Christmas is nearly over.....

Well the last week has been pretty hectic, with restocking Kabuki, hair cut, vet visit (for the dog) etc. We have at last caught up with ourselves, so it is a bit of a rest this arvo. We are having Christmas with Xavier and the rest of my family tomorrow, then we will be off again on Boxing Day. We have leased our mooring out for 6 months to another yacht, this will help pay for the mooring.
We are both looking forward to getting away, it is so hectic in town, so many cars and people. We had got so used to the quiet life on the boat.

I will hopefully be able to update my blog more often now that I have a Vodem stick, it will all depend on the reception. Some of our lovely bays do not support cell phone coverage.

Week 5 Kawau Island & Mahurangi

Bon Accord Harbour at Kawau Island is not particularly great in a NW or SW breeze, but we anchored there for 4 days and checked out the sights. Kawau is famous for the old Copper mine and the Mansion House owned by Governer Grey. Paul and I checked them both out.
Mansion house is beautiful, I could not get photo's of the inside but I got plenty of the grounds etc. Some parts of the island is planted in old pine trees which are all in the process of falling down. There is a real problem with erosion on the foreshore were pines are planted. Walking through the bush was lovely, with some amzing specimen trees planted by Governer Grey over 120 years ago.

We had wonderful weather while we were there, and managed to sample the delights of the Kawau Yacht Club Bar.

On Thursday 11th we left Kawau heading for the Mahurangi Harbour. On the way we stopped at Moturekareka Island, and had a look at the wreck of the Rewa, a three masted steel Barque that was sunk there in the early 1900's. There was not a breath of wind and a beautiful blue sky as we mooched around. We motored into the Mahurangi Harbour and headed right up the estuary, following an ever dwindling channel. We anchored beside the channel in about 6 feet of water a low tide. On Tuesday we put the outboard on the dinghy and motored up to Warkworth, this took us about 1 hour with the ingoing tide. We spent the day in Warkworth, doing washing, having lunch at the RSA and doing some shopping. We headed back with the outgoing tide, uplifting Kabuki's anchor and motoring out to Casnell Island where we anchored for a few days.

Monday morning, Roz and Holga turned up in Melody (another Westsail 32), they did the trek up to Warkworth. That night they came over for dinner and a chin wag.
We left Mahurangi the next morning as the wind was going SW, and it was a good one for getting back to Whangarei. So we upped anchor at 6am and headed for home. It was our most boiterous sail yet, we started with a reefed main because the wind was predicted to go 25knots. By the time we got to Whangarei we had only the double reefed main and staysail and we were still going 6.5 knots. We had winds up to 35knots, but on a beam reach so was pretty comfortable. We even practiced heaving too, while we had our lunch. We got into the Nook at about 4 in the afternoon, the wind was still gusting.

On Thursday morning, we motored onto the mooring at the Town Basin, We have come home for supplies (the wine ballast has run out) and to see the family for Christmas. We will be off again after Boxing Day.

The photo is for you Harry Potter Movie fans, I showed Xavier and He recognized it straight away. This is a Pohutukawa near Mansion House on Kawau Island.

week 3 and 4 Great Barrier

Paul and I anchored back at Smokehouse Bay, it was full and Aucklanders over for the weekend. We had about 30 boats in the bay with us on Friday night. We went in early and showered and did the washing, then spent the rest of the day on washing watch in the gusty breeze. Abercrombie Harbour is a lovely place with many nooks and crannies to anchor in, but most of them are deep and prone to williwaws. We tried out a few different places Ghost Bay, Nagle Cove, Kiwiriki (Two Island) Bay.

On Thursday the 4th December we hired a car and drove around Great Barrier Island for the day. It is a lovely place, but so much like the back roads of Northland that we felt we were not seeing anything new. Windy Ridge up near Mt Hobson was pretty spectacular, with sheer rock faces and views for miles. We managed to use our phone at Tryphena, there was no Telecom reception anywhere else on the island.

On Sunday the 7th December we set off for Kawau Island, lovely sail after we got past Little Barrier Island, with dolphins in the distance.

The photo is Paul doing His favourite sort of fishing, we had put a bottle of bubbly about 30 feet down to chill. I had to get a photo.

Week 2 Great Mercury Island

We blew into Great Mercury Island on a 25knot Norwester, anchoring in the small mooring strewn harbour. Great Mercury Island surprised us with its size, and its startling white cliff. It is owned by a couple of rich dudes who have ensured that the island is well looked after, and farmed in an environmentally friendly way. The island has quite a few wetland area's that have been replanted, and a huge population of frogs. Everywhere you go you can hear the frogs going to town.
We spent a week at Great Mercury, exploring the beaches which are beautiful. Coralie Bay (pictured) was like a tropical lagoon, with fine white sand. On some of the beaches we found some lovely rocks/pebbles etc. We spotted some nesting New Zealand Dotterill on a long ocean type beach.
We sat out a gale on Wednesday 18th of November, and then headed back to Great Barrier on Thursday with a fresh souwester blowing. The sail back was a bit boisterous as we had a bit of swell from the previous days northerly gale, but the sailing was quick and lively.

Week 1

Paul and I left the Whangarei Town Basin on the 4th of December. We sailed down to Taurikura Bay and spent two nights, visiting with Pauls Dad and his Brother. We lifted the anchor at 7am on Friday the 6th and set sail for Great Barrier Island. It was a fairly quiet sail to the Hen and Chicks, but once we got past them the sailing became more exciting as the day progressed. We arrived at Great Barrier in a 25knot SW. We anchored up in Kaiaraara Bay at a beach locally known as Hydrangea Bay. We managed to get in lots of bush walking, bird spotting and even a very quick bath in the Kairaara River (it was damn cold).
We walked up to the lower Kauri Dam, this walk took two hours each way. The Bush on Great Barrier Island is beautiful, the Kanuka/Manuka and Nikau Palms are a lot taller than any I have seen on the Mainland. The Kauri Dam was really cool, our pioneering for-fathers were pretty damn tough to build something like that with the tools that they had. The thought of thousands of Kauri Logs ripping down that river when the dam was released gave me the shudders.

The Bird life on Great Barrier is amazing. Kaka's are prolific here, they make a raucous noise as they fly around, but they also whistle. We also spotted a Banded Rail at the Port Fitzroy shop. The Gannets in the Harbour are pretty spectacular, as there is a Gannet colony near the Island.

On Tuesday the 10th we motored over to Port Fitzroy to drop our rubbish off, then we went to Smokehouse Bay for two nights. We availed ourselves of the facilities, doing some washing and having a warm shower. It is a really neat setup, but very well used by the local yachties/launchies.

We left Great Barrier on Friday the 13th of November(not an auspicious day for a trip) picking up the anchor at 6am. We had a glorious sail down to Great Mercury Island, passing the Gannet colony on Mahuki Island on the way. We arrived a Great Mercury at about 1pm, having taken 7hrs to cover 45miles (pretty good for us).