Author: richwest3

March 28, 2013

We woke up to a gorgeous morning where our scenic surroundings were perfectly reflected in the glassy water below. Rich did a post about this earlier here, but I’d like to add in my own favorite pictures.

Above is a panoramic shot, and below are two of my favorites. –Cyndi

March 28, 2013 in Port Fitzroy, New Zealand

This was the view from the boat this morning…

March 28, 2013 – Port Fitzroy, New Zealand

We made it to Great Barrier Island on Tuesday – about a 65 mile motor into light wind and fairly large swells.  Even with that, it was a fairly nice day at sea.

Yesterday, we motored about five miles into the very well-protected bay where the tiny town of Port Fitzroy is located.  On the way in, we saw a pretty little green boat coming out.  Sockdolager!  It must be them!  We called on the radio and we were right.  They’d been here for a couple of weeks and it turns out that they are heading for Tauranga – our destination as well.  Here we are in a strange, new country and there are friends around every corner.  It’s so nice.  (We wrote about this a while back – here.)

And not only old friends (well, “old” as in we’d met during our passage across the Pacific), but new friends also.  We met Dale and Jeannie (S/V Hautere) a few hours after arriving  at Port Fitzroy and ended up sharing dinner with them at the boat club in “town.”

At dinner we ran into this old friend…

Oh yea, that’s right… Pizza!  We also found a new bird friend – one we hadn’t seen before…

A Banded Rail.  What can we say?  Another wonderful day in paradise!  -Rich

March 27, 2013

In the morning we headed over to the Port Fitzroy harbor.  Picture a shoreline about 2 miles long, and along this shore are coves and bays.  Now, add a long island just offshore that nearly encloses this section of coastline, leaving an area about a quarter mile wide with a narrow pass at each end where boats can enter and exit.  Add tall mountains and lush greenery, and it all adds up to the magical area of Port Fitzroy.

The map shows several anchorages in Port Fitzroy, and as always some are more desirable than others.  Our first destination was Rarohaha Bay, near the actual town of Port Fitzroy. It was no problem motoring through the north pass and finding the bay, but anchoring was bit of a challenge as there were a few boats plus a wharf and fuel dock.  This bay is pretty large, but having to avoid moored boats, anchored boats, buoys, and leave access to the wharf made it seem much smaller.

Once anchored, we went ashore and took a walk to town.  As towns go, this one is about as small as they come, with only small market and cafe and a small building housing tiny businesses.  Up the hill there’s pub/yacht club that was rumored to have good pizza.  We found out they’d be open that evening and made a plan to come back.

At this point we hadn’t seen much of the island, but we could already see it was as lush and beautiful as we’d heard.  You don’t have to walk or drive to the forest here; you’re in it from the moment you step ashore.

Later, we walked up to the pub to join a couple we’d met and sat out on the deck to enjoy our pizza and beer.  The pizza was delicious, although the sauce was a little sweet.  Oh well, how much can you complain when you’re getting reasonably good pizza out in the wilderness.  You really can’t complain at all.

Below is a gallery that shows our afternoon in Port Fitzroy.  I’ve included a picture of the small market, and as you can see there’s not a lot of selection, but they did have a coffee-making machine and the coffee wasn’t half bad.  I’ve also added pictures of the pub.  In spite of being so removed from everything, they have a big screen TV, internet access, and the ability to make pretty good pizza.  Rich did his own post showing the pub here. –Cyndi

March 26, 2013

We made the decision to skip a couple of anchorages of interest (Mimiwhangata and Tutukaka) to go to Great Barrier Island.  Normally this would not be an either/or choice, but it was our first season and we were worried that winter weather could arrive at any minute!  We wanted to make sure to get to Great Barrier Island while the weather was still nice.  (We have since found that nice weather lingers well into fall.)

Great Barrier Island lies 50 miles off Auckland and is like the Shangri-La of New Zealand. It’s a good-sized island (19 miles long and nine miles wide), but it’s remote, rugged, and mountainous and has a population of less than 800 hearty souls.  From Auckland, it’s a 30-minute plane ride or a 5-hour ferry ride to the island, and accommodations are limited.  Its remoteness, limited infrastructure, and the fact that most of it is run by the Department of Conservation insure that it will remain a wilderness paradise.  It’s “New Zealand as it used to be.”

Because we left from Whangaruru, it was a 65-mile trip.  We got up while it was still dark, pulling up the anchor in the moonlight and headed out of the harbor just before dawn.  It turned out to be a nice day for motoring to Great Barrier, but the winds, light as they were, were on our nose and our pace was slower than planned.  It looked like we might have to break our rule about never entering a strange place after dark.

We had planned to go to the reputedly-beautiful Port Fitzroy area, but it’s not the kind of place you want to enter after dark.  We decided instead to head to drier, more rugged and open Katherine Bay, then head over to Port Fitzroy in the morning.

We neared the island as the sun set, but a full moon rose from behind the mountains and the sky took on those beautiful dusky hues of lilac and blue.  As we got in closer, the mountains started to loom around us, but we didn’t get to see much as darkness came on fast.  We entered the harbor by moonlight and used our chart plotter and radar to find our way into the cove where we dropped our anchor.  We couldn’t see much, but the smell of damp earth was fantastic. –Cyndi