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.