December 2012 – March 2013
The biggest decision for cruisers visiting New Zealand is where to make their home base. This is the place where you’ll spend the vast majority of your time and do your day-to-day living: shopping, laundry, walks/runs/hikes, restaurants, movies, driving, local sightseeing, small boat projects, doctor/dentist visits, and socializing. It’s also the area where you’ll likely haul your boat out (pretty much every cruising boat needs to haul out at some point) and do your bigger boat projects. And it’s the base from which you’ll travel around New Zealand and will color your experience of New Zealand, so it’s an important decision.
There are four likely home bases for cruising yachts in the North Island: Opua/Bay of Islands, Whangarei (including Marsden Cove), Auckland, and Tauranga.
The vast majority of cruisers clear through customs in Opua, and then end up making their home base at either Opua or Whangarei, preferring to visit Auckland only by car. Most cruisers have barely heard of Tauranga and don’t consider it as an option (although Rich and I are trying to help change that).
We made Opua our home base, but since Whangarei was only 45 minutes away by car, we made a few trips there. We visited friends, saw movies, bought a car, sold stuff to the used-boat-parts store, got a wisdom tooth extracted (Rich), and enjoyed some great sightseeing. Sometimes we spent the night, and sometimes we just drove back to Opua that same day. In many ways Whangarei was like a second home.
Whangarei is basically a city on a river. For a boat to get there, it must travel several hours up the river at high tide. Once there, you will need a slip in either the Whangarei Marina or the Riverside Drive Marina. The Whangarei Marina (aka Town Basin) is the best option, a stone’s throw from the waterfront restaurants and a large supermarket, and within walking distance of downtown. Riverside Drive is a small marina on the outskirts of town. (There is also Marsden Cove Marina down where the river meets the ocean, but it’s far enough away to feel like a different area entirely.)
We had several friends who opted to stay at the Whangarei Marina, and they enjoyed their time there. There’s a beautiful pedestrian bridge that connects both sides of the river and offers quick access to the restaurants, walking and hiking trails and is the site of the weekly Farmer’s Market. Whangarei also has a good location in that it’s only a 45-minute drive north to the Bay of Islands and a two-hour drive south to Auckland. Whangarei’s main disadvantage is its distance from good cruising areas, but if you want to settle in for awhile, it’s a nice place. Below, a few photos from the pretty Whangarei area.
(You can click on a photo to enlarge, then scroll through photos by clicking “next image” just above and to the left of photos .) –Cyndi
