Hauraki Gulf, New Zealand
12/27/2004 - 01/14/2005
Long sleeves? A sweater (or jumper as it is called here)? The sail to Great Barrier was a bit chilly even though the sky was sunny and clear. We are still adjusting from the months in the tropics.
Great Barrier Island
Boats, boats and more boats arrived and left the Tutukaka anchorage. Christmas starts the Kiwi holiday period. Most New Zealanders are on holiday from Christmas to at least January 10th with many folks taking off the entire month of January. Holidaymakers tend to head to either the Bay of Islands or Great Barrier Island. Not wanting to miss the fun, we left Tutukaka and set a course for Great Barrier Island.
The Barrier, as the in-crowd calls it, protects the Hauraki Gulf from the open Pacific ocean to the east. Timber from the kauri forests and whaling stations made the island popular early in New Zealand's history. Then, in 1896, the world's first airmail service started with carrier pigeons delivering mail from The Barrier to the mainland. Even now, the island has no electricity supply.
Boats move around all the time. The anchorages are filled with sailboats and motor vessels. In New Zealand, sailboats are called yachts and motor vessels are called launches. Either way, there are lots of boats everywhere.
The island is 285 square kilometers - New Zealand's fourth largest landmass. Unspoiled idyllic harbours, beaches and forests make The Barrier an amazing place to visit. Several of the many well maintained walking tracks that kept us busy when it wasn't pouring rain. We concluded that we could spend a month or more at the island if we had the time. For this trip, we spent a just over a week. Most of our time was spent in Port Fitzroy but we spent a couple days in Whangaparapara.
Here is a typical Kiwi launch. These classic looking boats are quite common.
The weather in New Zealand has been pretty crummy since we arrived. Lots of rain and temperatures forcing us into long pants are making us wonder whether the weather ever gets better. At first, we thought it was just that we were spoiled. The meteorological service reported November and December to be the worst weather in the past 50 years. Lucky us. Everyone hoped summer would show its face soon.
Here comes the rain again! We quickly learned to take advantage of any moments of sunshine.
A pair of rare brown teals take a swim over to check us out. A Department of Conservation brochure states, "Less than 1200 brown teals remain in the world and two thirds of them are on Great Barrier Island".
The wind and rain kept us boat bound for a couple of days. In addition to reading lots of books, Robin made great progress on the "All Things Kiwi" needlepoint.
For three days, starting on the December 28th, the wind blew over 30 knots and the rain did not stop. One night, several boats around us were either dragging anchor or way too close for comfort. Duncan slept in his rain gear in the main salon in case we needed to take any evasive action.
And then the wind stopped!
When the sun comes out, everyone gets busy. The good weather brought on this boat race.
"Suns out - let's go hiking!" Duncan totes along the big camera pack in preparation for
One of the first sites on our hike was this luxurious campsite. New Zealanders seem to love camping and BBQs. Separate tents for kitchen and dining facilities are common. Kiwis are prepared for all types of weather, too. Good thing!
Did we mention how well maintained the trails are?
Whisper sits alone in the back of the anchorage.
Flowers and waterfalls are the upside of all the rain. Even the bees seem to be happy the rain stopped.
This colorful mushroomy looking thing caught our eyes.
The main harbour on the west coast is Port Fitzroy. The pier is usually quite busy.
Port Fitzroy is one of the three main towns on the island. The harbour is quite popular with boaties. There are a couple restaurants, a fuel dock and a store in town. There is even a yacht club - they call them boating clubs here - albeit quite casual.
After several days in or near Port Fitzroy, we decided to check out some of the other anchorages. Rafting up to other boats in cosy spots seemed to be quite popular.
The Spirit of New Zealand arrived at "The Barrier" on New Years Eve. We spent New Years Eve drinking champagne and star gazing on Whisper.
We moved down to Whangaparapara for a few nights. More hiking showed us some of the history of the area. This steam engine was used as a part of a timber mill operation.
If you look closely in the water, you will see remnants of a timber mill.
One of the most amazing aspects of New Zealand is the proximity of the water to the lush forests.
