Whangarei to Opua (April 18 – May 5)
We are finally off the dock! It has been a while and the whole family is ready to get back to swinging on our anchor.
The boat is in no state for sailing. The cabin is a disaster with stuff scattered everywhere. We built new shelves for two big lockers while we were in the yard, but have not yet had the time to put all the stuff back in them. The deck is covered with detritus. We had to dig out the massive aft lazarette and all the junk is still scattered around the deck. Our headsails are rolled up on our bow and the dodger is still off. The list goes on and on.
We motored down the river and stopped in “The Nook”, which is a pretty anchorage near Parua Bay and across the river from Marseden Cove. Once we were securely anchored we resumed the long list of boat chores. When we leave here, we will head out into the ocean to get to Tutukaka and we need to be in more of a ship-shape. We spent 4 days at anchor continuing the work we didn’t finish in the boat yard. We got the sails bent on and continued to plug away at the brightwork. One day, we took a break and went to visit friends in Marsden Cove Marina. Another day we headed into the town at the head of Parua bay and walked to the tavern.
Eventually, we felt we had made enough progress and we headed out around the point to Tutukaka. We only stayed two nights. The day was spent putting together a feast for Passover. As there is not much of a Jewish population here, that included making our own matzo. We had nothing else to do, and it kept raining off and on, so we cooked and decorated.
The next day we headed out to Whangaruru. Just like The Nook, there wasn’t a lot of excitement. We spent another 4 days or so finishing the brightwork and knocking off other tasks. We did check out a couple different beaches and towns around the bay. We are distinctly out of season and there isn’t much going on. There is a fish & chips place in one nearby town. We went there and bought uncooked chips so we could bring them back to the boat to make fries with our burgers for dinner.
We sailed on to the Bay of Islands and anchored in Otaio Bay off Urupukapuka Island. This was a beautiful spot with great walking tracks ashore. We are ready to relax after all the chores we completed. However, we don’t have a lot of time to chill. Our friend Chuck is joining our crew for the passage to New Caledonia and his flight arrives into Auckland in less than a week.
The past few days have been a bit of a shakedown cruise. We replaced most of our electronics as well as some of the running rigging and several windows and hatches during our time in Whangarei. Our alternator, which we just had fixed, failed again. Some of the electronics aren’t working right and the new motor we bought for the tender is not tuned correctly. We need to get to Opua and get some things straightened out before we set out to the islands.
We got to Opua, picked up our car (which was still in Whangarei), dropped off our outboard and got some things we need on order. Then, on Friday, we headed out for a short “vacation”, weekend-warrior style, to Russell. We anchored just off the wharf and went to the beach and walked around town. Sunday, though, we had to head back to Opua. Chuck flies in on Monday and Kate has to take off in the morning to go pick him up at the airport.
It has rained part of most days for the past several weeks and we have seen many, many rainbows
A summer based in Whangarei (Jan 9 – April 17)
We arrived in Whanagarei in January, where we put the boat to rest for a while to engage in other forms of travel. We can’t head back to “the islands” until the cyclone season has passed. We will head to New Caledonia in the fall. We will give ourselves a month to sail the boat back up to Opua to be ready for departure in early May. We booked ourselves a haulout to paint and service the hull in Whangarei in April and then set about exploring.
We started by buying a car so we could get around. We then used the car to drive to the airport and went home to the US for a month. We visited Kate’s mom in NH. Then we went to visit Andy’s Aunt and Stepmom in FL. Finally we went to Seattle to visit our home base and our friends there for a couple weeks.
When we got back to New Zealand we made arrangements for a bunch of boat work that needed to happen. That included driving to Auckland to drop off our tender to have it re-built. We did some sightseeing and overnighted there. Auckland feels completely disconnected from New Zealand. It is a large, upscale, cosmopolitan city in a rural, agrarian country. The city was pretty, but non-descript.
After our outing to Auckland we set out on a serious road trip to explore the North Island. We started with a day stop in Hamilton on our way to Waitomo Caves, where we enjoyed a farm stay, visited some caves and went to the “hot” beach at Kawhia. We then worked our way around the coast through New Plymouth and Whanganui to Wellington. Wellington, the capital of New Zealand, was much more interesting than Auckland. We spent several days exploring the city by bus from a bach in the Newtown neighborhood.
From Auckland we went to Napier, where Andy and Nat got to try out sailing on land in “Blokarts”. We headed inland to Lake Taupo where we climbed to the crater rim of Mt Ruapehu, an active volcano and the highest mountain on the North Island. We then made a brief stop in Rotorua where Andy took the kids to “Zorb” where you ride down a hill inside a giant inflatable ball. On our way we went to take the tour of Hobbiton, where the outdoor scenes of The Shire were filmed for the Lord of the Rings and Hobbit movies. The Hobbiton tour was so cool!
We ended our tour of the North Island on the Coromandel Penninsula. There we went to the “hot beach” where the sand is geothermally heated. You go at low tide and dig yourself a little hot tub in the sand just above the tide line. We found a couple other wacky tourist things to do including the Driving Creek Railroad, a train to no-where built by hand by a ceramics artist and off-the-charts train buff, and the “Waterworks” which is a little roadside attraction best described as what you crazy uncle would have built if he actually built all the crazy things he dreamed about. Waterworks was a, mostly, water themed play area and park for kids, with all sorts of Rube-Goldberg contraptions to play with.
When we returned to the boat we got to work getting ready for departure. We replaced many of our electronics and made permanent repairs to all of the things we broke so far. We spent a week in the boat yard getting the bottom painted as well as some welding and woodwork done. When we went back into the water we spent one more night at the dock so we could finish some provisioning and get the mechanic to come check our engine alignment.
On April 17, with all the work done, we left Whangarei in our wake and headed down the river, back towards the ocean.
Russell to Whangarei (Jan 1 – 8)
Jan 1 – New Year’s Day
Happy New Year!!!
The rain has stopped and it is a beautiful day!
With the holidays passed it is time for us to wind our way down to Whangarei where we will be keeping the boat for most of the cyclone season. We have heard wonderful things about a harbor just around Cape Brett called Whangamumu. We weighed our anchor, hoisted the sails and got underway.
The sailing is great! The wind is a little more behind us than is ideal, but as we come around the point we get to head up a bit and increase our speed. We caught our first fish on our new trolling rod! It is a local fish called a Kahawai. Its not huge, but Andy cleaned it and baked it with some vegetables to make a big enough meal. He found the fish to be super slimy when he cleaned it and none of us liked the fish in the dinner. We have since learned that this is a fish the Maori eat but the early European settlers shunned. They described it as dry and tasteless. We found it to be very fishy and poor texture. We will not bother keeping these in the future should we catch any more of them.
We had been warned that we were cruising during the high season and should expect anchorages to be crowded. We have also heard the Whangamumu is an especially good harbor and so we expect it to be packed. We arrived late afternoon and found about a dozen boats, but there was easily room for three or four times as many. We picked a nice spot and dropped our hook. And then more boats started to flow in… and more… and more. Within a few hours the harbor was pretty full. We were glad we arrived when we did.
One of the newer arrivals was a boat, Tango, with John and Janet aboard, who we had met in Denarau. Sonja confirmed that this was so. However, Sonja was not with us in Denarau. Still, she insisted she knew them. Between us and Tango was a group of boats rafted together and we could see they had a bunch of kids. We are looking forward to meeting some of our neighbors.
