13th March - Time to head back south

Great start to the day – we left our overnight anchorage around 0700 this morning and were trawling a line over the side and managed to snag a Kahawai barely a couple of hours into the journey which will be dinner.  You would have seen the clip on our instagram feed if you are following (@sv.sea_otter).

Since the last post we have had a foray further North.  The original intention was to get up to the North Cape or thereabouts and have a look around but the weather and timing got the better of us and we are now returning south. 

From the Cavalli islands we stopped first at a spectacular natural harbour called Whangaroa.  This is a fjord like bay with a narrow entrance which opens up to a larger body of water with various inlets, islands and anchorages.  The hills around the harbour are all pretty steep and very green with scrub and forest which reached all the way down to the waterline.  On the northern side are imposing bare rock formations which rise sheer out of the water.  Whangaroa settlement/town/village lies close to the end of the main artery. 

Milford Island Anchorage

We anchored off Milford island in the bay for the first night in absolute solitude.  Given the high hills the anchorages here are very protected and in the morning there was not a ripple on the water.  We made our way to Whangaroa town and anchored off.  Whangaroa has some history in the early settlement times but now it’s main claim to fame is as a base for sports fishing.  Their other attraction is tourism especially some hiking trails.  We got off the boat and attempted a short walk called St Pauls which is a volcanic rock plug which overlooks the harbour and Whangaroa.  It was a short steep climb but the views over the harbour were fantastic. 

Whangaroa Harbour from St Pauls Peak

Whangaroa Harbour from the "Dukes Nose"

We lingered in Whangaroa for another night as it was so peaceful and then headed further north to a place called Houhora Harbor about 40NM away.  Houhora harbour is really a river estuary about 25Nm south of North Cape.  There is a narrow entrance with a bar and then it opens up into the estuary a lot of which dries out at low tide.  There is one deep channel which hugs the south shore and winds its way up a couple of miles to the town of Pukenui.  The weather was very calm and we arrived at high tide so the entrance and river passage were uneventful.  We anchored close to town and had a look around the next day.

There was not much to Pukenui apart from a supermarket, café/bar and a bottle shop.  The guides talk about orcas swimming up the river to chase stingray to eat but that did not happen while we were there. The anchorage was not particularly pleasant either as the tidal current was pretty strong and each afternoon gusty 20+ knot winds would blow which when combined with different states of the tides produced some very funky movements on the boat.

Early Morning Pukenui Anchorage

After reviewing the weather we decided not to go further North as we did not want to get stranded there for multiple days plus there was a tricky bar entrance to the inlet we were targeting.  Instead we headed to a place called Manganui in Doubtless Bay about 30NM south which is another historic small town on a river estuary famous for fish, fishing and whaling in days gone by.  We spent a few days here in a pretty tranquil anchorage before pushing on south.

Mangonui 

On the boat front – Nicole has turned into a passionate fisher woman and takes pride in both the catching, cleaning and cooking of the fish.  Since leaving Opua two weeks ago we have only had one other protein meal apart from fish.  We have been using the new Torquedo electric outboard which is pretty cool but I can now understand range anxiety with electric vehicles.  We do need to 2 stroke also for the time we are unable to recharge the Torquedo.

Nik cleaning the catch

          

Summer is definitely over here although its still quite warm during the day.  The more time we spend in New Zealand the more we like the country and its population.  The scenery is sometimes like Scotland, sometimes Norway and then other areas are almost Mediterranean.  The result, though, is breathtaking and there are few or no other boats or people around now.