November 2021
After a relatively good sleep despite the rolling (or pitching as we boat people say lol), we woke up in a perfectly calm inlet of Open Cove, at the entrance to Thompson Sound. Of course, my phone still thinks I am in Vladivostok and after asking around, it appears this is the first time it has happened, and no one seems to know what’s up 🤔. I continued my morning coffee with a view this morning, this time my view was of beautiful cloud topped mountains flowing down into the sea.
We were out in the zodiacs by 9am and we zipped around the northern end of the sound and then down a beautiful Pandora River. As with yesterday, the tide was on our side, otherwise we would not have got very far down the shallow river. It was beautiful and peaceful, and the river was lined with beautiful bush including flowering rata, kamahi and orchids. We were welcomed to the wonderful Fiordland weather with sun, rain and hail all in about 30 minutes 🤔. It seemed crazy as it was not that cold. Another great Fiordland feature was also out to greet us – sandflies, so many sandflies!! Luckily, we were pretty much covered from head to toe with our wet weather gear so there was not a lot of opportunity from them to bite.
From Pandora River, we continued on our expedition to Neck Cove where we jumped out in the shallows and went for a bit of a bush whack … a serious bush whack in some cases where there were no tracks at all. (FYI bush whacking normally refers to walking through the bush where there is actually no track – I guess it means you have to ‘whack’ away the bush lol.) It was fun and the bush was beautiful though it took some time to find a decent route out to the beach (avoiding the swamp), but we finally made it back and on to the boat for time to dry off before lunch. As we ate the ship headed into Blanket Bay, part of Doubtful Sound, where we dropped anchor.
After lunch we were back out in the zodiacs for a couple of hours zipping around the bays of Secretary Island with a short stop on one of the small beaches. Secretary Island is one of New Zealand’s most important islands for conservation as it has always been free of possums and rodents. Subsequently it has been cleared of deer and stoats (a great challenge given the very steep and densely forested slopes) making it one of the largest pest free islands and populations of endangered species have been relocated there.
It is interesting how localised weather is in this region. We could watch the rain showers pass down the valleys and across the fiord (and across us too of course 🥴) but thankfully there was not too much rain and we did not get too wet.
We had another evening recap before dinner, and boy what a dinner it was. We had passed a couple of small crayfishing operations during the day and the chef had taken it upon himself to negotiate a large number of crays for 2 bottles of Russian vodka (I did hear numerous versions of what it he actually swapped for the crays, but in every version, Russian vodka was gratefully received by these remote fishermen lol). The fresh crayfish went down a treat with my fellow passengers – if only I liked crayfish lol.
Why are some areas called ‘Sounds” and others ‘Fiords” I hear you ask? It is an interesting question, and I was keen to learn that a Sound is a drowned river valley whilst a Fiord is formed in a valley left behind by a glacier … of course in Fiordland, there was once many glaciers along the coastline.
After dinner I headed back on deck as it was a stunning evening to leave Doubtful Sound and head back out to the ocean as the sun set – but I did have to make sure I was back in my bed before we got out past the headlands and it got rough again 🥴
Day 5 and we work up in Cascade Cove in Dusky Sound, having travelled through the Acheron Passage during the night. I had slept well again with only a few hours of rolling during the night and it was yet another beautiful morning, a perfect morning for the helicopter flight some of us had booked.
I was in the first group that set of in the zodiac to the floating helipad and into the helicopter. We then flew up the sound and landed on the top of Mt Pender (at 1100m above sea level) where we were met by Ross, an ex-senior DOC ranger who told us all about the region. From here there was spectacular views of Dusky Sound and some of the 360 islands it contains.
Despite being almost summer, there had been some snow on the peaks of the mountains around us and it there was definitely a brisk chill in the area. Too soon our time on the top was over and we could also see a weather front coming in from the sea as we headed back to the barge for the next group to go up. It was such a special experience, and I was certain that my photos would not do it justice (I was right)!
We had a quick zodiac cruise around Pickersgill Harbour and the historic Astronomers Point before heading back to ship. Astronomers Point is the site of a temporary observatory set up during Capitan Cooks second voyage in 1773. It is significant because they were testing new technology and it was considered the most accurately located place on the globe at the time.
Cook and his crew, having just sailed through Antarctica, cleared about an acre of forest and set up camp for provisioning and ship repairs. They even set up a brewery, using Rimu and manuka leaves to make beer with the hope of preventing scurvy during their 5 week stay.
Having had an early start, we were all back on board before 10am and we set sail deeper into Dusky Sound It was beautiful travelling down the sound with snow-capped mountains in various shades of blue and grey. We sailed through Cooks Passage and past Long Island, through water so clear you could see the Little Blue penguins popping up from time to time, as well as see them swimming under water!
We anchored just off Cooper Island in Sportsman Cove and had time for a pre-lunch zodiac cruise, passing the tiny but beautiful Shags Island which was covered in flowering Rata. Have I mentioned the sand flies 🥴🤔🥴 – we were keen not to stop for very long as every time we did, the sandflies would swarm in! Despite that, it was wonderful to be completely surrounded by native bush. (It was frustrating that my maps were still showing that I was in a Russia as I had planned to use them to pinpoint our location in these small coves and bays 🤦🏻♀️.)
As we had lunch we started sailing again. I must say, meals were always interesting as there was a great mix of people on board. Most were very well travelled, many were very experienced trampers, other were birders and/or botanists and about half had been on Heritage Expedition trips before.
A weather front was moving in as we sailed down the Acheron Passage, the wind picked up as we watched the rain travel down the valleys. Thankfully the sea was not as we were in still in the sheltered fiords and by late afternoon, we were anchored in the protected Duck Cove.
The day finished with a great lecture from one of our guides, Lindsay Wilson. Lindsay has a long history of working with the Department of Conservation in the Fiordland area and gave us some wonderful insights into conservation in the Dusky Sound area.
Fiordland National Park is the largest national park in New Zealand, established in 1952 and it plays an incredibly important role in conservation in New Zealand. In fact, it is considered the birthplace of conservation when in 1890, when Richard Henry set up a New Zealand’s first island sanctuary on Resolution Island and single handedly rowed more than 500 Kakapo and kiwi to this and other island sanctuaries in the area. (FYI Resolution Island is New Zealand’s 5th largest island.) He even used a muzzled dog to help him track down the birds on the mainland.
Unfortunately, he had underestimated the distance stoats, ferrets and weasels could swim, however his techniques of using conservation dogs and relocating endangered species to predator free islands is still key to New Zealand’s conservation efforts today.
Today a number of the islands in Fiordland have been cleared of pests and in fact Anchor Island today is home to half the world’s population of Kakapo!! (I should note that of course they are endemic to New Zealand and therefore the entire world’s population is in New Zealand lol)
I looked forward to exploring the area more in the morning.
Cockneykiwi takes flight 