We put our kayaks in the water to paddle around the anchorage. Anna stayed behind. Nat and Sonja bolted ahead and went over towards Tango. Kate and Andy headed towards Tango but stopped to chat with folks on a local boat, Rafiki, on the way over. By the the time Andy and Kate arrived at Tango Nat had taken off and Sonja had paddled away with Janet to visit another boat, Escape Velocity. They chatted with John for a while until Sonja and Janet returned. Turns out Sonja had met them in French Polynesia months before she joined us. When we left, Sonja went straight back to our boat and Kate and Andy passed by the kid boat raft, where we saw our little blue kayak tied up. We thought we would find Nat, but it turns out Nat had paddled back to Second Sun and then Anna had paddled to the kids raftup and was playing with a couple of the older girls. One was her age and one was a few years older. We chatted a while with the parents and then headed home. The boats were friends who race together out of the Bay of Islands. They were all taking their summer holiday sailing south towards Auckland. Anna showed up back at the boat a little while after we returned.
Jan 2
Whangamumu harbor is like a harbor within a harbor. There is a larger outer harbor with a small opening into an inner harbor. The inner harbor, where we are anchored is very secure and well protected. In historical times, there was a whaling station in this harbor that used a unique method for capturing whales. The whalers would go out and chase the whales into the inner harbor and then they would seal off the narrow exit, trapping the whales in the small inner harbor. Then they would kill them and drag them up to the station on the shore to process the dead animals.
The missing panels on this sign are typical of this site, but uncharacteristic of other places we have visited around New Zealand
After school we headed ashore on the kayaks to the beach below the ruins of the whaling station. There was some old interpretive signage among the scattered ruins of buildings, vats and boiler. We heard this site used to be better preserved, but it seems it has not seen much maintenance for a while.
Several of the kids from the kid-boat raft were at the same beach. We followed them up a trail into the woods that took us to a waterfall. It was a short, but steep, hike. There were small pools for getting a fresh water wash.
We headed back to the beach to find the trail out to the tip of Cape Brett. The tip of the cape is too far a walk for us, but there is a lookout that is about a half hour walk away according to the signage. Coming from the beach, we are joining into the middle of a longer trail that, in the opposite direction, connects to another, larger beach at the head of the bay and also to a parking lot for those coming by land. At the trail junction where the spur to the whaling station met up with the main trail there was a station for cleaning your footwear before heading out towards Cape Brett. This is a kauri area and the government and conservationists are working hard to protect the kauri from dieback disease. We cleaned our shoes and headed up the trail.
The trail was closed 100 yards past this sign to protect the Kauri trees.
But there was no indication here at the junction?!
The trail was remarkably poorly maintained beyond the junction. Every foot track we have taken in NZ has been very well maintained. This is a standout exception. Not long into the hike we discovered why. We came to a sign stating the trail was closed as a precaution against kauri dieback disease. It is a little annoying that this sign was a hundred meters up the trail rather than at the trail junction. We turned back.
Nat did the painting on the left using rock powder mixed with water.
Sonja did the painting on the right. She used oil for her paint.
Still wanting to stretch our legs we headed up the other trail towards the other beach. After a short distance, long before making it to the big beach at the head of the bay, we came to a small rocky beach that captured our fascination. While the kids played, Sonja noticed the rocks were super soft and tried pounding some to see what would happen. Soon the kids joined in and we started a a project to make homemade paint. We spent the afternoon picking out different color rocks and pounding them into powder that could be mixed with water or oil for paint. The collecting and pounding went on for hours.
Kate and Andy eventually became tired of this game, so they left the kids on the beach with Sonja and went kayaking around the outer harbor. When we passed through the outer harbor we had observed there were many sea caves and we wanted to check them out. There were many and we were able to take the the large kayak into several of them. Kate and Andy kayaked all the way around the north shore of the harbor and out around one of the islands at the mouth of the harbor before returning to Second Sun.
Jan 3
Today we continued hopping south along the coast towards Whangarei. We took a short day and went to Mimiwhangata Bay, which is just outside the popular Whagaruru harbor. Here, there is a large white sand beach. The point forming this bay hooks enough to provide a decent anchorage in an east wind and settled seas. When the swell is running, it can wrap around the point making this a rolly place. Today, however, is calm and the anchorage is peaceful and somewhat crowded. We arrived early in the afternoon and after a quick lunch we went to play on the beach.
After dinner, Sonja continued reading Harry Potter to the kids. Well, she tried to, anyway. They were so wired they couldn’t listen. So, Andy took them, along with a Sonja and a frisbee, to the beach and made the kids run around for a while. On the way back to the boat they passed a boat, Perpetual Motion, that had some younger kids playing on it. They are a local family, mom, dad, two kids, and grandpa, out on summer holiday. They invited us aboard and we hung out and chatted for a while. They are planning to head out at noon tomorrow, so we agree to meet them to play on the beach in the morning.
The chicks are almost as big as the parent!
Jan 4
Before we headed off to the beach, Anton and Wendy and their kids from Perpetual Motion came by. There were dolphins swimming through the anchorage and many folks were out on their tenders watching, including their family. We invited them aboard and gave them the nickel tour of the boat. They are relatively new to boating and were excited to get on a big cruising boat. Not long after they departed we all headed ashore and met up on the beach.
There were other kids on the beach as well when we arrived. It seems this is a popular beach for people to come to from Whangaruru in speedboats when the conditions are right. The coolest boat we saw was a “Sealegs” amphibious boat. It looked like a typical center console boat, but when it got the beach it just drove right up onto the sand. It has hydraulic driven wheels on hydraulic struts. It was pretty cool and caught Andy’s and Nat’s attention. Andy went over and met the family that drove that onto the beach and chatted with them a while.
After a few hours, Perpetual Motion left and we headed back to the boat for lunch and school. After school we returned to the beach. While the kids played on the beach with Sonja, Andy and Kate headed up from the beach to explore the hiking trails. There were bunches of short trails that cross-crossed the pasture behind the beach and that crossed the point to a beach on the other side.
Jan 5
Continuing our trek south we set out early in the morning to visit the Poor Knights Islands. These very rugged islands just offshore from Tutukaka make an amazing day stop but offer little protection. We plan to get there early enough to spend a couple hours exploring them and then have enough time to sail to Tutukaka, which is just outside Breems Head, the entrance to Whangarei Harbor.
Poor Knights was worth the stop! We found a small roadstead harbor that was full of boats. The water was deep so it was hard to find sufficient room to anchor. We had to drop our anchor between two boats in 100’ of water close to a cliff wall. The islands are all park land and they are closed to visitors, which is just as well since it is nearly impossible to land on the islands. Aside from all the boats, the water was full of swimmers and kayakers. The snorkeling around these islands is supposed to be fabulous, but we are too wimpy to swim in the cold water. All-in-all, a busy place.
The picture on the left is the entrance to the grotto.
The picture on the right is inside the grotto.
These islands are also full of large sea caves and tunnels. There is one sea cave big enough for large powerboats to enter and maneuver. In theory, there is enough room to anchor in the cave. The entrance is too low for our mast, but we saw a couple motor yachts go in and out. We jumped in our tender and went to the huge cave. It was pretty spectacular. We took pictures, but it is hard to get the sense of scale.
We shot through the one in the distance in our tender.
After visiting the massive Rikoriko cave, we went and circumnavigated the island in our tender and visited several other caves. The one we all liked best was a large tunnel that opened up into a huge grotto. It was just around the corner from Rikoriko. We found there weren’t as many caves on the east side of the island and the exposure to the swell there made that segment of our circumnavigation a bit exhilarating. We safely navigated the rocky passage between the two larger of the Poor Knights Islands. We did a little bit of exploring along the west coast of the north island, but it was not as interesting as the southern island and it started raining. We headed back to Second Sun, weighed anchor and set off for Tutukaka
Tutukaka has a tight entrance through some menacing rocks. Once inside, the harbor is well protected. It is sort of a mini version of Whangaroa Inlet. We tried anchoring in a snug cove on the north side of the harbor, but we couldn’t get the anchor to hold so we set ourselves in the main anchorage to the south of the main channel. We then headed to the marina and village to check it out. We had heard there was good pizza and good fish and chips.
