Moody Momorangi - Marlborough Sounds

Back to catching up....

After Marfells Beach we headed over to Nelson for a couple of days to have a bit of maintenance done on the van before crossing back over the range and down into the Marlborough Sounds where we were to have a bit of time at Momorangi, a DOC campground on Queen Charlotte Drive, the connecting road between Picton and Havelock and gateway to the Sounds.

The road is narrow and twists and turns as it winds it’s way up and down ridges and past beautiful little bays and coves. Last time we passed through here I spotted a sign near the beginning of the road that I couldn’t quite read, this time I managed to read it “No heavy vehicles over 12mtrs allowed”- “phew, we said” thank God we’re not a heavy vehicle!

And the last time we stopped at Momorangi, most of the waterfront was a shambles, torn up and under construction with pipes and trenches running in all directions. The camp was in the process of being revamped and upgraded; the main reason we decided to return another time. So here we are- the camp to ourselves and the sun warm and inviting.

Momorangi is a unique DOC campground, it’s more like a commercial holiday park that DOC lease out. It’s run like the usual holiday parks, there’s a camp store(closed over winter), ablution blocks, power, laundry, kitchens, boat ramp, cabins, rubbish collection, water, etc and site fees that are the normal rates. It’s very popular over the summer holiday period and fully booked months in advance. Queen Charlotte Drive runs through the middle, dividing the camp into two. There are over 90 sites with most of them on the other side of the road, away from the water, they reach back up a gully and are surrounded by native bush.

There are just a few prime sites along the waterfront and we have taken over two of them! One of the reasons we enjoy these sites in the off season, we’re able (and allowed) to spread ourselves out a bit and still only pay for one site. You can see one of the new ablution blocks in the photo below. Unfortunately the showers weren’t available in this block and we had to walk along the water’s edge, through the public reserve past the children’s playground across the foot bridge to the block at the other end of the bay. I drove a couple of times when it was raining.

Here’s something we’ve not seen in any DOC camps before and has been added at Momorangi as part of the upgrade. Beside each power box & water tap, is a grey water dump pipe, a great idea in any camp and especially in a DOC camp and a great idea to have them beside each site. The grey water is pumped through the camp and up to the hills behind where it passes through various filters before finding it’s way into the ground and surrounding bush as clean water. The smaller pipe is to stop idiots from using it as a black water dump although it has been pointed out that some caravan cassette toilets have a similar sized outlet pipe. I wonder how long before somebody stuffs it up.

Our view on the waterfront changed with each tide…

…the retaining wall provided a good vantage point & handy launching pad for half a dozen Kingfishers/Kotare who lined up along it, diving to snatch crabs & small fish as the tide retreated.

After a couple days where it felt like summer was waiting in the wings for us, the weather took a turn for the worse. Even the ducks weren’t happy.

The rain and cold settled in for a few days and other than one or two days of solid rain down south, this was our first long stretch for a number of months. It was great to top up the drinking water containers and the steady drizzle also gave the vehicles a good wash down. We did begin to worry about ruining the new grass and making a mess of the site when we pulled off as the ground became very soft underfoot.

It was lovely surprise to look out one afternoon and see this pair of Royal Spoonbills/Kotuku Ngutupapa wading past. We saw the remainder of the flock later in the week, about 20 birds, feeding in the shallows in Okiwa Bay at top of the Sound.

For the rest of our time at Momorangi, the cloud hung low on the hills behind and across from our bay, the days were cold, wet and pretty dreary with the sun occasionally breaking through for the odd hour or two late in the afternoon. David decided it was too cold to go fishing so the Takacat stayed folded up in the ute, we’ve decided he’s a fair weather fisherman!

I found this wood-ear fungus (Auricularia cornea) on a tree near our site, I love the rubbery texture and unusual shapes. Wood-ear fungus is edible and was once harvested by settlers as they cleared the native forests for farming. It was exported to China by the tonnes until the 1950s but is now mostly imported(dried) from China after Taiwanese growers started cultivating it in the 1960s.

Wood Ear has long been much prized for its culinary and medicinal benefits. Hailed as an anti-inflammatory, it is eaten to relieve tonsillitis and swelling, but is also regarded as a powerful anti-carcinogen, used to prevent and treat tumours. I have on file, a recipe for a tasty soup but forgot all about it, so didn’t give it a go. A pity because it was the right weather for a hearty wood ear soup!

The photo on the left is of the Wood Ears before the rain when they were rubbery with a slight furry feeling on the topsides, the one on the right is after a night of rain when they would have lapped up the moisture, they were like rubbery jelly, very soft and flexible.

I spied this seal resting on the point just past the jetty at the end of our bay so later in the day, after the tide had gone out and I could walk around the point (you can see in some of the photos how low the tide drops) I went to see if he was still there. He wasn’t but I spotted a boat shed around the corner so thought I’d take some photos of that.

