Next Leg – New Plymouth to Milford Sound in Fiordland

Sunday 6 January

Here we go again, not too long after we left New Plymouth, we hit the big waves and by 10.00am we were back to crashing around, waves over the roof and cupboards rattling with all the crockery and glasses moving about inside.  The waves just got bigger and bigger….and bigger – Geoff got doused out in the cockpit and one particular wave crashing over the roof set me off screaming!  Geoff said it was the roughest seas I had been in on Salanjo.  Sadly, dear readers there are no photographs to share with you – firstly because it’s hard to take photos of waves in context with nothing else around and secondly, because I was too busy clutching on to the the table for dear life, legs splayed, white knuckled, teeth clenched and eyes shut– as you can see from the photo.  And if you look really closely, a wave in the window behind me!

This went on until about 3pm when the winds finally abated and the seas calmed, so by the time 6pm came around we were able to put on the BBQ and grill some hamburgers and have a very tasty dinner.  What a contrast to earlier in the day!

Monday 7 January

Sunny and calm this morning with blue seas and blue skies and we’re very pleasantly rolling along.  Guess what!  The first fish has been caught, an albacore tuna – high excitement all around (well maybe not as much from me!).  Geoff knocked up sashimi for lunch, followed by fried fish and salad, and you can’t get fresher than that!  I had a ham sandwich!!!

Started to get a bit rougher this afternoon, not too bad though.  You really notice how much lighter the evenings are down in the South Island compared to Auckland, it’s 8.30pm as I’m typing this and still brilliant sunshine, bright enough to see today’s second catch.  Bingo - another albacore tuna has just been reeled in!  That’s lunch tomorrow by the looks of it (better get that ham ready!) 

Tuesday 8 January

We had a very welcome calm night; Geoff and I were on the 1.00am to 5.00am watch and it was lovely to see all the bright stars and the new dawn before we hit the sack.  Still calm (for the moment!).  We’re currently cruising past the Southern Alps, and we can see Mt Cook and Mt Aspiring in the distance.  The weather is glorious, calm seas and very hot – time to strip off and have a welcome shower and put on some shorts and a tank top and sit in the sunshine!

Another sashimi and fried fish lunch (bread and jam for me today, after all I’m an English girl at heart!).  Thank goodness Geoff got that fish organised in time, we were slowly moving into dark grey cloud and now we’re surrounded by it.  For a minute I thought I was back in the UK!   No more beautiful views of the Southern Alps with their dusting of snow, these views have been replaced by misty grey and very heavy rain. Goodness me – what happened to those long NZ hot summers of old?  We’re heading into Milford Sound and arriving tonight – I dreamed we would be cruising in, in beautiful hues of late afternoon sunshine!  Let’s see what happens over the next few hours – we’re due in around 8.00pm.

Despite the pouring rain, we have been rewarded with the sight of a couple of albatrosses floating around us – hard to photograph with the boat movement and also quite hard to spot at the moment with the white caps too, but I managed a few OK photos.

Milford Sound is the northernmost, and best known and most dramatic of the fiords, and is often referred to as the “Eighth Wonder of the World”.   Missed by Captain Cook when he was heading north, the first European to find and name the fiord in the 1820’s was sealing vessel captain John Grono who was born near Milford Haven in Wales. With an annual rainfall of 6,800 millimetres with 182 rain days, it is the wettest permanently lived in settlement in New Zealand, but then on the plus side, the heavier the rain, the more spectacular the waterfalls become!   The sheer steep-sided walls of Milford Sound rise to 1,683 metres at Mitre Peak and over 2,700 metres in the surrounding Darran Mountains with rainforests and waterfalls like Stirling and Bowen falls, which plummet down its sheer sides.  The fiord is home to fur seal colonies, penguins and dolphins and it is the only fiord that can be reached directly by vehicle.  

This being said,  you can imagine the strict rules in place regarding protecting the marine environment down here.  Before leaving Auckland, Geoff and I had to completely clean the keels of the boat to gain the Clean Vessel Pass, to ensure we are not bringing in any marine pests or Caulerpa, an invasive toxic seaweed which can grow up to 3cms a day.  It creaties a green carpet across the seabed and envelopes everything in its path, smothering shellfish and shrinking the diversity of marine life.  We are not allowed to bring in any live fish (good job that lunch has been sorted out and eaten then) and we have had to inspect the boat for signs of rats or mice which would risk jeopardising Fiordland’s pest-free island sanctuaries.  Nope, none of them in here either!

We finally cruised into Milford Sound on a very cold and grey, early evening – it was ethereal, the clouds hung low obliterating the tops of the peaks, not the sunset evening I had envisaged, but absolutely beautiful, nonetheless.  Totally silent, too late for any tourist boats, just the five of us slowly cruising in, marvelling at the stunning scenery, the sheer rock faces, the towering cliffs, the abundance of waterfalls, the lush rainforests and the pristine calm water were mesmerising.   Magnificent - if a little chilly (to put it mildy!). 