We walked the length of the marina and checked out the nearby shops. As we walked past the angler’s club they were weighing two huge marlin someone had just brought in. We watched that for a while before continuing on our way. We found a couple galleries and fancy restaurants and a small general store connected to a gas station. We headed back to the angler’s club for dinner. It was a long wait for the food. They had warned us it would be an hour, so Kate held down the table while Sonja read Harry Potter to Andy and the kids in the nearby grass.
After dinner, the kids met some other kids and got into a games of tag and hide-and-seek. While they were occupied, Kate, Andy and Sonja got desserts! While eating dessert another family joined us at our long table and we got to chatting with them. They came up from Auckland with their boat to fish and are staying in a nearby campground and are heading back to Auckland tomorrow. Hearing that caused Sonja to perk up. She is needing to get to Auckland, where her dad is due to arrive the day after tomorrow. Staying with us, she would have to bus there from Whangarei and only be a day late. But here was a way to get there on time! She asked and they agreed to give her a ride. Not only did they offer to give her a ride to Auckland, they offered to let her stay in their guest room until her dad arrives. So we make plans to meet up at the campground in the late morning.
Jan 6
We have a family tradition of “Big Breakfast” each week. Usually, this means pancakes and bacon one of the weekend days. We started today with our last “big breakfast” with Sonja. Breakfast was done a little too soon to drop her off so the kids got a little work done while she finished packing and helped with the dishes. We took Sonja to shore and walked her to the campground where Simon and his family were still packing up their campsite. We said our goodbyes and took some pictures. We are now back to a crew of four.
The campground had a small playground with, not one, but two trampolines! Andy took the kids to the playground where jumped until they could jump no more. Kate took the opportunity to have some Kate time and went and checked out the artisan shops and galleries we found yesterday. When we were done our different activities we went to a little bakery cafe and got snacks for the kids and some store made smoked salmon. Then we went back to the boat so the kids could finish the day’s schoolwork.
After school we tried hiking to the lighthouse at the tip of the point. The lighthouse is on a small island and the trail crosses a small gap between that island and the mainland. However, between the rough-ish seas and the state of the tide, the crossing was too much for us so we bailed out and went to a small rock beach we had passed and played there for a while.
When we got back to the boat we were a bit sad about losing our routine of listening to Sonja read us the Harry Potter books. We did get to the end of the books before we left, but still, it has become a routine as it took almost her whole stay with us to get through all seven books. We decided to put on the next Harry Potter movie we haven’t watched yet. That would be Harry Potter V: The Order of the Phoenix.
Jan 7
The wind forecast looks like a nice sail to Bream Head, just outside Whangarei harbor, this afternoon. Tomorrow, the wind is forecast to be somewhat more favorable, but also significantly stronger. We decide to leave Tutukaka and take advantage of the favorable conditions for what we expect is our final sail for the season. We raised our sail as we headed out between the rocks and then turned south. We were hard on the wind, but the wind was pretty light so there were no seas and we made ok time. The wind forecast indicates the wind backing, giving us a lift as the day goes on, but the lift didn’t come soon enough and we had to take a short tack to get around a point that sticks out between Tutkaka and Bream Head. Otherwise, we had a great sail and sailed all the way around the head until we found ourselves in the wind shadow of the point. We pulled around and anchored in Urquharts Bay, just inside Breem Head.
Jan 8
Whangarei is a bit over two hours up a river from where we are anchored. The final stretch, before we get to the marina, is shallow and narrow. We are advised we should only do the river on a rising tide, and that we should aim to be past mid tide for the final portion of the trip. Based on today’s tide predictions we want to weigh anchor no sooner than 1230. Since it will be two hours or more of motoring we decide the kids can do their school work during the trip and we head to shore to go exploring for the morning.
The point has bunches of hiking tracks. There is a small pebble beach near where we are anchored that provides access to the trails. The trail, by the beach, goes through a cow pasture full of cows. We had to go through a gate to get into the pasture and join the trail.
You can see some of the mosaic in the picture on the right, above the view.
The trail took us up the hill to a WWII gun emplacement. The structure where the gun had been was in decrepit shape and was closed off with warning signs. The nearby lookout building was in remarkable condition. The soldiers stationed there had added a mural to the small bit of wall above the lookout opening. The mural was of the landscape and had compass directions and distances marked on it. It was apparently used to help the lookouts direct the aiming of the guns. Murals like this were probably common, however, most are lost. This one has been preserved. The old concrete building has been weatherproofed and the murals covered in Plexiglass to preserve them. There was a good interpretive sign on the door of the building explaining all of this.
We hiked from there, straight to Smugglers Bay on the other side of the point, bypassing the longer loop out to Busby Head. Along the way Anna collected various flowers determined to sketch them for a science project back at the boat. It was very cute. When we got to the beach, which was a soft white sand, the kids played while Kate and Andy rested in the shade. At noon we headed back across the point to the beach near the boat and headed back for lunch and for our trip up the river to Whangarei.
We thought yesterday would be our last sail of the season. We were wrong. The wind, which today is forecast to be fresh out of the east is blowing right up the river. As soon as we weighed anchor Andy rolled out the genoa thinking we’d try and get a little sailing in. We were making almost as good a speed as we would have expected under power with just the one sail. So we decided to keep sailing while we could. Mostly, the wind was favorable and kept us moving along. Occasionally, we’d pass more open areas and the wind would get a bit gusty, which made Kate anxious. Other times, we’d pass through dead areas where we’d give up some speed. Mostly, though, the wind was broad on the beam and we were averaging around 5 knots. We sailed all the way until the river took a sharp turn and became super narrow. Here, the wind that got through to the river was funneling down the river and was right on the bow. We motored only the last half hour of the trek.
As we motored up to the last bend in the river we radioed the bridge and requested an opening. The operator said he saw our mast coming up the river and would have the bridge open for us. We kept up our speed and, sure enough, he opened it just in time for us to slip through. The marina is just a short way up the river from the bridge. We had received our slip assignment by email a couple days ago. We set our lines and pulled into our slip.
Our boat will stay here in Whangarei for the next several months while we engage in some land travel. We will spend a week or so getting settled in and putting the boat to bed. We have a couple of land adventures planned.
We will resume regular updates to this blog when we start cruising again. Probably sometime in April.
Until then, fair winds and following seas.
New Years in Russell (Dec 27 – Dec 31)
Dec 27
There was no wind, but it was time to move on. We motored to Mahinepua Bay, which is between Whangaroa and the Cavalli Islands. It is a lovely bay. Several people had recommended it as a protected anchorage with a nice walking trail.
On our way to we finally caught something on our new fishing gear. Sadly, it was not a fish. It was a sea bird. Fortunately, it had not been pierced by the hook. However, it was wrapped up in the fishing line and we couldn’t get it untangled. It was not happy about being handled and tried ferociously to get away and bit Andy a couple times. We finally ended up cutting the lure off the fishing line and then we were able to just pull gently on the monofilament and it came cleanly off the bird. We were able to retrieve all our gear and release the bird unharmed.
When we arrived at anchor we went ashore to the beach to chill out and explore.
Dec 28
We had heard good things about the hike to the tip of the point so we set out to do the trail after the kids finished school. Nat decided to stay behind and we decided that would be ok. It was not a particularly pretty day and indeed it rained, lightly, on us off and on while we hiked. The trail started by going straight up a steep rise. There were steps to go up, which made this easier. This rise was followed by another, and another. At one point we passed a sign saying “Danger. Do not go past this point”. It was unclear if the sign was meant to indicate the track or the hillside the track was crossing.