As I moved around the point I got the biggest fright (actually I’m not sure who got the biggest fright, him or me) because he was still there, he’d just moved a little further along. He barked loudly a couple of times and literally flew off the shelf he was resting on, flying past me at head height and landed with a big thump and splat on the sand beside me before walking on water until he was deep enough to dive and swim away. He surfaced out in the channel and gave me a beady stare before floating on his side and giving himself a good scratch.

I moved on towards the boat shed where I suddenly caught sight of some movement; another seal, a much bigger boy who tried to pretend he was part of the furniture when he saw me approaching.

He then peeped around the pole at me, gave a big yawn (or perhaps that’s a growl) and moved along the boat shed jetty towards the end before plopping down to rest for a minute or two, still keeping a weary eye on me.

He then clambered down the steps, looked over the back edge and decided that it was too far to jump and he’d be just fine lounging on the deck for awhile so he stretched out, rubbed his chin on the rough wood and closed his eyes…just a little. I left him to it.

You can see how high the tide reaches by the slimy green marks on the jetty posts above and the thick clusters of mussels under the jetty and on the fallen trees. These are Little Blue-Black Mussels not their bigger cousins the Green-Lipped Mussels which only grow in water over a metre deep. Which is the reason that these little mussels aren’t a threat to the green-lip mussel farms; they only grow within the tidal range so only at the top of the green-lip mussel ropes.

Momorangi is tucked up in Grove Arm near the top of Queen Charlotte Sound. The well known and popular Queen Charlotte Walk finishes just across the water from the bay, it begins 70km away at historic Ship Cove in the Outer Sounds.

This is also where the Anakiwa Outward Bound School is located (bottom photo). Established in 1962, over 50,000 men & women have passed through the school including a new group that were being welcomed under the flagpole as we arrived. One of the schools cutters was parked outside the boat shed.

The shelter(middle left) is full of information for walking the track and beside it is the track pass kiosk, some of the QCWalk passes through private land and a pass must be purchased to walk those sections of the track. At $12 for a four day pass, the usual time it takes to walk the track (or $25 for an annual pass), it hardly breaks the bank.

That letterbox holder looks like a manatee to me but I guess it somebody’s pride and joy even if it does look a bit out of place in the tiny settlement near Anakiwa. I bet visitors never get lost…’yes, turn left when you see a manatee wearing a apricot pokka-dot dress and pearls’….

The rain and mist lifted the day we left Momorangi, the bay was calm and peaceful as we pulled away(without leaving any tracks) heading to the other side of the Sounds and another DOC camp, Whites Bay. We’ll be back to Momorangi another time, when the sun is shining and the blue cod biting.

Beer & Skittles

I thought I better do another update on our whereabouts. I am steadily getting through the Maniototo posts with just a couple more to do. Actually I think three, one of them will be a two part-er. But just as I am about to catch up we move on to a new spot and do some more exploring! So if I don’t keep up with these short ‘here we are’ posts I’ll be forever coming up the rear.

Originally we were heading from Marfells Beach to Momorangi in the Marlborough Sounds for a couple of weeks of rest and relaxation (and fishing) but we had to make a detour and carry on over the big hill to Nelson to do some urgent maintenance on the 5th-Wheeler.

And as you can see it’s not all beer & skittles when you’re on the road- here we are parked up for the night in an overgrown empty lot with a shipping container and an old caravan for company and whole lot of dog sh*t;- David wanted you to know that after stepping in a few piles! The company who were doing the maintenance use the empty section and suggested we stay here so they could get an early start the next morning.

They offered the section again the next night but we decided to re-locate to the familiar and friendly Richmond Racecourse site where we’ve stayed a few times before. They were quite busy with a few permanents (max. allowed 3 months) and other full-timers passing through. We parked across a couple of sites and stayed hitched so we could pull out early the next morning.  It was a lovely surprise to be greeted by Shirley & Graham; they have been running the camp since the new year. We met them way down south in Manapouri last year when we were both staying at a great campground and where I took a helicopter ride to take photos of the campground.

We pulled out early the next morning and hauled ourselves back over the Rai Saddle and down into the Marlborough Sounds pulling into the DOC Momorangi Campground with enough of the day left to sit outside and enjoy the warm sunshine. That was after setting up the table and chairs for the first time this season and we also had our first taste of pesky sandflies for the season, or more to the point, they had their first taste of us. Summer is on its way!

I spoke to soon. We stayed at Momorangi for 7 days and had rain for 5 of them. It was heavy and steady for a couple of days and on and off for the rest. My hunter-gatherer decided he is a fair weather fisherman so the Takacat inflatable didn’t see the light of day & stayed tightly packed in the back of the ute. The weather, along with the fact that the blue cod fishery is out of bounds for 3 months sealed the fishing fate.

