December 6, 2012 – March 6, 2013
We have so loved this wonderful place, but it’s time to cut the cord and move on to new adventures.
Our next plan is to go north and cruise Whangaroa and the Cavalli Islands, then come back and cruise the Bay of Islands before we head south. After we leave the Bay of Islands, we’ll make some stops along the coast before heading out to Great Barrier Island. After a week there, we’ll head back to the Hauraki Gulf and its islands off Auckland, then the Coromandel Peninsula, Great Mercury Island, and finally Tauranga.
This is our plan, or more accurately our hope. In New Zealand, everything is weather dependent, and you can’t just wander about and cruise whenever and wherever its convenient. You have to keep an eye on the weather every day as winds can come from any direction and strong winds do come up. Hopefully you’ll know about strong winds ahead of time and be in a protected anchorage. You constantly have to adjust your itinerary around the weather, and either strong winds or contrary winds could slow us down, and we want to be in Tauranga by mid-April.
So, with our next adventure about to begin, we have a hodgepodge of pictures from our time in Opua and Northland. We do plan to see this place again, but it may be a long time. –Cyndi (As always, you can click to enlarge/scroll through photos below.)