The trail looked well used past where we were and we could see a structure and a park sign up on top of the next hill so we kept going. The terrain throughout the hike was interesting. There were no tall trees, but the bushy scrub was over our heads and at times the trail went through tunnels cut into the bushes. At the end of the trail, where we saw the structure (which was just a couple pieces of wood and a survey marker) there was a clearing with nice views. The hike was pretty and we probably would have enjoyed it more and spent more time soaking in the views if we were not busy soaking in the rain.
Dec 29
When we left Opua a couple weeks ago, it was to head to the town of Russell. The wind was wrong for anchoring off the town so we went to a different anchorage, and then another, and another. We are finally turned pack in the direction of Russell. Andy really wants to be anchored either there or Paihia for New Years Eve. The two towns are directly across a small channel from each other and Paihia will have a big fireworks display at midnight on New Years Eve. These towns are both just up the river from Opua. We are low on water and the new autopilot we ordered from the store in Opua has arrived so we will stop at the marina to take care of a few things on the way.
We had good wind and a wide open anchorage so we weighed the anchor and sailed away. We didn’t bother to start the motor, we just sailed off. We haven’t done that in a while and it felt good to shake out the old sailing cobwebs. We had decent wind all day and sailed all the way to Opua. The upside is that is was a lovely sail. The downside is that it was slow for part of the day and we got in late in the afternoon. Also, the wind is blowing pretty strong in the direction from Russell. We decide that the right thing to do is to take one night at the dock in Opua and then head out tomorrow for Russell.
When we had come before, Opua had plenty of slips available. Today, they have one, and we have to promise to leave it tomorrow as there is another boat that has it reserved. It seems the high season has arrived. We took our slip and then set about our chores. We dumped our trash. Andy picked up the new Autopilot. While doing Laundry, Kate ran in to Aaron and messaged Andy. He came and met up with them at the cafe where they hung out for a while. Everyone in the crew celebrated with long hot showers!
Dec 30
In the morning we still had not yet gotten around to filling the water tanks. We didn’t fee rushed, though. We went to the cafe for breakfast and then Kate went to the general store to grab a couple grocery items while everyone else went back to top off the water and prep the boat for departure. When Kate returned from the store we were ready to go.
We motored up the river towards Paihia but could not find any suitable anchorage for the wind conditions. We motored across the river to Russell and found a place to tuck in to Matauwhi Bay. Its not totally protected from the wind and waves, but it was the best spot we could find with access to Russell and a view of the beach in Paihia.
We tendered to the Russel Boating Club dock at the head of the bay and walked from there to Russell. It was not a long walk. The road came into town right at the Russell Museum. We decided to pop in there and learn what we could about Russell.
Russell is one of the oldest towns in New Zealand. It was the first European settlement and started as a whaling port. It was a rough place known for pubs and brothels. The local Maori population found Russell to be quite offensive and much of the negotiation with the British that ultimately led to them joining the commonwealth revolved around their desire to have Britain step in and bring law and order to Russell. The oldest “licensed” public house in New Zealand is one of the town’s main attractions.
After the museum, we walked around town. We stopped for ice cream and found a playground. Then it was time to go provisioning. We realized that the we would want more groceries than we would want to carry all the way back to the Boat Club. Sonja and Nat went to fetch the tender and motor it around to the main wharf in Russell while Andy, Kate and Anna did the grocery shopping. We wheeled our shopping cart all the way to the wharf to load groceries. It was really convenient.
Dec 31
On our walk in town yesterday we had seen the beach and saw lots of kids playing there. There were numerous bars and cafes right on the beach. Hanging out there seemed a great way to spend new year’s eve. The kids asked if today could be a school holiday and we concurred.
We grabbed beach clothes and things for hanging out I town all day and set out for Russell about lunch time. We found an open table at a cafe right on the beach and laid claim to it. After eating lunch the kids changed into their swimsuits. Anna immediately fell in with a group of girls with a set of identical twins her age. Before getting too deeply into play she brought them over to us and introduced them. Sonja moved to the beach and sat and read but Andy and Kate kept the table and just relaxed watching the kids play.
When the table next to us opened there was a large group that came to sit. They needed more table space so they started to look for a table they could move. We felt a bit guilty that we were continuing to take up a table so we offered them ours. They were grateful and invited us to stay seated, where we were, at the end of the table. Of course we got to chatting with them. Mostly we chatted with the couple seated closest to us, Tahi and Tina. The five guys were all Army buddies and have since moved on and live in various far flung places including the UK and Australia. One of them had a summer place here in Russell and they had all come together for the holidays.
We hung out drinking and talking with them for hours while the kids played. Mostly it was sunny, but there were occasional sprinkles of rain. A bunch of folks left the beach, including the twin girls, during one of the heavier showers. Not long after the the kids grew bored. We took them for ice cream and then headed back to the boat for the evening.
The kids tried to stay up for the fireworks but they were getting sleepy long before midnight. They were both excited to see the fireworks, so we had to find a way to keep everyone going. They listened to Sonja read Harry Potter as late as they could, but once the sun set that became increasingly difficult. We decided to put on a movie. We had just under two hours until midnight so we panned the next Harry Potter movie as it is too long. Instead we watched Up. Anna didn’t like it much and wandered off. Nat found it enjoyable enough. Sonja, Kate and Andy were rolling around laughing.
Just before midnight, after the movie ended, we set up chairs on our bow. Got drinks and snacks and went out to watch the fireworks. There were people partying on many of the boats around us. As midnight approached we joined all the surrounding boats counting down. At midnight, as if they were listening to us count, the fireworks started. It was a decent show, but it didn’t go very long. When it ended we were all ready to crash.
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Mangonui (Dec 22 – 26)
Dec 22
Although we are really enjoying the beauty and protection of Whangaroa Inlet, we’ve spent almost a week here and we think it might be fun to be in a small town for Christmas. We picked up our anchor and set sail for Mangonui.
Unable to find bread though much of the South Pacific Andy got really good at sourdoughs.
We had visited Mangonui when we took our road trip to Cape Reinga, so we knew it was cute and had some basic services we would want, like a grocery store and cafes. We also found something on Google Maps that looks like a playground. The kids have been needing an outlet for their limitless energy.
This native New Zealand tree is green with beautiful red blossoms that erupt right around Christmas.
Thus, they are known as Christmas Trees
When we arrived, Kate and Sonja went ashore to do some shopping. We needed some groceries. They both also wanted to pick up a few more gifts for Christmas. Andy stayed back on the boat while the kids did their schoolwork. When the kids finished, the three of them went ashore and found the playground, where we all regrouped. After some play time, we walked back down the hill to the waterfront shops and had dinner at the Thai restaurant. The food was really good and this was a welcome change for all.
Dec 23
Looks like we are in for rain for the next couple days. Andy made our weekly pancake “big breakfast” this morning. After breakfast we headed to town for the weekly crafts fair at the town meeting hall. It was cute, but not super interesting. We decided to just head back to the boat and watch a Christmas movie: Home Alone.
Dec 24
The family went ashore to the playground while Sonja stayed behind on the boat. Kate left after a short while to pick up a few more groceries for Andy’s birthday dinner. Anna decided she had had enough playground time and went with her mom. Nat didn’t last too much longer before he got bored so he and his Dadu walked to town to get ice cream at the creamery and to meet up with Kate and Anna. We also found another smaller crafts fair today. It was less interesting than the one we went to yesterday. All the last minute shopping done we headed back to the boat to settle in for the holiday.
