Over the last couple of days, we've been making our way from Nelson, on the South Island, to Wellington on the North Island. Our exit from Nelson was a little bumpy - straight into the tail end of some fairly rough weather. As we left the harbour, it was rough enough that a surfer lying on his board in the breakers managed to wave to us!
As we headed out through the bay, the Rainbow Warrior was rolling in some fairly vicious swells, which made eating dinner a little testing - just trying to keep food on the plate was tough work.
By 8pm, we ducked into Croisilles Harbour, a large natural inlet surrounded by craggy hills, where we dropped anchor for the night. Some dolphins were playing around the ship as the Tasman Swimstop Team got ready for yet another dip in the ocean - in the dark! We didn't stay in long this time - with all the cold fresh water running off the hills, the water was rather... cold.
Long white clouds lay low around the hills, eerily visible even in the dark, and we wondered what the place would look in the morning. I've wanted to visit the beautiful Marlborough Sounds for some time - and I hadn't managed to explore them on my last visit to New Zealand. The sounds are a maze of inlets on the north end of the South Island - the ferry from Picton to Wellington has to navigate its way through one of them, Queen Charlotte Sound.
In the morning I woke up pretty early, but dozed off into some semi-dream state, until I was awoken by Carmen.
"Dave, grab your camera and come quick to see the moon setting!"
I jumped out of bed - not something that I'm very good at - and ran up on deck with my camera and tripod. I'd have to work fast - a beautiful golden moon was about to drop behind the mountains, its light shimmering on the water beside the Warrior. I tried a couple of long exposures - but even with the slow lazy rolls of the ship, the photographs were way too blurred.
No matter - the sun was already beginning to drop hints from the other end of the inlet, through a veil of modest clouds. Even though it was still pretty early in the morning, about half the crew were on deck and the hardcore barbecue team already in full swing. The combined squad of Chris, Logi, Emilse, Logi, Carmen and Mal delivered up a massive feast - eaten out on deck, of course. Poached eggs on toast while watching the sunrise from the deck of a ship in the Marlborough Sounds - perfect.
The day brightened, and the sun tried to burn through the cloud, a large halo could be seen around it - and I did manage to catch this on camera. By mid-morning the sun was warm, and the crew were out cleaning parts of the exterior of the ship. When I had a spare moment, I jumped into one of the small inflatables with Oscar, and we went for a quick circle around the ship - to get some photographs.
Another quick swim, and then it was back to work, up with the anchor and away, making for French Pass - a narrow passage between the mainland and D'Urville Island, which Dean, the NZ Communications Officer, told me has a lot of greenstone rock, which promotes a whole series of plants endemic to the island. The scenery on the way to the pass was beautiful, all classic New Zealand hills and cliffs, erupting out of the sea.
The weather was so warm that we ate out on deck again, and as the hills closed in around us, most of the crew was on deck to enjoy the view.
As we slipped through French Pass and out towards the Cook Strait, one angry little pied oystercatcher did two circuits of the ship, bleating out his territorial song. There were hundreds of birds of various kinds sitting on the calm water, and others diving in for fish. Up on the roof of the bridge - where Luiza, Logi and I were taking photographs, I could see splashing up ahead:
"Dolphins!"
Various twos and threes of dolphins were zipping around - a few joined the ship, briefly, before scooting away again.
By nightfall we entered Port Gore - another beautiful natural harbour, fringed by an amazing sunset.
