To Bluff and beyond!!

After a month in Stewart Island enjoying the scenery, wildlife and catching up with friends we have moved onto Bluff. We had been calling Meri at Bluf Fisherman's radio and were given a berth on the fishing piers. We have managed to complete almost all of the 'stuff' we needed to do and are now ready to move on. Re-storing the vessel was completed with a few car loads of groceries being carried about 300 metres along the pier to our berth at the outermost end! Fuel and water were taken on in the
main port, and we managed to get some internet work done in Invercargill. A slow internet connection means the photographs are not good quality and we did not get much done in the way of email.

Our main purpose in coming to Bluff has been to complete our permit for the Department of Conservation. After a briefing fro staff at the DOC office and an visit to our yacht we are now ready to go (almost) On Monday we have a diver check to ensure our hull is free of greeblies and then we shall depart for the islands on Monday afternoon/evening before dark if all goes well

A steady flow of strong SW and W winds have been passing through. This has given us some reasonable rough conditions on the berth, let alone at sea! All going well we will have a reasonable period to make our departure and get clear of the islands around Stewart Island, and the reefs of the North and South Traps. The trip down to Auckland Island is only 240' so we may be able to manage this in two to three days weather and seas permitting. On completion of the hull inspection we have 28 days before
we must leave the waters of Auckland or Campbell Island. Our permit is valid to 15 March o we can return to Bluff for a second hull inspection and then return to the islands. We will see how we go at Auckland Islands and then decide how/if we visit the remainder of the islands and our route back to New Zealand mainland.

Once again friends in Auckland have been talking of 30 degree temperature and 5 knots of wind whilst we have more like 5 degree temperature and over 30 knot winds. The berth we have currently has a one metre 'chop' as the wind whistles past. The welcome we have received in Bluff has been great. We have a free berth, have had welding done on a broken part free and have been helped at all times we asked any questions. No denying the hospitality down here! Not something you get everywhere.

Photos 5: Stewart Island

Stealing historic objects from the sea bed! Prices Inlet, Paterson Inlet


Bald Cone, Port Pegasus



Climbing down Bald Cone


Where did all that water come from? Tramping Stewart Island Style, coming back from Magog

Doing the laundry at Belltopper Falls, Port Pegasus

We don't have any problem keeing 5m (as required by Doc) away from these guys! Sealion on the beach at Pegasus

Unfortunately this guy doesn't know the rules! Yeah he may look small and cute in the photo...

Kiwi foraging on the beach!!!

Photos 4: Chalky and Preservation

Misty reflections in Chalky Inlet


Anchored near the hulk of the Stella


Section of tramway in Preservation. This was put in for gold mining but the returns were pretty minimal


Pelton wheel which powered the stamper for extracting gold at the Alpha battery. When the mining became uneconomic everthing was just left in situ for the bush to reclaim.


Puysegeur Point by land....

....and Puysegeur Point by sea, spot the difference!

Photos 3: Dusky Complex

Cute Seal Pup



Earshell Cove



Bull Fur Seal, lucky we didn't want to walk there that day!



Another cute seal pup

Look we're sailing!

First cray caught while snorkelling!

Cook Channel

Vancouver Arm, Breaksea Sound

Photos 2: Doubtful Complex

Deas Cove, Thompson Sound, note where the bank starts!

Admiring the View

Elenya anchored in Deep Cove

The Blanket Bay Hotel

Photos 1: George and Charles Sounds

Jim' s annual wash, George Sound

Alice Falls, George Sound

Snow!!!! Charles Sound

Charles Sound

Breakfast, Catherine Island, Charles Sound

Kiwi, Kiwi everywhere.

We departed from Small Craft Retreat in a low swell but little wind. A motor of several hours, towing our fishing lure to entertain the fish, saw us arrive at Lords River. The rocky inlet has a navigable river (by dinghy) extending about 5 nautical miles inland. We took a trip up the river on the tide. Very pleasant but little wildlife seen. That night we went ashore to try and see if we could find any Kiwi's. We were pleased to hear 'rustling' in the tall grass. This was followed by a Kiwi jumping
down onto the beach and running straight for Tori. Having passed Tori the Kiwi ran off up the beach into the night.