After Momorangi we headed into Blenheim to do a few chores, stopping at our regular stop, the Blenheim Racecourse. Another not so ‘beer & skittles’ park over, the grass areas were very boggy and rather than venture into our favourite spot between the grandstands and avoiding parking outside the Ballet School (where we had little girls swinging on the ramp bars just below our kitchen window and Mums parking their cars beside our front door) we backed in beside the tote office. Keeping well clear of doorway where the tractor is stored. Tractor? Too late. 7am the next morning the door is scrapped open across the gravel to stop right beside my bedroom window. The tractor roars & revs for about a minute before it bursts out the door on a mission. To be repeated again the following morning.

Chores done we were out of there and on our way to the DOC campground at Whites Bay. Whites Bay is located north east of Blenheim on the coast, at the bottom of the Marlborough Sounds but on the outside of the Sounds- if that makes sense.

If you headed north out of Picton on the Port Underwood Road, Whites Bay is towards the end, just over the hill is the beach settlement of Rarangi and the Wairau Plains. We came in from the Rarangi end- a steep and winding 6kms. No towing (not that, that stopped us on Queen Charlotte Drive into Momorangi) or large motohomes & vehicles are allowed further on past the bay on the Port Underwood road.

Whites Bay is a small sheltered bay (except for easterlies) that is obviously quite popular in the summer- there’s a surf club headquarters near the beach front and plenty of camp sites although all the top areas are closed off for the winter.

Across the bay is Cape Campbell and Marfells Beach. Whites Bay is named after Black Jack White, an American Black who deserted his whaling ship in 1828 and lived with Maori in the bay.

In 1866 the first of many telegraph cables between the North & South Islands was brought ashore at Whites Bay. The telegraphist's building that had been prefabricated in Australia was floated ashore and sits, preserved, in the middle of the DOC camp. 

Tonight while I was doing the dishes I heard the familiar sound of a couple of possums challenging each other just outside the van- it’s a weird noise and so loud that if you didn’t know what was making it you’d be quite worried and perhaps think a herd of cattle beast were about to rampage through the camp. David went out with his head torch on to locate them, he found them both close by. Well he found one and I heard the other one rustling about in the leaves at ground level. Beside me. Me without the head torch- that gave me a bit of a fright until it ran up the tree. David shone his torch on it while I shot it….with the camera  Cute eh?

Today we explored the Port Underwood Road (I’ll do a post on it later), initially we were just going to drive the road along the coast and turn around before it headed inland across to Picton but in the end we drove the whole loop- 80kms with about 50 of them on a narrow, gravel, very winding road, climbing up and over high ridges and down into tiny bays and then back up again.

There's a side road up one of the Sound arms with a monument towards the end that I had set my sights on seeing but when we got to the turnoff I had second thoughts. 14kms there and 14kms back on a similar or probably worse road just to see a monument- my head said “Don’t be silly”, the wanderlust in me said ‘Go for it”. This time my head won. David was pleased.

That got me thinking.....and so, I'm going to dedicate this post to my number one fan. A person who reads every blog post word for word and at least twice and probably 3-4 times and then asks when the next one will be posted. This person is the one who gave me the genes for my wanderlust and thirst for exploring the back-roads and byways, an extra special man who always took the long way home, despite the pleas from his wife and the whining kids in the back seat of the car.  Happy Fathers Day to my darling Dad xx

            

Checking out of Kenepuru

The sun sets over Kenepuru Sound and after a wonderful ten days, it’s time to hit the road again and finish exploring the Marlborough Sounds.

We loved having the DOC Kenepuru Head campground to ourselves for most of the time we were there but when the long Labour weekend brought at least a dozen campers to the site it was great to have some company for a change. The campground is so large that there was plenty of space for everyone to spread themselves around.

After having fantastic weather all week the rain & wind arrived on the Sunday of the holiday weekend which was a shame for those that were in tents and/or had only come for a couple of days.

Of course our departure wouldn't be complete without a weka inviting himself in to say goodbye. He got a short shift!

I’m sure DOC thought we’d outstayed our welcome, they had to mow around our van (and in fact DOC have just mowed around our van once again here at our latest site, this is becoming a habit!)

Without any stops, and travelling slower through all the twists & turns with the 5th-wheeler on the back, made the 40km to the main road feel a very long way. We were heading to the DOC camp at Momorangi on Queen Charlotte Drive which is just 6-7kms on from the main road junction so it was good to know we didn't have too much of a journey ahead of us. Momorangi was on our radar because it had a small boat ramp & good access to the Sound without us having to worry about the tide. David was keen to see if the snapper had arrived.

