Pelorus Sounds - A change of pace

All the posts on this blog so far were about whitewater.

Not this one.

Even though I spent the last ten years almos exclusively in whitewater boats I come from a background of seakayaking. I guess growing up a few km's from the "beach" in Northern Germany made that a pretty obvious way of getting into kayaking in an area without any mountains (my parent's house sits below waterlevel) or even hills.

Now New Zealand has not a only a big reputation for amazing whitewater but also a huge system of sounds and bays, cutting far into the land, bordered by mountains raising right from sea level.
The possibilities are endless, there are incredibly famous destinations like Milford Sounds, pristine and rather crowded ones like Abel Tasman to the very remote areas of Fjordland.
There also is a big system right at the northern end of the South Island.
Most travellers experiencing NZ will have seen a tiny bit of it from the Interislander Ferries while approaching Picton.

With limited time on our hands and the idea to do something that neither of us had done I teamed up with long time Milford Guide and Paddlerzone Sea Kayak Instructor Matt "Tex" Walker to explore the area around Pelorus Sounds. Our time frame was roughly a week, weather seemed to be alright and with a week of hectic organizing we made our way North. Pretty stressed at that point to be quite honest.
It took us until the second day to shake off the daily grind and start enjoying the unique area.
Options are endless and after listening to some of the Mountain Radio forecasts we altered our plan to mission D'Urville Island and rather have a proper holiday.
Days still averaging around 20 to 30 km's after that decision (instead of a daily 40) we spent a lot of our time exploring, fishing, relaxing, eating well and lots.

After having had my last longer seakayak trip in 2003 it took me a while to get back into enjoying the special eventfulness of seakayaking. You are traveling at a rather slow pace and thus have tons of time to enjoy what is happening around you. And other than the fast paced whitewater part of our sport it is all of a sudden more about the little things that entertain you.
Wildlife was a big one, penguins, seals, stingrays, kormorans, seeing (!) king fish all made us stop for bits and just observe.

Fishing from the kayaks was another big part.
Matt was trolling pretty much throughout the whole trip, with tons of enthusiasm but very limited success. Well, he did catch a good sized and really mean looking Barracuda - until it put its razorsharp teeth to work and snapped the line.
As soon as we would stop at the rocky points where the tides stirred up the water around the steep rockbeds we would get lucky. Baitfishing it wasn't uncommon to pull up two blue cods at once! Delicious!

The moment I will remember the most though is one that was impossible to get on camera.
Close to the end of the trip we were battling a strong southerly wind all day to make it to the campsite. In a place where the hills are shooting right out of the water it is hard to find a good spot to sleep, so we stuck to the excellent little DOC campsites.
We had an hour or so left before sunset at this point, about seven kms to go but now both tide and wind in out back. We were sure we would make it.
We didn't.
Matt decided to climb up a somewhat accessible spot in a little bay, tying his boat close to sea level. I wasn't sure how high the tide would go in that spot, didn't want to risk my gear and the thought of climbing in almost darkness just to not find a flat spot for my thermarest didn't seem appealing either.
Though exhausted from the longest day we had I was still fit enough to do another few km's, do the last crossing to the campsite. By that point it was almost completely dark.
And then it all came together.
Lining up the stars I had marks on where I should end up. Headtorch flicked to red above my visor so it wouldn't blind but I'd still be seen I left shore.
A warm evening land breeze was blowing against me, but only mildly so.
After a while of paddling, just listening to the sounds, enjoying the blurred reflection of the stars I realized something had changed.
I could see my paddlestrokes! I had seen it before, but never in an area this big and a setting like this. Bioluminescense is caused by microorganisms that are stimulated to light up through motion or touch. What that meant for me was that not only my paddlestrokes but my whole boat and the waves coming of it where ILLUMINATED!
And to finish it off I did find a good campspot, had a little fire and enjoyed a small nightly hike.

I often find it hard to not spend time off on whitewater and it is still where my passion is, but I would go for a trip like this anytime again!

Another good thing by the way was that I spent some more time with my camera, playing around with pictures more challenging than the obvious action of whitewater kayaking.

Enjoy the shots!

PELORUS!

peer pressure

guess where there is good fishing!

mi casa!

campfires and bad spelling.

time to chill

amazing campsites

showers

find the sign. all you can see from the DOC sites

so delicious!

Tex trolling.

in spots you feel like coming into jurassic park

rushhour!

my ride! Mission Eco Bezhig! What a packhorse!

Green shelled mussels. Not so green anymore but about to pop open next to the fire!

My last night by myself.

Same spot.

Pollution. Or a romantic sighting of rusty anchors.

Sting Rays. RIP Steve Irwin!

Peace!

Sven