Dusky Sound where Captain Cook sailed and landed in 1770

Travelling to Fiordland in New Zealand’s South Island, first to Lake Manapouri, then over the Wilmot Pass to Doubtful Sound, by boat to Dusky Sound, scuba diving, exploring old wrecks, fishing, and visiting sites where Captain Cook, sealers, prospector William Docherty and bird-lover Richard Henry had been – these all contributed to a unique holiday.

Annual family get together

Dusky Sound photographed from the boat (Click here for a larger version)

I have three sons, one living in Canada, the other two living in NZ. Because I live overseas, we don’t have many opportunities of getting together, so when Nils, my youngest son, suggested that it would be nice if “we boys” could have a “get together”, maybe once a year, we all thought that was a good idea. Unfortunately my son in Canada, Cameron, does miss out at the moment because of his location, but the other three of us, have carried on.

Cruise to Dusky Sound This year we decided to take a cruise on Dusky Sound. On one occasion, when we were all together in Dunedin, my eldest son Hadyn commented that he had always had an ambition to visit Dusky Sound.

Typical native bush scene with waterfalls (Click here for a larger version)

It
offered so much by way of history, fishing, excellent scuba diving because of the clarity of the water and a pristine fiordland landscape which is reputedly the most beautiful of all the Sounds. So we all agreed to cruise Dusky Sound in about twelve months time, and our eventual charter was eventually arranged to start on February 21 1998.

The original idea was that it was a trip for Hadyn, Nils and myself but to avoid trying to find people to fill the boat, I said that I would pay for the boat and it would be just for us. With my partner Nancy and Hadyn’s son and daughter we had a party of six.

We would dine on hapuka, blue cod, crayfish and shell fish for a week and follow the antics and activities of Captain Cook, the sealers and the few dedicated and solitary souls who chose to live a lonely life in such a remote part of the world.

And so we did!!”

Dunedin to Manapouri We stayed overnight in Dunedin then, after meeting up with my youngest son Nils, my eldest son Hadyn and his two children, Katie and Sam, we drove by two hire cars to Lake Te Anau where we had to drop off the cars. This is where we faced a transport problem – how to travel the 21 km (13 miles) to Lake Manapouri.

The motel owner solved the problem and when we arrived and dropped off the cars he drove us from Te Anau to his Manapouri Motel. Then, since we knew the problem, I asked the cruise owner to take us to Te Anau to pick up the cars, after we arrived back at Manapouri after our cruise. He managed to “con” someone else to do it actually, so it can be a problem, which needs to be recognised and the cruise owner offered no solution. ( It was necessary to involve Te Anau because that is where the rental agency has its office. There is no agency at Manapouri.)

Incidentally, the tour operators could do a lot better with their information on how to get to Manapouri, especially for overseas tourists who are not familiar with the location of certain places and especially of travel arrangements and alternatives.

If you are planning your budget for this trip note that the car hire for about five hours cost a total of $200 and the same applied to the return trip from Te Anau to Dunedin Airport. I recommend getting several prices for this section of the journey.

Manapouri to Deep Cove We stayed overnight at a motel at Manapouri and the next morning were taken by small boat to the Power Station at the end of the Lake. A landrover then took us over the Wilmott Pass to Deep Cove on Doubtful Sound where our charter boat was waiting.

A wet start After refuelling, we were finally under way about 1.00 p.m. but spent the afternoon in Doubtful Sound. It had been raining intermittently all that day but it poured down in the afternoon. We had our “wet gear” and did manage to do some fishing for bait, while two of the party did some scuba diving.

Trip to Dusky Sound To get to Dusky Sound we had to travel down the coast in open sea for three and a half hours, passing Dagg Sound on the way. Incidentally, this Sound was named after one of the sea captains of the “sealer” era and had nothing to do with sheep!

This journey was quite rough and several were seasick but we made it. We were told that many charters never left Doubtful Sound at all because of high seas.

Breakwater Island We reached Breakwater Island at the head of the Acheron Passage which leads into Dusky Sound. This island was named by Captain Cook and has been cleared of rats and vermin so as to be used as a bird sanctuary. As its name suggests it gave a welcome relief from the waves of the open ocean.

Fishing We anchored just inside at the Gilbert Islands, in very calm water, for lunch and some fishing, catching some fine blue cod and trumpeter. The boat only had hand lines, which I hadn’t used since childhood, but the fish were so plentiful that they could be caught with only a lure. I had never done that before!!

The Acheron Passage Then we proceeded through the Acheron Passage to Dusky Sound, which also opens to the sea further down the coast past Five Fingers Peninsula. The Passage is another glaciated valley and was the way Cook sailed in 1770 when he first named the Sound, “Dusky Bay”. He had just spent a rigorous voyage in Antarctica and spent the next five weeks in “Dusky Bay” anchoring in Pickersgill Harbour, which is near to the mouth of the Sound. We were actually able to see the very distinctive tree limb, to which Cook moored the Resolution, still living today.

Sportsmans Cove – great fishing The day was fine and we continued deeper into the Sound to Sportsmans Cove, a truly beautiful spot, peaceful and pristine, where we spent the evening. It was also a great fishing spot where I caught the first of about fourteen hapuka (“groper” to others) I managed to catch during our cruise. I also caught some terakihi, another good eating fish and that evening Hayden made a chowder with fish, crayfish, scallops and mussels.

Historic sites in the sunshine We spent the next three days in sunshine and calm water fishing, diving and visiting sites of historic interest. We saw where Cook had his first encounter with Maori, where he carried out his astronomical observations, where the first boat, of 65 tons, was built in NZ, and where the first house, for sealers, was built by Europeans, both in Luncheon Cove.

Seals in abundance

Seal Rock (Click here for a larger version)

We passed Seal Rock with seals basking in the sun and recalled how they had been virtually wiped out by the old time sealers. One day we saw some seals on a small cove so I went with Hadyn and his children to feed them some fish. A young seal was playing in a small gut and the children were able to lean over and stroke it as it played around. The children, I am happy to say, were not restrained by the caution which comes with age. I could appreciate their beauty, their speed and their agility but I could also see their teeth!!

Diving around shipwrecks Hadyn and Katey also dived on two old wrecks, or what was left of them. The oldest was the Endeavour in Facile Harbour – not Cook’s Endeavour but an East Indiaman wrecked about 1795. It had a very colourful history. The other wreck was a Union Steamship Co. vessel, the Waikari, of 3,071 tons, which hit an unmarked rock during a tourist cruise, in the passage between Indian Island and Passage Island. It was on Indian Island where Cook met his first Maori.

More history But there are so many places of interest. Apart from Cook and the sealers and whalers, there was William Docherty, a Scot who prospected for asbestos, tin and copper. He lived in Dusky virtually alone for 25 years. While he was there Richard Henry, an Australian carpenter and Engineer with a love of birds, came to live at the other end of the Sound. The Government appointed him “Curator and Caretaker at Resolution Island”. We saw the site of his house and the compound where he kept birds before releasing them in selected areas which were supposedly free of rats and vermin. After years of dedicated work transporting 700 birds such as wekas and Grey Kiwi he became a broken man, when a weasel was found on Resolution Island.

The lasting impression For me, the beauty of Dusky Sound is unique. Like the Norwegian Fiords it has the high steep walls and waterfalls of glaciated valleys, but it also has variety of smaller valleys and islands with an endless variety of pristine scenery. I hope it stays unspoiled. I hope it stays well guarded as part of the Fiordland National Park. The only change I would love to see would be the end of the sandfly. Even Cook had trouble with them and they have outlasted us all.