December 17, 2013
We were anxious to check out the Kawau Island Yacht Club and headed over in the dinghy soon after we got anchored. It reminded me of the yacht club building in Avalon Harbor at Catalina Island, but this place is much more casual and open to the public.
Inside is a combination bar and dining area with a small market off to the side. We were too early for lunch but were able to order coffee drinks at the bar (I don’t think there is a single bar in all of New Zealand that doesn’t have a cappuccino machine). We sat at one of the tables and got a feel for the place while trying not to get too pulled in by the Myth Busters show on the room’s TV, discussing the always-fascinating spontaneous human combustion topic.
We came back later for lunch, and while the food was decent, the beer and the atmosphere were the reasons to visit. The owner came out and chatted with us awhile, as did the guy who drives the mail boat. This is a casual, homey kind of a place, and I can imagine we’d hang out here all the time if we lived on the island.
Between coffee and lunch we took a walk down to the smelting house ruins and found it a lovely, rather unusual-looking place with stone ruins and big California-style palm trees by the still green water of the bay. The only thing that could make it more surreal would to be wallabies jumping around. As it so happens, they come out here in the evening.
Above is a gallery of the yacht club and Smelting Cove. As always, click to enlarge or scroll. –Cyndi