Great Barrier Island is an incredible escape back to nature. Between 40 and 50 miles away from the big city of Auckland live 1200 people on pristine island that shelters the Hauraki Gulf. With so much to explore, we will have to return for another visit. Time ticked away way to fast toward our deadline of arriving in Auckland on January 7th. On January 4th, we sailed 30 miles south to Waiheke Island which put us 12 miles away from Auckland.
As we approached Waiheke Island, the Auckland skyline came into view. Uh Oh! We are getting closer to the hustle and bustle of city life.
Waiheke Island
Dolphins swam alongside Whisper as we sailed south toward Waiheke. Still 15 miles away from Waiheke, we heard a "Mayday" call on the VHF. As we listened to the radio, we learned a ferry just hit a fishing boat near Waiheke Island. Boats much closer than Whisper rushed to the location. People on the fishing boat were injured and needed medical attention. Luckily, a doctor was on board a Coast Guard vessel and they got to the scene within 5 minutes. Ferries have not been having good luck around us recently.
We arrived safely at the southern end of Waiheke and settled in to our new anchorage. Waiheke is known for its wineries, hiking trails and galleries. What fun! After the remote feeling of Great Barrier Island, Waiheke was quite civilized. The population on Waiheke is 8000. Cafes and shops line the main street. Our priority was to get our new favorite coffee drink, a flat white, at a cafe. After coffee, we decided to hire a taxi to give us a tour of the island. Waiheke has an upscale rural feel with vineyards and beautiful homes covering its coast.
The view from the anchorage revealed lots of beach houses covering the slopes.
The unique Wharram catamaran sailed by Whisper.
A great tour of the island via taxi allowed us to get a feel for the island.
Waiheke has many great spots for anchoring boats. As you can see, this is yet another busy anchorage.
Many of the homes on Waiheke suggested affluence. With its proximity to Auckland - only a half hour ferry ride away - Waiheke seems like a great place to live if you work in the city.
Beautiful palm trees appear throughout New Zealand.
Robin looks contemplative about the prospects of living in the big city. Auckland here we come! For those of you wanting more pictures of Duncan, check out his reflection in Robin's sunglasses.
Auckland
Our reservation at Bayswater Marina in Auckland was scheduled for January 7th. As a result, the visit to Waiheke was way too short. Oh well, we will have to make a return trip to Waiheke and Great Barrier Islands. We left Waiheke and arrived in Auckland a couple of hours later. Safely tucked away in a slip, we spent the next week preparing ourselves and Whisper for a five week hiatus.
Duncan worked on getting the shore power situation under control. New Zealand (and most other countries outside North America) use 220V electricity. Whisper was only set up for 110V. To leave Whisper connected to a 220V charging source, adjustments needed to be made. Duncan worked with an electrician to get a temporary step up transformer hooked up. Washing, stowing and organizing kept us quite busy.
With our tourist visas running out in February, we needed to address some of the immigration formalities. Duncan extended the tourist visas while Robin worked on submitting an "Expression of Interest" to become residents of New Zealand. Yep, we plan on staying in New Zealand for some period of time, so trying to become residents make sense.
Here comes the big city!
Some sort of miracle occurred on January 8th...summer arrived! Finally, the weather started to behave and we were treated to beautiful sunsets like this one.
From the marina, we can take a ten minute ferry ride over to Auckland.
Chris & KT met up with us for dinner in Auckland.
Check out the view from our new marina!
During the week in between chores, we enjoyed a few trips into Auckland to see movies, eat out and explore the city. Bookstores, electronic shops and camera shops caught our attention. Duncan bought a Kangaru drive to take with us to the South Island to store digital photos. Unfortunately, the drive did not work and had to be returned. Schleping a laptop to the South Island is Plan B. A whirlwind week of preparation left us exhausted and ready to start our tour of the South Island.
Travelling light, as usual, we carried two large pieces of backpack luggage, one backpack, one laptop backpack and one large camera pack up to the parking lot to meet the shuttle to take us to the airport. Ooooh, a plane ride! We left for the airport not caring about wind speeds, squash zones, whales, fuel or provisions. This air travel approach is kind of interesting. See you on the South Island.