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New Zealand, South and North |
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Written by Larry & Maxine Bailey
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Monday, 05 June 2006 |
NEW ZEALAND, SOUTH AND NORTH
Larry and Maxine Bailey
(Larry and Maxine, who come from Washington on the northwest coast of the United States, are circumnavigating eastabout with their Sceptre 41, Shingebiss II.)
The South Island
We arrived in Nelson, New Zealand, in March 2005. Nelson is in the middle of the north coast of the South Island and is claimed to be the sunniest place in the country. Storm systems arrive, split around the mountains on the east and west coasts, and then move on to the North Island without getting their act back together. The marina is within easy walking distance of the town, and if you run out of errands there are walks and hikes of varying lengths and degrees of difficulty. For those who want to stay on, the New Zealand officials are pleasant to work with.
We had intended to take Shingebiss south to Fiordland, but David and Annette Ridout visited us and strongly recommended against it. It was fun to see them again – we’ve met in Ireland, the US and now here. They had driven around the South Island, and said that while the fjords are beautiful the whole of South Island is spectacular, so we should rent a car and really see it. We took their advice and weren’t sorry. True, we could only visit two of the twelve sounds, but we’ve sailed in fjords in other countries and didn’t feel cheated.
First we headed down the west coast, enjoying the combination of conifers, palms, and tree ferns and the different (to us) wild flowers along the road. There are some impressive blowholes, and rocks that are layered like stacks of pancakes. We visited Franz Josef Glacier, where we walked to the snout, and Fox Glacier, which we photographed from a distance as it started to rain. They’re very proud of these glaciers and claim that they are the only ones in the world so near the coast. They haven’t seen Alaska or Norway! From Haast we went inland to Queenstown, where much of the filming for The Lord of the Rings was done. The town outside Queenstown where we’d planned to stay was having its Autumn Festival and was jammed, but we found a budget motel in Frankton, just outside Queenstown on Lake Wakatipu. We visited Deer Park Heights, where a number of LOR scenes were filmed – one buys an entry for the car and receives a map showing filming sites. It is also a farm with exotic animals which are used to being fed. Buckets and food are provided for those who want to indulge, and when we stopped to photograph an animal it would put its head in the window, begging. It’s unnerving to have a llama nosing your face! Across Lake Wakatipu is the Remarkable Range, over which the ‘Fellowship of the Ring’ tried to pass, though there was no snow on the mountains in May. The motel operator booked a day’s trip to other filming sites for the next day. Everything built for the movie has been removed, but the guide had pictures of scenes that were taken ‘right here’, and we could picture it in our minds.
We then drove to Te Anau, where we booked our visits to the sounds. In Milford Sound we took an afternoon’s nature tour on one of the boats. We’d been told to go even if it was raining, because the waterfalls are only there during and just after rain. It had rained hard for two nights, and the clouds were lifting as we arrived. Then the sun came out and we had rainbows, sunshine, good weather and lots of waterfalls. However, we were too late in the year to see the Fiordland penguins.
Next we went to Doubtful Sound, so named because in 1770 Captain Cook doubted that there’d be enough wind to get him out, so didn’t enter. It is reached via launch across Lake Manapouri, followed by a bus ride over a mountain pass. This route was added when a dam was installed to provide water for bauxite processing. I don’t know how they did it, but the lake level was not raised by the dam. Because of the transit time we booked an overnight cruise on Doubtful Sound, and again were delighted. It is a rounder, softer Sound, with a resident pod of bottlenose dolphins. We took a nature tour and a chance to paddle kayaks. The next morning gave reflections on the water which are still hard to believe.
From there we drove to Bluff, where we booked a passenger ferry to Stewart Island. Here we hoped to see the kiwis which forage on the beach in daylight. Usually they are night foragers and, being flightless, have suffered from introduced animals, but it’s thought that provisions on Stewart Island are too scarce for them to be picky. However, the Maori couple who conduct the tours were away on one of the islands hunting ‘muttonbirds’, (sooty shearwaters). They’re the only ones who are allowed to collect them. The owner of the lodge where we stayed picked us up at the ferry and took our bags back down there the next day. Meanwhile we booked a tour to Ulva Island, a nature reserve. Though it’s possible to book a ‘drop off and pick up’ visit, it was worthwhile having a guide. Furhana knew every bird’s cry and where to look for it, as well as the story of the undergrowth. One occasionally sees kiwis there, but we were not to be rewarded. A friend aptly called them ‘one of those birds that you never see’.
