December 12, 2013
One of my goals during this trip through the Bay of Islands was to figure out a good way to visit Oke Bay, one of the mainland anchorages we visited the last time we were here. Because this bay faces northeast and is only a few miles from the entrance to the Bay of Island’s harbor, it’s subject to some effects from the open ocean. As a result, it tends to be bumpy and might even have small waves. These were the conditions we had during our previous visit; so it’s not surprising that we weren’t particularly enthralled with it.
The reason I wanted to go back and walk around onshore was that it’s a David Thatcher favorite. David Thatcher is the author of the New Zealand cruising guides we use and I trust his opinion. Rich has come to refer to him as “Mr Big Shot” as he gets a little tired of hearing, “David Thatcher says…,” and “David Thatcher thinks…” Rich thinks I have a secret crush on David Thatcher. I don’t, but his books had been my source for choosing places to visit, and I’d come to trust his opinion and value his insights. (No, I don’t want to marry him, but I might consider marrying one of his books if I weren’t already married.)
Anchored at the south end of Urupukapuka Island, we realized that two bays on the mainland peninsula opposite Oke Bay could easily be reached by dinghy. These bays faced west, which meant their water should be calm and flat. From there, we could just walk to Oke Bay. Since it was a calm and beautiful day, we decided to give it a go. We dinghied out of Urupukapuka Bay and crossed the channel to Kaimarama Bay, a mile away, and easily landed on its shore.
This jaunt turned out to be well worth doing. The beaches at Kaimarama Bay and Hauai Bay were the gravelly type with brown sand, but still pretty and interesting to see. The walk went along a road, past a few homes behind Hauai Bay, before reaching the path that went up over a grassy hill to the other side of the peninsula.
Voila, Oke Bay, with no rolly anchorage or wavy dinghy landings to contend with! I was surprised to see how beautiful this place was now that we were looking at it from the shore. It had a long stretch of white sand beach, colorful blue-green water, and was surrounded by lush green hills. This was definitely one of those places that looked more beautiful up close (it didn’t look nearly this pretty from our boat last time we visited).
We had an enjoyable walk down the beach, then hiked up a hill to seek out views overlooking the bay. This turned out to be a wonderful excursion! And it was so nice afterward to return to our peaceful anchorage at Urupukapuka Bay for the night.
Above is a gallery of photos from the area in no particular order. Kaimarama Bay is the one with our dinghy in the picture, and Hauai Bay is the bay with the brown sand beach. Oke Bay (featured at the top of the gallery) has the beautiful white sand. (As always, you can click to enlarge and scroll through the photo gallery).–Cyndi
