North Island Road Trip and Tasmanian Christmas

Maori 'picket fence' in Rotorua City Centre

The plan for Christmas: spend it in Tasmania with Mike’s sister Lindsay and her family. And since we’d already be in travel mode with backpacks, etc, we decided to take a few extra days before flying out to road-trip around central North Island. We rented a car in Auckland and spent a few nights in hostels on our tour – what a novelty, but a rather expensive one, even though we stayed in backpacker hostels. After all these years of boat travel we’d forgotten how pricey it can be to journey by land. On the positive side, though, early December seemed a low-key time to be traveling through this part of NZ – kids still in school and most people not yet on holiday. It’s after Christmas that summer holidays really get busy here.

Sulpherous mud pool on the lakefront in Rotorua.

Rotorua is a center of Maori culture and of geothermal activity - and let's be honest, a little bit of a tourist trap. But what we were really excited for was the community mountain bike park we’d heard so much about! 

Back in the saddle

It was our lucky day: since a big group of school kids had just come through and rented all of the small and medium sized hard-tail bikes we were upgraded to full suspension rides! A first-time experience for both of us, and it was super-fun. There is a huge network of fire-roads and singletrack of all levels in the park. Most of the trails were one-way, which was cool – ride up the old (and some still active) logging roads and down and across through singletrack in the clearcuts (tiny trees=good view) or the second-growth bush. We rented the bikes for a half-day and were pretty knackered by lunchtime.

Waikite Hot Spring

There are some very flash tourist parks in Rotorua where you can see Maori dance and cultural performances and spectacular geysers going off… that would have been awesome to see I’m sure, but we were too thrifty for that and so drove about 30 km out of town to the Waikite Hot Springs, a gorgeous little series of community-built pools in the midst of green cattle-grazing farmland. While the hot pools around Rotorua (some right in the middle of town) were sulphurous and muddy and a bit evil-looking, Waikite spring was clear and odorless – with low sulphur content but massive pressure and near-boiling temperatures (it was cooled down big-time for the bathers).

Looking down on Mt. Maunganui and part of the Port of Tauranga from "the Mount"

Tauranga is a large port on North Island’s East Coast; industrial, but with yachtie facilities as well and we’d been curious about it for a while. Its very close neighbour, Mt. Maunganui, is an up-scale beach town known for its surf breaks. The beaches seemed empty during our brief visit (but the surf wasn’t really up either). The view from “the Mount” was awesome and the Pohutukawa tree blossoms were at their peak. 

And looking back up at the Mount on a marginal longboard day

Hordes at the Salamanca Market, Hobart

Our last trip to Tassie in 2012 didn’t include much time in Hobart (though it did include the amazing MONA art museum, a must-see if you are ever here), so this time we really enjoyed a couple of days walking around the old city. Sandstone buildings dating back to prison-colony days in the mid-1800s ring the harbour, with more turn-of-the-last-century buildings making up the shopping areas. We stayed at fabulous Hotel Alabama – a “bargain boutique” hotel owned by a couple of Lindsay’s artsy friends. It had a second-story garden balcony, interesting art on the walls, craft beer in the fridge and lots of nice touches like traditional Tassie-made wool blankets and handmade local soaps in the rooms.

Hobart

Prison-colony era buildings at Salamanca Square, Hobart

A blurry shot of a  wallaby and her baby in the pouch.

Lindsay met us in Hobart and whisked us up north (driving right through the middle of a bush fire) to spend Christmas and New Years’ with the family – we spent most of our time in their new place at Port Sorrell, a beautiful big river estuary on the Bass Straight. There is a nature reserve on a headland about 10 minutes walk from their place, and a beautiful spot for an evening walk. Multiple wallaby sightings were guaranteed every evening we strolled in the park, but we weren't as lucky trying to view the Fairy Penguins’ nightly return to their burrows; we spent a few hours watching the stars come out and shivering in the cold Tasmanian summer wind, not moving a muscle and barely even whispering to each other, in hopes of seeing a troupe of waddling little birds. We did see one shy little guy, but the next day closer inspection of the trail showed occasional little bird-poop crossroads where more of them must travel.

It was great to visit with Lindsay and Q and the kids, and start the move into their new house.  Thanks for the hospitality guys!

At the western headland of Port Sorell, looking NE into Bass Strait. 

Back in NZ: November/December

Downtown Auckland's Viaduct Harbour

Out of the gray late autumn of Vancouver Island and into the blustery spring of Northland, New Zealand, we arrived in Auckland November 7,    and we had a few hours to wander around downtown before loading onto the bus that would take us four hours north to our floating home on Picara.

Sea Shepherd Vessel at the dock in Auckland

Colour and culture in the reclaimed industrial zone in the Viaduct area

And speaking of culture, I’d like to recommend some great NZ movies we saw on our flight (way better than Lord of the Rings!!):

1.  The classic “Once were warriors,” from the late '90s, a hard-hitting film about domestic violence in an urban Maori family.

2. “Boy”, a much more lighthearted film set in rural New Zealand.

3. “Housebound” a suspenseful and funny haunted house flick in which North Americans may need to strain to work out the NZ accent at times – the only non-Maori themed movie in this selection.

4. “The Dark Horse:” another gritty look at urban poverty and gang culture in Gisborne.

5. The Pa Boys was an awesome story about an urban-Maori reggae band on tour of the North Island.

On the way north

Pukeko

Picara (the blue one) waiting on her mooring near Tapu Point in Opua

Picara was a bit musty from being closed up all winter, and slightly battered on her starboard quarter from when the dinghy flew off the foredeck during a July storm that saw 30 boats in Opua either drag or snap their moorings. Luckily damage was limited scuffed and scratched paint and a broken-off stanchion where the dinghy had flogged itself before plunging off the side to whack repeatedly against the hull. The good news is that our friendly neighbours recovered the dinghy for us and it was still in one piece!

