Around NZ

Underway on hopefully a circumnavigation of New Zealand leaving most of it to port.
This trip was on our minds when we built Ahi, I guess we have been thinking about it for ten years or so.
First run was up to Tutukaka as our first practice with the 500l bladder in the cockpit. You could certainly notice the change in balance, no surprises given the narrow hulls.
Stayed the night in Tutukaka then up passed Cape Brett and into Houhora for a fuel top up. We were running fairly quick, 18kn or so and burned 2.75l/nm

Awesome!

What a great adventure Darkside..? I'm envious. One thing at least NZ's shoreline is such that you don't need to travel all that far to find a weather hidey-hole.
When we lived they we did trail our Gazelle 26 maxi trailer yacht up and did the Bay of Islands. There was no way I'd have tried to sail all that way.

However, over here in Brisbane, we had a Clipper (CHB) 34, which under previous owners had been up to the Whitsundays and back a couple of times, but for mine, it would have taken just too long to do that, the distances are so large. I had to give up on that idea while still working, as just getting there would have used up the holidays, and by the time we retired, a spousal health issue forced sale of the boat. So, I'll enjoy this trip vicariously through your reports if that's ok..?

Sounds like a great trip! For those of us with a limited knowledge of NZ, can you give us an overview of the distance to Circumnavigate and projected number of days you think it will take?

Ted

The direct circumnavigation is around 2100nm. We will add a fair bit to that. All up probably 2 months on the boat with a few trips back to work here and there.
The west coast has far fewer safe havens that the east coast. On the north island there is one harbour that doesn't require a bar crossing so 340 miles non stop. On the south island there are none from the top all the way to Fiordland, so roughly 390 miles non stop. As always good weather windows is the key.
We should get away with only two overnight passages.

That sounds fantastic! I hope one day to make it to NZ. If I do, I plan a circumnavigation of it too. Please keep up the posting and pics.

Subscribing! I`ve done bits of NZ, twice on a cruise ship. I`ve also done a number of south island cycling trips. Though last cruise we spent time involuntarily in the cabin and the ship left Covid in its wake.
The Sounds in Fjordland should be a highlight. I`ve overnighted on Milford and Doubtful, separate trips from the cruise ships, years ago. The sandflies would carry you away but the scenery, esp Doubtful, is stunning.
Hope it`s a great trip and you post lots.

darkside said:

The direct circumnavigation is around 2100nm. We will add a fair bit to that. All up probably 2 months on the boat with a few trips back to work here and there.
The west coast has far fewer safe havens that the east coast. On the north island there is one harbour that doesn't require a bar crossing so 340 miles non stop. On the south island there are none from the top all the way to Fiordland, so roughly 390 miles non stop. As always good weather windows is the key.
We should get away with only two overnight passages.

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Wow that’s quite the adventurous cruise. Good thing your boat is fast!

How fast would you run on an overnight passage?

We left Houhora around midday. Then up around the three Capes, North, Reinga and Maria van Diemen. Pretty much flat until the tidal overfalls at Reinga but still good enough to go inside Pandora Bank and head south. About 3kn of current with us which was nice. More swell on the west coast.
Cray pot floats everywhere. Then the autopilot stopped. Got it started again but only for a minute. Then the Raymarine Axioms stopped. Power off and rebooted and they were good again. A bit of a scramble to check our various other navigation options were OK, laptops etc. They were so we decided to carry on south.
The auto pilot motor was barely warm to touch so not overloaded even though it was working a bit in the seas.
We slowed to 14kn for more comfort as it got dark. The pilot and screens were stable again.
Pumped about 300l of diesel from the bladder to top up both sides and settled in for the night. Heading straight for the Southern Cross in nice moon light.View attachment 134395

Following with interest! Love to cross the ditch and see the coast line like you are doing, but we can't run at 18kn which is a great advantage even with bladders.

The other pic that didn't load correctly

Should be great trip, keep us updated please!

With your speed and power I would think it easy enough to piggy-back a wave on the way in through a bar crossing. Of course getting back out might be quite a challenge! A while back I saw some video of the fishing boats at Greymouth. Definitely not a crossing for the faint-hearted.

My iPad maps include NZ so I took a peak at your coastline. One thing I noticed was that in Fiordland most Sounds are marked "Compulsory Pilotage". I did see a news article about Superyachts being able to do a course to get exemptions. What are the requirements for "our size" boats?

Yes I agree bars are much easier if you can keep pace with the wave train.
We certainly could if we had to. I spent many years running perhaps the worst of the North Island bars, Aotea, in an inflatable overloaded with dive gear. Greymouth is in a different league however.
That said waiting for little wind, and low swell which would make the bars more tenable, narrows the weather windows even further. So our plan is to skip all the bar entrances, except maybe Riverton.
The only requirements for normal cruisers for Fiordland is a clean hull declaration. Given it is a nearly pristine wilderness area that is understandable.

