The Queen Charlotte Track at Furneaux Lodge (Endeavour Inlet, Queen Charlotte Sound, New Zealand)

We were anxious to walk a bit more on the Queen Charlotte Track where it dips down near sea level by the Furneaux Lodge. The vegetation along the track changes with it’s altitude: dense and jungle-like near sea level, drier and more open along the high ridges. We’d done some walking along the ridge and now looked forward to walking closer to shore level.

As expected, this area of the track was thick with ferns and trees draped with plants like kiekie (looking a bit like spider plants growing along the trunks and branches of trees) and viney supplejacks. We detoured off the track to visit the Rimu Viewing Platform. It was a short hike up a trail thick with tree ferns to the viewing platform. Since the forest has grown up around the platform, the view wasn’t very impressive. What was impressive was a giant tree right next to the platform; it was massive. It was worth it to come up here just to see this tree!

furneaux-lodge-hike-tree

After our detour, we walked another mile or so, seeing some pretty little bays with boat houses near an area with vacation homes. It would be neat to stay another day and head the opposite direction on the track, but we planned to head on tomorrow.

Below, a gallery of photos from our hike.  (Click to enlarge and scroll.) -Cyndi

The Endeavour Inlet and Furneaux Lodge (Queen Charlotte Sound, New Zealand)

March 31, 2016

Our next destination (after the Bay of Many Coves) was way up in the Endeavour Inlet, nearly four miles from its entry (see previous map). It’s a long way to travel into a bay, but the trip here is worth it.

By definition, the sounds are drowned valleys amid sinking mountains; so we’re always surrounded by mountaintops. But some of these mountains are larger, more magnificent, and particularly striking, as is the case near the head of the Endeavour Inlet.

Below, a gallery from the mountainous interior of the Endeavour Inlet (click to enlarge and scroll).

Our first stop here was the Furneaux Lodge, right in the midst of these mountains. Besides the scenery, it has some other attractions. For one, the Queen Charlotte Track. While much of this track runs along mountain ridges, it dips down near the shoreline around the head of the Endeavour Inlet and is only steps away from the lodge. Second, there are moorings available for visiting boats, a big plus in an area where it could be difficult to anchor. Finally, the lodge welcomes visitors to its restaurants and bar.

We called and were welcomed to pick up any mooring of our choosing. It would be $25NZD a night, but we thought it was a fair price, and we liked not being obligated to eat here. This was another restaurant I’d researched online and found it’s pretty expensive for dinner. Maybe we’d go in for lunch or breakfast, but we weren’t sure.

After getting our mooring we took our dinghy and tied up to their very nice dock, then went to find the reception area. This place was pretty and very casual, yet upscale enough to appeal to its wealthier clientele along with the Queen Charlotte backpacking crowd. There were cabins along with a central bar and restaurant, plus a covered deck with tables outside.

We paid our fee and asked about meals. Come to find out there’s a “bar menu” (aka cheaper dinners) that was available until 6pm. Perfect. After a walk on the track (post coming), we had our dinner on their sunny deck while their helpful dog stood by to help clean up if we accidentally dropped any food on the deck.

The fish and chips were just OK. The Thai beef salad was not very authentic, but it didn’t matter because it was really tasty, like having an entire marinated steak on salad greens. I tried a beer called Murphy’s Irish Stout. I’d never heard of it before, and now I knew why. I had major beer envy over Rich’s Corona (yes, it’s available throughout New Zealand, even in the depths of the Marlborough Sounds).

Below, a gallery of photos of the Furneaux Lodge area. Click to enlarge and scroll. –Cyndi

Leaving the Inner Queen Charlotte Sound (Marlborough Sounds, New Zealand)

March 31, 2016

Today we planned to head from the “Inner Queen Charlotte Sound,” to the “Outer Queen Charlotte Sound.” The Bay of Many Coves is the final bay in the Inner Queen Charlotte Sound.

It may be called The Bay of Many Coves, but it really doesn’t have any more coves than the other bays. There was one more bay here, though, that we were interested in: Cockle Cove. Julian had recommended it, and while we planned to head on, we wanted to at least go look at it and if it grabbed us, we’d stay the night.

With that we motored across The Bay of Many Coves towards Cockle Cove. We noticed the protective arm of land around it had an amazing array of greens, with an especially high number of yellow-green ferns contrasting with the deeper greens of the various trees. Each bay here seems to have a little something special that makes it different from all other bays and in this one, it was the pretty range of greens. Motoring into the cove itself we found still green water, lots of thick vegetation and a stone beach. Right in the middle was a PMW (Combined Club) mooring, empty and waiting. Below, a gallery of Cockle Cove photos (click to enlarge and scroll).

*A note about PMW moorings: There are three boating clubs in the sounds, and these clubs have combined resources to put in a few moorings at some of the more popular anchorages, generally one or two per anchorage. Officially, to use these moorings, you need to be a member of one of the clubs, which costs several hundred dollars. You then signal you’re a club member by flying the pennant flags. We talked to a few locals, and the unofficial consensus is that visiting boats should go ahead and pick up a mooring; no one really cares. If a boat who’s entitled to the mooring comes along, they’ll simply ask that you move, or offer to raft up with you.

We decided early on to avoid these moorings if possible. It’s better to be anchored and not have to worry about being asked to move. But sometimes the mooring is smack in the middle of a cove such that it’s impossible to anchor and be clear of the mooring. That’s when we’d make an exception. So far we’d stayed on two PMW moorings: one in a remote bay in the Tory Channel, and the other in Kumutoto, where realistically we could have anchored, but there were two empty moorings, it was late in the afternoon, and we were being lazy.

