March 6, 2013
We headed out of our slip early in March, which was good timing because the weather was predicted to be good for the week ahead, sunny and mild. We decided to start our cruise at Roberton Island (aka Motuarohia Island), one of the islands in the Bay of Islands. It’s probably an hour from Roberton to the entrance of the bay; so we could leave early the next morning for the Cavalli Islands, a few hours to the north.
We felt very sad to leave our comfort zone of Opua. We felt like part of the community there, and it had been nice to take a break from cruising and not have to think about weather, electricity, making water, provisioning, or any of that stuff. It was intimidating to now face the moody weather and seas of New Zealand, but to experience some the best things in life, you have to get off your butt and get out there.
It took less than an hour to motor out to Roberton Island. We found a nice roomy bay with only a couple of boats there. And what a beautiful, enchanting place! Large hills on each side of the island drop to an isthmus in the middle. The isthmus has its own small hills, but you can see through the gaps to rock islands on the other side.
The hills are covered with trees, a mixture of tall pines, deciduous, and pohutukawa with scattered tropical and palm trees near the south end of the island. At the base of these hills is thick grass, recently bright green but now turning more gold in the late summer. This reminded me of the American Pacific Northwest, but it has that unique New Zealand mix of vegetation. We weren’t there long when a pod of dolphin swam by. We went from sniveling about leaving Opua to wondering what took us so long to get out here. There is a profound feeling of peace and quiet here even as other boats came and went during the afternoon.
The first thing we did was go ashore to hike up to the lookout on the island’s highest peak. We started on a grassy hill then headed up a path amid tress, and near the top there were lots of stairs to climb. It took about 30 minutes, and the view was well worth the effort. We had been in the area 3 months, but this was our first real look at the Bay of Islands.
After our hike, we went to look for the natural pool that has an underwater snorkeling trail. It took us awhile to find it because we were looking for a body of water. Come to find out, this dries out at low tide leaving only a few tide pools. Oh well, we had other swimming planned this afternoon—we badly needed to clean the bottom of our boat. (Rich’s Reef).
This was our first time in the water, and it was cool but not cold, and certainly warmer than the ocean off California. The hard work of cleaning and scrubbing kept us warm. We finished an hour later and now could just relax on the forward deck which had the best view of the island. We know that Roberton isn’t the most popular of the Bay Islands, but I couldn’t imagine any of them could be nicer than this beautiful, enchanted place.
Here is a gallery of pictures from Roberton Island. As always, click to enlarge any picture. –Cyndi.