After our breathtaking tour, Geoff turned the boat around and we headed into Anita Bay where we put down almost the complete anchor and came inside to warm up. 

Wednesday 8 January

5.00am and Geoff, Nick and are I up – we’re leaving early for Doubtful Sound.  We can hear another boat and discover it’s the guys emptying their crayfish pots.  Apologetic for having woken us up (they didn’t!) they gifted us 8 crayfish – a great start to the day for the fishlovers on board.  The weather is bright and sunny this morning but apparently a southerly wind/gale is waiting for us.  I won’t lie, I lost it a bit this morning at the thought of more bumps and crashing around.  And that is exactly what is happening as I am sitting here typing this, trying to take my mind off it all and keep my laptop on the matting on the table.  Yep we’re in another big seaway!   We’re hugging the rocky coastline and have currently passed Sutherland, Bligh, George, Caswell, Charles and Nancy (whoever they were!) Sounds.  It’s been another very, very rocky journey, I think I might have aged 10 years in the last week with all these rough seas!  The good news is that we are now coming up to Thompson Sound (named after Andrew Thompson who was the owner of Grono’s vessel, the Governor Bligh) where we can enter on one side of Secretary Island which will meet up with Doubtful Sound.

And in we cruised…the difference in the sea state was immediate and very welcome!  Doubtful Sound lies deep within Fiordland National Park and is the second longest Sound at 40 kilometres and is more widespread in comparison to Milford Sound, with the cliffs not as dramatically tall.  Originally named Doubtful Harbour by Captain Cook in 1770, he did not enter this inlet as he was uncertain whether it was navigable under sail.  It was later renamed Doubtful Sound by whalers and sealers, although its not technically a sound but a fiord.  It has three distinct arms which all extend to the south – First Arm which is 6 kilometres long, Crooked Arm which is halfway along the sound and is 14 kilometres long and Hall Arm which is 8 kilometres long and branches off from the Sound’s Terminus at Deep Cove – which is where our fellow crew members Nick and Kelly, will disembark tomorrow to leave for Queenstown and then to fly on to Auckland.   We’re keeping our fingers crossed for some exciting marine life here, Doubtful Sound is home to one of the southernmost populations of bottlenose dolphins – about 70 of them apparently, we’re also hoping to see some more fur seals – we did spot a few last night in Milford Sound but they were too fast to photograph - penguins and even maybe a whale.  Fingers crossed that we are rewarded after all the big seas we have put up with to get here!  We need to find a good spot to anchor and get those crayfish cooked up for lunch.  Well how about that….Blanket Bay is handily near (no not the Blanket Bay Luxury Lodge in Glenorchy – this one is far more authentic!).  Established on a tiny islet at the mouth of Doubtful Sound in the 1960’s as a crayfish freezing plant, refuelling depot and a supplier of bait to the local fisherman - they would come from as far away as Bligh Sound and Dusky Bay, and also enjoy a chat, coffee or beer – hence the name The Blanket Bay Hotel.  the caretaker would buy and freeze the cray tails and then have them flown out by float plane.  It became uneconomic in the 1990’s and was closed down with the fuel tanks removed and the freezer decommissioned.  David, Daniel and Neville Excell now hold the consent for it and have repaired and rebuilt it to its present glory.  What a handy spot for us to tie up to – and no sooner had we done so than up comes Daniel Excell in his boat, having pulled up his crayfish pots and sold his catch and was coming to deposit his rubbish before going home to Te Anau.  Geoff enjoyed a chat with them and amazingly they also have a fisherman friend in common, Blake, who lives almost next door to Geoff’s holiday bach on Waiheke Island and is very well-known in these parts!

Not knowing what fate awaited them, the crayfish were itching to get out of their bucket, but Nick was ready and waiting and after Kelly and I had had a “play with them”  they were soon in the saucepan on the stove whilst Geoff sorted out a nice Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc to accompany them, along with a slice of Tricia’s homemade sourdough bread, fresh from the oven.  What a feast!  What a location!  What a view!   (Egg sandwiches for me today!).

 We had a lovely afternoon cruising around Doubtful Sound, once again we had it all to ourselves and then we finally put the anchor down and it was G&T time for the first time in a few days, whilst we played “dodge the mosquitoes” outside in the cockpit.  Sandflies go to bed at about the same time as the mosquitoes get up here, and Fiordland is notorious for them.  But don’t worry – I was prepared.  My daily skincare regime has now changed, serum, moisturiser with a delightfully fragrant, all-over-body spritz of Bushman Heavy Duty 40% Deet is doing the trick, and not only that, has the benefit of leaving my skin with a lovely glow (not sure of what!).   Geoff has also had mosquito covers made for all of the hatches so we’re in good shape.   An extremely delicious dinner followed - butterfly lamb on the BBQ, ratatouille, minted new potatoes and beautiful red wine in surroundings worthy of a film-set marked our last dinner with Nick and Kelly and then we all crashed into bed.

Thursday 9 January

7.30am and we’re off.  We have to get Nick and Kelly to Deep Cove where they will catch a bus to Manapōuri and onwards to Queenstown.