The final part of our trip took us around the southeast coast, with good viewpoints and side trips to falls. At Nugget Point we watched the seabirds, then stopped at a hide on our way back to the car and found yellow-eyed penguins coming ashore in the late afternoon. In Baiclutha the motel owner advised us to visit Mount Cook and then take the scenic mountain highway. We looked at the Moeraki concretions, which are just a few large round stones on the beach whose approach has been usurped by a restaurant, and took the beach route (very pretty) to Oamaru. There we stayed to visit the Blue Penguin Reserve. At one time the birds were considered to be a nuisance as they nested under buildings, but the city built them nesting sites and now everyone is happy. Sometimes there are young birds in the reserve during the day, but it was too late in the season. We returned in the evening to watch them waddle ashore.
We then took the scenic mountain route, arriving in Mount Cook Park with the mountains behind clouds. It had snowed the previous night and there was still snow on the ground. We visited a backpackers’ pub where they forecast that Mount Cook would appear, and sure enough it did! It was visible all the next day as we drove north along the scenic highway. We headed west over Arthur’s Pass, which was disappointing because there are no viewpoints, and then turned north again from Greymouth through some old mining towns. This was another cloudy day, and we drove north into the mists until a final turn exposed Nelson, recognisable under the only patch of blue sky.
While we still had the car we drove east to look at French Pass, and later booked a visit to Farewell Spit at the northwest end of South Island. At one time the Southern Alps connected the two islands, and when they collapsed into the sea Farewell Spit began to form from sediments washed up. It is now 42km long and growing at a rate of 1–2m each year – all sand with no rocks. Northern wading birds come to the area for the northern winter, and were just beginning to collect. There is a colony of Australasian gannets at the end of the spit, the only one not on a cliff – that tells you something about the average wind velocity! We thoroughly enjoyed our tour out to the lighthouse, and were interested in the efforts being made to restore the natural vegetation on the spit.
While in Nelson we shared an anniversary celebration with Bill and Jane McLaren of Vagrant, moored across the dock from us, followed by several more visits before they headed north to Opua. Such nice people! When we finally left with Shingebiss on 1 November we went back out to Torrent Bay in Abel Tasman Park. This is a national park with no road access, but even so there’s lots of tourism. Hikers come in, having arranged to be picked up, and kayakers are picked up and dropped off. We saw a group of four kayaks lashed together, holding sail up with their paddles as they enjoyed a downwind sail into the bay – it looked like fun! We enjoyed hikes and beach walks, but though people were swimming it wasn’t warm enough for us.
From there we went through French Pass, which is a lot narrower than it looks from the land, making our passage with wind and current both with us. This is an interesting area, which at first glance looks like a lot of islands but is really the tops of mountain ranges off the South Island. We made our way through the shoals to Havelock, transiting at mid-flood, and took a day’s tour on their mail boat. Mussel farms have taken over what at home would be fish farms, though they generally avoid anchorages. Mussels are important to New Zealand’s exports, so it’s nice that they don’t impinge upon cruisers. And the fishing boats in the sounds generally anchor in the middle, fishing for bottom fish, rather than off the points as our salmon fishermen would. For our last stop on the South Island we went to Picton, which has no facilities for visiting cruisers unless you can get a mooring. The adjoining bay at Waikawa has a nice marina but no markets, so the manager very kindly took us on a shopping trip into town.
The North Island
Finally we had a good weather forecast to cross Cook Strait – you need both wind and current with you, as to be careless is not only uncomfortable but also dangerous. We had a rough but uneventful crossing, roaring along at 9 knots for most of the way. With the Strait behind us we pressed on through the next day with wind and seas increasing. When the forecast increased to force 10 and rough seas we stopped to wait for a let-up, even though it was from behind us. We ducked into Napier, in Hawke Bay, which was destroyed by an earthquake and fire in 1931 and rebuilt in a rather pretty Art Deco style. It’s a 45 minute walk to town, but friends were kind enough to take us on a tour in their car.
After a four day weather delay we had an easy trip to Tauranga, 150 miles south of Auckland. As we crossed the Bay of Plenty we passed White Island, a picturesque smouldering volcano. Our main reason to visit Tauranga was to meet up with friends. We first met Edi in Antalya, Turkey in 1996/7, soon after he lost his wife. Then he met Almuth, who’d always wanted to sail, and they’re still together. Through the magic of e-mail we knew where to find them, and it was wonderful to see them both. They’ve stayed in New Zealand for four years because they got hooked on gliding, and took us up for our first glider rides before we left – a very special treat! They plan to head west at the end of the cyclone season, so we were just in time.
