Hi All,
The Ferry was nice and very uneventful. From Wikipedia: Cook Strait lies between the North and South Islands of New Zealand. It connects the Tasman Sea on the northwest with the South Pacific Ocean on the southeast, and runs next to the capital city, Wellington. It is 22 kilometres (14 mi) wide at its narrowest point, and is considered one of the most dangerous and unpredictable waters in the world. The strait is named after James Cook, the first European commander to sail through it, in 1770.
We took the 8:30am ferry which means we had to get up somewhat early in order to be in line at ~7:10….we waited for about 10 min and then drove right in. We had a somewhat nice breakfast but don’t go with the advertised wifi….extremely slow:(((( The weather was sunny and if you were on the lee side we got some nice pics!!
Picton: A very charming picturesque little harbor. We had a nice walk around, arranged our next day hike on the Queen Charlotte Track and then overlooking the marina, we spotted another Selene. We walked over and saw it was Serenity, out of Nelson, but drats, no one was onboard. We did find an email on the Selene Owners Forum and sent them an email but it came back undelivered. If anyone has a good email address let us know!!
Next we went to the Edward Fox Museum. The Edward Fox was built in 1853 in India as an East India trader. She was 144′ long and 28′ wide and made of teak and saul. They advertised her as the 9th oldest ship still in existence of her kind. As you can see from the pics, only the haul remains but what a fascinating history she had. I love to read about the naval history in the late 18th and 19th centuries (yep, think Master and Commander) and seeing a ship like this was just fascinating….a definite highlight of the trip!!!
Queen Charlotte Track: We were up early to catch our 8:00 am boat to Motura island (bird sanctuary) and then to the start of the Queen Charlotte Track (one of the great walks NZ has). The bird sanctuary was fun, about a half mile hike both ways and they had many penguin “condos”….little boxes for safe harbor and nesting….we did not see any baby penguins but many eggs!! We saw too many birds to mention and had a really good time.
The Track starts in Ships Cove and goes around to Endeavor Inlet. Ships Cove is where Captain Cook came to careen his ships on five different occasions from 1770-1777. It was fascinating to look at the cove he picked and try to understand all the rationale that went into this decision!! The hike was +9miles (so +10 miles for the day) and had lot’s of ups/downs. We both carried a fuller day pack than normal as this is one of our warm up hikes for the 50 mile Heaphy hike next week. We both did rather well, except for the very steep parts and made the hike in about 4.5 hours (advertised as 5.5 hours) so not too bad!!! But, we were very glad to make it to Furneaux Lodge for several ice cold beers and some cheese and salami!!! The scenery and views were just outstanding and the best was no black flies (these little pests are like sand flies on steroids that killed us last year in the Fiordlands!!)
That’s it for now….we are off to Marlbough wine region for the next two days to recover:))))
Hope all is well!
John
Leaving the Wellington Ferry Dock
Cook’s Strait
View from our Picton Balcony, Selene Serenity middle right
Edward Fox, just the hull is left
Edward Fox
Down in the cargo bay
Queen Charlotte Sound; on our way to Motura Island
Blue Penguin Eggs on Motura Island
Ship’s Cove; Captain cook came here for boat cleaning/repairs in 1770-1777
Endeavor Inlet from our hike
View of Resolution Cove from our hike
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