Cruising New Zealand 1A

We had a fresh southerly wind soon after we left Tutukaka Harbour and headed south. Why is the wind always coming from the direction you want to go in? To avoid the worst of the swell, we kept as close inshore as we dared. Just to add to the spice of life (as if we haven’t faced enough sailing challenges already) we arrived at the entrance of the 15 mile river that leads to Whangarei, just as the tide was flowing out strongly. We had to turn almost 180 degrees to stay in the channel, so that meant wind over tide (pretty rough seas) and a constant danger of gybing ie the wind taking the mainsail and boom across the boat from port to starboard or vice versa at high speed. Jeremy turned into the wind to tack, which is a much safer way of going through the wind, but as soon as he was on course, he gybed anyway! No damage done, fortunately, except to pride.

Urquart Bay
We were very happy to arrive safely at Urquart Bay, an anchorage close to the channel, out of the tide and sheltered from the wind. We stayed the night and took the flood tide up the river the next morning.

Whangarei
We followed the river channel, which was well marked with red and green navigation posts, almost all the way up. We had the route on our electronic chart and all was going well – until….. the chart came to an end but the river didn’t. The abandoned dock alongside certainly was not Whangarei, so we continued following the channel markers, which took us round a series of bends until we saw the marina ahead of us. Right at the end there was a cardinal marker, with a broken top mark. We argued. It’s an east marker. No, it’s a west. Which side should we pass? A boat came the other way and our argument was settled. We entered the Town Basin Marina and faced our next challenge. We’d chosen a pile berth, but we had to secure Sal Darago to four big posts and avoid bumping any other boats while we did it. The lines had to be fixed to floating rings, which were round the posts at sea level. The dinghy had to be launched. With a bit of advice from the marina manager, we were left to work it out. About half an hour later, we were tied up without incident.

Whangarei is a great place. The town is used to building and supplying boats of all descriptions. It had several marinas and boatyards and many international boats haul out here during their stay in NZ. There are also lots of shops and a supermarket, close to the marina. We stayed five nights. Sal Darago was booked into Northsands Boatyard for a haul out in February and we reserved a pile berth for two months to cover our absence at Christmas and New Year, and the time we hope to be travelling around South Island in a camper van.

Our outward trip down river was fine once we’d safely passed a huge barge towing another huge vessel on one of the double bends. I was on the helm and Jeremy was down below, but he was quick to respond to my cry of, “Come up here, NOW!” We went to the only fuel berth on the river at Marsden Cove Marina, near the entrance. The “serve yourself and pay with your card” pump refused all 4 of our cards. Several phone calls later, we were told that it doesn’t like European cards. Great! Fortunately, a local yacht arrived and the skipper used his card with no problems. We paid him in cash.

Stead Bay, Hen and Chicken Islands
After an overnight stop in Urquart Bay, we motored in calm conditions to Stead Bay, where we anchored very close to the shore and had our lunch. No landing was permitted in this nature reserve. It was very quiet and peaceful.

Te Titoki Point North, Little Barrier Island
We motored another 24 miles. On the way, we saw a school of large whales, which we believe were Bryde’s whales, 11-13 metres long. They were blowing, feeding and diving, occasionally showing us their huge, open jaws. Once we were anchored, we put on our wet suits and scrubbed all the town dirt away from SD’s waterline. Once again, we were not allowed to land on the island without a permit. As it was flat calm, we stayed overnight, but swell came in about 4.00am and we were pitching uncomfortably until we left soon after breakfast. We were amazed to see another whale, not as big as the ones we’d seen the previous day, close inshore. We sailed by slowly, watching it blow and dive. About half-way to Great Barrier Island a pod of dolphins swam out to us, and rode our bow wave, bumping each other out of the way. We felt very privileged to see the whales and dolphins enjoying the freedom of the sea.