the local Boating Club looking for housesitters starting immediately, not really believing the situation could possibly still be available…. But it was!

We met the super-friendly couple and their sweet dog that afternoon, and by noon the next day had wished them a happy vacation and were sitting at their kitchen table taking in the amazing view and pinching ourselves. Talk about being in the right place at the right time!

And looking the other way....

What a nice change to stay on land for a while! If you’ve never lived on a boat you may not realise the taken-for-granted luxuries of land life, things like: hot showers, spending time in separate rooms where you can’t see each other, hot showers, the ability to raise your arms over your head while indoors, gardening, hot showers, and electricity, as much as you want anytime you want. 

Staying on land also gave us the chance to finally refinish Picara’s cabin sole without living in a pile of epoxy and wood dust.

Tipsy the dog was an angel and we had fun taking her for walks and swimming. We miss her but luckily have a little dog hair in Picara’s varnished floor to remember her by.

Looking North up Queen Charlotte Sound from Picton/Waikawa’s Domain Park, right next to the marina.

Intimidating swell rolls in south of Blenheim thanks to Cyclone Pam, which devastated much of Vanuatu but skimmed past New Zealand leaving the coast pretty much unscathed. (No Mike didn’t surf it, too darn big! We saw a couple of young blokes head out but they didn’t last more than 15 minutes.)

Marni and Tips take in the view of Queen Charlotte Sound from Mt Kahikatea.

Marlborough Sounds

Approaching French Pass from Tasman Bay

French Pass, or Te Aumiti as it is also known, is the pinched and reef-crowded gateway between Tasman Bay and the Marlborough Sounds.

It's just over 30nm northeast of Nelson to French Pass, which means about a seven-hour motor at Picara-speed (4.75 knots average, we've stopped kidding ourselves that we average 5).  The pass is treated with much respect by locals, since it's one of the only spots in NZ where the currents really rocket through -- at up to 8 knots on spring tides. 

I know those of you at home in BC will say, “So what? That’s nothing compared to Sechelt or Yuculta Rapids.” True – but it has been a while since we’ve shot through a pass with that much tidal flow.

We did our best to time our trip through the pass at slackish water; according to the current atlas for the area, it is never actually still. As it was, thanks to a gentle adverse current most of the day we were about a half-hour past the optimal (mellow) time and so had about 4 knots of current flow helping us through – but no dramas.

We had officially entered Marlborough Sounds!

South end of D'Urville Island, west of French Pass

Sunset over a mussel farm at Turner Bay, first anchorage in the Marlborough Sounds

Our short transit of the Marlbourgh Sounds was a glory run of fishing for us (since we're lukewarm fishers at the best of times). On our first night at Turner Bay near French Pass, we pulled up strange, pale fish that we think was a small rig shark, also known as a lemonfish: however it didn’t seem too keen on the bait and just let go of the hook as Mike got him to the surface. Too bad, as these are meant to be tasty and are apparently a fish and chips shop mainstay. 

Looking southwards into Pelorus Sound

The next morning we motored in a calm sea with high overcast that gave our surroundings a muted aspect. We trolled with our lucky Buena Vista trolling rod, and just off the Chetwode Islands we got lucky – a long narrow fish with a sail-like dorsal fin and wicked looking teeth, so that at first we thought (in our ignorance) that we’d hauled in a little Wahoo. Now we know it was a Gemfish – yummy but with lots of long bones running near the skin; hard to fillet. On board he came, and once he was in the fridge the rod went out again and in less than five minutes, bang! Another one. But in a moment of mercy Mike hesitated and the second guy got off the hook to swim another day.

Wahoo! Not. A yummy Gemfish

About an hour later, as we were passing Alligator Head, we had another bite and this time Marni pulled up a good-sized Kahawai – a valiant little fighter. I’m embarrassed to admit that fishing, when it happens, is usually a male activity on board Picara, and the expression on my face is a giveaway of what a novice fisher I am – I was shocked how much a dead fish can wiggle!

 Omigod! a zombie Kahawai!

Cape Jackson is a long skinny headland with it’s own substantial current patterns that marks the western opening to Queen Charlotte Sound. By the time we had cleared the point the wind filled in from the north as predicted, the sky cleared to blue and we had a pleasant run down the sound towards Picton.

Log ship anchored at the mouth of Queen Charlotte Sound; many, many raw pine logs  depart the country from Picton and Nelson.

Along the way we passed some of Captain Cook’s favorite NZ anchorages, Ship Cove and Endeavour Inlet, where he found lots of water, fish and timber for replenishing ship stores and doing repairs. We also passed Cannibal Cove where Cook saw human limbs in a cooking pot and the locals mimed chewing on their forearms just to drive the point home: you don't want to be our enemy! Since part of Cook's stay there was spent careening the Endeavour on the beach, he was somewhat on edge with no means of quick getaway and such intimidating hosts.

Yachts coming out of Waikawa for the Tuesday night race

It was evening by the time we pulled into our destination of Waikawa Bay. It is adjacent to Picton harbour and has a large marina where all the local sailboats are moored as Picton’s marina has a height restriction due to a walking bridge. As we sailed slowly downwind into the bay we met a sizeable fleet of racing yachts parading out for their Tuesday night race, a pretty sight.

A cold, southerly front moves over Waikawa Bay and inner Queen Charlotte Sound, bringing lots of boat-heeling gusts. We were happy to be on a secure mooring!

South Island Road Trip

Gentle Annie's Beach Campground, north of Westport.

While waiting for engine bits to come from England, we busted out, rented a little van and did a little road trip in the Northern part of the South Island.

We drove SW from Nelson out to Westport, then up to Karamea and back south to Greymouth, then headed inland via Reefton and over the Lewis Pass, through Hanmer Springs and popped out on the East Coast at Kaikoura, then looped back to Neslon via Plenheim and Picton.

Cape Foulwind, named by Captain Cook on a bad day.

Gentle Annie Beach, West Coast

 

Naughtily Feeding the Wekas, Kahurangi Park

Karst landscape at Oparara, Kahurangi Park near Karamea

Not toxic, just tannins in the waterways at Oparara

Don't know what kind. Big.

Denniston was a coal town at the cold, windy and wet top of a mountain north of Wesport, which from the late 1800s until the 60s was home to some very tough coal miners and their families. It's now deserted although there's still a little bit of slowly dying-off coal mining in the area. There is a really great info centre on the site. And a really good site with info: denniston.co.nz

Denniston is 600 m above sea level, so coal was sent down the steep  hill - the Denniston Incline -  and the carts came back up via a counterweighted system of pure Kiwi ingenuity. Sometimes people rode up on the cars though they weren't meant to, but it was a bloody tough walk  - the road didn't go through til the 60s. As you might imagine, sometimes runaway carts caused human carnage on their way down.

Punakaiki Rocks, north of Greymouth. We were caught in a crazy multiple tourbus mob here, but managed to get this photo with no people in it.

Department of Conservation campground near Lewis Pass

Dropping down to the east of Lewis Pass, near Sylvia Flat.

At Kaikoura on the East Coast, where a cold Southerly front blew in like a freight train.

Kaikoura actually means "Crayfish" - there's a few around.

Tramping on the Kaikoura Coast

Tea break at Marfell's Beach, just south of Seddon.