We might have taken this Cockle Cove mooring had this been extra special. But lovely as it was, there was a clearing onshore with a small house and a pier (not shown in the photos). That kind of ruined the feeling of being out in a remote place; it felt like camping in someone’s backyard. Also, the sun shone right in here, which I know many people would love, but I prefer this sort of place to have a shady feeling. It was nice to see this cove, but it was easy to remain with our decision to move on.

We had a good look at Ruakaka Bay and Blackwood Bay from the mail boat and didn’t feel the need to stop in either one this time (although Ruakaka Bay has a nature reserve, and if we’re ever back again I’d definitely go anchor there).

Next, we were traveling to the outer Queen Charlotte Sound, starting with a couple of places in the Endeavour Inlet. Today’s wildlife theme: blue penguins! We saw a lot of them, but they’re hard to photograph as they tend to dive when a boat approaches them.–Cyndi

Below a map showing our anchorages the Inner Queen Charlotte Sound and planned anchorages in the Endeavour Inlet.  (Just zoom and and out and click on the markers to see what’s what.)

Arthur’s Bay in the Bay of Many Coves (Queen Charlotte Sound, New Zealand)

March 30 – 31, 2016

Our next stop was a place we visited on the mail run: the Bay of Many Coves Resort. I’ve noticed my Frommer’s guide falls short of mentioning most of the resorts in the sounds, and our cruising guide was written before most of them existed. Most of what I knew came from poking around on the internet. When I poked around this resort, I looked at the dinner menu. The prices weren’t listed; they didn’t need to be. You could tell from the selection that it would be a very expensive meal.

And so I’d written it off until, as we were pulling up to the resort’s pier on the mail boat, Hsuen mentioned that the restaurant here is Really Good. She’d come for lunch and loved it. She also mentioned that a lot of celebrities stay here because it’s very removed. (Many of the little lodges are pretty much on the Queen Charlotte Track , but this one is more removed.) Hmmm, incredible food and celebrities. I don’t need to see celebrities, but the places they chose to visit generally don’t suck.

This place was certainly impressive, beautifully done units tucked into the natural vegetation on the hillside, large windows on the main restaurant, and a cafe right on the water, all with a view of the wide stretch of mountains across the placid water in the Bay of Many Coves. It was actually much prettier than it looked on its website, which is unusual, and we noticed they had a few moorings. I got back online, looked at the menus, and saw that breakfast was affordable. Decision made.

Rich phoned the resort as we arrived, saying we’d like to come in for breakfast tomorrow and could we take a mooring? They couldn’t have been nicer as they told us we were welcome to come in for a meal and to pick up whichever of their moorings we liked best. (It’s always so nice when places really welcome the boaters!)

Later, we sat out in the cockpit to get a good look at Arthur’s Bay. I’d been so focused on the resort I hadn’t really looked around. The bay was actually very nice, surrounded by hills with covered with native bush, and a tree full of nesting cormorants right on the shoreline. Later we saw a fur seal swim by. This seems like a great place to enjoy the local wildlife; people who choose to stay here have chosen well.

The next morning we headed into the cafe for breakfast, tying up to their dinghy dock. The cafe was so pretty, all wood and glass with a deck perfect for basking in the morning sun. It seems the other guests were either getting room service or eating in the main dining room; so we had the place to ourselves. We started with flat whites (coffee with steamed milk), then I ordered a Japanese breakfast of udon and dumpling soup, and Rich got the continental platter. Thankfully we split these, because Rich’s continental breakfast was amazing: homemade bread and a good croissant, spreads, smoked salmon, cheeses and cured meats. My soup was great, but his breakfast was out of this world.

We’d be moving on again today; but we didn’t have very far to go. We were glad; we wanted to linger on this wonderful deck as long as we could. Below, a gallery of photos from Arthur’s Bay and the Bay of Many Coves Resort. Click to enlarge and scroll. –Cyndi

Hector’s Dolphins (Queen Charlotte Sound, New Zealand)

March 30, 2016

As we were leaving Kumutoto Bay, we were joined by two Hector’s dolphins. Here’s a little video…

There were a couple amazing things about this encounter. First, they’re beautiful and somewhat rare dolphins and I don’t think it’s all that common for them to hitch a ride in the bow wave. The truly amazing thing is how they hitched a ride.

We were just coming out of the bay and some idiot forgot to put the dinghy wheels up (me). We stopped, I climbed into the dinghy and took care of the oversight. As I climbed back on board, I saw a dolphin. Now picture the gesture you’d make if your hands were tied behind your back, you had no voice, and you wanted to get your friend to follow you and chase after the ice cream truck. Kind of a shoulder and head thrust in the direction of the cold, creamy goodness. That’s what the dolphin did. I swear it. I knew immediately what he wanted. I pushed the throttle forward, off we went, and off he went, with his friend to play in the bow wave. I’ll never forget this clear communication.

The two of them stayed with us only a short time. I don’t think our bow wave is big enough to be very interesting. That’s good for fuel economy but bad for dolphin sports.

Hector's Dolphin (photo from Wikipedia)
Hector’s Dolphin (photo from Wikipedia)

Here is a picture of Hector’s dolphins from Wikipedia. And here’s what they have to say about them.

To our two friends… thanks for joining us, if only briefly. It was a real joy! -Rich