April 7, 2012
From World’s End, we made a left turn at the cone-shaped mountain, going through a relatively narrow opening into Ngawhakawhiti Bay (though at mile wide it looked less like a bay than a small lake). In fact, this bay had four anchorages to choose from.
Because we’d gone through a channel to get in here, Ngawhakawhiti Bay felt very much like its own world. Mountains surrounded the bay; then seemed to go on endlessly in the view outside the channel. It really did feel like the world’s end. (Below, a gallery of photos from around the bay and looking out through the channel. Click to enlarge and scroll.)
There was one other boat in the area, but it pulled anchor and left as we approached, giving us the entire place to ourselves. We dropped our hook in the northernmost anchorage in preparation for predicted overnight northerly winds. The breeze had been light up until this point, but as we anchored we had some disconcerting gusts come down side of the mountain and hit us even though we were tucked in behind it. Keith Murray (author of a guide book we use here) had mentioned that in strong conditions you’ll want to tie a line to shore, but he didn’t define “strong conditions.” We just figured that it wouldn’t apply to tonight’s winds.
Thankfully the gusts quickly passed, along with all worries about having to move. We now floated serenely on this beautiful bay. Steeply sided, heavily forested hills surrounded us. Once again we were enjoying what seemed to be the uniquely south island mix of thick bush, very large trees, nikau palms and kiekie. Some of the palms were loaded with red fruit, making them especially striking amid the all the grays and greens on the mountainside. (Below a gallery of photos of our north bay–click to enlarge and scroll.)
Meanwhile, like yesterday, the water danced with fish that left silvery ripples around the boat, while shags (commorants) hung out on the shoreline. Between Ngawhakawhiti Bay and Flopper Bay, we were rapidly becoming big fans of Pelorus Sound. –Cyndi
