Author: richwest3

March 15, 2013

Still recovering from our hike yesterday, we opted to explore the north end of Urupukapuka by dinghy.  On the west side of the island, there are three bays:  Paradise Bay (the bay we were anchored in), Otehei Bay (the bay with the ferry dock and cafeteria), and Otaio Bay (the bay just north of us that we visited briefly).

We had not considered Otaio Bay as a destination because it’s too shallow for Legacy.  It’s a beautiful bay, more rugged than Paradise Bay, with a long stretch of brown sand beach, taller trees, and rocky headlands.  Because of its shallowness, the water turns some interesting colors in full sunlight.  Today was pretty gray, but we had a few patches of sun as we went.

We motored through Otaio Bay, then up around the rugged, rocky point to the north side of the island.  That point is a neat area, a rocky shore draped with pohutukawa trees and hiding numerous small coves with emerald water, seaweed, and even an occasional blowhole.  There’s an interesting little unnamed cove just beyond the point, with a grassy saddle of land and a white beach.  Beyond that is the north side of the island, more rugged and open to the winds and currents that go through the Waewaetorea Passage (the passage between Urupukapuka Island and the island just above it).

We would like to have done some more in-depth exploring, but the skies were turning more gray and the wind was picking up.  We could see rain coming and raced back to the boat, if you can call it “racing” when you have an electric outboard that only goes at grandma speed.  We ended up getting a little wet, but we made it back to Legacy in time to avoid getting drenched.

The weather was now starting to change, and tomorrow we’d be headed back to Opua. –Cyndi

Click on any picture to enlarge, then on the right side of the picture to scroll through them.

March 14, 2013

Urupukapuka Island has lots of walking trails, which makes it possible to see the entire island even if you only go to one anchorage.  Your only limit is your level of fitness.  Our level managed to get us up the hill, across the island, down to the south end, back across, up to the anchorage north of ours, and back down the hill to Paradise Bay (basically covering about 2/3 of the island).  It nearly killed us, but cruising here means we’re in Legacy Boot Camp mode, and no one says boot camp is easy.

It helps when the scenery is gorgeous; so most of the time it hardly felt like exercise.  The path starts from the beach, then zig zags up a hill through classic northland forest filled with birds (there are no predators on many of these islands so the number of birds goes up noticeably).  Two standouts were the little fantail birds that flitted around us as we walked and the tui birds that chortled and whistled from the trees.

Near the top of the hill, the forest abruptly stopped and we emerged into a world of grassy hills, pohutukawa trees, and occasional sheep.  Beyond the hills were views of the Bay of Islands with a surprising number of rock islands between the bigger islands, then the mountainous mainland beyond that.

One consistent feature of these islands is the side facing the ocean is rugged and rocky, while the side facing inland has still, clear water and those beautiful white beaches.  We crossed to the rugged side and then down to the south end, tromping through thick grass at times and seeing an occasional pukeko.

We arrived at Urupukapuka Bay at the south side of the island.  It’s just as beautiful as Paradise Bay, but the scenery features grassy hills instead of forest.  We walked down the beach, then continued on towards Otehi Bay.  The views of the coastline and the bay were stunning, so beautiful it momentarily brought tears to my eyes.

We reached Otehi Bay about 15 minutes later.  It’s pretty, but there’s a ferry from Pahia that drops off visitors and campers; so this bay is busier and not as appealing as the others. There’s a small cafeteria at the head of the bay, but the food didn’t look all that great.  We opted to walk back the boat, detouring to take a look at Otaio Bay, just north of Paradise Bay but too shallow for us to visit in Legacy.  (It was lovely, but not quite as nice as our Paradise Bay.)

By the time we arrived back at Paradise Bay, we’d overdone it and were lurching along like a couple of zombies from The Walking Dead.  It was about all we could do now to carry our dinghy to the water, launch it, and drag ourselves onto the boat.  This fantastic walk was definitely sponsored by Advil.  That, and a very nice sauvignon blanc. –Cyndi

As always, click on any image below to enlarge, and click on the right side of the image to continue in the enlarged mode.

March 14, 2013

The wind was light when we made the four-hour trip from the Cavalli Islands to the Bay of Islands, but we knew more wind was coming and by now had come up with a new plan: spend two nights in the Bay of Islands, go back to the Opua Marina during the weather system and get some boat work done, then head back out to cruise, picking up where we left off.  This meant we had two nights to spend wherever we wished before heading for the shelter of Opua.

I decided we might as well begin our Bay of Islands cruise with what seemed to be a frequently mentioned “favorite” anchorage:  Paradise Bay on Urupukapuka Island.  As we entered the bay, we were a little disappointed and confused.  The bay, while nice enough, looked rather bland.  Rich asked me the dreaded question: “Why are we here?”  With as much authority as I could muster, I stated, “Everyone loves it, that’s why!”  Inside, I was wondering what it is here that people love: there must be something special, and I intended to find out what it was.

We noticed the more we motored into the bay, the more its beauty began to emerge.  The beach became prominent, with smooth white sand and clear blue-green water.  Moss draped from the branches of pohutukawa trees lining the beach, while forested hills ringed the bay.  By the time we anchored and took our dinghy ashore, we could see why this place is so popular:  it’s really beautiful. –Cyndi

March 13, 2013

We had some neat moments during our afternoon in Waiti Bay.  During our hike we’d noticed one of the America’s Cup boats, Oracle, traveling down the coast with a power boat riding alongside it.  We wondered what that was all about and later found out one of our favorite programs, Top Gear (the British version), was in New Zealand filming an episode where they race a car on land against this boat in the water.  We knew this would be highly entertaining and were thrilled to have witnessed some of it in person!

Later in the afternoon, we went for a swim.  The water here can be cool, but it was late in the summer and the water had warmed to a comfortable level.  After the initial shock of diving in, it felt wonderful.  As we swam, we had a friend join us, a young gull who adopted us last time we were here in Waiti Bay.  He found us again and seemed very attached to us, perhaps thinking Legacy was his mother.  Today he sat on our dinghy and watched us swim.

When Rich went aboard to shower, I stayed in the water while the young gull kept me company.  The clear blue-green water sparkled in the afternoon sunlight as I glided through it, diving under the boat to check on the set of our anchor, then floating on my back to watch the clouds drifting across the sky.  This moment was something I used to visualize back home, and now I was living out this dream, swimming from our boat anchored off one of New Zealand’s beautiful islands.  I felt very blessed.

Earlier in the day we met the couple on the power boat sharing our anchorage, and they invited us over for some wine that evening.  We headed over to Barry and Sandy’s boat, Pastorale, and after getting the tour of their beautiful boat, sat on the flybridge, drank wine and watched the evening deepen.  We became fast friends and had a really nice time trading cruising stories and information.  When we told Barry we were heading south to the Hauraki Gulf, he offered us this use of his slip in the Viaduct marina while they were out cruising.  We jumped at the chance to spend a some time in the downtown Auckland and gratefully accepted their offer.  We weren’t positive we’d end up in the city, but now it became more likely.

After much wine and much fun, we headed back to Legacy under the night sky.  It was a lovely end to a special day.  Tomorrow we planned to leave early and head to the Bay of Islands. –Cyndi

September 2013 in Fulaga, Fiji

I guess this is a good place for these photos – following the kauri tree drawings.  These were drawn by little crabs on a beach in Fiji (off in our future but we’re putting this post back here).

If the water drew kauri trees, I think these little crabs were trying to complete the forest by drawing pohutukawa trees (though a little more abstract than the kauri trees). -Rich