Queen Charlotte Sound
September 23rd
At the top of the South Island are the Marlborough Sounds. This collection of sunken river valleys consists of three large bodies of water: Pelorus, Kenepuru, and Queen Charlotte Sound.
The Queen Charlotte Sound is the one most accessible to us here in Picton .As the closest point on the South Island to the North Island, it is here from Picton that the ferries take the 3-4 hour voyage across the Cook Strait en route to Wellington.
The fur seals were easiest to locate as they would hangout next to the salmon fisheries located within the sounds. But enough with the dolphins, seals, and seabirds, we were on a mission to spot a kiwi and Motuara Island is the most likely spot for finding one in the sounds.
With the Spring weather arriving, we decided it would be a good idea to spend the afternoon in a confined space with a dozen or so complete strangers with no points of egress, so we signed up for a dolphin watching/bird santcuary visiting boat tour out on the sounds. The naturalists on the tour boat did a wonderful job of pointing out wildlife on the journey out to Motuara Island Bird Sanctuary.
Kiwi do not have any natural predators and likely numbered in the millions prior to the introduction of dogs, cats, pigs, possums, and stoats. They are now a protected species and may number as few 70,000. Motura Island along with several other islands in the sounds are completely predator-free and serve as sanctuaries for the breeding of kiwi.
The kiwi are nocturnal burrow dwellers so our hope of capturing the sight of one walking about was pretty small. That hope took a hit when the island guide who has worked as a nature photographer for some 30 years in NZ shared he has never photographed one in the wild. However, he thought we may get lucky and see one taking a nap in one of the nesting boxes found along the trail on the way to the top of the island.
Well, these little guys are not kiwi, they are Little Blue Penguins, the smallest species of penguin in the world. They are also threatened by predators so the sight of this one with a nestling is good news......unless you have been lugging a toddler up a mountain island looking for kiwi. Sorry kids no kiwi today, the search continues!
From the trail up Motuara there were a number of incredible vistas into the sounds. The photo below shows Long Island Marine Reserve.
At the very top of Motuara is a large cairn marking the spot where back in 1770 Captain Cook raised the British Flag declaring soveriegnity of the South Island for King George III and named the sound after Queen Charlotte.
On the trip back Lilly befriended Rob, the nature photographer, and was given some quick lessons on how best to photo dolphins in the wild. This proved to be much more difficult task than one would originally think. The dusky and common dolphins are incredibly fast and a rocking boat and a parent yelling 'Don't drop the camera in the water!" made it quite difficult to get one close and in focus. This was her best shot of the day.
In addition to commons and duskies, the sounds are also home to Hector's dolphins and killer whales. Below are some shots shared by Rob of dusky dolphins in the sounds.
Unfortunately, we didn't have Rob snap this photo or else we may have been instructed to move Will into a more lively position or perhaps at least check for a pulse.
