Boats, boats...and more boats!

The Slip Inn and jetty, Havelock

So the boat shed was complete and we were now all set to move on to the actual boat construction. But before we made a start on it there was the small matter of a wee break up in the Marlborough Sounds for a family catch up along with a spot of fishing. Now the sharp-eyed amongst you will notice that, according to the panel just to the left there, Captain dreams of bigger boats. You may also notice that the boat in the photo at the top of this post doesn't look a whole lot like Orca, our little fizz boat that we introduced you to earlier in this blog - and therein lies a story!

When we were rationalising our possessions one of the things that we contemplated was selling Orca - after all we were about to build a boat, so why did we need to keep her? On the other hand, we both really enjoyed the freedom that comes with a boat, not to mention the fishing. The prospect of no boat fishing for three years was something I didn't particularly relish. However, I could understand Howard's rationale - just! So, dear reader, keep this in mind as you read on.

"I've been looking at boats on Trade Me." Howard greeted me with this announcement one evening when I returned from work.

My heart sank. "Oh, I see. Are you trying to get some idea of what we should be selling Orca for?"

Dolphin watch at Paia Point camp site, Kaikoura

Howard peered at me with an incredulous look on his face. "Whatever makes you think that? I'd not even thought about it. No, I was looking at bigger boats - preferably a tinnie with a lock-up cab."

"Now why would you be doing that?" I queried. This had come completely out of left field so I was more than a little taken aback by the revelation.

"Well, I would have thought it was obvious," Howard replied. Well no, actually, it wasn't obvious but I had no doubt he was going to enlighten me. "I suddenly thought that it seemed silly not to have a boat until the yacht is built. The problem with Orca is she's a bit small if we want to stay out on her for more than one night and I'd really love to do that. I mean, simply getting undressed and into bed is a major operation on Orca, isn't it?"

I couldn't dispute that argument. "So have you seen anything interesting?"

"Ooooh yes!" came the emphatic reply. "Let me show you."

I was ecstatic! All thoughts of tea had gone by the board as we plotted and planned. And so Dark Star came into our lives. At 6.7m, she's over a metre longer than Orca and all we could want to keep us entertained until the yacht was built - and then some!

Snow on the peaks above Kaikoura

And so back to our holiday and family catch-up. This was going to be Dark Star's first road trip with us and what better place to take her for our maiden voyage than the Marlborough Sounds. Iain and Helen were flying in to Wellington from the UK and then taking the ferry over to Picton where we would collect them before heading off for a couple of weeks around Queen Charlotte Sound and hopefully Pelorus Sound. We set off from Dunedin late morning, overnighting in the stunning surrounds of Kaikoura and then it was just a leisurely drive up to Picton in time to meet the late afternoon ferry. The ferry crossing from Wellington to Picton is described as one of the most beautiful ferry rides in the world and certainly the scenery is absolutely stunning. Picton itself is a wee jewel, nestled in amongst an almost fractal coastline. It is small and understated, and we love it.

Picton

Having successfully located Iain and Helen from amongst the myriad of ferry passengers, we headed for Waikawa and the Parklands Marina Holiday Park. Now, if you're anything like me that name Holiday Park would probably strike terror into your very soul, but believe me, this place is one out of the box. It's tranquil, clean, well organised - and allows you to use your boat to camp in!! How good is that? So whilst Iain and Helen did battle with tent construction we put our feet up and watched - obviously whilst also offering helpful hints and words of encouragement.

Tent pitching at Parklands Marina Holiday Park

We spent that evening planning our next couple of weeks, working out how best to maximise Iain and Helen's time in this fabulous area. The only interruption to this came whilst tea was being made when obviously all input was focused solely on the task at hand - to very good effect, if my memory serves my right!

What would you do with that? The catering committee!

Iain and Helen had decided that their first priority was to walk the Queen Charlotte track, so after a good night's rest (well, it was for us in the boat - not so sure about those poor souls in the tent), we returned to Picton to pick up supplies and to book their track pass. Now booking the pass wasn't without incident. We were going to take them to their start point by boat which seemed to be a rather tricky concept for the person who was issuing the pass to grasp. Having finally got her to the point where she could cope with that, we administered the final coup-de-grace. They were going to be walking the track the wrong way round. We were going to drop them off at Anakiwa, which is the closest point to Picton, and then we'd fish our way down to Ship Cove which was at the far end of the Sound and collect them again. Sounds logical? Well it made perfect sense to us, but not to the pass issuer!! However, we must have eventually worn her down because some considerable time later we staggered back into the sunshine, passes in hand.

