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| Otaio Bay at Urupukapuka in early January -- as you can see the ‘plastic fanstastic’ white boats were giving the strange blue steel boat quite a wide berth! |
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| The all-star crew |
January has gone by in a flash, with buddies Donald and
Camilla visiting from Canada and lots of boating and sightseeing while they
were here.
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| Mike and Camilla commuting Picara-style. |
For the first two weeks of their visit we cruised around the Bay of
Islands and to the Cavalli Islands and Whangaroa, about 30 miles northwest – and we
had great weather the whole time.
Being ‘boaties’ themselves, not to mention seasoned Picara
travelers, they are great boat guests and adapt well to the little weirdnesses
of on-board life, like water and power conservation, showering on deck, rowing
everywhere you want to go, and of course endlessly repacking things to make the
best use of a small space: pull everything out and then put it all back in
again, at least a couple of times a day!!
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| Surveying the convoluted terrain near the northern Pa site on Urupukapuka Island. |
Locals call January the ‘silly season’ of boating, since
here in NZ Christmas holidays and summer school holidays fall together which
means that lots of Aucklanders bring their boats up to the Bay of Islands.
Anchorages in the islands were quite busy but still lovely, and we had the
walking tracks mostly to ourselves.
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| Rangihoua Pa |
The bays on the west side of the Bay of Islands nearer to
Kerikeri were a little less crowded. The terraced hill in the centre of the
photo is the ancient Pa (Maori lookout and fortification) that overlooks
Rangihoua Bay, site of the Marsden Cross where Samuel Marsden preached his
first sermon in New Zealand on Christmas Day 1814, 199 years ago; hard to imagine what the Maori overlooking
that little European settlement must have been thinking at the time. Did they
already have an inkling of the scale of Pakeha (white man) invasion that was to
come? Old Pa sites like this one are very plentiful and make up the majority of our lookout spots as we hike (or tramp) around Northland NZ.
We had awesome hot weather through most of January – a bit
of a shocker for the newly arrived Canadians but apparently good for the
cicadas, which were singing incredibly loudly in most of the anchorages we
visited. Apparently only the males sing, in hopes of attracting females, and only for about two to four weeks of their lives.
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Dining on freshly gathered BOI scallops and Greenlip mussels.
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“Cue the Dolphins” – Donald and Cam
commune with cetacean visitors in the BOI. |
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| View of Urupukapuka from the ridge above Oke Bay. |
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| Looking northward from the summit of Motukawanui Island in the Cavallis. |
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| Cavallis on our stern |
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| Cam takes the helm for a brisk sail southwest of the Cavallis |
We were lucky to have calm weather to visit the Cavalli Islands, just a couple of miles offshore from Matauri Bay and the site of the Rainbow Warrior’s sunken remains.
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| Whangaroa seen from the Duke's Nose |
Our next stop was Whangaroa Harbour, which has a spectacular
narrow gorge entrance – the geography suddenly changes from bald, rolling hills
to steep rock faces. The harbour has many arms and protected bays which we
could easily have spent a lot more time exploring. Whangaroa is a longtime sportfishing mecca and a very friendly harbour with lots of great walks. We spent a night in the marina and wandered up St. Paul’s Rock, above the village site, then headed back to the northern end of the harbour to anchor in Rere Bay and climb up the Duke’s Nose, a scrambley hike with a great view. As luck would have it our friends Holger and Roz sailed Melody into the anchorage later in the afternoon and we had a fabulous dinner on board with them. Marni and Camilla explored the beautiful river mouth the next morning.
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| Mid-January means Bay of Islands Race week, and Opua was bursting with race boats and sailors. The crew took Picara out to view some of the racing. |
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| Hokianga Harbour entrance |
We took a long weekend to go up to Cape Reinga and had yet another beautiful day at the northern tip of NZ, including a long drive up 90-mile beach in the rain, and collecting tuatuas, delicious little clams that can be found in mind-boggling abundance in the surf shallows.
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| Big waves and tidal turbulance at Hokianga |
On the way home we stopped in Hokianga to check out the crazy waves at the harbour’s entrance bar – hard to believe that a hundred years ago large ships carrying Kauri logs would traverse the bar on a regular basis, guided by a flag warning system on shore. We speculated that perhaps before all the Kauri forests were cut down that there was less silt in the harbour and a deeper and slightly less scary bar crossing?
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| Mike and Donald making Tuatua ravioli, our contribution to NZ haute cuisine. |
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| Our last weekend with the Briggses in was in style in Auckland: Marni and Cam at the Viaduct waterfront. |
