[Paddlewise] Queen Charlotte Sounds - trip report

With what seems to be the majority of readers locked into 
cold weather, here's something warmer.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Queen Charlotte Sound for the Millennium

I'd woken to the sun blazing in on New Year's day, first
mistake, it was 1/4 of an hour early!! We'd parked the van
outside a friend's house and it was their security light
blazing in our back window!! Clouds blocked the millennium
dawn.

We drove up the coast that afternoon to camp at the Ure
River and the next morning, as we headed into Blenheim, the
clouds building over the Sounds looked most discouraging -
so, sunny Nelson for a few days until the wet weather in the
Sounds blew through.

By Thursday it was go now or never. Picton was grey but mild
as we ate lunch on the grass by the beach, watching hire
kayaks being loaded. We were to see these same ones about
8.00 p.m. heading into Ruakaka, why so late (and tired 
looking) we never found out.

We loaded and launched from Waikawa, about 5 minutes drive
from Picton and an hour's less paddling, headed east,
hugging the coast to keep out of as much wind from the south
as possible. It was possible, when crossinhg bays, to get a
bit of a lift about halfway across them as the wind,
funneling down the steep valleys leading into them, spread
out at the mouth of each bay. When we reached Curious Cove
it was decision time, Tory Channel or Ruakaka (left or
right)? Ruakaka was down wind as we hurried across the
sound, ready to dodge anything that appeared. The fast
ferries (both), which come from Wellington via Tory Channel,
had gone through sometime before so hopefully anything else
(the regular ferries and fishing boats) would be a bit
slower.

The camp ground in Ruakaka had a few tents, power boats and
kayaks on it but I hoped the bay before (marked for water
skiing) would be empty - it was except for a couple fishing
from their kayaks, a couple of new rental singles from
Waikawa. A neat little bush fringed bay with just enough
room to park the kayaks off the beach and pitch two or three
tents. Two kayaks and one tent left plenty of room to sit
back and spread out the kitchen, so stove out, billy on and
a cup of coffee. Later, after dinner, we threw lines at the
milling fish, just off the beach, with no effect.

Friday morning dawned clear and still. Our original plan,
Tory Channel and the whaling station was dropped and plan B,
Blumine Island was adopted. We stopped at the salmon farm,
at the mouth of the bay, for a chat. The diver was about to
carry on clearing dead fish from the bottoms of the nets,
the seal was just sitting on one of the rafts, the orca from
earlier in the week didn't appear and the kingfish, reported
to be around earlier in the morning, must have left too.

We stopped a bit east of Snake Point for lunch, sitting on a
convenient jetty, before crossing the channel to the island
against a steady breeze of between 10 and 15 knots. The
campsite was empty, the sun shone and a herd of wekas
(herd?!!) roamed around, ducking poorly aimed sticks and
stones hurled in their direction. These woodhen are an
annoyance, stealing anything not tied down. Later one pecked
W's toes as she was reading a book. Across the Sound a
continual stream of traffic passed, some heading into
Endeavour Inlet, as we had dinner and coffee, watching the
sun drop behind the mountains and clouds build and dissipate
over the northern hills.

Saturday morning was one of those mornings that kayakers go
off on trips to see, calm and bright. Out of the bay and
just before the north-eastern point, a couple of wharf piles
stick out of the water. I landed to hunt the gun
emplacements and Waveney went off to fish. Behind the beach,
hidden by the bush to the water's edge is a large area where
our entire kayak club could find room to camp. I followed
the track through the thick bush, the first blockhouse and
nearly a kilometre later the second blockhouse, but no gun
emplacements! I ran back until the first blockhouse, a metre
or two down the side track and there it was, a massive lump
of concrete. I found out later from Andy that I must have
been close to the second one at the far end of my run.

Back in the kayak and W was waving at me, she'd managed to
hook the South Island. With 40 lb line and my tippy kayak,
it took a bit of pulling to unsnag and reel in. As we
carried on round the island, the clouds from the south
started to build. We stopped at a beach, before the south
east point, for lunch, sheltering out of the wind against a
little bit of cliff.

Round the point and the gathering clouds started to fall out
of the sky. On the last little beach before the long stretch
to the western point, I hauled out and we donned wet weather
jackets and I made sure the compass was handy. The channel
ahead disappeared in the clouds but reappeared before we
left the island and headed for Snake Point. A little before
the point we stopped for a warming brew and something to eat
before the final run into Ruakaka Bay. There was a group of
kayaks in "our" bay so we camped at the right hand end of
the "official" bay.

Next morning was fine again but with the expectation of
wind. We stopped for a minute to re-trim Waveney's kayak and
talk to the kayakers in "our" bay. They were from Wellington
and I recognized one of the kayaks, the late Russell Ginn's
Herroshoff design. We had a quick chat before leaving them
to their packing. Once out in the Sound, the wind was on our
quarter and we made very good time until, turning into
Waikawa Bay the wind picked up behind us for a final sprint
to the marina. We wandered round the marina looking for a
ramp. Once ashore, I assembled the trolley and towed the
kayaks out of the marina to a convinient place to load the
van, walked the 200 metres to the relation I'd left it with,
loaded and we were ready for the drive home and work...

The Queen Charlotte Sound roughly lies east/west with Tory
Channel branching off it to the south east. To the north and
west another separate system of Sounds, the Pelorus Sound and
Kenepuru Sound all of then drowned valleys.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Alex (Sandy) Ferguson
Chemistry Department
University of Canterbury
New Zealand
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