Tauranga Bridge Marina is a 35 minute walk from town, and the big challenge is to cross the very busy highway. We’d walk to the start of the bridge, and then cross beneath it to a walkway on the east side. The walkway is shared with cyclists, because New Zealand drivers don’t respect the bicycle lane at the edge of the road and the sidewalk is their only safe place. We were delighted when Bill and Jane pulled in next to us with Vagrant. We had thought they were on their way to Chile, but unsuitable weather had deterred them and gave us another welcome visit.
Once again we decided to explore by land, this time buying a car instead of renting one, and drove to New Plymouth for a visit with friends met in Spain. On our way we visited Hobbiton, the only Lord of the Rings site which has not been eradicated. Director Peter Jackson found it by air – a farm with rolling hills, no telephone poles, and a lake with a ‘party tree’ beside it – and negotiated its use with a case of beer over a rugby game. After the filming, crews began to eradicate Hobbiton as per the agreement, but heavy rains stopped them and the crews left. In the spring, the farm was deluged by requests to visit the site, and the owners reached an agreement with the film company to allow visitors to the remaining Hobbit holes (which are only exteriors as all interior filming was done in Wellington). There are other LOR filming sites on the North Island, and it might have been fun to fly over Mount Doom, which they couldn’t eradicate, but we were satiated. On our way back to Tauranga we drove through New Zealand’s main volcanic area, visiting the geothermal parks. This active volcanic area stretches from the aforementioned White Island through Rotorua to the centre of the island.
Next it was back on the water to move Shingebiss to Auckland, returning by bus to Tauranga to collect our car. Auckland’s marinas were full and we had to move several times, but they made an effort to find us places to stay. We were just established when Canadian friends joined us. We drove north to see what remains of the kauri trees in one of the few forests that wasn’t completely logged, tramped along ‘Ninety Mile Beach’ on the northwest peninsula, visited Paihia and Russell, and the rugged, scenic, Coromandel Peninsula. We also found time to sail Shingebiss across the Hauraki Gulf to Great Barrier Island. Finally, Larry took the car to Turner’s Auctions for them to sell, which they did before we left.
We sailed on to Whangarei, where we were able to raft along the pier rather than being on pilings (and the only marina we visited in New Zealand which has a supermarket only a block away and all shopping within easy walking distance). From there we went north, stopping in Tutukaka marina when a cyclone threatened. We spent a week in Tutukaka while Cyclone Wati, though downgraded to a tropical storm, moved slowly south with much rain and wind. There is a small general store in Tutukaka, but a friend (bless his heart) drove us to Whangarei for supplies. When we could finally press on we sailed north to Whangamumu Harbour, a pretty bay with interesting ruins of a whaling station.
At last we turned into the Bay of Islands. We’d hoped to spend several days exploring this lovely area but we were due in Opua in only two days. We stopped in Urupukapuka Bay on Urupukapuka Island, just inside the entrance. Rainsqualls were following us up from Cape Brett and we didn’t want to push our luck. However the rain stopped and we had a lovely day walking on the beach and up the ridge around which we’d sailed, watching endangered New Zealand dotterels on the beach and later sitting in the cockpit for cocktails and dinner. The next day we reluctantly bypassed a number of lovely anchorages to continue on to Opua. We’d have called and put off our entry, but the weather forecast was again threatening, hard as it was to imagine on such a lovely morning. We paid a lot of attention to these forecasts, which we found accurate though their efforts to be specific were often wide of the mark.
Opua is another place with very minimal provisions. Considering that it is the first entry port from the north one would expect them to offer something for cruisers. No way! There is a general store, a restaurant and not much else – not even a bank or ATM – though there are several chandleries and boat supply companies. There’s also no public transport, although a shuttle is available for those needing to access the airport in Auckland. You either rent a car, take a dinghy to Paihia 30 minutes away, or take the boat across to Russell, a charming community which has a small store and an anchorage but no marina.
New Zealand, which is about the size of Colorado or the British Isles, has a population of only four million people. Visitors will immediately be impressed by their friendliness and by the beauty of the country. Tourism is a major source of income so facilities are abundant – walking trails, climbing, kayaking, gliding, hiking, bungee jumping and everything else imaginable is available. We’ve loved the country and have met wonderful people who went out of their way to be helpful. We’d certainly recommend a visit.
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Last Updated ( Monday, 22 December 2008 )
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