May 8, 2021
After almost a year at Pier 21 in Auckland, we left our berth and are out and about for a little cruise, wandering around New Zealand’s amazing coast and islands. Here’s our route so far…
(This was just dubbed the “Rainbow Cruise” because of our choice of colors on this map. While we were making it and seeing all we’ve done in about a week, Cyndi said “No wonder I’m so exhausted!”)
Here are some pictures from our stops and along the way. (Click any picture to enlarge.)
Dairy Bay
This beautiful little bay is located in the north Hauraki Gulf area, near Kawau Island. It requires very settled conditions to come here, and we’ve never managed to be in the area when there’s neither wind nor swell. Finally the weather cooperated and gave us a perfect day to enjoy this bay.
Mansion House Bay on Kawau Island
We’ve had our boat in few anchorages in Bon Accord Harbour but never Mansion House Bay, which we’ve always visited by dinghy. It was nice to finally drop our anchor in front of the iconic Mansion House. Here, we enjoyed lunch at one of the cafe’s picnic tables, surrounded by peacocks, followed by a walk to Ladies Bay.
Leigh
Leigh is a beautiful but difficult spot because it’s filled with moorings for the local fishing boats. Thankfully we managed to eek out a spot and enjoy a night here on our way north.
And then there was Whangarei...
Rumor had it that a clinic in Whangarei was giving vaccines to anyone over 50 (the rest of the country is still doing front-line workers and the elderly only). We decided to head to the Marsden Marina, rent a car, and see if we could get in on this deal in Whangarei. Well, it seems everyone read the same article we did, and they were no longer taking walk-ins and were now booked solid. So that didn’t work out, but we did manage to haul out and get Legacy’s bottom cleaned, a requirement to go to the Bay of Islands (where we were now thinking of heading).
We aren’t posting many pictures of Marsden Cove (where we stayed for two nights) as it isn’t one of New Zealand’s most picturesque places. It looks a lot like any one of a thousand retirement developments on the outskirts of Los Angeles.
Marsden – Port Side…
The ride in, though, was stunning (if you kept your eyes to starboard as the port side looks like any one of a thousand oil refineries in Los Angeles!). Whangarei Heads – the mountains on the starboard side of the channel – is some of New Zealand’s most beautiful scenery with dramatic, jagged peaks and spires jutting up from the almost vertical cliffs.
Whangarei Heads – Starboard Side…
Tutukaka
We’ve enjoyed previous visits to this area. Today we stopped because it would be a convenient spot from which to make the next morning’s trip to the Poor Knights Islands, about 3 hours away. It was also nice to have an opportunity to use our drone to get some overhead shots of the area.
Poor Knights Islands
I think you can tell by the number of pictures in the gallery that Poor Knights was the highlight of this mini-cruise. We had perfect weather with hardly any wind or swell. The sun was bright and beautiful and when there were clouds, they just contributed to the drama of the place.
The drone came out about six times while we were there. We’ll put together a video from those flights soon. It’ll included flights through the caves. (I’ll be in therapy for a while after that!)
Though we were only there for one night, we spent time in two different and equally amazing anchorages. See the non-interactive map below…
Mimiwhangata
Conditions have to be just right to be comfortable here, and they were! Any swell from the north makes this a rolly place and we were lucky as there was pretty much no swell from any direction.
When we were here before, we hiked up the deceptively easy looking hill to the saddle on top. It wasn’t easy as there are 10,000 years of petrified cow patties piled on the ground that are determined to have their way with our ankles. It was so much nicer to sit on the boat and let the drone do the hiking!
Urupukapuka in the Bay of Isalnds (where we now sit waiting for strong winds to die down).
We haven’t been outside much since we got here yesterday morning. It’s been blowing, raining a bit and gray. We’ve been here before and it’s a beautiful place. Hopefully, we’ll get some drone-flying weather and can post some pictures later. …Update… It was not to be. Maybe we’ll get better pictures if we stop again on the way back to Auckland.
Where to from here? We have no firm plans and only vague ideas. We’ll probably go into the town of Russell for some groceries and maybe a round of laundry. If the weather cooperates, we’d like to go up to Whangaroa (I want to land the drone on the Dukes Nose!). And of course we’ll stop at more islands here in the Bay of Islands.
Update: Before we even finished this post, our plans changed. After a good long weather study, it looks like we’ll have high winds and rough seas for a week. We headed into the marina at Opua and will stay here while it blows. Then, who knows.
-Rich and Cyndi