Dawn bought calmer seas but the window to approach the South Island had closed so a slight turn to port for New Plymouth.
Amazingly no fuel available for commercial or recreational craft. You have to book a fuel truck, and can only get to the dock a couple of hours either side of high tide. The truck wasn't available for the next week or so. We were probably OK for fuel but jerry jugged 160l just to be sure as fuel burn calcs were still work in progress with the extra weight.
Two days later a nice gap opened up and we carried on down to DÚrville Island.
Then through French Pass which as close as NZ gets to Dodd Narrows, but fairly benign for us.
Fueled up in Nelson and all up 2.5l/nm for the run from Houhora at perhaps 15kn average. Pretty happy with that.

The picsView attachment 134445

And again

darkside said:

Fueled up in Nelson and all up 2.5l/nm for the run from Houhora at perhaps 15kn average. Pretty happy with that.

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I should say! Nice economy for that much speed in that much boat. Nice!

Epic undertaking, this circumnavigation. Good sailing.

Ross - any plans to "stop and smell the roses"? If so, where? I'd like to make a note of such places for future visits! I guess a note of places that rate "don't bother" would also be useful. The Marlborough Sound area has long intrigued me although I think the water is likely to be a bit cold for me as more often than not I don a "spring suit" (2mm) when swim here in Queensland.

Will you do any lingering other than waiting for weather windows? I'm guessing that with deep water and limited anchorages the many of the Sounds of Fiordland will be by-passed.

I used to keep a sailboat in the Marlborough Sounds for four years so have already explored that pretty well.
This trip we want to spend as much time as possible in the southern fiords and Stewart Island.
Also the east coast of the South Island, especially around Dunedin and Akaroa

Brian raises a good point about anchoring in Fjordland. Obviously it varies, but what sort of depths are likely? My overnight on Doubtful Sound was a magic experience.

Yep it will be mostly deep anchoring. There are a few moorings we can use and are expecting to stern tie a bit.
We left Nelson this afternoon for a tour of Able Tasman national park and have anchored at Onetahuti for the night.
Weather looking OK to head south tomorrow after squeezing a bit more fuel in first thing.
Wanderer IV once owned by the pioneering cruisers the Hiscocks is anchored nearby.

darkside said:

I used to keep a sailboat in the Marlborough Sounds for four years so have already explored that pretty well.
This trip we want to spend as much time as possible in the southern fiords and Stewart Island.
Also the east coast of the South Island, especially around Dunedin and Akaroa

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Yes Ross..! Especially Stewart Island..! The Fiords are beautiful, but you can't really access the bush from the boat other than in very few places, the sides are so steep, so it's mainly admiring from the boat - and the fishing I guess..?

But, we have relatives on my wife's side who live on Stewart Island - or did - so when I was in Dunedin at med school, (many years ago, now, sigh...), we visited them, and they had a boat and took us all round Patterson's Inlet and elsewhere. It is a paradise for boating. I was never so wrong about my preconceived idea of what a place would be like than I was about Stewart Island. Really looking forward to your pics from there Ross.

Darkside: you mentioned a "clean hull declaration" was a requirement for one place you transited. What is this? And congratulations on this wonderful voyage. Very much looking forward to the journey.

Left early and topped up the fuel under the gaze of a family of stingrays. You always get more in the bladder after it has bounced around a bit.
Initial heading NE to clear Farewell Spit and gradually arc through W to SW.
Plenty of dolphins and seals around
Maybe 2m swell on a long interval and very light breeze from astern.
Just pumped most of the fuel and we have around 200 to run to Milford Sound. Should be close around 10am
The clean hull declaration is just that. You fill a form on line stating last antifoul and any follow-up lift and washes. We submitted and got no response so we assume it was OK.View attachment 134504View attachment 134505

The ray

Thanks for that clarification re. 'clean hull' declaration, darkside. I am looking forward to the total litres per hour and average speed over the whole journey, too.

Arrived Milford Sound. We hooked a bluefin tuna of around 15kg but a shark decided he wanted it more. A couple of large blue cod will do instead.
Cleaned the salt off under Stirling Falls.
Anchored up and time for a rest.
29 hours on the go. About 25 hours on the voyage, the rest fishing and fueling. Really happy to be here.

Looks like a great trip darkside, good luck with everything.

Could you include some screen shots from your plotter zoomed out with routes marked to give folks an idea of where you have been, currently located and heading to etc? Cheers

SB basically we have done the most exposed and longest legs first.
Left Auckland, up around North Cape, down to New Plymouth to wait for weather, then on to Nelson.
After finishing off the work year, left Nelson, a brief fuel stop at Tarakohe then down most of the South Island West coast in one hit.
1134nm so far, roughly half the trip. Now we slow down and enjoy the remote southern part of New Zealand.
Looks like we averaged 16kn for this last 430 odd miles.

You really are flying along, but I understand that coast isn't very inviting.