Leaving Picton

The first part of departure day was spent watching Iain and Helen trying to coax a not inconsiderable quantity of spare clothing and provisions into their rucksacks. Rather sensibly, they did check whether they could actually lift their sacs once they were packed. Needless to say, some repacking was called for! The day had dawned fine but rather windy, which made for a slightly bumpy trip up to Anakiwa and some acrobatics from Iain as we attempted to come alongside the landing jetty. All I can say is it's a really good job he's over 6 foot tall - in fact after his attempts to keep the boat and landing jetty in close proximity, he may well have increased in height slightly!

Jetty at Ship Cove

We had a sunny but very windy couple of days fishing our way down the Queen Charlotte Sound to Ship Cove, whilst Iain and Helen weren't affected so much by the wind but did seem to find vast quantities of mud - some of which Iain decided to try sitting in! Once again, Iain's height proved incredibly useful grabbing the boat as we came alongside Ship Cove's jetty to collect them, especially as we didn't have a lot of depth to play with.

Just to do the tourist information bit for a moment (and for those of you who don't know), Ship Cove is reputed to have been Captain James Cook's favourite New Zealand base during his three wide-ranging voyages of exploration. In all, he returned to it on five separate occasions between his first visit in January 1770 and final departure during his last voyage in February 1777, his expeditions spending a total of 170 days at this anchorage . Cook found this place to be a 'very snug cove' which provided 'a central and secure anchorage with good wood, water and fishing where he could prepare and provision his ships and restore his crews'.

Once we were all happily ensconced on Dark Star again and were speeding across to the opposite side of the Sound to escape the wind so that Iain and Helen could have a swim (we did warn them the water would  be cold - and it was), we started to plan our escapades for the remainder of our holiday.

So where shall we go next?

Apart from general exploration of the Sounds area, sea kayaking was high on Iain and Helen's list of things to do, and to be quite honest, we had no particular wishes other than spending time with them and on the boat. So, sea kayaks were booked and another round of provisioning undertaken. At least this time they wouldn't have to try to fit everything in just one rucksack each. We were to be the support crew, making sure we were on hand in case of emergency. And boy, did they need us! We had passed them during the afternoon happily paddling away and so we carried on down the Sound to try to catch ourselves some tea. As afternoon turned into evening we motored into the cove that they had chosen for their overnight camp. We went in as close as we could.

The interpid kayakers at Ruakaka Bay

"How are you both? OK? Any problems?" we shouted.

"We've got a bit of a problem," Iain shouted back.

I immediately started to worry that one of them had damaged something, although I had to say they both looked OK.

"What's wrong?"

"We've forgotten to pack any teabags!" came the reply

"Oh no! Well what a good job we came along!"

We had a plentiful supply of said tea bags but the biggest problem was going to be getting them to Iain and Helen. We had gone in as close as we dared in the boat but that still left a fair distance between us and the shore. Howard, ever resourceful, had it sussed though. He put some tea bags in a polythene bag adding one of our fishing sinkers to give it a bit of weight and then threw the package to shore whereupon Iain, in a move that would have made the Black Caps proud, fielded it flawlessly.

"...and make sure you don't forget to bring that sinker back with you tomorrow!" he shouted.

With the warm glow of satisfaction that comes from having saved the day, we waved goodnight and motored over to a sheltered cove to eat our gurnard and settle down for the night.

Te Rawa

The holiday was rapidly coming to an end. After the sea kayaking trip we spent much of our time doing touristy things interspersed with bouts of reprovisioning but we had one last trip planned. We wanted to motor up Pelorus Sound to Wilson Bay. In common with quite a lot of the Marlborough Sounds, this particular bay is only accessible by boat and because it was slightly more remote, we were waiting for a reasonable weather window. The whole of the holiday had been plagued by strong winds - they would certainly have made it impossible to venture out in the boat had we been around home, but in the more sheltered environment of the Sounds, we could be a little bolder.

We pulled in to Havelock on a warm, sunny but fairly windy morning, had a cup of coffee before putting the boat on the water and heading off. As we progressed along Pelorus Sound, the wind increased quite markedly but we eventually made it to Wilson Bay after a fairly splashy ride. That evening it started to rain. It rained and rained all the following day, all the while blowing an absolute gale. Now this wasn't quite what we'd expected from a forecast that had promised fine, settled weather. We ate, drank, talked, read, drank, ate, read, ate...there's only so much you can do in weather like that and we'd done it all! So our experience of Wilson Bay was a very wet one, but not wet in the way we'd anticipated.

Picton Marina

And then it was over. Sadly, Iain and Helen had to return to the UK and we returned to Dunedin. But for us our return to Dunedin heralded the next exciting chapter in our saga. Let the boat building begin!