Friday, March 06, 2009
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.
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.
Sunday, February 08, 2009
Wellington
Well we are firmly ensconced in city life and are enjoying what it has to offer.
Our engine squeal is still there but the mechanic here finally thinks he knows what is causing it and it is now just a matter of getting rid of it---oh we will be sooooo happy when it gets resolved. The dingy outboard is waiting some new seals and other than that we hope we have no new issues to deal with before we head back to Canada—the boat has taken its share of our money and we would like some left for us!!!!
The marina is in a corner of the harbour which leads to the bays I spent my youth at. It is also close to my mother’s house and with our car we are very mobile.
Life in the marina is interesting— the resident gulls provide entertainment when they show up in the hundreds each evening.
Sundays a group of elderly men bring their remote controlled sail boats down and spend hours playing with them—boys are never too old for their toys.
Now that school is back it seems that an elective for physed is dingy sailing. There are about a dozen boats and they are sailed by boys from about 8 years old. They have a great time as they try and ram each other and have water fights as they bail. If it is particularly windy, which is often the case, the thing to avoid is ending up against the log jam as it is difficult to sail off it. They do have a great time and I am sure they all envisage themselves as future America’s cup sailors.
We managed to get my brother and three nephews together to go fishing out into the Cook Strait a week ago. The forecast was for light winds and seas becoming glassy—what could be better for a fishing trip? We set off at 6 30 AM and motored the 14KM to the “spot” where the grouper are meant to be at 200 metres deep. Shortly after the lines went out the winds started to pick up—the other power boats around us all started to head back—a sign?????
Not to be a quitter Ken decided we would try and wait as surely the glassy seas would come---wrong!!! Finally as the winds were picking up towards 25-30knots he decided we should give it up only to have one of the lines get caught around the propeller. Oh well we are a sailboat and we do have wind so we tacked endlessly into the wind back through the heads. We then anchored in a shallow part of the harbour where the lines went out again and Ken dove under the boat and unwound the caught line ending up with a mass of tangled line on deck. We did manage to catch a few small fish and the boys all enjoyed the sailing. It makes me think those who sail against the “trade winds” are crazy as to tack your way around the world must be exhausting.
Wellington certainly deserves its reputation as a windy city but on a sunny day it is very beautiful and you forgive it the wind. It is also a city very close to nature and we have hiked up into the hills through the lovely bush with harbour views. We can do some lovely walks around the hills near the bays or along the river to the city centre of Lower Hutt. We had a beautiful dinner at a restaurant overlooking the beach for our wedding anniversary.
The whole country is sports crazy and we have had rugby, cricket, sailing and tennis continuously dominating the television. We had our fix last Saturday starting off watching a local cricket game in Wellington with my nephew Sven. It was a lovely day and everyone sits on the grass cheering on their local team. The game we went to was Wellington against Otago (the south of the South Island). They have developed watcher friendly matches which are a very much shortened version of the original matches and they are over in a about four hours. Unfortunately Otago was the much better team and the game was even shorter. It was fun though to sit in the sunshine.
It was also the weekend of the “Sevens” which is the world wide rugby tournament also developed for television watchers. It involves teams of seven players playing seven minute halve games of fast running rugby. This has become so popular that traditional non rugby playing nations are entering teams—Canada and USA had teams here. They play all over the world, Hong Kong used to have the largest tournament but Wellington has taken over and it brings 12 million dollars into the city over the two days. The tickets are $160 and are sold out in the first hour they are on sale. It has become popular to dress up and the costumes are amazing. It has become one huge party and the revelry spills all over the city. After we had got back to the boat from the cricket my niece phoned to say they had been there but after having driven from Auckland were tired and would we like to go for the rest of the day. It starts at 2pm and goes until 10pm. We jumped in the car and got there by 6 30pm. It was crazy with everyone drinking and partying. We were amongst the few people not in costume and I am not sure how much rugby is watched after the first hour. We saw Canada tie France and New Zealand beat Australia. The opening ceremonies were held while we were there and we loudly cheered Canada as they marched in.
We did not have the tickets for the next day when NZ was beaten in the finals by England. This was an upset although the tournament is viewed as a whole over the 20 different countries where it is played. NZ, South Africa and Fiji are the traditional favorites.
The next day we set off to the Wairarapa—a valley across a mountain range about an hour away to the Martinborough Fair which is billed as the largest of it’s kind in Australasia. Once again it was a lovely day and we enjoyed seeing all of the arts and crafts for sale.
Afterwards we went to a local winery, bought a bottle of wine and sat under the trees listening to the jazz band which was playing. We then drove to another winery which was hosting the university drama club putting on Henry V—this summer all of the works of Shakespeare are being put on outdoors somewhere in NZ. Once again we were not prepared for the NZ summer lifestyle which always has a picnic blanket and food in the car but were invited to share the food of a group of friends sitting near us, it was a lovely evening.
There are so many outdoor activities on all summer and we will attempt to pay attention and go to more of them.
