December 13, 2013
Anyone who reads our blog might notice my last four posts look and sound familiar. The reason: these December 2013 posts were previously tacked on at the end of our first season’s cruise (March 2013) through the Bay of Islands.
I’ve now done some revising of those posts and they now sit here their proper spot.
Our Bay of Islands itinerary this season was not very extensive in and of itself, but it did fill in missing pieces from our previous season. Below, a map showing our anchorages from both seasons. Not shown, but part of what went into our assessment of the anchorages, were the areas we explored by dinghy or motored through on our boat.
In all, I’m very happy with what we covered in two seasons and believe we managed to see the best places; so I decided to make a Bay of Islands Cruising Information page, which eventually expanded into a Northland Cruising Information page and is now called A Quickie Guide to Our Favorite Northland Anchorages and appears in the next post.
Yes, The Gateway cruisers guide (covering Northland and available free to all cruisers) has (uh, used to have) a guide to Northland’s anchorages, but thirty anchorages in the Bay of Islands alone felt overwhelming to sort through. I believe our list separates the wheat from the chaff.
Update from 2019: Come to find out, the 2019 Gateway Guide no longer includes the Spot X Guide to Northland’s anchorages (which had about seventy anchorages in areas including the Bay of Islands, Whangaroa and the Cavalli Islands, Poor Knights Islands, and the north coast). Instead, they steer cruisers to a company that sells very similar cruising guides. It seems a little unfair that now there’s a charge for something that’s always been included for free, but the way things have gone in Opua the past couple of years, this does not come as a big shock.
But getting back to December, 2013. Below is a roundup of some extra photos from our cruise through the Bay of Islands this season. (As always, click to enlarge and scroll through the photos.)
Now, it was time to make our way south towards Auckland.–Cyndi
PS: Here’s a link to the 2017 Gateway Guide when they still included the Spot X anchorage guide to Northland.
