Commodore
November 26, 2024

Wednesday 27 November – moving to Smokehouse Bay

Rowan had another early start to the day with another board call. We decided to go and anchor at the Smokehouse anchorage for the night, to have a fire and beer on land, and maybe meet some people as it is meant to be very sociable. We left after breakfast and found a spot to anchor with 4 other boats around. We dinghied over to Kaikoura Island, a reserve that the NZ gov bought off farmers in 2005. The aim of the reserve is to support the natural regeneration of the vegetation, free of invasive plants and animals. At the jetty where we docked was a big sailing boat, it turned out to belong to the manager of the reserve, they have lived on the island for 9 years with their 3 young girls. He came out to chat to us, his main job is setting traps and bait to kill off rats. They have successfully eradicated all the goats, cats and farm animals, and are slowly killing off the pines. What a remote life style, the kids are all home schooled, only doing classes in the morning, afternoons are working around the island including their vegetable patch. We were impressed with his boat which had two big chimneys, a woodburner downstairs and then out the back was a small wood stove to heat up water for their bath which sits out over the back of the boat. He has made all these modifications himself. Really impressive.

We had a lovely walk up to the top of the island, through loads of tree fern forests which I love. At the top was a runway, they used to farm deer here and fly the meat out. There are also a couple of WWII bunkers and look outs but we didn’t see them.

It was mid afternoon by the time we got back and I needed to make bread as we had our last couple of slices at breakfast. Many more boats had arrived at the anchorage. There were a load of dinghies at the Smokehouse beach, so Rowan went in with a couple of beers and said he would pick me up when my bread was done. When he came to pick me up, I asked how it was, he replied that it was a bunch of aging hairy arsed fisherman ….. not too appealing! We went back armed with a couple more beers, I thought Rowan might have been exaggerating a bit about the fisherman, but it was even worse! They never even acknowledged us sitting down, I finally said hello and hoped we were not intruding, that got a nod from a couple of the 13 men sitting about, the only two women just talked between themselves without drawing breathe or a sideways look. Rowan chatted to the man next to him, who looked extremely pale for a solo sailor in his big gumboots and long pinky fingernails! He was drinking his home brew, which had loads of debris at the bottom which he assured us were cloves. I managed to talk to the guy next to me. They were mainly from a fishing club all out for an outing in their various boats, without their women. Needless to say we did not stay very long, but it turned out to be a hugely worthwhile experience, as a Kaka, an endangered forest parrot came to feast on the nectar from the flax flowers above the roof of a shed. We had a great viewing of it. It is mainly olive brown with hints of red. They have become endangered because of stoats, possums and rats getting their eggs. The big eradication of these predators on the islands is helping so many endangered species to come back. The same as in the Bay of Islands.

We returned to PolePole and Rowan cheered himself up by cooking some delicious boerewors on his new Kiwi Sizzler BBQ and opening a bottle of red wine. We restocked at the Biltong shop in Whangarei the other day, Rowan happily has a very good supply of wors, biltong and droewors, made by South Africans and really good, tasty quality. I counted 14 boats when I went to bed.