Skeleton of an old wooden fishing boat and tractor.
The small isolated village -not much happening here today!
Marlborough Sounds - Days 5 & 6 (Tennyson Inlet & Nydia Bay)
We took a slow cruise to Tennyson Inlet via Waihinau Bay and Horseshoe Bay (see the photo of the old abandoned tractor, skeleton of an old wooden boat and houses with not too many signs of life). We cruised out of Waihinau Bay past a large salmon farm, the first we had encountered, it made a change from the many mussel farms we were passing every day. Whilst I love mussels, I was surprised by just how many farms there were along the shoreline in the most beautiful bays. This is a massive industry here but definitely wouldn’t like to see anymore farms go in! We continued to Horseshoe Bay where we tried for more Gurnard, without success. It seems you don’t catch Gurnard, they catch themselves when they are good and ready! Forget about trying to jag them as they don’t ‘hit’ the bait like a snapper would. We were using soft bait on light gear and having lots of fun as they were nibbling all the time, chasing the bait up. This seemed the only way to catch them, but there were no rules. After failing to catch anything again we headed in to Penzance Bay where we anchored for yet another windy night.
Cont...........
Despite waking tired, Jo and I decided to take a 13km hike from Tennyson Inlet, Duncan Bay to Nydia Saddle and return. The hike was fabulous through natural forest with glimpses of inlets below. We climbed to an altitude of some 430 metres above sea level (photos attached will give you some appreciation of that). We past a group of 8 trampers coming from a lodge in Nydia Bay and on our return trip a couple riding mountain bikes who were in very low gear making hard work of the steep climb over exposed tree roots and little swampy streams flowing across the track. On our return to Duncan Bay and nearing the jetty, we chatted to a couple of fisherman (farmers) who were heading out, who I was hoping would give some local knowledge but as is so often typical of fishermen, they gave nothing away. Robin picked us up in the tender and told us about the nice size gurnard he caught while waiting for us. We had a yummy late lunch (needed for me to recover from the walk) and decided we wanted to head around to Lydia Bay for the night. Even though we were going to try fishing Horseshoe Bay (Gurnard Bay to us) we took some chicken out of the freezer as an insurance policy. We fished the old successful spot and Robin hooked up a beauty (see photo). After a beer I was ready for a change of luck and after what seemed a lifetime, I finally hooked up a gurnard that had been playing me for a good 10-15 minutes. At last a fish I could proudly bring on board. By now we had dinner sorted so the chicken went back into the fridge. That will be dinner tomorrow night.
Cont.........
We made our way into Lydia Bay and anchored in calm waters in the lee of a small island and shallows (see photos) expecting a quiet night. Within 1/2 hr we had 30 knots and waves along the hull so we had to search around for a better anchorage within the bay. The binoculars identified a good spot so we cruised over and re-anchored in flat water and 15 knots. We enjoyed our fresh Gurnard and salad for tea and settled in to watch a move (Red 2), something I seldom do but with our satellite dish struggling to find tv reception we thought it would be good to watch a movie for a change. After watching 50 or more people shot dead with machine guns we took ourselves off to bed ready for our trip to Havelock tomorrow.