Tag: cook strait

Monkey Bay, Rarangi, Marlborough

Walk #3, 22nd April 2025

Local legend has it the bay got its name from an escaped monkey who made his home there.

A quick walk up a well built stone staircase leads to a viewing platform overlooking Cloudy Bay and a small shingle cove with a sea cave.

The information boards are interesting. I read about the difficulty in laying the telecommunication and power cables on the Cook Strait sea floor due to the strong currents and tidal flows.

“The land the sea brought in”

I learned this east coast South Island beach is growing, just like a beach we visited in the west coast of the North Island. So much for “sea level rise” because of “climate change.”

Rarangi

There are caves in the area from a time when the sea once reached further inland, evidenced by fish hooks and shellfish remains around the caves. There were stone walled gardens near the hills, evidence of a much earlier people who had lived in the area around 900 years ago.

That’s interesting because there were also stone walled gardens across Cook Strait at Cape Palliser.

According to Maori lore, one of the caves in the bluff, Te Ana Rangomai Papa, housed a taniwha who ate the daughter of a local chief. Another cave, “Daddy Watson’s cave” was hollowed out by a bach owner in the hope of breaking through to Whites Bay. We didn’t know about these caves when we visited the area, it was a reconnaissance trip.

Walk: Blenheim 10

Whites Bay, Rarangi, Marlborough

Walk #2 , 22nd April 2025

The walk began at Rarangi Beach, where the Monkey Bay track is. It climbed steeply through regenerating coastal forest where the trees had recovered from a fire. We came out on the Port Underwood road for a short distance, then descended through an area of pine forest to Whites Bay.

Whites Bay is named after a negro American whaler, Black Jack White.

In 1866 the first Cook Strait telegraph link between the North and South Islands began operating with the southern end coming ashore at Whites Bay. The telegraph operator’s cottage is preserved as a historic building. Source: Marlborough Online, Pukatea / Whites Bay

It’s a solid grind back up to Port Underwood road from the beach. We saw a black fantail while climbing back up the pine needle covered zig-zag track.

Walk: Blenheim #9