Cyndi and Rich aboard Legacy
April 25, 2016
Now that we have internet again, I’m going to continue writing about our cruise through the Marlborough Sounds and Abel Tasman National Park. I’m not usually current, but there are so many conflicting opinions about cruising this area, so little information, and so much misinformation that I feel obliged to share our experiences in hopes it could be helpful to other cruisers. (Nothing, but nothing, drives me crazier than misinformation!) -Cyndi
April 25, 2016
Now realizing there were no spots to anchor in Kaiteriteri Bay, we now had no choice but to head 20 miles to the city of Nelson where we planned to finish the season. The problem with this sudden change of plan was that we hadn’t looked into weather for that area, and it turns out it was far away enough away to make a difference. While the forecast for the Abel Tasman area had been fairly mild, the winds around Nelson were blowing more than 20 knots from the southwest, just ahead of our beam. It was a long, slow, and unpleasant 4-hour ride to Nelson. What a relief to finally get behind the breakwater into Nelson’s harbor, but no fun at all trying tie up in our slip in these winds. We managed but it wasn’t pretty.
Once we were finally tied up, we were both really tired and really hungry. It was Monday, when many restaurants were closed, in that dead zone between lunch and dinner, and a holiday to boot. Thankfully, a restaurant called The Anchor came to our rescue: it was open and only a 12-minute walk away.
Wow, sometimes after a long slog, you end up at the perfect eatery for the time and place. The Anchor is the sort of classic, old-time restaurant you can find in cities all over the world. This one had a view overlooking the marina, comfortable seating, and was empty at this hour of the day. The wind was still blowing outside, making it feel extra good to be out of the fray and in such a pleasant place. Cold glasses of a local white wine made it even nicer. We split the eye fillet steak and the grouper and scallops thermador, just the sort of food that’s so good after weeks of more basic meals on the boat. Not that we don’t eat delicious food, but sometimes there’s nothing like those old-fashioned restaurant butter and cream-sauced extravaganzas to sooth your tired soul. We tried glasses of a different local wine with dinner, then had one more glass with our sticky toffee pudding dessert. This restaurant may not win foodie awards, but the dinner was delicious and I can’t imagine anything more perfect for an arrival meal.
The last two times we’ve stopped (by car) in Nelson, the hunt for a good eatery hadn’t gone so well, mainly due to lack of preparation (thinking we’d just find something when we got there) or to places being closed for a holiday period. We ended up at Mc Donald’s one time and went hungry the other. We hoped this didn’t bode poorly for the future; so finding a great spot tonight when we needed one meant a lot.
Back at the boat, we took showers before falling asleep to the sound of the wind howling outside. The conditions had escalated during the evening and the wind was now blowing over 30 knots. How great it felt to be in.–Cyndi
April 25, 2016
Over the past week, you’ve seen a lot of posts on our blog about cruising New Zealand’s Abel Tasman National Park from my lovely, brilliant and beautiful partner, wife and best friend. I’m happy to report that she’s finished those posts and we’ve assembled them into a cruising guide in the form of an interactive Google map. You can find it here:
There, you’ll find about 40 posts about our experiences in April, 2016, cruising this great place. We found cruising information hard to come by for this area – at least accurate information. We hope we’ve helped the situation a bit.
Oh yea, by the way, if you’re heading down that way, we also posted a Marlborough Sounds cruising guide. All this and more can be found on our cruising information pages. -Rich
This post answers a question I had when I first began reading about Abel Tasman National Park. The question: Is it possible to see Abel Tasman National Park, and see it well, by your own boat? The answer: Absolutely! But as always, there are some important considerations.
1. Timing is everything. Because of a lack of well-protected anchorages, it’s best to cruise the Abel Tasman area during a period of settled weather, and this is most likely to occur later in the summer. Also, it’s better to avoid Silly Season (the holiday period between December 25 and the first week or so of February) at all costs. There are just too many boats competing for too little space during this period.
2. The best way to get the most out of the park is to keep moving. This isn’t an area to pick a spot and settle in for a spell; it’s an area to go exploring as much as you can in the time that you have because windy periods happen regularly. For those windy periods you’ll probably want to be in Torrent Bay, the most protected anchorage in the region. It’s far from perfect, but it’s the best that’s available. This makes another compelling reason to cruise here during the more settled weather of late summer and early fall: the systems that do pass through are comparatively mild. Riding out a 20-knot northerly in Torrent Bay isn’t so bad. Riding out a 40-knot northerly would be bad.
3. The best time for exploring many places in the park is in the morning. The typical summer pattern is very mild mornings with winds gradually increasing from the southeast in the afternoon. While an area might be somewhat protected from this direction by a headland, the seas can roll in, necessitating a move to a more protected spot. Some anchorages are more exposed than others, and for those you may want to plan to anchor and explore in the morning; then be prepared move to a better spot in the afternoon if the wind picks up (beautiful Sandfly Bay/Falls River and Frenchman Bay are two examples of this sort of spot). Yup, it’s work to pick up and move frequently, but it’s worth the effort.