Dec 25
We kicked off Christmas morning, as is our family tradition, with fresh baked Cinnamon rolls. Andy made the dough yesterday and left them to rise slowly I the fridge overnight. This batch rose more than we expected and totally filled the pan he had placed them in. It ended up more like a Cinnamon Bun Cake than individual rolls. They were yummy just the same.
Before going to bed, Kate and Andy had moved our little Christmas tree into the corner of the saloon and arrayed all of the wrapped gifts on the settee under the tree. Once the kids had finished wolfing down their breakfast the carnage began. They each got a Lego set. Anna got a few more stuffies and, most importantly, a jar of olives! Nat got a microscope and juggling balls. Not a huge take, but everyone was satisfied and the kids played with their Legos most of the rest of the day.
At noon we had lunch and switched gears to celebrate Andy’s birthday. He and Kate worked together to slow roast a leg of lamb we picked up at the supermarket yesterday. Kate also made a cake yesterday and had to ice and decorate it today. We had a nice dinner and sang happy birthday.
Roast leg of lamb and Mama-Kokonowski’s Chocolate Cake
Dec 26
Another rainy day. Stayed on the boat all day. Watched Men in Black. Made plans for working our way back to Opua
Whangaroa Inlet (Dec 16 – 21)
Dec 16
The cove we are anchored in has no name we can find. It is not a recommended anchorage in either of the two guidebooks we have, nor is it mentioned in any of the apps we use. Although it has been suitable for more than a day, over night the wind died and our boat turned a bit. The ocean swell, small though it is has started rocking the boat making it very uncomfortable. It is definitely time to move on.
The entrance is hidden behind a small island.
There is no wind, so we motored all day to Whangaroa Inlet. This inlet has a narrow opening to the ocean protecting a vast area with lots of coves and bays. It will be a much calmer place for us to spend a couple days.
On our way to the inlet we had no luck with our trolling line. However, we saw all kinds of wildlife. We saw blue penguins out fishing. We had dolphin come and swim in our bow wave for a while. We also saw the fin of shark skimming the surface. The fin was large and white, so, probably a great white shark, but we didn’t get to see the whole animal.
After entering Whangaroa Inlet we headed to the village of Whangaroa and anchored just outside the marina. It is not a great anchorage as it is very exposed to wind and fetch, but we wanted to see what the village has to offer and, especially, we are looking for a grocery store. There was none. There is a small general store that, according to one person we spoke to, changed ownership a few years ago and has not opened since. There is a fishing club with a small cafe at the marina. We grabbed some snacks at the cafe and then went back to the boat.
We moved around the corner and anchored behind Milford Island. This is a wonderful, peaceful anchorage. Unfortunately, the island is private and does not allow visitors, so we couldn’t explore ashore. We decided to tuck in and watch a movie: Harry Potter IV.
Dec 17
The anchorage we are in is beautiful and peaceful. There is not much, though, in the way of activities for the kids. After they finished school we decided to take them on a kayak trip around Milford Island. As we paddled away we passed a local boat, Cashmere, that had joined us in the anchorage. We swung by and met John. After chatting with him a bit the sky turned ominously dark and we headed back to our boat to wait out the coming rain. After the rain passed, we set out again, and this time we completed our circumnavigation of Milford Island.
After returning from our paddle, John swung by and gave us a couple of the snapper he had caught. He also invited us over for drinks. Kate and Andy went over to his boat to hang out. John is a local sailor. As best as we can make out, he lives on his boat here in Whangaroa Inlet and bounces back and forth between the various anchorages as conditions warrant. He also has a mooring and a car over by the village of Whangaroa. When we mentioned our hunt for a store he offered to take Kate to the nearby town of Kaeo tomorrow so she can go to the supermarket there.
Dec 18
John swung by in the morning on his way out to go fishing and offered to take Sonja with him so she could learn how to catch fish. They only got a few fish, one of which Sonja cleaned and brought back with her. The kids were a bit bored so Andy offered to take the kids out on the tender and let them practice driving it. Nat learned to get the boat up on plane. They ended at a landing in the next bay where they walked up the road. They met a small dog that just wanted to play with them.
Another boat had joined us in the anchorage. In the afternoon, John came by and invited us to join him and the crew of the other boat for drinks in his cockpit in the evening. This time, we all went over to his boat.
Dec 19
After a week of sending increasingly desperate and threatening messages to Starlink they finally got back to us and reopened our account. Not a bad start to the day…
This picture was taken yesterday, when Andy and the kids walked up the road from the next harbor over.
We picked up our anchor in the morning and went back over to the village of Whangaroa and anchored near John’s boat, which was on its mooring. Kate and Sonja went to town with him to do provisioning and laundry while Andy stayed back and helped the kids with their schoolwork.
The afternoon adventure was a hike up to St Paul’s Rock, which is a steep rock face directly above the town. The hike was pretty steep, straight up to the base of the rock. The trail then snaked around the back side of the rock where there was a chain you could use to help pull yourself up a wide crack in the rock to get to the summit. The views from the rock were amazing. We sat up there and relaxed while Sonja read the kids a chapter of Harry Potter. When we got back to the village we went to the cafe at the sport fishing club for dinner.
The anchorage by the village is not a particularly nice one. When we returned to the boat, after an early dinner, we picked up our anchor and moved the boat to Rere Harbor, which is in the western ar of Whangaroa Inlet. We had read in our guidebook that this was a pretty anchorage. It was, indeed, astoundingly beautiful. We were in a tight little anchorage nestled between high cliffs all around.
Dec 20
There is a high waterfall, hard to make out in this picture, down the middle of the rock outcropping a lillte right of the middle of the picture.
Rere bay ends in a creek that comes down out of the surrounding mountains. From the bay, one can see a waterfall coming over the bare rock cliffs high up above the forest. We headed up the creek in our Kayaks in the afternoon. The creek starts out big enough for small boats to get in and out of, but eventually becomes closed in by mangrove. We picked our way through some channels through the mangrove until we came to the creek heading back into the hills. We went a ways up the creek before we came to rocks all the way across that blocked our way. The rocks were part of a hiking trail that connect the bay across from Whangaroa Village to the “Duke’s Nose”, a huge rock outcropping above Rere harbor. We portaged the rocks and continued paddling upstream. We came to another place where the trail crossed, portaged again, and continued upstream. We portaged one more shoal. We started to feel like the creek was becoming less paddlable and so we decided to turn back and check out the hiking trail.
We went back to the upper trail crossing and beached the kayaks. There we met a local hiking club out for an day trip. We chatted with them a bit and they told us of a Waterfall that could be found just off the main trail about 20 minutes hike away. We decided to go try to find it. They told us we would find a place where two creeks cross the trail. There is a small marked trail between them that goes to a small waterfall.
This is where we first encountered the foot track to the Duke’s Nose.
Our first foray off the main trail, onto a small side trail, started taking us away from the creeks and climbed steeply. We determined this was probably not right so we turned back to the main trail. Ultimately, we found a really indistinct trail trail next two the creek on the right so we tried just following that creek. We came to a lovely waterfall a short ways upstream from the main trail. We took some pictures, turned around, and went back to the kayaks and paddled home.
On our way out of the creek we encountered a catamaran, Sea Angel, that looked like it had been out cruising, like us. We swung by and met Jerry and Minda who had sailed from Florida. We chatted with them a bit before heading back to Second Sun.
Dec 21
In the morning, John swung by on Cashmere. He told us he had a cruising guide in electronic form to give us. When we told him we planed to anchor in Rere bay, he had advised against it. He said the wind gusts through the bay and he prefers the bay to the north. We told him to go settle himself at an anchor and Andy would come by in the tender to get the cruising guide. Andy went over to visit John while the kids did their schoolwork. Andy came back glad we had anchored where we did in Rere.
