Fiordland Nov 2003 - Story 2
Fiordland – A week on the Cindy Hardy Part II
Hail and thunder in the night heralded a slightly improved dawn and another round of the cray pots. The first dive of the day was the only wreck dive of the trip – a look at the Waikare, a steel screw steamer that hit rocks between Indian lsland and Passage Inlet in 1910. The crew managed to beach the ship in a natural V in Stop Island and clamber ashore without loss of life. They attempted to repair it but unfortunately the sea claimed her as it’s own and the boat slipped off the island to it’s current resting place. Only Bob Llewellyn claims to have actually seen the wreck on our trip with other divers concentrated on enhancing the quantity of their bag limits! Alistair had a very close encounter with a bull seal after clambering onto the island. We on board thought the seal had mistaken him for a female companion and were quite concerned for a while!!
John, Murray & Bob then had an excellent dive along a wall of Stop Island, after braving the hail while kitting up, and surfaced with some very nice sized crays and stories of an abundance of fish and plant life. Stuey, Lewey & Milner surfaced from their second dive of the day on Stop Island reef with tales of cray tails galore. The heavens opened again as Angus, Bob, Ross, Murray & John prepared for a second dive in the same vicinity and down came the hail with the deck soon covered before the divers entered the water. With an air temperature of 2 degrees compared to 13 in the water there was a flurry of splashes as the guys disappeared quickly over the side. An amazing site under the water with hail piercing quite deeply through the surface, similar to bullets flying through the water!! Unfortunately this dive was slightly less successful than before but the hail had gone when we surfaced although we were to encounter snow that day also!! As the photos show the stones were of fairly good size. Ian, the skipper, tried to poke his nose out a little and find some bigger cod. Unfortunately the swell was still too much and after a couple of drifts, a few cod and a load of Jock Stewarts – always a problem for the fishing contingent – we set off back to Acheron channel.
The third dive of the day was on the small islands at the foot of Wet Jacket Arm and the divers had another great time chasing bugs, but unfortunately Milner was unable to recover the hook he had lost on a previous dive. Tall tales about one in each hand and trying to open catch bags with knees resounded into the night and there was not a small measure of competitive spirit between certain parties concerning the ability to enhance one’s daily bag limit – notably John Hornby, Stu Pope and Bob Llewellyn, with Stu allying himself with the southern crew in the quest for the claim to hunting & gathering supremacy!!.
If anything the food was getting better and better as the week progressed and again Carl did us proud with Cod Head soup and Cray for starters and a great bread and butter pudding for afters. We stayed in Beach Cove then for the second night in a row. The wardroom resounded to the sound of drinking and merriment and the cards were played until late in the night.
Friday morning saw us back at the cray pots with Murray bravely volunteering to attempt to retrieve a missing pot that had disappeared down a slope. His first attempt was aborted as he forgot to connect his drysuit direct feed hose and put a weight belt on. The first proper dive of the day took place along a wall of Resolution Island in Breaksea Sound. Angus, Ross and John were quite successful but only after Angus & Ross took time out from posing for underwater photographs after noticing a steady stream of air bubbles emerging from supposedly solid sea floor. Looking over the drop off all they could see was John’s fins sticking out of a ledge and a flurry of silt being stirred up. Ross quickly swam to the other end of the ledge to commence his turn at supermarket shopping! A few crays were taken; Stu emerged first with a very adequate attempt at his quota, followed by a similarly grinning Bob; then John emerged with a catch bag that looked like he had been on a spending spree at the Big Fresh! All agreed that he had made a very very adequate attempt to fill his daily quota.
Everybody emerged with bugs and a great dive was had by all – one of the highlights of a great week. Garth the crew breathed a sigh of relief as this was the spot he had been recommending all week to the skipper.
The final dive of the trip was along Passage Island with varying results, some good sized bugs being taken and tales of great fish life and excellent scenery followed. The sight of black coral was quite common on all dives over the past two days, but always a sight to behold.
With all back on board it was then back to the pots again with a surprise of conger eels before a last fish in 9 Fathom Passage – where Ian reckoned that there would definitely be Grouper. On the first drift through a few cod came up to make up for the mediocre conditions for the fishing contingent so far. Then Ian steamed back up the tide and allowed the boat to drift very close to the falls and the rock. By now we all had great confidence in his skill at handling the boat and so we were almost as surprised as he was when the foremast got well and truly stuck in the overhanging trees. While using this “Tree Anchor” Alistair landed a decent Grouper and Bob had a great tussle with a Seven Gill Shark – which he lost at the last minute when it bit through his trace.
The boat was now hanging down the tide and with a financial advisor, surveyor, insurance assessor, car salesman, forestry consultant, editor, publisher, farmer, mechanic, forklift driver, and engineer amongst others, and the crew all trying to work out how to get out of the tangle, it was the orchardist on the team, Ross who got things underway with some judicious pruning of the overhanging branches.
Working the boat backwards and forwards did not seem to work as the current was too strong so Garth was despatched in the tender with a rope tied to the bow to pull the Cindy Hardy sideways – a process that eventually worked and saw us heading for our final resting place back in Supper Cove where food and drink were in great supply. The evening was certainly very convivial with some great and not so great stories being told and the stayers in the team soldiering on until well into the early hours of the next day.
In the morning everyone was packed when Hannibal Hayes and the helicopters turned up to take us out. The weather improved steadily as we flew east and back to Te Anau, although Hannibal had to do a quick 360 at one stage on the first trip out to see his way clear through one of the cloud covered mountain passes. We were all very glad he knew where he was going. The view on the way out was more spectacular than on arrival with far more fresh snow about, a different route and much higher altitude taken. Then all the goodbyes were said and the catch shared out. Murray found the bag he had lost on day one and the Nelson contingent took the long slog back north in time for the big rugby match of the year – but we don’t talk about that one. A great trip had by all with most agreeing they will do it again. Book now for this year’s trip if you haven’t already.
