VulcanSpirit - Ship Cove

Ship Cove

VulcanSpirit

Richard & Alison Brunstrom

Thu 11 Apr 2013 10:03

We've taken an interest in the voyages of Captain James Cook as we crossed the Pacific, and we've followed it up here. Abel Tasman was the first European to sight NZ in 1642, but a brush with unfriendly Maoris saw him off without landing. The next European visitor was Cook in 1769. Cook made five visits to NZ, repeatedly returning to Ship Cove in Queen Charlotte Sound (named by Cook after the wife of George the Third), his favourite Pacific anchorage.

Ship Cove is on the northern tip of South island, near the entrance to the Sound. Here it is, seen from Motuara Island which protects the Cove from the ocean swell:

The NZ government has done rather a good job, deliberately, in keeping the Cove looking as close as possible to its appearance during Cook's time - albeit tragically with a lot fewer birds. Ship Cove is one of very few shallow protected anchorages in the Sounds (which are drowned river valleys); even better it has a careenage. This is it:

"A what?", I hear you ask. A careenage is a place where you may careen a ship. You beach your ship at high tide having previously lightened it by removing as much from it as possible to reduce its draught. Then you pull it onto its side by a rope to the top of a mast, exposing its bottom which you may now scrub clean (careen) to remove the massive amount of marine growth that has accumulated there on your journey from Europe (no antifouling paint in Cook's day!). This is a lovely careenage formed by the delta of a nice little stream giving the added benefit of clean fresh water on site.

There is a rather ugly memorial with some very good interpretation hidden in the trees. A couple of old cannon were added to give a naval flavour. One is early nineteenth century, the other is earlier. Recent research has now proved that quite by coincidence it is actually one of Cook's.

A really delightful place with a very calm feel - no houses, no road access (just a few foot ferries and a walking track). We loved it.

And here is Motuara Island from near Ship Cove, looking north towards North Island beneath the long cloud in the distance across the Cook Strait. When Cook arrived in 1770 there was a Maori pa (fortified village) on the small island to the right. For some reason, possibly the pa (Ship Cove was uninhabited), Cook chose Motuara as the place to raise the flag on 31 January 1770 and claim the entire country for King George, in the presence of the (I expect rather bemused) village chief.

The hillock on the right has a memorial to the event; again of rather strange design. Presumably either Cook cut the trees down on the hilltop to enable the flag to be raised, or the Maori living thre had already done so. But nowadays its a rather special bird reserve, covered in regenerating native bush.

There are three species of penguin breeding in NZ. The commonest, the Blue Penguin Eudypetula minor breeds all round the NZ coast but is having great difficulty with stoat predation. Some idiot introduced rabbits. They rapidly became a pest. So another idiot had the brilliant idea of introducing stoats to eat the rabbits as they do in the UK. But stoats would rather eat ground nesting birds (especially flightless ones), their chicks and eggs. So they did. The effect on native birds has been absolutely catastrophic. But Motuara has now been cleared of introduced predators and the penguins breed and moult here. The island has a path, with penguin boxes. Here is one. The lid opens, and inside is a penguin (not photographed so as not to frighten him with the flash). This particular box is right at the top of the island next to the memorial. The occupant climbs up through the forest from the sea on those ridiculous little penguin legs every morning, and then back down again every evening. There were lots of empty boxes closer to the sea, but this guy likes the one at the top.

And here, perched on the knee of a disembodied member of the crew of Vulcan Spirit is a South Island Robin Petroica australis, a rare bird now recovering with the help of predator-free islands like Motuara. No relation to the European Robin but a very similar engaging and inquisitive manner - they feed on ground dwelling creepy-crawlies and really like you to drag your foot through the leaf litter to expose their dinner - very reminiscent of a British Robin getting worms from the vegetable gardener.