Marlbrough Sound Elaine Bay

I get in the van and drive to a place called Elaine bay. It’s basically the end of the paved road on the way to French Pass and D’urbal Island. I originally was planning on paddling the east coast of Durbal Island but I wasn’t sure about taking Homey on a long dirt road. In fact I wasn’t sure that the dirt road was the way to French pass in the first place ( Sandy pointed out to me that if I had read the guide it would have confirmed the dirt road part) But in any case I ended up in Elaine Bay where the road ends. Elaine bay is a small community but I saw at least two places that advertised kayaks for hire. So I stopped at the first one and asked the man that answered the door if he could pass along any helpful knowledge about the area, as far as a paddler was concerned. He showed me a map of the sound and pointed out the areas that have camping. He had a double out with a couple currently. He didn’t have any maps to give me but he allowed me you use his computer printer to print out a chart from the electronic ones that Sandy had given me. In return I loaded the chart of the entire Marlbrough sound on to his computer along with a detailed insert of Tennyson Sound that he could print up and give to his clients. He was a really nice guy and asked me a bunch of question about his computer that I was happy to answer.

So I drove down to the dock and setup and launched out. It was about 3pm so I had about 3 to 4 hours of usable daylight to work with. As I started out of Elaine bay the wind picked up and turned the quiet water into chop. I was paddling into a headwind and no matter which direction I turned the wind would change direction and I’d have another headwind to deal with. This was very frustrating! The gusts were enough to almost knock you over if you weren’t paying attention. You could hear them roaring down the mountains that ringed the sound. You could see them coming across the water in that funny rippling of the water surface. After a couple of hours if this I was moving beyond frustrated into down right agitation! I had tried several changed of direction, I tried getting in the wind shadow ( or what I thought would be a wind shadow) of the cliffs. But in the end I just had to live with it. The wind would stop all of a sudden and the water all around would become calm and flat. But this didn’t last for long but I did get to see a couple of Rays basking on the bottom. I tried to take a picture of them but I was too slow with my camera. I then had to find one of these camp sites as the sun kept sinking lower and I was getting cold and hungry! I finally spotted the red and black poles that indicate that there is came site located some where close.

The campsite was a few meters back into the bush. It was set up nicely but without the luxury of a drop toilet. But it did have a nice wood fire place and a stack of wood and kindling sitting right next to it ready to be used. As I was cold and pissed off about the weather I built a fire! The site was surrounded by very exotic plant life and it gave the camp that little something extra. No chance that the ranger was going to show up and ask me for my permit. The trees also did a great job sheltering the campsite from the wind! You could here it howl but this time didn’t seem to come hard into the camp itself. So with my nice fire and wind protection it was a very delightful little site.

It was the night before the full moon and I feared that my beach was going to disappear at high tide so I pulled the boat up off the beach and stuck it into the bush.

The next morning the weather was beautiful I broke camp and paddled out to a very calm and warming morning. By lunch I had landed up on an island and took out my book and setup my easy chair and had just enjoyed the afternoon. I had plenty of time to get back so I just kicked it and relaxed. Around 4pm I packed up and finished my paddle and got back on the road. I got as far as Hastings and made parked up on a Look out point for the night. Tomorrow it would be Picton and the ferry crossing back to the north island.