Sailing Taurus NZ

So, the big day was finally upon us. Cara had finished her last shift and December 31 2022 saw us throw off the lines and head up Otago Harbour. At the heads we turned right and enjoyed a northerly breeze of ten to fifteen knots. Our destination was Port Pegasus at the South East corner of Stewart Island, a Mecca for local sailers but not easy to get to due to the sou-westerly that prevails in the area and the often rough conditions.

Rather than try to arrive in Pegasus at night we decided to stop in Lords River, a beautiful spot with plenty of anchorages. The trip had taken thirty one hours and we had ‘celebrated’ New Year’s Eve at watch changeover with a quick peck and a mumbled “Happy New Year!”

The water at Lords was stunningly clear and cold, and the sealife far more abundant than we were used to in Dunedin. Orca whales turned up in the evening, splashing and frolicking in the sheltered waters.

After spending one night and meeting fellow cruisers on Noomie and Wild Bird we carried on to Port Pegasus. Just before we arrived an un-forecasted westerly sprang up giving us about twenty knots on the nose and making our entrance via the aptly named Narrow Passage quite exciting.

Once in the Port we headed to a recommended anchorage at Cod Fish Reef, in Evening Cove, South Arm. The anchorage demanded a fairly tight turn around some submerged rocks and didn’t have a huge amount of swinging room. Pegasus is well known for needing stern lines at most anchorages, a new skill that Cara and I had yet to try, let alone master. Not surprisingly, Cod Fish Reef was a decent spot for fishing, and we soon had a couple of fat blue cod for dinner, though the presence of an inquisitive sea lion kept us on our toes. Over the next few weeks we felt fortunate to see plenty of these animals. Graceful and beautiful in the water, bulky and ungainly on land.

Stewart Island is a dark sky reserve, though we were so far from any town that that fact hardly mattered. Other than the presence of a couple of hunting huts, with no electricity, and some other well-spread out cruisers in various anchorages we were in the wilderness, one of the last truly wild places left in New Zealand. Here, if you get into trouble you have to get yourself out.

This point was underscored when we decided with the crew of Noomie, Daniel and Anna, w to try and climb Magog, one of the famous peaks in the area, the other being Gog. The cruising guide reported a track but this had long disappeared, and the Manuka was dense and had to be literally fought through. Foolishly, I had worn shorts, normally de rigeur in NZ tramping, but my legs became badly scratched so that forcing one’s way through the scrub became increasingly painful. Progress was also painful, and having reached a point about an hour from the base of Magog we realised that if we didn’t turn around we would have to spend the night out. We returned with new respect for the land, and those who had tried their hands in the early industries here: sealing, whaling, timber milling, and tin mining.

Next time: more adventures in Pegasus…