Thursday 7 April 2011

Bay of Islands Revisited

The trip to the Bay of Islands was harder than it ought to have been. We stopped at Tutukaka Harbour to let ex-Cyclone Bune pass. Unfortunately, Bune left a 4.5m swell, which entered the "swell free" harbour and gave us 2.5m waves on anchor. Just after midnight when we had 2 feet of water under the keels, we had to re-anchor - THREE times! No damage was done and a couple of days later we were enjoying a beautiful walk to Cape Brett, just behind Jeremy's left shoulder. On our way out of Whangamumu Harbour, just south of Cape Brett, Jeremy caught a kahawai fish, possibly the biggest fish he'd ever caught. We shared it for 2 lovely meals.



We sheltered from 40knot winds in Opua Marina for a couple of days. Here we met with old friends. I needed to have my eyes examined as I'd been having some trouble for about 6 weeks. The only opthalamists this far north was in Kerikeri. We negotiated 3 or 4 miles of river, the echo sounder giving us 1.6 metres to a huge 6.0 metres all at high tide. (We need 1.0metre to float). We arrived in the pool below the Kerikeri Stone Store (built in 1836 and the oldest stone building in NZ). My eye test was successful and it appears that I now have "floaters" which will remain with me, but not affect my eyesight - the joys of getting older.

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