The sulphur smell of Rotorua is unavoidable. It’s so strange to be in a small city intertwined in an active geothermal environment. Steam escapes everywhere. We arrived at the Black Swan Lakeside Inn and were instantly enchanted by our host Gretchen and the lovely facility. Once again Trevor from Southern Crossings hit it out of the park!

We had been eating fish in Bora Bora and s we drove to Rotorua we passed a lot of sheep and cattle which definitely made us crave steak. Is that wrong?

Anyway after we dropped off our bags and washed up we were ready to head out to eat and Gretchen directed us to “1842” a sweet little restaurant with yummy steak!

We slept very well listening to the sounds of the lake. I have had some trouble sleeping more than 5 hours. My body clock was waking up at my normal time in Seattle so it was a relief to get some extra sleep.

Rotorua has been experiencing a drought but luckily for them we brought along our Seattle Rain Fairies. It wasn’t cold, just misty. The heavy rains and thunder storms held off until last night and today (our travel day to Nelson).

Fortified with a scrumptious full breakfast, including really good croissant, we headed out to a day focused on local history.

As we drove to the Maori church by the lake (chanting “stay left” and “turn left to left” or “turn right to left”, not to mention “oh god another traffic circle – which way are those cars merging?”) you could see the thermal steam escaping everywhere. Yellowstone National Park mixed with a small city of about 60,000 people.

The Church had beautiful carvings and another Maori war memorial and cemetery.

From there we headed to the Rotorua Museum a small collection where you learn about the healing thermal waters that drew people from all over the world both before and after a major volcano eruption in the 1880’s. They have a great little movie complete with moving seats to enhance the feeling of being in the earthquake. And the basement exhibit of the early piping systems for the mud and steam baths were really quite well done.

There is also a great Maori exhibit with both historic and modern features. The picture below of the glass sail boat is from a modern version of the Maori stories.

The museum features an exhibit of the 28th Maori Brigade that was mobilized to fight in WWII in 1939. They were sent into very difficult situations in Italy and took very heavy casualties.

After the museum we drove on to see the tallest geyser I the area at Te Puia Our guide Carla was an excellent teacher and guide. We even got to see a live Kiwi on the move which is very rare because they sleep 20 hours a day. They are nocturnal, but they shift day and night in the exhibit for our human pleasure. He geyser here goes of every hour but not at set times. But thanks to Carla’s expert timing we arrived just in time for the show. We ended with a tour of the Maori art school and watched them carve there beautiful wood sculpture.

It was about 5 when we left Te Pao for the highly recommended Polynisian spa and the healing waters. We were pretty tired and Jim who had never tried the natural spa experience was a bit unsure. But he was game for trying it. There were many pool choices, but we choose the Lakeside pools. It was fabulous, peaceful and instantly soothing. We soaked in the pools with views of the lake, flocks of birds and geysers in the distance while we watched the sunset. There were also these magical heated reclining chairs which Jim found perfect for a quick nap. Completely relaxed and healed by the soothing waters e ventured back to the Black Swan. On the way back to the stopped for some yummy Indian food that we took back to our room.

This morning we rose to another yummy breakfast before heading off by small plane to Nelson via Wellington. When I was younger I was afraid of going on small planes. I had always experienced motion sickness and between nausea and feeling awful from the Dramamine it petrified me. But that’s all gone now and quite honestly we could not do this trip if we couldn’t take small planes. It wasn’t until Scott and Jaycee Crowell shared the Grand Canyon trip by small plane and helicopter that I learned Imcould travel,like this. thank you Scott and Jaycee.

Our flight was delayed by weather but they held the connection.

Again, Trevor has found us the most charming place nestled I the vineyards of Upper Moultere by the sound. The tide is way out and will come in about 5 feet tonight. We dropped off our bags and are off to some wine tasting and art galleries with a bit of lunch.

Tomorrow we have a full day of kayaking and boating in Abel Tasman Park. the adventure continues.

As our adventure comes to and end we wanted to share with you a great Orca video The Captain took on his Iphone.  The best part is at the end!

We are currently in Puget Sound heading for Elliott Bay.

Thanks for sharing our adventure.

The Captain and First Mate of the True Love.

Dent Foreshadows Epic Orca Experience

I bet you are all wondering if the fishing excursion was a success.  It was!  After arriving at Dent Island Resort we supped on some lunch on the lovely view deck and then headed out with Herb.  Herb has lived in and around Dent most of his life.  He’s “Papa Bear” on the VHF radio and the winter caretaker for Dent Island.

It became very clear, very quickly why we were not catching any fish on our own.  We had no downrigger with a 10 lb weight so our lines were not going down deep enough — that of course and the years of knowledge and local experience catching fish in general and fish around here specifically.

Sunday afternoon was a beautiful day to be on the water and we headed out towards Johnstone Strait and then back to Fredrick Arm.  It was very quiet from a fishing

perspective.  The guides communicate via VHF and not much was happening.  As we passed other fishing boats, people were napping and dancing.  Not a good sign, Herb said.

But after about 2 hours at the head of Fredrick Arm, Herb saw an imperceptible wiggle of the line (that both the Captain and First Mate missed entirely) and he leaped into action, releasing the 10 lb weight from the line with a powerful yank.   Herb then handed the pole to the Captain and the First Mate grabbed her camera.  The fishing pole that snagged our fish was Mike Marshall’s pole.  From Billie’s fishing stories we think this is the biggest fish Mike’s pole has ever snagged.