The following day we decided to move around to Port Adventure. Again we motored in a low swell and little wind. In Port Adventure we anchored in 'Abrahams Bossom', a small cove protected from the swell with lovely sandy beaches. There is also Heron River in this area which extends about 2 miles inland. We explored this by dinghy but saw little wildlife. Once again we headed to the beach at sunset and were rewarded with a couple of Kiwi in the bush/undergrowth close to the beach. We shared the anchorage
with a motor boat from Devonport (about two minutes from our home in Auckland). We have still seen very few recreational boats.

After a couple of days at Port Adventure we have returned to Paterson Inlet. This has allowed to restock on fresh fruit and vege's. A real luxury when we have been three months away from such things! Whilst back in Paterson Inlet we applied for and were granted a DOC permit to visit the Kiwi protection area. Our trip ashore here saw us sitting on the beach just after sunset watching a Kiwi come onto the beach and forage in the sand/kelp for about 20 minutes. We also heard several Kiwi as we returned
along the track to our boat. Tori has been keen to walk the Rakiura Track, a 'three day' tramp. As the three legs are all about 12km (4 to 6 hours)each we (Tori) decided we would do this as a day walk. My little legs still ache, but we had a good time and completed this in just under 8 hours of fast walking.

Weather continues to be a tad windy and wet! We understand from a friend about to depart Dunedin for Fiordland that it has been 31' Celsius up there! Its got to about 6' Celsius here. Our plan is to depart for Bluff this weekend. After we have restocked and completed formalities we will then head south. A small glitch means that while our permit for Auckland/Campbell last till mid March we will have to return to Bluff at the beginning of March. This is because we must have a valid hull inspection
certificate, which is only valid for 28 days from issue. We will most likely speed up our visit to get all the sites visited, or we will visit Auckland Islands only. The nature of the island means that inspections are vital to ensure nothing 'nasty' gets taken down by mistake. We can of course come back and then sail back down again but I imagine we will not be that keen on a second trip south and back.

A quick glimpse at our email and blog (which we cannot see unless we get to a shore side internet) showed a few messages in the inbox/comments, we will reply to all in Bluff when we can get a reliable internet connection. A few photos will also be loaded up provided the connection is fast enough.

Port Pegasus

In our last update we were waiting for some suitable weather to have a go at climbing Magog, one the granite peaks around here. Well, we gave up waiting for some good weather and just went. We started off with rain which progressed to a downpour! There is a good track from Cook Arm (Sealers) unfortunately we started from Evening Cove so at times it was a bit of a bash through the scrub but nothing too bad. In the afternoon it stopped raining and we made it most of the way (bar about the last 10m)
to the top of Magog, it was just a bit too windy to get right to the top. On the way back down we noticed that the clouds had cleared and we had views back into Pegasus and out to the west coast. We then decided to go back up to the top to see if we could get a better view- nope still in the clouds! On the way up we had crossed a small stream in a little gully followed by a bit of a boggy area, on the way back down we found we were faced with a lake and a manuka filled river. Nothing for it but to
wait, or in our case wait a bit then walk up the stream a bit to see if we could cross further up -nope, ok try walking all the way back down to the head of Cooks Arm, nope definitely can't cross there so back up and wait a bit more. The level was actually dropping quite rapidly so eventually we got back across without a problem and were able to get back home without incident.

We have spent the last few days anchored in Disappointment Cove or Peacehaven as it is sometimes known as it is reputed to be the best spot in Pegasus to hide from the weather. From the anchorage there is a short walk across to a sandy beach on the ocean side of the island. This beach is frequented by sea lions which we gave a wide berth to on our walk along it! On two evenings we went for a walk across the island at dusk, on one occasion Jim was rewarded with the sight of a kiwi in the undergrowth,
on the second night we had to settle for a nice sunset.

The weather has finally looked up and we have had a couple of days where the sun has shown itself! A nice change! We picked a nice day for a walk up to Bald Cone with good views of Port Pegasus. On another day we went for a couple of dives. The first dive was in the South Passage just to see what was there, a nice dive but not quite up to Fiordland standards. We finished off the tanks looking for scallops in a spot which had been recommended to us. We got some scallops and also noticed the most definite
cut-off from the brown fresh water to the clear salt that we have seen yet. Ironically we got back to the yacht at low tide and noticed that there were scallops within easy reach underneath us!