We are hoping to have the boat and the weather ready for us to go across the Cook Strait to cruise the Marlborough Sounds at the end of the week for a few weeks.
Our engine squeal is still there but the mechanic here finally thinks he knows what is causing it and it is now just a matter of getting rid of it---oh we will be sooooo happy when it gets resolved. The dingy outboard is waiting some new seals and other than that we hope we have no new issues to deal with before we head back to Canada—the boat has taken its share of our money and we would like some left for us!!!!
The marina is in a corner of the harbour which leads to the bays I spent my youth at. It is also close to my mother’s house and with our car we are very mobile.
Life in the marina is interesting— the resident gulls provide entertainment when they show up in the hundreds each evening.
Sundays a group of elderly men bring their remote controlled sail boats down and spend hours playing with them—boys are never too old for their toys.
Now that school is back it seems that an elective for physed is dingy sailing. There are about a dozen boats and they are sailed by boys from about 8 years old. They have a great time as they try and ram each other and have water fights as they bail. If it is particularly windy, which is often the case, the thing to avoid is ending up against the log jam as it is difficult to sail off it. They do have a great time and I am sure they all envisage themselves as future America’s cup sailors.
We managed to get my brother and three nephews together to go fishing out into the Cook Strait a week ago. The forecast was for light winds and seas becoming glassy—what could be better for a fishing trip? We set off at 6 30 AM and motored the 14KM to the “spot” where the grouper are meant to be at 200 metres deep. Shortly after the lines went out the winds started to pick up—the other power boats around us all started to head back—a sign?????
Not to be a quitter Ken decided we would try and wait as surely the glassy seas would come---wrong!!! Finally as the winds were picking up towards 25-30knots he decided we should give it up only to have one of the lines get caught around the propeller. Oh well we are a sailboat and we do have wind so we tacked endlessly into the wind back through the heads. We then anchored in a shallow part of the harbour where the lines went out again and Ken dove under the boat and unwound the caught line ending up with a mass of tangled line on deck. We did manage to catch a few small fish and the boys all enjoyed the sailing. It makes me think those who sail against the “trade winds” are crazy as to tack your way around the world must be exhausting.
Wellington certainly deserves its reputation as a windy city but on a sunny day it is very beautiful and you forgive it the wind. It is also a city very close to nature and we have hiked up into the hills through the lovely bush with harbour views. We can do some lovely walks around the hills near the bays or along the river to the city centre of Lower Hutt. We had a beautiful dinner at a restaurant overlooking the beach for our wedding anniversary.
The whole country is sports crazy and we have had rugby, cricket, sailing and tennis continuously dominating the television. We had our fix last Saturday starting off watching a local cricket game in Wellington with my nephew Sven. It was a lovely day and everyone sits on the grass cheering on their local team. The game we went to was Wellington against Otago (the south of the South Island). They have developed watcher friendly matches which are a very much shortened version of the original matches and they are over in a about four hours. Unfortunately Otago was the much better team and the game was even shorter. It was fun though to sit in the sunshine.
It was also the weekend of the “Sevens” which is the world wide rugby tournament also developed for television watchers. It involves teams of seven players playing seven minute halve games of fast running rugby. This has become so popular that traditional non rugby playing nations are entering teams—Canada and USA had teams here. They play all over the world, Hong Kong used to have the largest tournament but Wellington has taken over and it brings 12 million dollars into the city over the two days. The tickets are $160 and are sold out in the first hour they are on sale. It has become popular to dress up and the costumes are amazing. It has become one huge party and the revelry spills all over the city. After we had got back to the boat from the cricket my niece phoned to say they had been there but after having driven from Auckland were tired and would we like to go for the rest of the day. It starts at 2pm and goes until 10pm. We jumped in the car and got there by 6 30pm. It was crazy with everyone drinking and partying. We were amongst the few people not in costume and I am not sure how much rugby is watched after the first hour. We saw Canada tie France and New Zealand beat Australia. The opening ceremonies were held while we were there and we loudly cheered Canada as they marched in.
We did not have the tickets for the next day when NZ was beaten in the finals by England. This was an upset although the tournament is viewed as a whole over the 20 different countries where it is played. NZ, South Africa and Fiji are the traditional favorites.
The next day we set off to the Wairarapa—a valley across a mountain range about an hour away to the Martinborough Fair which is billed as the largest of it’s kind in Australasia. Once again it was a lovely day and we enjoyed seeing all of the arts and crafts for sale.
Afterwards we went to a local winery, bought a bottle of wine and sat under the trees listening to the jazz band which was playing. We then drove to another winery which was hosting the university drama club putting on Henry V—this summer all of the works of Shakespeare are being put on outdoors somewhere in NZ. Once again we were not prepared for the NZ summer lifestyle which always has a picnic blanket and food in the car but were invited to share the food of a group of friends sitting near us, it was a lovely evening.
There are so many outdoor activities on all summer and we will attempt to pay attention and go to more of them.
We are hoping to have the boat and the weather ready for us to go across the Cook Strait to cruise the Marlborough Sounds at the end of the week for a few weeks.
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