Elaine Bay

Today we headed up the Rai Valley and off SH1 towards Elaine Bay. Once we got off the main road the traffic thinned out to virtually nothing, which was just as well as we were once again on a narrow, winding road and could take our time. We climbed up and up… and up… for several kilometres until we stopped at a parking place on the side of the hill where a track led up into the bush. ‘Lookout - 750m’ said the sign so we thought we’d give it a go. Should have realised from the name of the track (Goat Hill) that you needed to be mountain goat to get up it! Still – the view from the top, looking out over Croisilles Harbour and across Cook Strait, was worth it.
We passed through the settlement of Okiwi Bay but didn’t stop, as it was starting to drizzle and there wasn’t a lot of parking options… all the parking bays along the waterfront had signs with ‘Cars Only’ on them… most unfriendly! Most of the houses here are all shut up so presumably they are mostly baches.
We traveled on to Elaine Bay, where we were headed for a DOC recreation reserve right on the beach. The book said there is room for 18 sites, but when we got here we found all but 1 of them was taken up by a Marlborough Boys’ College outdoor education trip! There was really only one place left for us to park, right in the middle of the turnaround, at the top of a grassy knoll… look at me!
We had a late lunch and wandered around the bay to the wharf, where we saw two huge sting-rays basking. They must have been at least a metre in diameter. A NIWA research vessel was refueling there and we chatted to one of the crew, who said they were studying how well the blue cod stocks were recovering, and that they were pleased with the numbers of small fish they’ve found.
Mid-afternoon the boys came back in off several boats, all in wetsuits and all boasting of the fish / paua / crayfish they caught (we have actually seen ONE crayfish unloaded, and it was at least twice as big as the one we paid $74 for at Nin’s Bin!)
Charlie took off with his fishing gear to a rocky point 20mins from camp and spent a lovely couple of hours catching all sorts of fish… including a snapper, a blue cod, a kahawai, a mullet and a small shark. All got put back except for a couple of bait fish – we need to do some more research into the size of a takeable fish here!
We’ve just watched the full moon come up over the bay, spreading its carpet of gold across the top of the water. Magic!Read more