Today we moved to an anchorage just outside of Port Pegasus, Small Craft Retreat. We are anchored off a small island in crystal clear water with views back up to the Tin Range in the distance. On the way round we saw hoiho (yellow-eyed penguins) for the first time this trip, 4 or 5 of them, I'm not sure where they've been hiding previously! We went for a paddle in the dinghy and were investigated by an inquisitive sea lion, we would have thought he was quite big except there was a much bigger one
swimming around, so we assumed the 'friendly' one was a juvenile. He seemed quite interested in the dinghy and we thought this was quite cute to begin with. He then bared his teeth at us and went jumping through the water with his mouth wide open, up till then we weren't sure who was the more nervous, us or him but that settled the matter - definitely us! I had been thinking of going for a swim but the water doesn't look quite as appealing anymore! As I write this he is still swimming around and
periodically calls past to check us out, even once almost standing up in the water to see on board.

Tomorrow we will probably head north again to Lords River. Hope the New Year has started well for everybody.

Puysegur and Beyond

We spent a glorious xmas day in Revolver Bay. The sun was hot, sky blue and wind light. After our morning dive we spent a great time sat on deck with a glass or two of wine enjoying the lovely day. A few sand-flies did venture out the 500m to join us but even they seemed to be taking a day off from biting (too much). The evening forecast showed a prolonged period of strong winds approaching. Give this forecast we readied for sea and set of early the next day. The day was grey and rainy with a reasonable
swell but only moderate sea (at first). We passed about a couple of miles off Puysegur Point, Quite a different sight from our visit by land! As we progressed towards Stewart Island the wind continued to build, as did the sea. We had a very swift passage surfing in excess of 10 knots. As the voyage had been so quick we arrived earlier and pushed the tide around the north of Stewart Island. This foul tide combined with the funneling effect of the Island on the wind saw us pass through some steep
seas and good winds. The lee of the island flattened the seas for us but the strong winds remained gusty at about 50 knots. We made Port William just before dusk. A passage average of 8.2 knots. I doubt we will ever beat that.

The next morning we got underway for Halfmoon Bay, the only populated area on the island. We managed to top up with fresh water (that wasn't brown as we had been used to seeing) although it took us almost an hour to take on just under a tonne of water. We were unable to get petrol as the only pump was closed for a few days. Our diesel tanks were still over half full despite motoring for a total of 78 hours since our last top up. We did manage to top up on fresh fruit a vege's and a bit of chocolate
(you have to get the essentials of life). A few hours motoring saw us in Patterson Inlet anchored off the old whaling station. This proved a great, sand-fly and mosquito free anchorage for a few days while we explored. A trip to Ulva island was good, but proved less fruitful in bird spotting than we had hoped. The whaling station was a good visit and pleasant walk to a nearby beach. The day the petrol pump opened we were ready to fill up and move on. Unfortunately we had managed to rap our anchor
around a one and a half meter, 200 kg discarded anchor. After winching this to the surface, hang it off, untangle the mess, and drop the old anchor we had had a good work out. Time to get the petrol, and ice cream and move on.

Paterson Inlet has a cove called Glory Cove. We planned to go ashore here at night and sit quietly to watch the KIwi that night. Unfortunately a large sign ashore stated we could now no longer do this without a permit from DOC. It was a tad annoying to watch a large noisy group go ashore that night from a charter vessel. We will apply for a permit as we pass back north. After a night accompanied by many mosquitos we moved on to the southern end of Stewart Island. This was a seven hour motor in flat
calm, mind you the other extreme was even less appealing. We spent a few days in the north part of Port Pegasus exploring the old mining and fish freezing sites, and a walk up the Tin Ranges. These peaks gave good views of the inner part of the island and back down to Port Pegasus. The route up follows the old Tramway to the site of the old tin mines. The Bell Topper falls near the start of the track proved a good spot to catch up with the laundry.

Now we are anchored in the south part of Port Patterson. The weather is a bit breezy and so we are well tucked up with lots of lines ashore as well as the anchor down. We are awaiting a slightly lower wind speed (anything of 30 knots,force 7 or less would do) so we can climb up a couple of peaks nearby (Magog and Gog). However this is not the case at present so we are making do with reading, cooking and catching up on a few running repairs.

Happy New Year to all.