Unfortunately our plans were foiled. We knew that Momorangi Camp was being upgraded over winter and that they hadn't quite finished them, but we didn't know that they actually have a long way to go to complete the changes. The Momorangi Campground is leased out and while its in a nice spot it’s more like your usual campground with all the facilities, it also has the main road running through the middle of it. After coming from the quiet and remote Kenepuru Head it was a bit of a shock to find such a busy site with earth moving machinery and workman everywhere along with sections of the campground roped off. So we made the decision to continue on to Picton and around to another DOC site at Whatamango Bay.

Queen Charlotte Drive is one hell of a road, it’s a narrow and winding (what’s new) scenic drive that links Picton with Havelock. Most sane people travel the extra distance and join the two towns by travelling via Blenheim, it’s longer but faster and the roads are fairly straight. Not us or overseas tourists, we want to see the sights. I think I saw a sign post flash past that said no vehicles over 9 metres. Too late. By the time it registered we were well past and we couldn't turn around to check. Oh well, we’re used to these roads by now.

The road was narrow, and it was very winding, and it climbed up a few hills but none of these faze us much any more. It was the amount of traffic coming the other way, and mostly driving down the centre of the road, that was the worry. I know it’s narrow but there is a centre line for a reason, and if you have to cross it, slow down and check nothing is coming the other way before proceeding. These cars just pressed on seeming to take no notice of the fact that we were approaching.

Once we got to the other end and stopped at the lookout over Picton wharf I realized that a lot of traffic would have come off the ferries that had recently berthed.

We stopped in Picton to top up the tanks with diesel & petrol(generator), fill the gas bottles, fill with fresh water & dump our black & grey water tanks- thankfully all at the one service station which was great. Next was the supermarket to replenish the fridge, freezer & pantry. We’d done really well with supplies and the only thing I ran out of was milk although I still had one carton of long-life milk left, and powdered milk if things became desperate (yuk). But it was nice to get fresh veges & fruit, bread & eggs and top up the supply cupboard as well. Oh, and the wine- just one bottle spare thanks to a few entertaining nights over Labour Weekend.

Finally we were back on the road and heading to Whatamango Bay another 10kms further on past Picton on narrow winding road (no surprise there!) The wind was picking up and storm clouds gathering by the time we pulled in and even though we set up camp down by the water we were tucked in behind some low bushes and around the corner from the main wind which was blasting down the bay.

Whatamango is another large site but it doesn’t quite have the same appeal as many of the other DOC camps that we’ve been to in the Sounds have. The tide was out when we arrived but by the look of it I think it must roll in here which just happens to be very near the front of our vehicles. It’s not a tidy looking bay, with lots of driftwood and debris scattered about and exposed mudflats.

I know the weather has a huge bearing on first impressions of a place but unfortunately this one isn’t doing it for us. Maybe we’ve just been spoilt too much with the sites we’ve already visited but we’re both not that impressed with this side of the Sounds. We were going to move onto to Whites Bay or Robin Hood Bay on the east coast after this stop but we’ve now decided we’re going to head to Nelson Lakes for the next couple of weeks. We’ll explore the east coast side another time, I think we’ve just had too much of the same scenery for now.

We might not be too impressed with the site but these couple of crazy ducks are even less impressed with us. They think we’ve brought intruders to their patch.

I thought, at first, that they were pecking the bugs off the bumpers but after half an hour of quacking, head bobbing and climbing over each other I went outside to have a look. They were attacking their reflection, silly crazy ducks. I think they were a little crazy anyway, they’re either brothers or two drakes in a relationship. They wander everywhere together, side by side, they play in the puddles and rest together, it is quite sweet how much affection they have for each other. But now they’re starting to annoy me (and David), they keep coming back and attacking the bumper. All day, they've been here and even when I chase them away, half an hour later they’re back again, quacking and dabbing at their reflections.

The mate of this female paradise duck spends half his time chasing them away too.

The forecast gale force winds and heavy rain arrived this morning but as I type the sun is back to shining although the wind is still strong- I spoke to soon, it’s now pouring again with strong gusts rocking the van. And as I predicted the tide came creeping around the corner this morning, stopping just short of the ute.

We’ll sit it out here tonight and then head to Blenheim tomorrow and onto the Lakes.

And in case you’re wondering why we don’t just move further afield, I’ll let you into a little secret. We’re booked to cross back over Cook Strait in mid November. But don’t panic. It’s just for a couple of months. Family is calling and the call is pretty loud. We’ve done good to last 12 months without seeing our North Island families but we’d really like to catch up with them soon. We’ll be in Tauranga late November & most of December and then Napier for Christmas & January, including going camping at the Tuki Tuki River like we should have two years ago (the two caravans have been replaced with motorhomes since then). Then we’ll cross back over late January and continue on our journey.

And once again this might be the last post for awhile, I'm not sure how reception will be at Nelson Lakes.