4. Combining Your Trip. If you’re cruising the south island, it’s great to do both the Marlborough Sounds and Abel Tasman National Park during the same season. We arrived in the sounds on March 12, Abel Tasman National Park on April 20, and finished our cruise, arriving in Nelson on April 25. We covered a lot of ground but somehow never felt rushed, and we saw everything we wanted to see (except D’Urville Island–we ran out of time for that one).
5. A guidebook is essential, and the New Zealand Cruising Guide Central Area by Keith W J Murray covers the sounds, Abel Tasman National Park, and the south end of North Island (including Wellington). It was $58 and worth every penny. We have our trusty and now-worn David Thatcher guides for the north island, but I should also mention that since we went down the east coast and needed to make stops south of Tauranga (about where the Thatcher guide ends), we needed to purchase yet another guidebook: The Royal Akarana Yacht Club Coastal Cruising Handbook. That one was $65, but it got us around the East Cape, to Napier (heading south) and Gisborne (as we headed north). It seemed expensive for covering a small area, but it was essential.
6. As for staying an entire season in the south island, be aware that there is a 3-month time limit for staying at the Nelson Marina, which could be an issue if you plan to leave your boat for an extended period. We would also advise not to counting on a weather window that will take you all the way from the tropics to the south island. We’ve tried twice and had to make other plans both times.
7. The classic way to get to the south island is to check in at Opua, go anchor near the top of the north island and wait for a weather window to take you down the west coast of North Island and on to South Island. We started in Opua but with no suitable weather window in sight, opted to go down the east coast of the north island, making stops along the way. We finally ended up in Wellington before crossing the Cook Strait to the south island. This worked really well for us, and in fact we ended up doing nearly the same thing again in reverse when we decided to head back to Opua (again because of weather). Anyone who tells you that you can’t do it this way is wrong.
So, now that all’s said and done, some may wonder if it was worth making the effort to get down to the South Island. I certainly wondered about it when other cruisers went down there, unable to get a sense of it from sporadic blog posts, vague “it was nice” sorts of answers, or most confusing: “I wish I’d stayed in the Hauraki Gulf because there’s no place to anchor in the sounds!”
For us, the answer is YES! The Marlborough Sounds and Abel Tasman National Park are beautiful and very special places, as is the city of Nelson. I think the main difference between a great experience and a difficult one might be in the willingness to time it properly and put in some work. Forcing your way south through adverse conditions or trying to cruise during Silly Season because it suits your schedule is self-defeating, as is trying to wing it by cruising without a guidebook because you don’t want to spend $58.
We did spend money on guidebooks, did research online to learn about hiking and sightseeing options, invested in Predict Wind which models land effects better than standard weather models, and checked the weather frequently (often twice daily). We knew when the big blows were coming and adjusted our schedule accordingly, opting to stay in marinas during the strongest winds.
Being willing to put in the time, effort and some expense made cruising this area work for us. (Frankly, I’m not sure it took any more of those things to cruise the south island than it does to cruise anywhere else.) We loved the time we spent here and would do it again. –Cyndi
Note: The photos in this post are ones that didn’t quite make the final cut for galleries in the original posts. You can click to enlarge and scroll through them.
April 25, 2016
This day started as merely another jump down the coast; the fact that this would turn out to be our final day here was a surprise.
My initial hope was for us to stop at one or more of the following: Adele Island, Frenchman Island (a tiny island just south of Adele) or an anchorage called Coquille. But alas the breeze from last night lingered, not very strong but enough to nix anchoring in those areas. It looked like we’d need to head straight to our final planned anchorage: Kaiteriteri Bay, which would take us 3 miles south of Abel Tasman National Park.
Below, a gallery of photos from our trip south towards Kaiteriteri Bay, including the famous Split Apple Rock, a fitting name for a large round boulder split cleanly two (click to enlarge/scroll).
Kaiteriteri Bay is one of the main tourist destinations for the Tasman area, popular for its golden sand, clear blue-green water, and touristy seaside town. It’s also considered the southern gateway to Abel Tasman National Park and is the main place to catch a water taxi or hire a kayak. We knew there would be boat traffic and private moorings there, but there was reported to be some room for anchoring.
Not so much. When we turned into the bay, the entire north side was filled with private moorings for professional boats and handful of locals. We didn’t see one recreational boat! The middle area was reserved for water-ski lanes, while the south side was way too shallow for anyone. To say this was a disappointment was an understatement. It had looked like a fun place to visit for a couple of days, plus now the wind was starting to pick up. We now had no place to go but the city of Nelson, nearly 20 miles away.
Rich called the Nelson marina and our slip was reserved and waiting for us. We decided to go ahead and head over there. But I have to say it seems rather annoying and unfair that no area of Kaiteriteri Bay is reserved for recreational boaters. –Cyndi
Note from Rich: The wind came up so much that this is what the ocean looked like as we entered Nelson…
This is a photo we found of Legacy when we looked ourselves up on MarineTraffic.com.