Here are some of our other friendly neighbours.

Re-attaching the busted-off stanchion from the dinghy's  flogging episode.

After a couple of weeks of cleaning, puttering, repairing, socializing and generally getting back into the groove, we headed out for a bit of sailing and met up with some friends.

Two traditional Polynesian sailing canoes visited the Bay of Islands as part of a Pacific voyage and educational program run by the Polynesian Voyaging Society. Our friends on SY Tranquility served as support boats to these wakas on their trip to Wellington!

Chilling out with "Melody" in Whangaruru.

"Melody" rounding Cape Brett

“Sam,” at anchor in Whangamumu, freshly launched after a top-notch refit by her owners. 

Bland Bay, just across a narrow peninsula from Whangaruru Harbour. Northland has so many gorgeous and uncrowded beaches!

Surprise Visit to Canada

Mt Baker as seen from our home waters in Sidney BC!

Family and friends are by now very accustomed to the ever-changing plans of Picara's crew - in late June, with winter weather bearing down on our planned passage to Fiji and a job offer for Mike thrown into the mix, we did a 180 and went home for a few months' working visit. And we were glad we did: the best Canadian West Coast summer either of us remember, plus an awesome time with the folks and the buddies.

Rafted up in Fulford Harbour

Harvesting apples

So lucky to have good boating friends

Family BBQs and wild salmon galore...

West coast surfing for Mike

Good times on SSI

Hiking day, rain or shine for my folks

Chilling in Pat Bay

At the Ocean Discovery centre where Mike's awesome nephews volunteer

"Teak Bird" - the summer project at Abernethy & Gaudin Boatbuilders

Great Barrier Island - May/June 2014

Southbound with Cape Brett and "Hole in the Wall" rock behind us.

In May 2014 we embarked on another ‘retirement installment’ and went for an off-season cruise between the Bay of Islands and Great Barrier Island, a 285-square-km island comprised mostly of parkland, about 80 nm to the south of Cape Brett.  

Pipi Bay

      First step: out of Opua, into the Bay of Islands.  Pipi Bay on Moturua Island is sheltered from most directions and is one of our favorite spots. The island is almost all park and we like to walk the trails Kiwi-style - that is, barefoot! After all, there's very little here to hurt you, maybe just a little bit of gorse prickle if you're not watching. 

Looking south from Whangamumu

After rounding Cape Brett, which forms the eastern headland of the Bay of Islands, we anchored in Whangamumu harbour. This excellent anchorage is protected by steep hills from southerly through to northerly winds, and the unpopulated ridges ringing the bay have spectacular hiking trails. The bay was the grisly scene of whale slaughter during the late 1800s and early 1900s, and on shore there are remains of the boilers for processing the animals into whale oil.

Then: Whangamumu's bloody past 

Now: Three dolphins fished around Picara for hours

Cabbage tree on the tramping track

Oh yeah, snappa for dinna

Mussel barge working the farm in Port Fitzroy

From Whangamumu, we sailed overnight to Port Fitzroy on Great Barrier Island. In the first bay we ventured into were greeted by a friendly local who tossed a package of delicious freshly cooked snapper on our deck! Maybe it was the time of year, or maybe the fact that many of the GBI bays contain commercial mussel farms, but Mike’s snapper fishing success rate immediately improved!

“The Barrier” is “chockas” with hiking tracks and we went on long walks almost every day of our visit. There are over 2000 steps on the long, long staircase to the top of Mt. Hobson! Finally made it and the view was worth the tired legs.

Regenerating stand of Kauri in the foreground; looking west with Little Barrier in the distance

Kauri Dam with scarred creekbed

Top of Mt Hobson

 

The island, like pretty much everywhere on the North Island, was extensively logged for Kauri trees. We didn't see any big old ones, but there are large stands of regenerating Kauri to be seen.
We hiked past the remains of an old Kauri dam built in the late 1920s – loggers collected the felled trees into the reservoirs behind these dams. When the time came to send the logs downriver, the large gate was tripped and all hell broke loose – as one logger recalled, “ the logs… would rip up any trees in their path and you could hear the roar they made miles away. As they tore the valley sides the ground would shake under you. Hundreds came to watch and many of them were terrified.” Scars on the riverbed are obvious below the dam.

Chopping fuel for the hot shower in Smokehouse Bay

 One of the highlights of boating at GBI is ‘world-famous’ Smokehouse Bay, in Port Fitzroy; the land was donated by yachties for yachties and in addition to fish-smoking facilities there is freshwater available, laundry tubs and lines, and best of all a bathhouse with wood-fired hot water. That's right: hot shower. Oh, yeah.

Messing about in boats: the new-to-us Tinker dink 

With winter looming, and the prospect of heading to Fiji, we made our way back north to the Bay of Islands. and spent a few days at another of our favourite spots, near the Black Rocks at Moturoa Island. There’s green-lipped mussels galore in them there rocks!

Black Rocks Anchorage, Morurua. Cape Brett is in the distance at right.

A WWII gun placement with strategic views of the BOI  is being overtaken by Pohutukawa trees on Moturoa Island. These days it is part of a farm property and sees a lot more sheep and cows than soldiers.

 

By late June winter has pretty much arrived in subtropical Northland – cue the hibiscus.

Just to prove it's not all fun and games - dinghy malfunction! Handyman to the rescue with hammer and chisel.

Winter surf break at Patau North, north of Whangarei