Doubtful, Dusky, Cooper, Sunday, Sportsman, Cascade, Luncheon, Pickersgill - breathtaking Fiordland!
Thursday 9 January
We tied up in Deep Cove and Geoff was able to refuel the boat whilst we helped Nick and Kelly get their belongings off and waved goodbye to them as they left for their bus. Once they were all sorted Geoff, Tricia and I were also keen to disembark and have a look around and stretch our legs with a good walk. First stop was in to see “Bad Boy Billy” – the moniker he gives himself! He’s the caretaker of the Deep Cove Outdoor Education Trust which includes a hostel, a flat (where he does 3 weeks on and 1 week offuel and slipway, and quite a character as his name suggests. Deep Cove is a pickup point for Real NZ and Fiordland Navigator tourist cruise boats, and both had their boats tied up waiting for the day’s visitors. Then it was off to walk the Brasell Point Nature Walk – a great, much needed, work out for us with quite a few steep steps up the track, some wonderful views of the Cove and fabulous, sun-dappled, lush greenery. Back to the boat, and an incredible cruise right to the far end of Crooked Arm. How kind of Doubtful Sound to ensure that we had the whole of Crooked Arm to ourselves as we drifted along in the sunshine, pinot gris in hand, surrounded by stunning scenery with a few dolphins swimming in the distance. Life’s good!
A wonderful relaxing day all up. Snooze for Geoff, my blog on Milford Sound posted for readers, an afternoon cuppa and an easy dinner. Who could ask for more?
Friday 10 January
I can’t post videos on this blog, so you are missing out on two incredible ones I took this morning – the first was a 360 degree tour around the boat – with every detail from water to lush fiords, to a sunny blue sky flecked with fluffy white clouds, and a complete mirror image on the water, not one sound except for the birds! The photos below don’t capture it quite as well as the video. My granddaughter Chloe text me back to say it “looked like a film, complete with the chirping birds”.
The second was of a pod of dolphins playfully swimming around the boat – what an absolute treat! They stayed with us for ages, the video is wonderful….showing them right in front and below us, swimming, and breaching. You’ll have to make do with the photos sadly. I also took a few from the window of our cabin which is below our bunk – my own private aquarium! David Attenborough’s got nothing on me!
We’re off now, back out in the Tasman Sea amongst the white caps (again, unfortunately!) and heading for Dusky Sound – luckily, only about a two-hour cruise!
Dusky Sound is the largest of the fiords at 40 kilometres long and 8 kilometres wide at its widest point, and was named Dusky Bay by Captain James Cook on his first visit to Fiordland in 1770, as it was just on dusk and getting dark when he sailed past. The name was later changed to Dusky Sound. At its mouth is Resolution Island whose Five Fingers Peninsula shelters the mouth of the Sound from the northwest. Several large islands lie in the Sound – Anchor, Long and Cooper Islands and the Seaforth River is the largest of many small rivers and creeks which flow into the Sound. Dusky Sound is steeped in history, New Zealand’s first European house and wooden ship were constructed at Luncheon Cove by an 11-man party from the sealing ship Britannia, who were dropped off in November 1792 and lived on Anchor Island for 10 months. Luncheon Cove is where Captain Cook dined on crayfish – hence its name! On his return trip in 1773 he sailed to a new anchorage in Pickersgill Harbour, entering through the narrow channel to the east of Crayfish Island, and it was here that he set up an observatory where they charted the transit of Venus on what is now known as Astronomer Point – and he also found the time to brew spruce beer for his crew!