We used the afternoon to climb the Duke’s Nose. Across Rere Harbor from where we are anchored is a small bay with a park cabin, the “Green Cabin”. Next to that is a day shelter and both have access down to the water. We went ashore at the day shelter and picked up the trail to the Duke’s Nose from there. Thsi is the same trail we had been on yesterday, we’re just starting a bit further up the trail, closer to the destination. Indeed, the main trail starts going up steeply just where we met up with it. From the spur to Rere and the cabin. When we got to the rock, itself we found it to be a serious climb up the rock with the aid of a pipe handrail. Kate didn’t feel comfortable with the climb so she did not summit. The rest of us braved the pipe. At the summit there was a large flat area with many wonderful views. We hung out a bit to take it in. We chatted with a couple other hikers who were up on the summit as well. There was plenty of space for several groups to hang out.
You can also see the mangroves protecting the entrance to the creek.
After returning to the boat Kate and Andy headed out for some quiet solo exploration. They went back into the mangroves, this time with the tender, and just poked around. After a bit they came out and visited Sea Angel again.
Cavalli Islands (Dec 14 – 15)
Dec 14
The wind has started to calm down and we decided it was time to move on. We sailed to the Cavalli Islands, which are a group of isolated islands that mostly public land. They are just off the coast a little north of the Bay of Islands. We head for the main island, Motukawanui, as that looks like it will offer the best protection given that winds are still a bit strong. Our guide book only shows two recommended anchorages, both are on the windward side of the island. We see a promising cove of the southeast corner of the island side, which is on the leeward side in the current wind, and decide to try to anchor there, instead. None of the sources we have provide a name for this harbor including two cruising guides, several charts and several apps. However, it seems to offer reasonable protection from the current winds and seas. It is a very small rocky harbor with a rocky beach. We tuck as far in as we feel safe and find a good spot to anchor. It is tight and comfortable.
We had a a nice time exploring the beach in the afternoon. We found bunches of really interesting rocks on the beach. However, there was no easy way to get off the beach into the interior of the island. No trails came to this beach and the grass and scrub were tall and hard to pick through. Andy, Kate and Sonja each made independent forays while the kids played on the beach.
We could have driven our tender through this arch, but there were swimmers in the the water snorkeling through the arch
We haven’t mentioned our Starlink or internet for a while. Mostly, we’ve had good cellular service and the Starlink has worked when we needed it. Yesterday, when we turned it on Andy got a notification and a big banner in the app welcoming us to New Zealand. Since this was a new unit, delivered to us in New Zealand, on a New Zealand-based account we established, this seemed an ominous sign. Today, we are farther from the mainland and have spotty cellular service and… we can’t connect to Starlink. When we try, we get a message that our equipment is not connected to any active account and our password for logging into our Starlink no longer works!!! We reached out through their support page (Which is accessible via the Starlink dish even if it is not connected to an active account) and now we are without internet while we wait for a response.
Dec 15
There are a bunch of Cavalli islands to explore. They are mostly close together and it is a really calm day today. After the kids finished school we piled in the tender and set out to explore some of the smaller islands out to the east. There were some interesting rock formations and some “tunnels”. There was one we could have taken the tender through, but there was a dive boat anchored there and divers in the water.
The islands here are full of sea caves, tunnels and arches.
While we were at the outer islands the wind picked up. Taking a dryer tack on the way back to the main island, where Second Sun was anchored, we found ourselves aiming for a large cove far to the north along the east coast of the island. We went into the cove and to the beach at the head of the cove. This one was much more interesting to explore than the beach at the cove where we are anchored. We found a cool tunnel through the rock that we could walk through and lots of really interesting, colorful rocks on the beach. It was easier to climb up the hills around this cove. We spent most of the afternoon exploring before heading back to the boat on the tender.
When we got back to the boat Andy jokingly said he was gonna go catch us dinner and he pulled out our spinning rod to fish off the boat. Apparently, he wasn’t joking. As soon as he put the line in the water he had a fish on. Within 10 minutes he had caught 4 snapper! So, we had snapper for dinner.
Motorua Island – Bay of Islands (Dec 11 – 13)
Dec 11
Finally, our outboard is ready for pickup. We grab that and depart the marina to go see some of the Bay of Islands. We want to go visit Russell, a historic, and probably the most significant town, on the water in the Bay of Islands. However, the wind is not right for the anchorage off the town. Really, if we weren’t tired of being on the dock, it would have made more sense to stay there. The forecast is for pretty strong winds for the next few days. We decide to go to Army Bay, also known as Waiwhapuku Bay, on Moturua Island. This looks like one of the most secure anchorages in the area.
There were a bunch of other boats in the anchorage. We were visited by a crew we had met, briefly, in the marina at Point Vuda in Fiji. Kate and Andy threw a kayak in the water and went and explored the islet at the harbor entrance and found bunches of caves.
Dec 12
As predicted, today is another high wind day so we stay put in our secure anchorage. The kids were not excited to do anything today so Kate and Andy put the new 2HP engine on the tender to test it out and go exploring. They went ashore and hiked the track the goes all around the island. There were some pretty views and nice beaches along the hike. Although they didn’t see any relics along the track, we later learned that back in the era when Europeans first started visiting New Zealand, this island had several villages on it. When Captain Cook made his first visit to New Zealand and made first contact with the Maori, he was anchored around the other side of this island.
Sea Wind, a boat we met in Tonga, came and anchored next to us in the afternoon. Kate and Andy went over to catch up with them. They are heading north to Three Kings Island, off the north tip of New Zealand, past Cape Reinga, hoping to get there by Three Kings Day. They are the sort of adventurous cruisers who have also ventured as far south as Antarctica.
The bay we are anchored in is also called Army Bay
Dec 13
Having not left the boat for several days, we made the kids get off the boat after school and lunch were done. Again, it was not a particularly pretty day. We all got in kayaks and explored around the entrance to the bay and found a small secluded pebble beach tucked in a small cove. We got out and explored and played there a while. When the kids lost interest we kayaked back into the harbor and went to the big beach near where we anchored. We played there for a while before returning to the boat for dinner.
Opua Sightseeing (Kiwis & Waterfalls) – Dec 7 – 10
Dec 7
Today we finally decided to make the Starlink a permanent part of the boat. We cut holes, ran wires and added a post to our radar arch for the Starlink mast. Once that was done, Andy jumped in the car and drove to Whangarei to see a specialist about his back. The kids spent the afternoon on the playground at the marina.
On his way back, he drove down to the harbor to pick up our friends Paul and Hazel from Susumi. They were looking for a ride to Opua where they had left their car. We haven’t seen them since French Polynesia. They left a little behind us and then, when we went to Tonga, they went to Samoa. By the time they got to Tonga, we had left for Fiji. It was nice to see them and catch up. When Andy got back to Opua with them they came down to the boat where we lit the candles for the first night of Hanukkah and had cookies.
Dec 8
While at the supermarket a few days ago, Kate asked a woman she saw shopping there which brand of bacon she would recommend. They got to chatting and it turns out that the woman she met, Fran, had a couple kiwi houses she built on her property and she invited us to come over and see her kiwis. Today is the day we will go to Fran’s. Her property is just outside Kerikeri, near the airport.
When we find her house we are blown away by the beauty of her yard. She has a small house on a farm with a very well kept yard. Either side of her are two farms raising cows. She maintains most of her land as a nature preserve and leases some of her pasture land to the neighbors for grazing their cows as a source of income. She has installed a couple of kiwi houses on her land. She can’t guarantee we will see any kiwis as they are wild animals. A kiwi house is nothing more than a bird house set on the ground. Fran has excellent knowledge of the species that inhabit her acreage and she is a fount of knowledge.
