Bay of Islands Bound…

With Marnie, Dylan, Aaron and Shanna happily aboard we motored out of the marina at Bayswater, pulled up the sails and soon were skipping along northwards. We were initially going to spend our first night in Kawau Island but decided Army Bay, Whangaparaoa, would be a better choice – less boats, calm and an opportunity for the kids to have a bit of a walk around ashore before nightfall.

Sunset at anchorage on way to Bay of Islands

Couldn't anchor in much less water!!

Arriving in Mansion House Bay next morning (Friday 12^th January) we eased our way past all the boats anchored there right to a prime position just off the beach – probably upsetting boaties who didn’t have as shallow a draft as us and had to anchor further out!! 

The kids took the stand-up paddleboards to shore and had a look around, but being too early they didn’t get the chance to look through the beautiful Mansion House, former home of Sir George Grey, who had twice been Governor of New Zealand in 1845-1853 and 1860-1868. Sir George Grey purchased the island of Kawau in 1862 and over the next 26 years spent a small fortune developing the island – introducing many exotic plant species and animals such as wallabies, peacocks and monkeys. It is now managed by DOC (Dept of Conservation) and although the monkey are gone, the house and gardens are being restored to their former glory.

Our next spot was a trip into Speedy Bay, the bay where my family had owned a bach (holiday house) and spent all our summers for around 45 years. It was there that we had learned to swim, sail, fish and bushwalk with many, many friends accompanying us over the years. The current owners looked very suspiciously at us as we sailed into the bay, slowly cruised around and I am sure were very relieved when we took ourselves off on our next leg of the journey. It was a bittersweet visit for me particularly. We had spent a fair amount of times up there when our children were little too so they had grown up with great memories of Kawau as well.

Fish on!!

As always, when sailing along, we have a fishing line out behind, trawling for either the next meal or for a bit more bait and soon came the excited shout “fish on!!!”. It was a big one, we were rapt – felt like a big tuna, and we all were envisioning exotic meals – tuna steaks, sashimi, ceviche even!! It was a huge struggle to get it reeled in, sure was a biggie. I got ready with the net, Aaron and Shanna on cameraman duty, Dylan driving SOL, (Marnie disappeared as she hates the catching and killing part of fishing!!) and Jamie winding in the reel. Closer it came to us – it was a struggle for it and Jamie, the rod – strong as it was – bending with the strain. It was really thrashing around – rolling even, so much so that in its struggles it managed to wrap the line around its tail. As we got it nearer the boat we realised the net was not going to be big enough – it was the biggest fish we had ever caught, so as Jamie reeled it close enough I got the rope ready and quickly tied around its tail – now it was secure – and NOW… we realised…

WE HAD CAUGHT A SHARK.

Bloody Hell – what next??? we had this 4ft, big mouthed, toothy monster thrashing and rolling around the back of SOL – AND in the corner of its mouth was Jamie’s favourite lure!!

A rope around it's tail

Getting it closer

Thrashing around

Tiring now

And now to get the lure

Suffice to say, Jamie retrieved his lure, gently, from the lip of Mr Shark, we cut the line tangled around his tail, slid the now, rather tired creature, close to the edge of the boat and gingerly untied the rope I had put around his tail and with a huge collective sigh of relief watched as he slid back into the water – Mr Shark had the last word though – as he left he closed his teeth on the back step of SOL – we now have a permanent reminder of his visit gouged into the fibreglass!!!

Ready to let him go

Bye Bye Sharky

This small diversion didn’t dampen the kid’s enthusiasm at all and with the temp rising to 28^OC soon the four of them were in the water behind the boat hanging off a rope cooling off.

Fun way to cool off - Dylan, Marnie, Aaron and Shanna

A photo opportunity not to be missed - but I did!!

Missed getting them just in front of the Hole in the Rock!!

Next day we approached the Bay of Islands, it was a long day – with little or no wind, we left McLeod’s Bay, Whangarei at 0630, passed the world famous Hole in the Rock (Piercy Island) around 4pm – photo opportunity!! stopped for a bit of drift fishing just past at Bird Rock (funnily enough, so named due to the huge number of nesting birds and resultant guano there), and anchored in Deep Water Cove (which Marnie renamed “Snapper and other Assorted Fish Cove” as there were large signs saying NO FISHING which we hoped the fish could read and realise it was their safe

haven!!) We got the stand-up paddleboards out again and consequently I even managed to have an (unplanned) swim.

Sunday 14^th January, we approached Paihia, Jamie found an internet site with Moorings to Rent and we were lucky to snag ourselves a mooring just off the end of the Paihia Wharf – perfect placement indeed. 

Just gently tap it, Dolly!

Dolly and Lilly were arriving today, driving up from Auckland in the car we had bought in Warkworth – a great little Toyota Camry, which up until we left it in Auckland for them to pick up had been running perfectly – BUT – as always with these things – the day before leaving it, it developed a problem – not always wanting to start!! It wasn’t the battery, and when Jamie took it to the auto electrician to get the starter motor fixed it wouldn’t not start – very frustrating indeed – so we left it for Dolly, praying it would be fine. And it was, until they stopped for a toilet break in Whangarei, just over an hour south of Paihia, and then – no go, until a quick smack to the nut on the front of the starter motor with the piece of wood Jamie had left in the boot, and they were off again. A little disconcerting for Dolly though – the ‘little piece of wood’ was actually the broken handle off an axe and it would have appeared to bystanders that she was going to smash something, not just gently tap!!

