Month: March 2013

April 1, 2013 (no, this is not an April fools joke!)

First, just a note about dates… if you’re reading this in North America, remember that we are across the date line.  That’s why the dates at the top of the posts don’t seem right.  We’re living your tomorrow, today.  Just let us know if you’d like us to tell you what the stock market will do tomorrow.

Next note… while Cyndi methodically plods through our trip in the order in which it occurred,  I jump around and post whatever happens to cross my mind at the moment.  With that in mind, here’s last night…

Trapped between city lights.

Off one side of the boat were the lights of Snells Beach, a very northern suburb of Auckland.  Off the other side were the very temporary “city lights” from all the boaters on Easter vacation in this anchorage on Kawau Island (pronounced Cow-ow, we think).

Despite all the boats, this bay is so large we didn’t have much of a problem finding a spot to anchor.  There are so many bays that are great for anchoring in New Zealand – and a lot of room in most of the bays.  There are also a lot of boaters.  I thought Southern California was a boating capitol.  Silly me!  We are the boating backwaters compared to NZ.  We were told that one in four people have a boat here.  -Rich

Another aside… those night pictures were taken hand-held, on a moving boat, with our little Canon point-and-shoot.  It has a hand-held night shot mode where it takes about five quick, consecutive pictures and then combines them in the camera.  It works really well!  Here’s a little post about the camera: Cameras.

April 2013

The Hauraki Gulf is an island-filled area off the central north island coast of New Zealand. It’s partly enclosed by the long arm of the Coromandel Peninsula to the east, and Great Barrier Island just above that. To the south is the base of the Coromandel, and to the west is mainland New Zealand. It’s open to the north, but since that’s not the predominant wind or swell direction here, it remains somewhat protected.

The city of Auckland sits right in the middle of this on the main shore and is the base of operations for the ferries, tour boats, and recreational boats that pass through the area.

Like the Bay of Islands to the north, the Hauraki Gulf is a cruising Mecca, full of islands and anchorages. If I had to compare the two areas, I’d say the Hauraki Gulf islands are less sweetly pretty, with fewer of those perfect white sand, pohutukawa-lined beaches, and more rugged with pine forests and rocky coves.

The Hauraki Gulf also has a couple of large, populated islands, including Waiheke Island with its wineries, beaches, and residences (permanent and vacation), and Kawau Island which is one of a kind. In all, while the Hauraki Gulf islands are less sweetly pretty than the islands in the Bay of Islands, they are every bit as beautiful.

The way I see it, the Hauraki Gulf can be divided into a northern area and a southern area by the Whangaparaoa Peninsula which sticks straight out from the mainland. The two areas have a somewhat different feeling as the north area is more difficult to reach and off the beaten path.

We did most of our cruising in the southern part of the Hauraki Gulf this year but wished we’d had more time to spend in the north. As always weather was a factor, and this time we had to leave earlier than planned. (We’d end up doing more of the north in subsequent years.)-Cyndi

March 26 – 30, 2013

It’s not an easy task to weed through photos taken in a place like Great Barrier Island. There are always a few final photos that don’t quite make it into a gallery or blog post (maybe they looked too much like another picture or just didn’t fit in). I still like them, though, and thus came up with the Last Chance Gallery so they could be included in the blog. The above gallery sums up the feeling of Great Barrier Island featuring some favorite pictures that didn’t quite make the original final cut.  (Click to enlarge and scroll.)–Cyndi

March 26 – 30, 2013

One of the great things about Great Barrier Island is its birds. Unfortunately the introduction of possums, rats, and weasels has led to the endangerment of many of New Zealand’s native birds. New Zealand is fighting back, trapping and working hard to remove the vermin as best they can from their national parks and forests.

Of course it’s much easier to do this on an island than the mainland; thus many native birds can only be found on offshore islands. Some islands have been completely cleared of vermin and are now bird sanctuaries. A few islands (such as nearby Little Barrier Island) don’t even allow people. Great Barrier Island isn’t completely clear, but it’s clear enough that many endangered birds thrive here.

It was a joy to see flocks of kakas (brown parrots) and kakarikis (green parrots) flying through the tree canopy above us. We also spotted our first New Zealand pigeon (aka wood pigeon), and banded rail (flightless birds the size of a small chicken). The biggest surprise were the regular visits from the brown teals, a beautiful and highly-endangered brown duck. There are less than 1000 of them left, and all of those live on offshore islands. They seem to do well on Great Barrier Island and will happily swim out to boats anchored in Port Fitzroy looking for (and usually getting) treats.

Unfortunately I didn’t get a good snapshot of the kakas or kakarikis, but the wood pigeon, banded rail, and brown teal were friendly and didn’t mind posing for a few snapshots. Our friend Chris on Lady Bug did get some good kaka pictures; so I’ll drop in a link to those.  –Cyndi

March 30, 2013

We had one more anchorage to see before heading back towards the mainland: Tryphena Harbour and its small town. It’s at the south end of Great Barrier Island, and the harbor has a few anchorages to choose from. We chose Mulberry Grove since it looked more protected than neighboring Puriri Bay.

Mulberry Grove is an easy place to anchor, but it’s a hard place to bring a dinghy because of the wide expanse of shallow water and sandbars along the shoreline. For us, this meant a long, exhausting walk carrying our dinghy up to the beach.

Once we arrived onshore, we spotted a beautiful stone and wood building next to a grove of Pohutukawa trees. It turned out to be a local restaurant, the Mulberry Grove Bistro and Bar, a cafe and bar with a general store attached. The cafe and store didn’t have much, but they did have croissants from Auckland.

After enjoying a couple of those croissants and getting some bread, we took a walk over the hill to Puriri Bay next door. Come to find out, the actual town of Tryphena is over that direction at the north end of Puriri Bay. The walk up and over a hill was beautiful, and we were rewarded with a wonderful view of the beach. We thought about walking all the way to Tryphena, but instead decided to reserve our energy for the long, dinghy-carrying walk back through the sandbar-strewn shallows.

If we ever make it back this way, we’ll plan to go ashore at high tide. For now, though, our good weather window for the long trip to the Hauraki Gulf was coming to an end, and we needed to leave the next morning. –Cyndi