After a good fight, the Captain reeled our 9 lb Chinook next to the boat where Herb scooped him up with a net.  A great success!

That evening we supped at the Tapas bar on Dent Island:  an intimate gourmet affair with a remarkable view of the rapids.  Two of the other 10 people sharing dinner were a couple we knew from our political circles in Seattle: Mike and Kay Lester of the M/Y Anaya.  It’s a small

world.  They spend a month up in Dent every year fishing and frolicking in North Desolation Sound.

Dinner prepared by Chef Pascal and his assistant Misty was scrumptious:  scallop seviche and chilled watermelon soup; dungeness crab ravioli with chives and scallions; duck comfit and wild mushroom risotto with truffle oil (the winner of the night!); grilled halibut tacos; steak asparagus and chive mashed potatoes (really not necessary, but yummy); and a dessert of grilled pineapple, sorbet and cashew crumble (the grilled pineapple was a fantastic idea).  Obviously we rolled ourselves out of there very, very full.

Monday: July 29^th:  Spectacular views, Orcas & Jellies

When we woke Monday morning we were still full from dinner and after an elixir and some coffee we headed to the cute little workout cabin to run on the treadmill there.  The workout cabin at Dent Island in on the water and has a spectacular north view up the channel and while running we were treated to our first view of Orcas!  Clearly we caught our fish just in time, because when the Orcas swim through, they don’t leave many fish for the humans to catch.  What we did not know is that this was a merely a foreshadowing of the “Epic Orca Experience” we would have later in the day.

After our run we soaked a bit in the hot tub before shoving off with the slack tide around 11.  We headed into Bute Inlet one of our favorite spots to enjoy the views and eat a light lunch while underway.  As we were cruising south out of Bute Inlet, past Sonora Island, we began to monitor “orca radio” on VHF channel 7.  Around Dent Island, there are a lot of orca tour boats, and they all share information on VHF channel 7 about where the beasties were last seen,  along with dolphin and bear sightings.  There was some talk about orcas in our general area so we brought out the binoculars and searched.

As we approached the mouth of Bute Inlet and turned south we spotted a pod of Orcas in the distance.  What we didn’t know then was that this was the beginning of a 2-hour Orca Odyssey.  A pod of five Orcas followed our path as we traveled towards south then east toward Toba Inlet and Pendrell Sound.  Our goal was to get to Pendrell Sound where the water is the warmest in Desolation Sound (mid-70’s) for some swimming.  We didn’t know we would be entertained by Orcas for almost half the trip.  And we had the Orcas all to ourselves – the tour boats never appeared.

The First Mate took over 1,000 photos and it took us over an hour after dinner to go through them to pick out some of the best.  It’s hard to explain in words the enchanting experience.  We were cruising slowly, listening to music, dancing in the sun and taking pictures of the orcas as the orcas swam along the shoreline on our port side.

At the intersection of Raza Passage and Ramsay Arm, just SE of Francis Bay, the Orcas began to frolic in the more open area.  We watched them jump and play and then they crossed right under the True Love before we said our goodbyes.  They headed back up north and we headed east down Pryce Channel to Waddington Channel before we turned into Pendrell Sound.

Note to Saul, Jasmine, David and Baby James:  we can’t wait to share this with you!

As we headed into Pendrell Sound we watched the temperature in the water rise.  It briefly hit 76 degrees.  We dropped the anchor and planned to go for a swim, but then stopped.  Why?  About 20 feet down in the crystal clear water were hundreds of huge jellyfish.  The First Mate was extremely concerned.  But, after we watched for quite a while and confirmed that not a single one was swimming up to the warm water at the surface, we decided to take a chance.  The First Mate was still uneasy (obviously a latent jelly fish phobia) so the Captain jumped in first and after awhile we pulled out the snorkels and goggles and floated while watching the “jelly-galaxies” float below us rewarding the crew of the True Love with another enchanting, magical experience.

After our swim we kayaked a bit and secured our shore tie with some team kayaking.  After a shower we grilled up our Chinook and said a special prayer of thanks.

Before collapsing in bed we took a look at the stars and were lucky enough to catch the space station passing overhead with its tell-tail speed and bright to fading reflection.  Life really does not get much better than this!

Tuesday July 30^st:

Our morning in Pendrell Sound began with a long kayak and then a swim before we raised anchor and headed south out of Desolation Sound.

We ended up in a wonderful little anchorage we found last year on the north side of Lasqueti Island in a quiet little gunkhole in the Fegen Islets.

The sounds of the wild entertained us as we watched a spectacular sunset.Eagles, herons and seagulls flew by as about 20 very vocal seals called out with strange guttural sounds and splashed in the water.

Tomorrow we will head further south past Nanaimo, through Dodd Narrows, and onto Poets Cove on South Pender Island.

Wednesday, July 31^st:

After a calm and uneventful cruise we are safely anchored in Poets Cove, having dinner and drinks and catching up on our email and blog posts!  The only fun wildlife we saw today was this mother and fawn deer just south of Dodd Narrows.  Our plan is to chill here for a couple of days and then possibly head out to Sydney to see some friends before traveling back to the USA on Saturday.

The Captain and First Mate of the True Love!