Northern New Zealand
02/18/2008 - 03/14/2008
Whisper's on the move again sans functioning generator.
Being up the river in Whangarei was fun for a while, but we were anxious to get back out cruising. With new solar panels and a generator on order, we departed Riverside Marina and started the journey out of the ever so shallow river. We crept slowly down the channel towards freedom. "Hey, are we moving?" queried Robin. Nope. After few of minutes sitting on the bottom, we floated off and continued down the channel. Yikes, the river is shallow.
Yet another big blow was forecast for a couple of days out. We decided to hang out in The Nook and wait for the storm to pass before heading up the coast.
Nothing beats a beautiful sunset at anchor.
Whisper has wings! Duncan spent most of the first few days at anchor playing with the solar panels. Who knew watching amps going into the batteries is a spectator sport. Occasional shouts of " positive 10 amps!" escaped Whisper's cockpit as we watched the Link 20 readout. For the first time in Whisper's history, we sat without the sound of a genset or engine and watched amps go in to the batteries.
Hey, that boat looks like one from Bayswater Marina. Is that Diane and Rob's boat? Robin picked up the phone and called her former colleague, Simon, to inquire " What color is your parents boat?" "Does it have a yacht club flag?" "Where are they?"
Within moments, Diane and Rob joined us on Whisper for a few drinks and nibbles. One of the many aspects of New Zealand we love is always running in to people you know.
The storm arrived with an overdose of wind and rain. Luckily, the anchorage proved to be a comfy choice for the wind direction. Wind speeds outside the anchorage reached up to 50 knots, but we did not see anything over 25 knots.
Duncan is so desperate to get his photo on the website, he had to take it himself in the reflection of the teapot. A spot of tea anyone? How civilized!
Finally, the rain let up and the sun reappeared. Phew.
The timber industry is alive and well in New Zealand. Radiata pine is stacked for distribution and export from Whangarei harbor.
Anxious to get to Whangaroa harbor, we took the first opportunity to start sailing north. Following the east coast of New Zealand on this beautiful day gave us plenty of great coastal views.
Awesome sailing all the way to Tutukaka. Aaah, this is how sailing should be all the time.
Tutukaka's tiny entrance is much less daunting once you look at it from inside the anchorage. On approach, breaking waves on the rocks are a bit intimidating. As you get close, the entrance becomes much more clear.
Around The Cape
The next destination after leaving the Whangarei harbor was Tutukaka - or Tuts (toots) as the locals call it. The sail up to Tuts was beautiful and just what we needed. Setting the anchor proved to be a bit of a challenge as the holding was not stellar. We finally found a spot where we felt like the anchor was semi-set and watched a continuous parade of boats coming into the anchorage. With the recent bad weather, there were quite a few boats waiting for the first good day to make a move up or down the coast. By sunset, the tiny anchorage was chock-a-block with boats.
Our plan was for a one night stop in Tuts to top up on fuel, to get air in the dive tanks and to keep on moving. Little did we know, our friends on Spindrift — Melva and Hilton, were working at the marina. Melva met us at the fuel dock. After hugs and hellos, we filled up the fuel tank and borrowed a slip in the marina for a couple of hours to accomplish the remainder of our chores. Sadly, we did not get time to visit with our friends for more than a few minutes.
We left Tutukaka with light winds behind us. In a rare occurrence, Robin baked yummy chocolate chip cookies while we motored along. Just as the last morsel of a warm cookie melted in each of our mouths, the wind picked and a lovely sail ensued. Prior to the genset woes, we planned to mosey up the coast and stop in lots of the great spots just south of Cape Brett. With the new deadline of being in Opua by mid-March to install the new genset, we were on a mission to get to Whangaroa - many NZ cruisers favorite destination. So, we decided to make tracks toward Cape Brett with hopes of making it to Deep Water Cove by sunset.
New Zealand has lots of holes in its rocks. Here is the Cape Brett Hole in the Wall. Tourist boats travel out from the Bay of Islands to the Hole in the Wall multiple times a day.
Some sailboats can fit inside the hole. We opted to skip not to give that a try.
Cape Brett lighthouse is a pretty sight.
Cape Brett is also known for generating some interesting winds and weather. As you can tell from the two pictures, clouds move in at a pretty zippy pace.
Deep Water Cove is a beautiful spot. You need to tuck way into the anchorage if you do not want to anchor in 90 feet of water. Peeking around the corner from the cove is the entire Pacific Ocean. As a result, the water was quite clear and the fish were abundant.
In the water we go!
Anxious to get to Whangaroa, we continued north with intermittent bursts of good sailing and motoring. Here is the motoring... (but not a problem if your generator is dead)
and here is the sailing. (sweet!)
The entrance is Whangaroa seems huge compared to the entrance to Tutukaka. What lies inside?
