Marlborough Sounds

We crossed to the Marlborough Sounds and picked a great window—not an easy feat!!! We left at 6 30am and got out into the Straits two hours later to catch the wind and tides averaging 10 knots for the 20 mile crossing.
We managed to avoid the ferries and entered Tory Channel sailing to an anchorage part way up the channel. We had joined a local boating club which allows us to tie to any of their buoys in all of the Sounds area. The anchorages are deep and wind can be very gusty so the clubs have put in all weather buoys which takes a lot of the guess work out of it—we no longer feel we need to prove anything and are prepared to take any assistance offered.
The next day we headed into the Queen Charlotte Sounds proper—these consist of deep channels lined with bush clad hills and pretty bays throughout. It is a favorite holiday spot for NZ’ers and it is easy to see why. There is a 4 day hiking track along one of the channels and we were able to tie up in the bays and hike up to the track and take day walks along it. The bush is lovely and alive with the sounds and smells of summer---cicadas are everywhere as are a lot of native birds and we got great views as we hiked along the ridges. At night the calls of the Wekas and Moreporc owls are lovely to go to sleep with.
There are a lot of resorts scattered along the bays where hikers can drop down from the trail and spend the night—or two—if they wish and we visited a couple. They have created an “eco” village at Lochmara Lodge where they are trying to breed endangered native birds to return to the wild. Local artists have done work which you come across as you hike through the property which leads to the highest part of the Queen Charlotte track. We had a lovely day hiking the trail and then treated ourselves to a gourmet dinner that night.
There are no stores other than at the resorts where they cater a small amount for the hikers. We did go into a bay which had road access to Picton as we were running out of fresh food and hitch hiked into town---still possible to do in NZ safely. We arranged a ride back with the mail van which dropped us of at our boat.
Water taxi’s and the mail van are the main mode of transport—there are few roads and resorts are serviced by the water taxis. They do a thriving business bringing hikers to and from the trail also.
We had the changeable weather which seems to be the pattern for this summer—3 fine days and then 2 windy and/or rainy days. It is a little frustrating as this time of year is meant to be the most settled.
We did do some lovely kayaking and Ken had a very successful fishing day where he caught some great blue cod. They have a ban on them at the moment in the Sounds but if you go just outside the heads you are able to catch enough for your personal use.
We did a groper fishing day but that only produced sharks.
We put our crab trap out as there are supposed to be lobster around and we thought they would not notice it was a “crab trap” but only caught some weird looking big sand bottom fish.
One island we anchored at is a reserve where we climbed up to Captain Cook’s monument—we have a great deal more respect for him now after having used all kinds of charts, engines and fancy electronics to make our way across the ocean. Mind you it said that he planted the flag in the presence of the local chief but I suspect the local chief and Captain Cook had very different ideas as to what that meant!!!
They have made little blue penguin nests where they breed their young—they have access in and out but obviously feel safe as they are inside. The mesh screen is to protect humans as they apparently will peck you otherwise. They are very cute and we did see lots of them swimming all through the Sounds. Lots of beautiful birds were there also.
At some stage I twisted my knee so that curbed the hiking which is really the main activity down here—it is way to cold for me to swim even though hardy locals seemed to be enjoying it.
We also developed a leak in the main seal of our engine so decided not to push our luck and take the boat to Nelson as we had planned and we will do it next summer.
We attempted to cross back to Wellington but before we got out into the Straits we were getting squalls up to 30 knots so rather than get beat up we retreated and tied up alongside at one of the marinas. It was nice to get on shore and although windy in the Sraits it is lovely in Picton and we stocked up with groceries.
It looks as though there will be a window to cross to Wellington on Monday so if all goes well we will go back then
We will have 6 weeks then and will do a bit of local touring and camping and help my mother get packed up to move into her new “seniors house”—it is in an over 55 complex of single and duplex family dwellings with no stairs and well insolated so as she is now 87 it will work for her.
We are looking forward to seeing a lot of you in April—we fly back April 24th to Canada and are looking forward to seeing you.