Nelson, The Marlborough Sounds and making our way back to Auckland! …friends, hunters, whaling stations, mussel farms, dolphins and hitting something at sea….

The Tika crew got a little soft and spoilt in Nelson. We berthed at the marina, a short distance from town and spent our time sipping coffee, attending yoga classes and catching up with some lovely friends…

Jane, Pete and their sons Max and Luka live on 50 acres about an hour from Nelson. We spent a wonderfully nourishing weekend with them enjoying the company, scenery, freshly picked veggies and more than a couple of bottles of wine…

Jane’s dog, Jackson; a farm dog through and through!

Above left; A Sunday morning walk around Jane and Pete’s property

Above right; Jaiya feeding the pheasants

Above left; Pete as he recovers from a work accident with Jackson their German pointer

Above right; The gorgeous Jane in front of her art and yoga studio. I have serious studio-envy!

Jane, Pete and Luka cast us off as we headed out of the marina. Thanks for having us guys!

Ex tropical cyclone Cook had caused gales throughout New Zealand and, as we anchored in the bay ready to leave the following morning, we got a view out of the channel to the wild seas beyond. “I don’t want to go out there….can’t we just stay at the marina sipping coffee for a few more weeks??”  We had gone soft!

The first couple of hours out from Nelson was really rough and after we shot through the skinny funnel of French Pass at 10 knots boat speed, we saw a few wind gusts hit 42 knots. Next, we crossed the notorious cook Strait…which was smooth and calm and a complete doddle.

We sailed into Port Underwood in the Marlborough Sounds just as the sun started nudging the horizon. Our friends from SV Free Spirit were there and, as we anchored in the sheltered bay amongst dotted fields of mussel farms, we were beckoned ashore by a roaring, welcoming fire. Ken even picked us up in his dinghy to save us having to drop Tika Taka from the davits……

The land all around this bay is owned by a local family and three generations of them were camping in their bach (a kiwi term for holiday house or shack) with two European friends who are mad, keen hunters.

Because of New Zealand’s tenacious commitment to ridding it’s shores of introduced species, hunting is a popular recreational pursuit and a thriving tourist activity here. Apart from a couple of species of bats, New Zealand does not have any native mammals; and so, rats, mice, stoats, possums, red deer and goats (among others) are open- season for hunters. Even hunting in National parks is permitted and many of the DOC huts we stayed in while hiking provided gun stands and information for hunters. All native animals in New Zealand are protected.

Deer were introduced to NZ for hunting in 1851. Captain Cook gave goats to the Maori folk in the 1770’s and pigs were brought in by early explorers in the late 1770’s. Christian, from Denmark and his Lithuanian buddy, were helping with the crusade against mammals by exterminating a number of goats on the 1800 acre property. They let us hold their high-calibre rifles and look through the powerfully magnified site.

Above; Just as they were leaving Kai spotted a goat about a kilometer away and we got to witness Christian attempting an extreme, long range shot!

We helped carry some gear up the hill to the family’s car as they were leaving and we were heading off for an explore. Nine year old George casually asked us if we would take his goat’s head trophy back down the hill for him on our return. It was his first kill and he wanted to hang it in the bach on his next visit. A little gruesome for a non-hunter, but we did like and understand the conservation aspect of the hunting culture in NZ.

Above left; Our explore took us to Cutter’s Bay to examine the archaeological site of a whaling station that was operated by the Dougherty family between 1843 and 1847.

For 40 years in the 19th Century, whaling was the most significant economic activity for Europeans in New Zealand. Whalers used to stand high up on the hill and when a water spout was spotted it was a race for the harpoon boats. Cutter’s Bay is remote even today. As we stood looking at the remains of the station (equipment decayed with rust, the site of the well and a few surviving platforms) we wondered what kind of life it must have been. Harsh no doubt.

Above; Tika sitting in the bay. There are copious amounts of mussel farms in this area. New Zealand’s green lipped mussels are delicious and it was interesting to see first hand how they are farmed.  The mussels grow on lines below the surface attached to backbone ropes that are kept afloat by large oval buoys. They feed on plankton and other microscopic sea creatures filtered out of the water as it flows past the dangling lines.

New Zealand is starting to get cold! We don’t have a huge amount of warm gear and we don’t want to purchase too much knowing that we will be back in the tropics within a month or so. It was when I started seriously longing for my Ugg boots that I knew it was time to head north with the hope of gaining a couple more degrees of warmth and to complete our circumnavigation of the North Island.

It was a 3 night passage from The Marlborough Sounds to the east side of the Coromandel peninsula. We pulled out what we call our ‘zuit suits’ or ‘wet weather onsies’ that we inherited with Tika. Way back when we first purchased Tika and spent two god-awful weeks in sweltering Panamanian heat sorting through the boatload of gear that had been left aboard, we had laughed at these suits. We nearly gave them away- in the broiling heat, we weren’t able to comprehend wearing them! Here in NZ they are starting to become our best friends. I have been tempted to go to bed wearing mine as pajamas…. 

 

Above right; New Zealand is getting cold for us Perthites! And it’s not even winter here yet…nearly time to head back to the tropics…

Below; Our passage up was particularly delightful due to the many dolphins we had riding with us. It was the most dolphins we have seen around the boat and they stayed with us for the longest time. A pod would flit and play and ride the bow waves for hours. Eventually, they would disappear and then, a few hours later, we would be joined by more… We spent much of the passage on the bows oooh-ing and agghh-ing at spectacular flipping, jumping and joyous bow-wake riding.

Dusky dolphins are a highly coastal species and generally prefer waters less than 2000 m deep….

Dolphins at sunrise. Dolphins at sunset. And dolphins in the daytime…

We also had a scary moment during this passage. We hit something. I had not long finished my shift and was in a deep sleep at about 8pm. I heard a couple of BIG bangs and felt Tika stall and the bows dip. I shot out of bed with adrenaline pumping…

“what the x@#** was that?” Russ and Kai were looking just as stunned as I felt and then, in a split second, we all swung into action and started checking bilges and looking for obvious damage or leaks. It seemed Tika was fine and she continued on as if nothing had happened. Whatever we hit was as wide as Tika (7.8m) as we are all sure that both hulls made contact. If it had been a shipping container we would have sustained significant damage so we surmised that it had been either a whale or a tree felled by the previous week’s storm. Later, I dived on the hulls and found some areas where the anti-foul had been scratched and damaged. So our conclusion is that we hit a large log. We are very grateful for Tika’s design; centerboards and skegs that would have protected the prop and also for our shaft drives that, if they ever hit anything, would not blow a large hole in the stern of our boat.  

Apart from this little incident, and 5-6 uncomfortable hours of rough, short choppy seas and wind against tide as we crossed the Bay of Plenty, we had a dream sail up. We averaged 9 knots and dropped our anchor at Hot Water Beach in the wee hours of the morning 3 days after departing The Marlborough Sounds.  

click to view one of our most memorable passages chaperoned by dusky dolphins!

Next post;  Coromandel, Great Mercury Island and The Haraki Gulf; hanging around Auckland’s cruising grounds….

 

This entry was posted in The Sail.