Whangaroa
Cruising guides and other cruisers paint Whangaroa similar to a Norwegian fjord. Our first impression as we entered the harbor was more like Zion National park filled with water. Steep rock cliffs fall straight down to the water. Nooks and crannies abound.
With no city lights nearby and a clear night, the stars and an incredibly bright Milky Way galaxy were out in full force on our first night in Whangaroa. The next morning we set about exploring the harbor in the dinghy. We meandered up a river to catch a look at a waterfall. There was not much water in the fall on this day. Oh well - still pretty.
After the dinghy tour, we decided to take a tour in the big boat. Charging via the engine rather than the genset motivated us to "tiki tour" (Kiwi's say "ticky tour") on a much more frequent basis than usual. We toured every nook and cranny with a stop in the town of Whangaroa. We visited the pub for lunch and searched for the internet cafe. Unfortunately, the internet cafe lost its phone line in the last storm and was awaiting a repair. No internet fix for the Whispers today.
Beautiful backdrop for Whisper.
Renting a houseboat looks like a fun option for Whangaroa.
The "Duke's Nose" is a prominent feature on this cliffside.
The tiny town of Whangaroa has just about everything you need - a store, a hotel, a billfish club and a backpackers lodge. Charter fishing boats operate out of the town, too.
Lunch at the pub. Aaah, no cooking and no dishes.
Nice flower.
We made it halfway to the top and opted to head back downhill - we wanted to continue the tiki-tour on Whisper rather than hike.
The previous storm left many of the homes in a precarious position. This one took out the phone line to the only Internet cafe in town. Slips (mud slides) were everywhere around Whangaroa. The area had lots of For Sale signs on homes. Very sad and more rain was about to pour.
Harbor cruise anyone?
Gotta love the giant tree ferns. From here, they look like palm trees! Dream on.
Robin needed her glasses to help find us a good spot to hunker down for the next couple of days.
Back aboard Whisper, we continued our tiki tour in search of a good anchorage for the night. Yet again, another storm was forecast. The beauty of this one was the predication of several different wind directions for the night and the next day. Our chosen spot was good up until about 6 am in the morning when the wind changed to a less favorable direction for the anchorage. Time to move.
We motored over to a spot we scoped out the previous day. This should be good for the wind direction. Upon entering the cove, we were awestruck by the sight of FIVE waterfalls. Okay, if you have to get up at 6 am and motor around in the rain, the treat of waterfalls makes it seem like a fun thing to do. Yesterday, we did not see any waterfalls in here.
We hunkered down for the next couple of days and it rained and rained and rained and rained. Predictions of high winds were on every forecast. For some reason (high cliffs), we were not able to get reception for the VHF channel reporting the actual wind speeds. We figured the winds did not come because it was so calm in our anchorage.
This was not here yesterday was it?
Brown water. Never good. We assume this came from more slips around the area. Hope everybody and their homes are okay.
Our back yard water feature.
We could see the waterfall from inside Whisper's main cabin. That is cool.
Where is the big stick?
The winds stayed up in the anchorage, but we were quite comfy. A couple of days later, all was calm and we were ready to move. Very light wind made a stop at the Cavalli Islands appealing. We headed out of Whangaroa and stopped in a nearby bay to have lunch. Somewhere during leaving Whangaroa and lunch, the forecast changed from dead calm to a gale warning. New Zealand weather - never a dull moment.
Back into Whangaroa harbor we went as there were no decent anchorages at the Cavallis for the forecast SE wind direction. Like Great Barrier Island, Whangaroa has a plethora of anchorages with options for every wind direction. We found our spot and prepared for the wind. But it never came - or so we thought until the next afternoon.
"Mayday Relay, Mayday Relay, Mayday Relay" we heard on the VHF. Hmmmm. Nine miles outside the Whangaroa harbor, a ketch was dismasted and overturned. Yikes. Maybe it is windy out there. Do we need to go help? Within 15 minutes, the mayday was cancelled. Get this. The boat righted itself and the folks on board said " We're fine. We'll just motor into Whangaroa. No need for anyone to come help" Unbelievable. We wondered if this was all a farce.
One more night in Whangaroa and the forecast finally showed something less than a gale. Off we go again. We noticed a sailboat leaving the harbor just behind us. The more we looked at the boat, we realized something was amiss. No big stick and one little stick. The dismasted ketch from yesterday. No way. These guys suffered a dismasting and 360 roll yesterday and they are able to leave the harbor today. Pretty sure we would still be licking our wounds.
As we sailed down to the Bay of Islands, we watched the ketch - or is it now a sloop - motor along with an apparent destination of Whangarei or Auckland. We later learned there were 3 maydays in our area on the day of the ketch's dismasting. There must have been plenty of wind, we just did not see it in the harbor.
