We both had eagerly anticipated our tour on the Pelorus Mail Boat (http://www.themailboat.co.nz/). Out in the Pelorus Sound, there are lots of people who live off the grid, and can only travel by boat to get to civilization. No roads, no electrical wires, no internet! They have generators of one sort or another, but depend on the mail boat run to get mail, groceries, news, a ride back and forth to Havelock, etc. This is truly "getting away from it all!"
We had wanted to take the mail boat run back in 2005 (even though it had been wintertime). However, at that time, Anna was recovering from a cold and Kent was getting one so we decided to take a wine tour instead. This time, there were about two dozen folks altogether with a great mix of old and young. We left the wharf in Havelock at 0930 and began steaming up through the Sounds. Since this tour was for the Outer Sounds, we kept going for 2½ hours before making our first stop at the Pohenui Nature Resort in Richmond Bay. Since it was a sunny, calm day, we stopped and walked around the resort for about 20 minutes. Besides the usual sheep and ducks, we saw two ostriches. The male decided to show off with a dance where he squatted down, spread his wings, and waved his head/neck back and forth in a swaying motion. Our next stop was another nature preserve, this one in Waitata Bay. We dropped off a ranger and picked up the gal that he relieved (we think they work a week at a time taking the mail boat every Friday). We then went across the Bay and met a couple of pigs. Our fourth stop was at Bulwer, the next bay to the north. There's a resort here called the Cedarview Cottages, which Penny (one of the sea posties) had stayed at last Easter. On the way to our fifth stop (Port Ligar), we stopped by a mussel farm. We saw a set of floats that were low in the water (they still had mussels on them) and a set that were high in the water (the mussels had been harvested from them). We dropped off a backpacker at Port Ligar before heading out to our sixth and final stop at Forsyth Island. We left there at 1500 and started the long trip back to Havelock, arriving back in port at 1750 (a little over 8 hours for the entire tour). On the way back, Anna struck up a conversation with a young German couple with a year-old baby. As they were LOTR geeks, she was telling them about all the "Ring things" to do on the North Island (the couple was taking the ferry tomorrow).
Although we expected a menagerie of landscapes on the tour, we still marveled at the kaleidescope of terrain (wooded, rocky), sea conditions (calm, choppy), and perspectives (close-up, panoramic). Kent migrated to the stern of the boat and took pictures of the east coast (since they sun was in a better position). Most of the wooded terrain was closer to Havelock. Here, we could see a mix of mature trees specifically planted as a lumber crop, native bush, and harvested slopes (barren). One of the photos shows the demarcation between the harvested forest (lighter color) and the native bush (darker green). We saw a few intruiging trees near the shore, as well as some palm trees near one of the holiday homes along the Kenepuru Sound (the second major sound up out of Havelock). The terrain became more barren and rocky as we neared the entrance of the sound to the sea; however, there were always some trees and brush on the landscape. The water started out almost dead calm (little wind and further inland). Once we passed Wilson Bay, we entered the main portion of Pelorus Sound, which was open to the sea. The sea state quickly changed from calm to choppy as we pressed on up the sound. There were almost no clouds in the sky, but we did see clouds olooking north from the sound to the North Island. You can barely make out the outline of the North Island itself in one of the photos, although it's difficult to discern in the distance. This underscored the immense variety of perspectives, from close shoreline views with vivid greens mixed with dull browns to full panomaramas of blues fading into the distance. Even though we spent 8 hours on the water, we could have stayed for another 8 just to drink in the changing scenery.