On Monday, Marnie, Dylan, Aaron and Shanna left in the car – which was starting perfectly again, for a bit of a tour of the Coromandel before Aaron and Shanna went off campervanning and Marnie and Dylan returned for our family holiday time together (we had a timeshare for the week 19-26 Jan and were having a belated Christmas there). 

Jamie, Dolly, Lilly and I moved over to Russell where we took shelter from another big blow and waited for Phil to arrive on Tuesday. The weather did cut up pretty rough, Phil caught the ferry over from Paihia and we stayed Russell side of the Bay exploring until Thursday when we returned to Paihia and the mooring there.

Marnie and Dylan picked Amy, Grace and Cal up from Auckland Airport and in a very well behaving car – since they had had to replace the starter motor in Thames a couple of days before, drove up to meet us at the Bishop Selwyn – the timeshare – and so on Friday the 19^th of January 2018, we were all together again for the first time in over a year!!

All the children together again!!

2018... A New Year…

Old friends, Raewyn and Bruce, from dairy days 

with whom we saw in the start of 2018

The New Year saw us down on the Coromandel Peninsular. 

When we had the dairy farm in Katunga, we used to get together with Raewyn and Bruce, neighbours down the road, have dinner together, and play cards, on a weekly basis (500 being the game of choice) and when they sold their farm they moved back to New Zealand and now own the Cooks Beach Liquor Store and Hahei Wines and Spirits. 

Cooks Beach and Hahei are both small coastal towns on the eastern side of Coromandel, with lovely beaches and a small permanent population but this increases hugely over the summer months, consequently it was not really a great time for us to visit as they would be very busy working however we spent each afternoon in the shop restocking so our help was much appreciated and we actually thoroughly enjoyed it. 

We anchored SOL in Cooks Beach and staying with them meant I had my first nights sleeping ashore in 8 months!! It was a magical three days there, great food, great wine, great company - a super New Years eve. Bruce loaned us his car and we had a day trip down to Whangamata and Hot Water Beach – yes, Hot Water Beach – where you can dig a hole in the sand and sit and relax in your own hot water pool!!

A Cooks Beach mode of transport!!

Red/Purple colour equals very nasty winds

After a super 3 days, we left Cooks Beach and made our way back up towards Auckland, a really nasty blow was expected which was sending all boats scurrying for shelter. We were thinking of hiding out on the west side of the Coromandel Peninsular, or maybe the bottom of Waiheke Island, both anchorages being protected from the anticipated 30+knot winds. However, as we neared Te Kouma Harbour, on Coromandel, the little man on the radio was saying 40+knot winds, then escalated this to 50+knots so the decision was made to find a berth in a marina. 

You would think that in Auckland, the City of Sails, finding a marina berth would not be too difficult a task – I mean, there are heaps of marinas, loads of moorings – and – it would appear that most of the sailing fraternity had left Auckland for the holiday period…..but…..no such luck – we phoned and phoned again, not a marina berth to be found at the first five we tried. Almost about to give up, we had one last place to try – Bayswater Marina, on the North Shore – yes!! Success – they had one berth left – minor problem though – SOL is 7metres wide, the only berth they had was 7.9metres wide. Hmmm, by the time we had our fenders out that would be a really tight squeeze, especially as the wind was squalling around 25knots. 

With much trepidation we approached the narrow spot and with a bit of delicate manoeuvring, great driving by Jamie, and a nice man on the pontoon catching our lines  - we made it - with just inches to spare.

The sky over Auckland as we headed in - we were going to where the clouds were darkest!!

Seems like the City of Sails is not quite ready to cater for catamarans!!

We left SOL in the marina and went to stay up with Norah in Castor Bay, my dad is really not good having deteriorated a lot since Christmas, so we went to the hospital to see him over the next three days going back to SOL daily as well to check she was safe. The winds only got up around the 45knot range, but we were pleased we had decided to head for safe haven, especially as we could go and spend time with Thomas whilst there.

Looking over Snapper Bay, Motuihe Island with Waiheke on the left

Next anchorage was Islington Bay, between Rangitoto and Mototapu Islands, we spent two nights here, walking around the island and revisiting where we had walked when we had sailed over here from Australia some years ago. Rangitoto Island is one of the closest islands to Auckland city and it is also the youngest volcano in the area being only 600 years old, so the tracks are composed primarily of scoria, it used to have many baches (beach houses) on leasehold land but when the leases ran out it was decided that no longer would they be allowed so apart from a couple which have been retained to show how things used to be no others remain. There are, on Rangitoto, the remnants of World War II military installations so it is a pretty interesting island to visit.

Rangitoto Island

Nice snapper for dinner

After Rangitoto we moved to Motuihe Island, to anchor there for the next two nights, we swam, walked, fished and just generally lazed around enjoying some beautiful weather. We caught, and released, many too small snapper but fortunately where there are small fish there are generally larger fish and for the two nights we stayed there we ate delicious fresh snapper.

With the staggering paucity of berthage for catamarans and the seemingly non-existent public pontoons for picking up/dropping off passengers we elected to again spend a night in Bayswater – Marnie and Dylan were arriving the next day from America!!! we needed to be able to pick up them and their friends Aaron and Shanna and also head to the stores for groceries. They flew in at lunchtime, met us at Bayswater, we refuelled and were off by 3pm – north towards the Bay of Islands.

Everyone - yes - everyone has a "beach tractor"