December 11, 2013
In keeping with the theme of doing things we missed last season, I had chosen a new bay on an island we’d visited before: Urupukapuka Island. Last time here we’d visited Paradise Bay, and since it lived up to its name, it was hard to imagine we’d like this bay as much. But as it turned out, we did.
Urupukapuka Bay has lots of room, but much of the bay is shallow; so we had to take care to anchor in an area for deeper-draft boats. As we motored towards the area, a boat was in our chosen spot, but it soon pulled anchor and was heading off as we approached. We ended up nabbing the spot.
This happens so often in New Zealand that when we see someone in a spot we’re hoping for, we head for it anyway. As often as not, even more often than not, the boat picks up and leaves by the time we get there. Is it that Legacy is a particularly frightening-looking apparition headed their way? After all, we fly an American flag which is pretty scary these days. But nope, it’s actually that many New Zealanders make multiple stops over the course of a day. This is something very unique to Kiwis in that most boaters we know, once they’ve gone to the trouble of finding a spot and anchoring there, like stay put.
Urupukapuka Bay has lots of pohutukawa trees, and we were hoping to catch them in full bloom. As it happened they were only just starting to bloom, but we were still glad we came. There was a camping area on shore, but it didn’t interfere with the natural beauty of this bay or its beach.
One of the main attractions of this bay was its access to the island’s incredible hiking trail. Having rested for two days, we were ready to get walking again. Today we planned to get to a part of the trail we’d missed on our previous visit: the hike out on the southernmost peninsula and its bays, including Cable Bay.
This turned out to be an incredibly beautiful hike. The sheep roamed freely here, and it was fun to walk among them and try to come up with noises that would get their attention (as you can see from some of our pictures, we succeeded). The scenery was gorgeous: grassy hills and pohutukawa trees overlooked serene blue-green bays and coves.
The gallery at the top of this post shows Urupukapuka Bay, Cable Bay, and a bay in between them. There’s also a shot of Otehei Bay with its pier. (As always, you can click to enlarge and scroll through photo galleries.)
Another neat thing about Urupukapuka Bay was a dinghy ride we took towards Otehei Bay. There were coves and beaches around every corner, and a small island (Round Island) that looked great for snorkeling. This area would also be a kayaker’s dream, and we did see a few of them here.
Above is a gallery with photos of the area between Urupukapuka and Otehei bays taken during our dinghy ride. -Cyndi
