9-15th
May 2010
Leader: Marlene
Lynam
Everyone drifted
into Queenstown during the day on Saturday the 8th
May, with 25 of us finally settling into the Pinewood
Lodge for the night.
We all did our own thing during the day, and
several met up at the Pig and Whistle for dinner.
Day 1 – Sunday - 9th May
We were picked up by
a Real Journeys bus at
7 am
on Sunday morning. After collecting our other travelling
mates, including Neil, we headed off on our two hour
drive to Manapouri.
We passed through the frosty pastures of
South Otago,
and this gave us a hint of the temperatures we were
likely to experience during our trip.
When we arrived at Manapouri we jumped on a small
launch to cross the lake to the West Arm.
We then got on another bus to travel over
Wilmot
Pass
to Deep Cove, one of the arms of Doubtful Sound.
We then got our first glimpse of the floating
back packers that was to be our home for the next seven
days, the Milford Wanderer.
Once we settled into our small cabins, we had an
emergency exercise, and ate the first of many very
hearty lunches whilst we sailed through the calm waters
of Doubtful Sound.
Then, our Skipper, Chris, announced over the loud
speaker that he felt it would be good idea for those who
had them, to take their sea-sickness pills. About 90
minutes later we entered the open sea, via the Patea
Passage, and experienced 5 metre swells, and big rolling
seas. For
many of us unseasoned sailors, the medication we had
taken was insufficient to keep the sea sickness at bay,
and we deposited our lunches over board.
The crew very efficiently cleaned up after us
all, and checked we were okay. We were very pleased,
when our journey to Breaksea Sound 2.5 hours later, was
over and we dropped anchor in very calm seas for the
night. Those of us who were sick, did seem to recover
quite quickly, which was just as well, as roast pork was
on the menu that night.
Day 2 – Monday, 10th May
We woke to light
misty rain on Day 2, and at breakfast we were told the
original plans we had made the night before had changed.
We were to travel down Breaksea Sound to
Anchor
Island,
where we would go ashore after an early lunch.
We spent the morning admiring the beautiful
scenery from the various decks.
The highlight for the morning was a visit from a
pod of dolphins that swam along with the Wanderer for
some distance.
We were also accompanied for some time by six
mollymawks, which settled on the sea alongside the ship,
giving us very close views of their intriguing face
markings. This was to be the first of many mollymawk
sightings during the trip.
After lunch we
learnt the routine for going ashore. We collected our
number tags, donned our life jackets. The crew explained
that when we returned from our trip, we must remember,
before doing anything else, to hang up our number tag
again, so that everyone could be accounted for, before
the ship set sail again.
Half of us climbed aboard the ship’s tender boat,
driven by the Mate, Glen, which transported us to our
drop off point on
Anchor
Island.
Glen then headed back for the second group.
We headed off over a muddy, slippery track, for a
three hour walk to the other side of the island, where
the Wanderer was waiting to collect us.
The bush was very lush and in particular there
was an amazing abundance of kidney ferns.
We had sightings of saddlebacks which have been
introduced to the area, and a number of
South Island
robins joined us along the track at very close quarters.
With 34 of us trying
to negotiate the multiple obstacles on the track, the
walk was slow going. When we finally arrived at the
other side of the island, we had another close encounter
with the local wildlife.
Some “teenage” seals, who had recently been
weaned and had “left the nest” and taken up residence in
the bay, were very inquisitive.
They climbed up on the rocks and mixed and
mingled with us, sniffing our hands, and then others in
the water decided to show off their synchronised
swimming skills.
On the tender boat journey back to the Wanderer,
we came across a
couple on a kayaking trip through the fiords, and the
seals were climbing all over their kayak.
We settled for the night in Cascade Cove, Dusky
Sound.
Day 3 - Tuesday 11th May
We woke to a clear
day, which was to be a serious history lesson for us
all. There
are many historic sites in Dusky Sound, and we started
with
Pickersgill
Harbour,
and visited the site where Captain Cook first positioned
New Zealand
on the map of the world accurately.
We also checked out the site of the first
observatory in NZ, at Astronomer Point. The next stop
was Earshell Cove, on
Resolution
Island,
where we shut down the ships engines and listened in
silence to the sounds of the forest.
The conditions were very still, and we enjoyed
the mirror like reflections on the water, and echoing
bird calls, in particular the bell birds.
The next stop was
Pigeon
Island
where we once again got off the Wanderer and explored
the site where Richard Henry, NZ’s first government paid
conservationist relocated kapako and kiwi from the
mainland to
Resolution
Island
in the early 1900s.
He managed to relocate 474 birds in three years,
but to his despair found that stoats were able to swim
the distance across the water and make their home on
Resolution
Island,
undoing the good work he had done.
