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"