April 11, 2016
Going into Havelock is a little bit tricky. It necessitates going down the Mahau Sound, which is subject to some pretty big tides. Deep-draft boats like ours need to carefully follow a marked route and arrive in the shallowest sections near high tide. It’s not that difficult, but it’s intimidating enough that many boaters won’t attempt to go there.
Below a map of the area around the Mahau Sound. Click in the markers to see what’s what.
This sunny morning motoring down the Kenepuru Sound, we were impressed with how mountainous it was (parts of it were obscured by cloud cover when we arrived).
After a brief time in the Popoure Reach, we arrived at Mahau Sound, the innermost of all the sounds. With it’s changes in tide (resulting in muddy areas) and drier vegetation, Mahau Sound may be the least attractive sound. That said, it’s still quite lovely and is interesting to see.
We followed the marked route on a rising tide and at the shallowest point, we cleared the bottom by at least 3 feet. While we proceeded with care over the shallowest areas, we weren’t nervous until we came to the surprise blind corner near Havelock. The channel is narrow, shallow and hugs a headland as it rounds a corner. There’s no place to go if a boat suddenly appears going the other way! I don’t know how they avoid head-on collisions. Thankfully that part was over quickly, and now we were in view of Havelock Marina.
We motored to our reserved slip, got tied up and looked around. After visiting by car we didn’t think we wanted to bring our boat here. But now we both felt the same way: It felt great to be here! Somehow it seemed much more appealing than we remembered, maybe because we were seeing it from inside the marina, or from the viewpoint of staying here as opposed to a lunch stop on a long drive. Or maybe it was the beautiful day and getting out of the wind that had been picking up all morning.
We checked in with the office, then headed to a restaurant by the marina called the Slip Inn. We celebrated our arrival with those local green-lipped mussels we love (Havelock is the green-lipped mussel capital of New Zealand) and some fish and chips. For a few days, we could look forward to no weather worries, clean laundry, food re-provisioning, and trying local eateries. The old saying goes that the two happiest days in a boater’s life are the day they buy their boat and the day they sell it. My version is it’s the day you get away from a marina to “get out there,” and the day you come into a marina after “getting out there.” –Cyndi