After lunch we
headed out to sea again past the
Five
Fingers
Peninsula
towards Chalky Inlet.
We passed
West
Cape,
and
Cape
Providence
on the way.
The sun shone, and although the swells were estimated to
be about 8 metres and very impressive, none of us were
sick – it seemed that we had all found our sea-legs at
last. We
anchored for the night, and as the sky was clear
Richard, one of our guides, gave us a very informative
night sky tutorial on the fore deck.
Marlene and Nicola’s
keen eyes had noticed black smoke coming out of one of
the engines during the open sea trip, and they had
alerted the Skipper.
He had called the Real Journeys base in Te Anau
and arranged for two engineers to be delivered by
helicopter the next day with replacement parts for the
engine.
Day 4 – Wednesday, 12th
May
We woke to another
fine day, and as we had to wait for the engineers to
arrive, 23 of us headed out on the water for a spot of
kayaking. The others jumped on the tender boat to
collect the engineers who landed on a helipad very close
by. We
delivered them to the ship, and we continued to explore
the area and keep an eye on the kayakers.
We investigated the wreck of the “Stella” which
had been used as a floating base for the fishing
industry in the early 1900s.
After lunch we set sail for
Southport,
to explore the site of a saw milling operation. Ron and
Richard, our guides gave us an excellent commentary on
the impact the milling had had on the forest which was
still evident today.
That night, Richard
shone the ship’s spotlight into the water and were
amazed to see the abundance of sea life in the water.
There were fish of all sizes, squid and some
rather large barracuda fish, which were having a field
day amongst all the fish in the water. Every now and
then the water would be filled with what looked like
glitter. Richard explained that this was the scales from
fish which had been chomped by the barracuda.
We had yet another
delicious meal that night, and it was becoming evident
that Neil was misbehaving in the absence of Joan. His
consumption of ice cream was becoming alarming – he went
back for a rather large extra helping, and John, our
chef, was doing nothing to discourage him.
Day 5 – Thursday, 13th May
Thursday was a bit
drizzly, but the forecast indicated that it would be the
best day to complete our final open sea run.
There were strong north easterly winds blowing,
and once again we had a very exciting trip along the
coast. Many
of us stayed out on deck, and needed full wet weather
gear to protect us from the sea spray.
None of us were sick, and we arrived at
Preservation Inlet in time for lunch. The theme for the
afternoon visits was “Industry in the Wilderness” and we
visited the site of an old whaling station at Cuttle
Cove, the Tarawera Smelter, which had been very well
preserved, and the Te Onera gold mine sites.
Although we had very informative commentaries
from our guides while we were on shore, they
supplemented this each night with slide shows, which
gave us an idea of what the sites looked like in their
hey days.
Day 6 – Friday, 14th May
Friday, was to be a
highlight of the trip for us – we were to visit the
Puysegur Point Lighthouse.
It was a very calm day, but jumping off the
tender boat onto the beach proved to be quite tricky,
having to negotiate the tidal surges as we jumped. We
did the 3.5 hour round trip up to the lighthouse where
we had great views of the natural sandstone sculptured
cliff faces and the rugged coastal scenery. In the
afternoon we briefly visited the site of the Cromarty
Settlement at
Kisbee
Bay,
and checked out the private Kisbee Lodge.
We then made the long journey down Long Sound for
the night. Our entertainment for the night was a “final
night show”. Everyone participated in this, in one way
or another, either by performing a skit, poem, singing a
song, telling a story or being part of a very supportive
audience.
It was a very enjoyable night’s entertainment.
Day 7 – Saturday, 15th May
Saturday was our
last day, where we spent most of the day waiting or
travelling.
We first of all travelled back down Long Sound. This is
when Nicola got a ship driving lesson.
Chris, the skipper, explained how the GPS worked
and how to steer the boat, and left her to it for about
an hour.
Nicola must be a quick learner, because she didn’t run
us aground.
Then we waited our turn for the helicopter ride back to
West Arm. Two helicopters transported us, our luggage,
our rubbish, dirty linen etc out and on the way back,
transported a new group to start the tour, their luggage
and supplies for the next week.
This process took about three to four hours. We
then did a tour of the Manapouri Power Station, before
heading back over the lake to Manapouri, and catching a
bus back to Queenstown.
We finally arrived back at the Pinewood Lodge at
7.30 pm.
It was a great trip
- a well organised crew who ensured that we had an
enjoyable experience, great company, and excellent food.
We were sorry to hear that things will be changing at
the end of this year. The Wanderer is going to be
refurbished, reducing the number of passengers on the
boat to 20, which will put up the cost of the trip. In
future the trip will be marketed to overseas tourists
rather than New Zealanders.
Janet Gibson