It took a bit longer than we thought, three hours of bouncing around (that bloody wind again) and then we came into Dusky Sound, once again with a distinct lack of boats. It’s like we are having a total private tour of the Fiords, no-one around! We cruised into Breaksea Sound at the entrance and past Sunday Cove, with its fisherman’s accommodation hut built on a moored fuel pontoon – very salubrious, not, along with an old rust-bucket of a barge which is used to tie up alongside and also has a helipad on the top that is used for the choppers to come in and transport the lobsters. We settled on anchoring in Beach Harbour for the night, still quite a wind here even though we are in the fiords. We’ve had a sort out of the fridges and are having a dinner of leftovers, plenty of odd bits and pieces that need eating up. Pretty happy with how the groceries have stacked up, we haven’t had to resort to any frozen or tins of fruit of vegetables yet and the dinner was delightfully tasty. Washed down with a nice white wine and followed by a Lemoncello and Lemoncello Torrone cake – very fancy!
Saturday 11 January
Lovely sunny morning today so I put on my Sadie the Cleaning Lady Hat and had a bit of a clean-up, the boat has taken a pounding the last week or so with 5 of us on it and a lot of inclement weather and I was keen to wash a few windows and floors. It didn’t take long to bring it back up all shiny and clean, plus it was a good workout into the bargain given we have been on the boat for two days! Tricia was up early and out with her fishing rod and managed to hook a sea perch which is lunch for her and Geoff!
And we’re off, currently cruising down Acheron Passage with a quick left turn at Wet Jacket Arm – aptly named by Cook when Lieutenant Pickersgill got caught in a storm while exploring and “returned in no good plight” - don’t you just love these names! Another left turn into Bowen Channel and now we are in delightful little Sportsman Cove – so gorgeous, the greenery around is so lush, the sun is out, the water is calm and Geoff, braver than Tricia and me, dived in for a swim. Sea perch for lunch and then we’re off again! A beautiful cruise on a beautiful cloudless summer’s day. More fish being caught this afternoon – blue cod (just enough for the day’s quota) and even a little shark (which went straight back into the water). Now we’re having a gin and tonic sitting in the early evening sunshine in Cascade Cove, listening to my playlist of sailing themed songs, the fishing rods are still out with two blue cod already in the bucket – what could be more perfect!
Sunday 12 January
An early morning announcement on the radio shattered the calm. Heaven forbid - there is a cruise boat lurking around here somewhere and Maritime felt it necessary to alert us in case we didn’t see it during the night! So today we might go from having zero neighbours to a boatful!!! Tricia was out early with her fishing rod, and I’ve just been on the deck in the sunshine – how about this for a place to update my blog! We’re making the most of this exquisite place as it’s our last day in Fiordland. Hooray - Tricia is now a bona fide fisherwoman! She has caught five blue cod with two tossed back, and she has dehooked, filleted and skinned them, all ready for the frying pan at lunchtime!
We’ve just cruised along the most amazing waterway – little islands dotted about, some seals basking on the rock in the sunshine, all predator-free with the most incredible birdsong. Honestly, it’s hard to describe the beauty, and we’re now in Luncheon Cove, mimicking James Cook, except lunch will be blue cod, not crayfish! Some of the birds sound incredible, can’t see them but there’s some almost jungle-like monkey sounds coming out of the bush. A little dinghy ride into shore, we were hoping to find the plaque that commemorates Cook’s stop here but despite clambering around the rocks and walking around some beautiful bush, we couldn’t spot it anywhere which was a shame.
Pickersgill Harbour – our last stop and last night in Fiordland and yep, you guessed it - another idyllic no-one-else-to-be-seen spot. Of course, we had to go ashore to see Astronomer Point in honour of Captain Cook. Back into the dinghy we cruised around a bit until we spotted something glinting in the sunshine. In we went and tied the dinghy up to a very convenient overhanging branch. Once we clambered over the rocks there was a great boardwalk with a sign and drawing and information on Cook – and lo and behold – on 27 March 1773, Resolution was tied up to the very same branch as the dinghy! A boardwalk has been laid down which made the walk to Astronomer Point much easier and we were able to find the Hydrographical Survey Pin, marking the spot!
And that’s a wrap. Our amazing time in Fiordland has come to an end – what a fabulous few days we have had and how lucky are we to live in such a beautiful country. Off to Bluff tomorrow!
