March 20, 2103
There’s a path that goes all the way around Motorua Island, and since it isn’t that big, the walk takes less than two hours.
These walks all start with a dinghy landing, but that’s an easy task here in these calm bays with no waves to contend with. The harder part is carrying the dinghy up above the high tide line. We can’t drag it because we don’t have a hard bottom; so we pick it up out of the water at the shoreline, each taking an end, and carry it to a nearby tree. Generally we’ll tie it off to that tree or a nearby bush as an extra precaution. As far as theft prevention, that’s not been something we’ve needed to worry about in any place we’ve visited since leaving California. (Hopefully it will stay that way.)
We located the trail and climbed on thick, spongy grass up to the top of the hill where we had terrific views of our bay. The rest of the walk alternated between forest, grassy areas, and the beaches of Mangahawea Bay, Waipao Bay and Otupoho Bay before returning us back to where we started in Army Bay (aka Waiwhapuki Bay).
Like Ururpukapuka Island, we were struck by the number of birds here on this island. The forest was filled with tuis and fantails, while pukekos roamed about in the grassy areas. This was quite a treat for us bird lovers!
In all, this was a beautiful walk, and we would come to count this among our favorite spots in the Bay of Islands. –Cyndi
(At the top of this post is a photo gallery from our walk. Click to enlarge and scroll.)
