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).