She grabs some rabbit meat and some peanut butter, tuns off the electric fences, and we are off on our tour. We traipse across a pasture that is so overgrown with grass it is hard to walk through. At the far side of the pasture we join up with a trail that drops down into the woods. Where the road comes along a small muddy stream she jumps down off the road to feed her eel. It is a wild eel that she feeds regularly. When we get to the mud hole the eel is waiting for us. The thing is HUGE. About four feet long and a couple inches across. She found a stick on the ground and used the stick to feed it chunks of rabbit meat. The rabbit is one her son killed for her. Rabbits are invasive species in New Zealand. Part of maintaining the area for nature includes eradicating such interlopers. She let the kids each have a go at passing the eel rabbit on a stick.
We continued down the trail a ways before cutting across a fence and descending deeper into the woods. Along the way she checked her rodent traps and used the peanut butter to bait them as we went. Eventually, we came to the kiwi house. She stopped us a distance from it and asked us to be super quiet. Kiwis are nocturnal and there is probably a kiwi sleeping in the house. If there is one, it is probably a female. According the Fran the females will find a protected place to rest and, presumably, nest. The males move around more and collect food to support their female and are less likely to find a single spot to return to each day. Fran had insisted we come in the morning when the birds are more likely to be more deeply asleep than they are later in the day. She doesn’t want to wake the bird up. She approached the house very quietly and checked to see if there was a bird sleeping there. There was! Then she invited us to come over, two at a time to look. For each two of us she gently lifted the lid of the house so we could get a view of the sleeping bird.
After seeing the kiwi, we continued our tour of her property. At one point we came to a tree with a possum hanging from a trap. The trap is a head trap. She released the dead animal and just left it on the ground and then reset the trap. She explained that the possum fur has no value unless the possum is freshly killed and still warm. Once it goes cold, it is too hard to remove the fur. She pointed to an area of tree saplings below us. She explained that the nuts from which that particular tree grows are a favorite of the possums. The tree is a native species, the possum is not. She went on to explain that the presence of the saplings is evidence that her eradication efforts are paying off. She said that when she started trapping possums she was getting several a day. Now she gets a couple once in a while. She thinks she has wiped out the ones that were living on her property and what is happening now is that, from time to time, some new family will try moving onto the possum free land. The new-comers don’t stay long.
After this wonderful and informative tour we return to her house for lemonade and cookies. We hung out and chatted a while. She showed us pictures and pulled out guidebooks with information on some of the species we had encountered.
We headed back to the boat. But then, in the afternoon, we headed back to Kerikeri. The kids were desperate to play on the playground there. On the way we stopped at an avocado farm where they sell bags of not-perfectly-shaped avocados for $5. We also stopped at a blueberry farm. We are going to a pot-luck this weekend and a blueberry pie seems a good contribution. The lady sold us a small bucket of fresh berries to eat and an ice-cream tub of frozen berries for making a pie.
On the way home from the playground we stopped to fill our propane tanks. The gas station across the street from the Four Square in Paihia has a propane filling pump between the gas pumps. Andy followed the instructions and filled the first of our two tanks. When he went to fill the second tank the man who runs the station came running out from the store. “You can’t do that”, he says. Can’t do what, we wonder. Although this is a self serve filling station for cars, and the propane pump is on the same island decorated with clear instructions and all the right equipment, the propane is not self serve. Oh well… The nice man confirmed our tanks were within their inspection date and then filled the second tank for us. Live and learn…
While riding up to Opua from Whangarei, Paul and Hazel mentioned to Andy that Yamaha was having a sale on small 2-stroke engines. We made a last minute decision and went to the Yamaha dealer just outside the marina to see what kind of deal we could get. For less than US$500 we could get a brand new 2HP engine to carry as a spare for our tender. This seems like a great price for insurance against being stuck if we have another outboard failure as we did in Matuku.
Dec 9
Andy had to return to Whangarei to pick up the medication the doctor had prescribed for him. He had ordered it through the pharmacy next to the hospital where he had visited the doctor. He drove there in the morning while the kids did their schoolwork.
Today was also the day of the “Treasures of the Bilge” swap meet at the Opua Cruising Club. Kate went and looked for goodies when the swap meet started but didn’t find much. Andy went and looked stuff over after he got back from Whangarei and picked up a used pump for our toilet, which has been acting up, and a fishing reel.
Once the the kids were done we set out for our last adventure with the car. We plan to return the car tomorrow now that Andy is done with his back-and-forth to Whangarei. We had heard that there were some good waterfall hikes around Kerikeri so we decided to go visit a couple.
The first one we went to was Charlie’s Rock. This is a fabulous little swimming hole that is popular with locals but not on most visitors’ itineraries. It is not well marked and is surrounded by private land. We tried to follow Google Maps to the falls. The directions wanted us to take a private road that ended in a driveway to a house. Undoubtedly, our destination lay behind the house, but trekking across the yard was definitely not the right way to get there. As we struggled to find the right place to park we saw another car getting lost and turning around on an adjacent private road. We got ourselves back on the main road and found a creek a short way down the hill with a parking lot and boat launch on the opposite side of the street from the private roads. As we crossed the street looking for the right way to go we found the foot track starting just at the end of the bridge’s guardrail. The short trail followed a strip of public land behind the houses on the private roads. The water fall was not super impressive, but it was neat to look at. There were also tons of people frolicking in the water and jumping off the rocks on either side of the falls. Nat, Anna and Sonja all went swimming. Kate and Andy decided the water was too cold.
We returned to the car and set out for Rainbow Falls which is a popular short day hike near Kerikeri. Here we had to go through a stile that cleaned our shoes both on entry and exit. The cleaning is meant to prevent the spread of Kauri Die-back Disease. So now we expect to see kauri trees. These falls were much more impressive than Charlie’s rock. Here, too, people were swimming in the water. Everyone except Kate ventured across the stream and then picked there was across the hill to go behind the fall’s curtain. Sonja managed to complete a circuit all the way back around to where Kate was waiting. Andy and the kids found the track past the falls too hard to follow and turned back the way they had come. The path was otherwise easy to follow and exceedingly muddy. They all came back coated in ooze. However, most of that got washed off when crossing the stream back to where Kate was waiting.
On the way to Rainbow falls we passed a sign for a mini golf course. The kids were super psyched to give that a try. We all had fun putting the golf balls around all the obstacles. Anna had the first hole-in-one of the day. After the last hole we headed back to the boat tired from another day of adventure.
Dec 10
We expect today will be our last day on the dock at Opua before we get back to cruising. We returned the rental car, finish installing the Starlink equipment and cleaned our water tank. We had a tank that has been leaking, and so we have been avoiding using it. That has lead it to develop “floaties” which has made us all nervous. So we emptied it completely, removed the inspection port and scrubbed it with bleach and soap. We used a shop-vac to get the last of everything out of the tank before refilling it.
We also got parts to install a rack to store our new 2HP outboard engine on our stern pulpit. While installing that Kate dropped Andy’s favorite socket driver into the water. We tried in vain to retrieve it using a powerful magnet we have for such occasions. Failing that we went and looked for a diver who could fetch it for us. The local diver who does this sort of thing had just left the marina and was gone for the day. We couldn’t find anyone else able or willing to jump in the water for us, but our next door boat neighbor had a small “pony” tank and regulator. Although Andy is no longer a diver, he has done it before and knows the basics. Also, it is only about 15’ deep under the boat. So we borrowed the equipment. Andy suited up and jumped in. He managed to get to the bottom, but found the bottom was thick oozy mud and visibility was less than an arms length. He didn’t have the right amount of weight to stay at the bottom and so couldn’t conduct any search, not that he would have known where to search. He reported it was totally dark at the bottom due to the lack of visibility and he was completely disoriented. Sadly, we had to give up the search.
