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.

Nelson

 
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Entering Nelson

 After months talking about it, we finally pulled into Nelson at the end of January. The city is planted on the southern shores of Tasman Bay, and is known for its summer afternoon sea breezes though the day we motored in from the Abel Tasman the northerlies failed to appear. 

Port Nelson - Marina, commercial docks and the Boulder Bank

A 13-km long boulder bank forms a natural breakwater to the estuary that makes up Nelson’s harbour. The manmade entrance is known as ‘the cut,’ dredged out the early 1900s after the existing harbour entrance had shoaled up to the point of choking out commercial shipping. Once inside, the harbour is mostly quite shallow and so it’s important to mind the channel markers! The shallowness, combined with tides that can range up to four metres, also means that there is a pretty limited mooring and anchorage area available, and so we headed past the commercial fishing and timber-loading docks and into the marina – what a novelty.

On the Boulder Bank, looking East

We had a warm welcome at the dock – our friend and former racing skipper Paul and his wife Deanna were staying in a house above the harbour and had seen us motor into town. They were super-generous over the next few days, driving us around town and showing us the sights.

Paul and Deanna in Kaiteriteri, nothwest of Nelson

Best stall at the country fair

One highlight was a country fair in the Sarau area to the west of Nelson. The area produces lots of blackcurrants, stone fruit and apples, mushrooms, grapes, and hops! The weather was terrible that day but luckily the craft beer was flowing from local producers and the Hops NZ tent was a good spot to get out of the rain.

Nelson lived up to our high expectations. For one thing, the marina is conveniently really close to the town centre and all boating services. There are two excellent local markets each week in town, with local produce and artwork. And there are lots of walking and biking trails through and around the town and westward to the neighbouring towns of Stoke, Richmond, and Motueka.

We hadn’t seen so many bikes on the road since we were home in Victoria! Bike lanes, even! Although we didn’t get to explore them, there were also quite a few mountain biking options nearby.

The weather was amazing while we were there too, just two days with rain during February. Really the only drawback I can think of was the weekly bagpipe band practice half a kilometer up the road from the marina. (Still too close.)

Tasting at the Stoke Brewery in ... Stoke

They take craft beer seriously in Nelson- this is the Church of Beer -- I mean, the Free House, a very genteel pub

Boat projects continued as they always seem to do. This time the transmission was the culprit – specifically the drive plate that interfaces between tranny and engine. 

Left- new drive plate, worth $500.  Right the old one, actually in three separate bits, which held together miraculously til we got into port.

Removing the tranny with background laundry for added glamour

This seeming inconvenience was in reality yet another lucky break, since we’d heard a brief but shocking clacking and grinding noise come from the assembly way back north of Mount Taranaki, on the trip down the West Coast. After a few uneasy seconds there seemed to be no other ill effects at the time, so we thought we might have just chewed through a bit of seaweed or debris. On we motored for about another 120 nm, stopping to anchor twice and then moving slips within the marina – all miraculously it seems because once we had the transmission off the drive plate turned out to be in three separate pieces, plus or minus a few metal shards.  

 

New plate in place, back of the engine

All fixed up - sea trial out to the Boulder Bank

We repainted the decks too

 All that transmission work involved a lot of waiting around for that expensive part so in the meantime we went on a five-day roadtrip around the top of South Island, stay tuned for some photos!

Wingnuts taking a rest from tramping around town - hey, here tramping just means walking around, no nasty connotations.

Random Kiwiana graffiti