The Cavalli Islands are a gorgeous set of two larger islands and many smaller islands with pocket beaches like this one.
And this one.
Another great day of sailing.
Duncan is in heaven. He stole the helm away from Robin and the solar panels are putting in lots of juice. Life is good.
The cruise ship signifies our return to tourist destinations. This is a good sign. Tourists usually go to pretty places.
Bay of Islands
The Bay of Islands in an important and beautiful location in New Zealand. It's also historically significant because the Treaty of Waitangi (one of NZ's most important documents) was signed here and many of NZ's oldest historical buildings are in the area. The beauty of the area draws tourists in droves to explore, play and relax.
What would New Zealand be without its jet boats? Here goes the Mack Attack.
And now, the Excitor. Who picks these names?
Some of the most beautiful beaches in New Zealand are in the Bay of Islands.
This beautiful home is reported to be owned by a wealthy American. Not only did someone purchase/build the home, they bought the whole island.
Moturua is one of the many beautiful islands in the area.
In our past visit to the Bay of Islands in 2004, we did not get to explore Moturua island. The weather was perfect for a stop in a gorgeous anchorage. Not only did we enjoy the anchorage, but we took the opportunity to hike around the island. The one hour hike can turn into an all day affair is you stop and swim in every cove along the route.
Off we go on a hike around Moturua.
This is the beach near Whisper's anchorage. Tourist boats arrived on a regular basis.
Moturua was heavily used during the World Wars as a lookout for enemies. This is a gun emplacement looking north.
This floating hostel takes its guest around to different destinations each day. See all the black dots to the left of the tiny island? Those are peoples heads snorkeling and swimming.
Good news, Whisper is still where we left her.
A tour boat does a drive by of the anchorage.
Looking east to some of the other islands in the Bay of Islands.
More beautiful views.
Part of the hike took us through the bush.
Interesting fungus among us.
First stop, the north west beach. Robin jumped in for a swim before we continued the hike.
Where are all the people?
The hiking trail took us down to four beautiful coves. This is the last one before our anchorage.
After Moturua, we moved over to Urupukapuka and Paradise Cove. Another gorgeous beach.
A day of rest and relaxation on the beach. Chairs, books, toys, lunch. Life is good.
A rousing round of Frisbee kept us amused. Robin even managed to throw the Frisbee to Duncan rather than in the water.
The fast and beautiful catamaran Cool Change. Two aerodynamic rotating carbon fiber masts in a dual cat rig. An appropriately named and owner-built boat. Very impressive.
We cannot play all the time, so Duncan decided to wire up the replacement remote for the windlass.
That was exhausting. Time for tea.
What is this attacking our dinghy and snacking on the fish below? A kingfish is the conclusion.
Check out how big it is. Duncan tried to spear the fish with the Hawaiian sling from the stern of the boat. The spear hit the fish, the ~150 lb. fish sped away and then the sling rebounded back and put a hole in Duncan's leg. So much for dinner.
With so many beautiful spots, we dingyed from the beautiful beach in Paradise Cove to this beautiful beach on another nearby island.
After much debate, this photo was allowed to be published. Robin's technique for reviewing the snorkeling is to stick her head in the water with mask on and take a peek. Duncan took advantage of the opportunity and snapped a photo.
Urchins and kelp. We had to test out the new Canon SD870 IS camera in its underwater housing. The photo is not too exciting, but it works!
Kelp and urchins. Oh, and a shy trigger-fish. Definitely not a coral reef, but still interesting to explore. We can't spend too long in the water anyway — it's only about 70 degrees F.
A mini rock arch. There are lots of caves and arches here carved by the sea.
The R. Tucker Thompson sails tourists around the area.
This is the big city on Urupukapuka. A cafe and lodge are near the ferry pier.
Russell's pier is always active with tour boats, ferries and activities.
Russell
With the middle of March fast approaching, we left the islands and moved toward Opua. En route, we stopped over in Russell for a night. Russell is our favorite town in the Bay of Islands - historic, charming and full of amenities. Lunch in a cafe, provisions at the store, updates to website at internet cafe, local kids swim competition and "gourmet" food items(tortillas, olives, masa harina) at a specialty store reconfirmed Russell as a favorite stop.
Russell's main street on the waterfront.
This beautiful J/160, Mandalay, hailed from Santa Cruz. We stopped by to say hello to fellow Californians.
Another fun day of sailing wing-on-wing. With the new genset installation looming, we enjoyed every moment of sailing before embarking on the big project.
Here we go en route to Opua and Ashby's boatyard
Another colorful Bay of Island sunset.
We decided to go in to Ashby's marina to start the genset project a few days early. Getting the Fischer Panda off of Whisper is the first step. With the arrival of the new genset expected by March 17th, the time has come to prepare for its arrival. Wish us luck.