In the evening, Kate and Andy went to an Ocean Cruising Club potluck. The kids and Sonja elected to stay behind. The potluck was hosted by the local port officer, whose husband came to give Kate and Andy a ride to their house. There were about 20 people at the potluck. It was a mix of local members of the club and cruisers passing through the area. Paul and Hazel were the only folks we knew, however, we met a bunch of new people including Jeanne Socrates, a celebrated local cruiser who holds the world’s record for being the oldest person to circumnavigate single-handed.
Cape Reinga (Dec 6)
We set out in our rental car first thing in the morning for Cape Reinga, the north tip of New Zealand. We grabbed muffins, juice and coffee at the marina’s general store for a quick breakfast and then got underway. It is a three hour drive each way to Cape Reinga so this is going to be a long day no matter how we cut it.
We passed through Paihia and headed out past Kerikeri. Our first stop will be the cute little seaside town of Mangonui. This vacation destination, like Paihia, reminds us of a New England beach town, except this one lacks a beach. There is a boardwalk along the harbor and rows of cute shops, cafes and small hotels across the street. We stopped at the Information Center to see what we could learn before wandering through the shops and galleries.
One question we had for the information center was whether or not there was anywhere we could get lunch north of here. Mangonui is the last town of any size as one goes north and we have heard there are no other towns after this one. The woman at the info center told us about two places past here. The first is a short way up the road just past where we join the main highway coming from the south. That spot is a tourist stop of its own with displays of kauri carvings. She said there is one small town past there with a store and a small cafe that are probably open.
We stopped at the first stop the info center suggested. We might have passed this by if we hadn’t been given a description of the place in advance. It just looked like some sort of warehouse building from the outside. It was large, featureless and isolated. There was a sign on the road that said something about kauri, but it wasn’t super obvious. When we turned into the parking lot we weren’t sure if we were in the right place. There was a huge parking lot that would have suited the building had it been something like a Costco (and the building could have housed a Costco), but the lot was almost completely empty. There was no signage on the building, so we pulled close to a door and parked and then wandered in, unsure of what we would find. Inside was a shinny modern gallery with lots of kauri art. The special attraction was a spiral staircase carved into a kauri log. There was also a gift shop selling objects carved from swamp kauri and a cafe that looks like it belonged in a large European museum.
Kauri is a New Zealand tree that is among the largest trees in the world. They can live for thousands of years and can grow to be over 50’ in diameter and several hundred feet tall. The trees were, at one time, plentiful in the north part of New Zealand but now they are scarce and are protected. At some point in history most of the kauri were wiped out in a cataclysmic event. The dead trees ended up buried in moist earth that preserved them. “Swamp kauri” refers to these trees that have been recovered from underground. The trees are massive and the wood is used for a host of things and it is common to find carved kauri objects for sale made from swamp kauri.
It was still a little early for lunch and this, mostly empty, gallery didn’t feel like the place we wanted to get food. We continued up the road to the cafe the gal at the Mangonui Tourist Office had mentioned. On our way we passed a sign for 90-Mile Beach. This beach isn’t exactly 90 miles, but it is super long. We are a ways north of its southern extremity and it continues almost to Cape Rienga at the north tip of New Zealand. There are, in fact, two legal highways that transit the narrow strip of northern New Zealand, ending in Cape Rienga. One is the highway, Route 1, that we have been following. The other is the 90 Mile Beach. However, driving the beach is rather hazardous, should only be done in the lower half of the tide and requires a 4-wheel drive vehicle. Our little Honda hybrid is not up to the task. We park on the side of the road where it heads down to the beach and walked up over a dune to see the endless beach before returning to Route 1 and continuing on our way.
We stopped for lunch in the small town of Pukenui. It was not much of a town. There was little more than the cafe, Four Square (supermarket) and liquor store that were all connected. Lunch at the cafe was good and we grabbed dessert at the store before continuing on our trek. We should note that we passed no other open stores or cafes since we stopped at the kauri gallery just outside Mangonui. There is not much up here in the north stretches of New Zealand.
As we continued up the road we saw a tourist info sign that announced “Sand Dunes”. We decided to go check this out. A short drive brought us to a parking area for the giant sand dunes of the Te Paki Recreation Reserve. Kate had seen in our guide book a mention of surfing down the sand dunes but had dismissed this as not so exciting having seen this on the Oregon coast. However, this is not nothing like Oregon. These sand dunes are around 500’. To get to the dunes you walk a trail a short distance down through some scrub to a creek. The other side of the creek is these huge dunes that go straight up! We had a blast picking our way up the sand dunes until we could get a glimpse of the coast. When we recount our day, playing on the sand dunes was, by far, the highlight for everyone.
After glissading down the dunes back to the car we got back underway towards Cape Reinga. The Dunes are part of the same park as Cape Reinga. There are hiking trails from here, but we still have many miles to go and so we drove to end of the road.
From the end of the road it was a short walk down a paved path to the lighthouse at the north tip of the island. Before getting to the path you pass through an arch with signage that describe the spiritual significance of the area. The Maori believe that when you die your spirit comes to this point at the north tip of the island before heading to Ha’Waiki, the ancestral home of the Polynesians. Food and drink are not allowed on the sacred cape. Kate’s sister tells us she was not able to come here when she visited this part of New Zealand because she was pregnant at the time and that was also hapu (tapu = taboo = forbidden). At the cape you can see, very distinctly, the waters of the Tasman Sea to the west meeting up with the Pacific Ocean to the East. It is surprising how obvious the line between the two appears. After resting and taking in the view and the sacred space we headed back to the car for a snack and to begin the trek back to Opua.
meeting up with the Pacific Ocean, to the right.
Shortly before we got to Cape Reinga we passed a sign for a Gum Digger Museum. We decided to save that stop for the way home. We got to the museum at 5:30 in the evening. Sadly, it had closed at 5:00. We figured this out by walking up to the door. That wouldn’t be worth mentioning, except that, as we tried peering over the fence on our way back to the car a friendly gentleman came out of the museum building and asked if we wanted to come in. He had heard us come to the door.
This is a private museum and nature preserve. The owner, Warwick, was a transplant who had bought the property a few years ago from the family that started it. There was a small museum in a house on the road, but most of the exhibits were along trails through the forest behind the house. One of the exhibits was a recreation of a gum digger camp and another was a very informative short film about the gum diggers.
The aforementioned kauri trees were mostly destroyed in some prehistoric cataclysmic event. The trees mostly became buried in a swamp. For whatever reason, the conditions were ripe for the preservation of the massive fallen trees. At some point, early in the history of New Zealand, it was discovered that the sap of these ancient trees was a source of amber. Digging holes in earth down to the buried trees and harvesting the amber became one of the largest industries in New Zealand. Locally, the amber was called “gum”, thus those harvesting the amber were called “gum diggers”. Most of the amber went to England and the US where it was used to make varnish and linoleum, creating sister industries in those places. At some point, less costly ways of making these products from oil were discovered and the market for the amber dried up.
The grounds around the museum are pockmarked with gum digger holes. In addition to the gum holes, the area is a nature preserve with several rare species including young kauri trees, several bird species, and an endangered species of gecko. The owner was especially keen to make sure we saw the geckos which are kept in an enclosed habitat. There is great interpretive signage throughout and this museum is well worth the visit.
After our visit to the gum digger museum we headed back to Opua with a stop in Mangonui for dinner.
Second sun sails 