Easter at Kawau Island

After our week in the Coromandel and my mum’s departure, we packed up the boat again and set sail for Kawau Island. Unfortunately we were on a timeframe and there wasn’t much wind so we motored most of the way there. We had previously visited Kawau Island, and having met the owners of the boating club there, agreed to return for Easter weekend to help out. The boating club was in disrepair but had been taken over six month’s previously by David and Robyn who have turned the place around. 

Our first shift was for the Thursday curry night, which is very popular with the locals, and rightly so having tasted Derek the chef’s amazing red beef curry and lamb shank curry. We did five days work over the Easter weekend, serving drinks at the bar, waitressing and helping out in the kitchen. 

Dave, David, Robyn and me outside the boat club

Bon Accord harbour was packed with boats over the long weekend, and we were blessed with gorgeous sunny weather, which no doubt accounted for the 400 or so boats anchored there.  We were glad that we were able to use a mooring in Smelting House Bay as we were tucked well into the bay away from the worst of the crowds and we didn’t have to worry about other boats anchoring too close to us while we were working. We did hear about some other boats getting their anchor chains tangled due to the number of boats packed into the harbour.

View from our mooring in Smelting House Bay after the Easter crowds had gone.

At the end of the Easter weekend we had some friends from the UK, Anna and Brad, who are currently working in Auckland, visit us for a night. We had a good couple of days together, circumnavigating Kawau Island and doing some of the local walks. Neither of them had done much sailing before but I think they enjoyed learning the ropes while they were with us.

Anna and Brad getting to grips with sailing Desolina

We found some dinosaurs on our walk...

But they were only little

After Anna and Brad left we started to plan our crossing to Great Barrier Island. We wanted to stock up the boat on food, water and fuel as it had been a week since we left the marina. We were able to put in an order through the boating club to have some fresh fruit and vegetables delivered to the island and the club itself sells a few key essentials like milk. They also have fuel and water at the dock outside the boating club so we thought we were sorted. Unfortunately, the day before we planned to leave the boating club realised that they were virtually out of water after the high demands put on their well during the Easter weekend. They were forced to ration water to the bare minimum so were no longer able to fill our tanks there. Fortunately after asking around and checking our guidebook we found there were a couple of places we could get water on Great Barrier Island.

After the calm sunny weather over Easter we also had a few days of strong winds and rain showers so we were watching the weather quite closely for a good opportunity to make the crossing. We departed Kawau on the Saturday morning and had a very fast sail across to Great Barrier with 20-25kts of southwest winds behind us. We thought the crossing would take us around 6 hours but we ended up doing it in 4.5 hours instead with reefs in both the mainsail and headsail. We arrived at Great Barrier with only a few litres of water left in our tanks. We pumped out the remaining fresh drinking water from our main tanks into small jerry cans and filled our tanks with stream water that was available from the wharf in Port Fitzroy. Unfortunately it’s probably not safe for drinking without boiling, so we’re glad to have a separate safe supply of drinking water to save on the gas. We’re now hunkered down in Smokehouse Bay for a few days waiting out the worst of the southwest gales and thundery showers that have been coming through.

Approaching Great Barrier Island after a fast crossing

Cruising the Hauraki Gulf

After my mum joined us on the boat we spent two weeks cruising the nursery waters of the Hauraki Gulf. My mum had not done much sailing before and her only experience prior to joining us had been a weekend sailing on the North Sea during which she spent most of the time in the bottom of the cockpit feeling seasick. I was keen to remedy her past experience and show her a good time sailing in New Zealand.

After spending a night on the boat in the marina to acclimatise and get over the worst of the jet lag, we set sail for Waiheke Island, an easy 15 mile and 3-4 hour sail. The conditions were ideal for an introductory sail with a flat calm sea and variable 10kts of wind, and my mum enjoyed helming which was a good way to take her mind off any potential seasickness.  We sailed to Oneroa Bay, which is one of the most popular anchorages on the northern side of Waiheke Island. The bay was busy, but not crowded and had a nice long stretch of beach, which was perfect for a morning walk. The beaches on Waiheke had some of the most beautiful shells I’ve seen the entire trip.

Beach at Oneroa Bay, Waiheke Island

Mum and me at Oneroa Bay, Waiheke Island

We spent two nights at the Oneroa Bay anchorage relaxing back into a slower pace of life after the hectic trip up the East coast. Dave even caught us fish for dinner after considerable effort chasing a large school of fish around the bay in the dinghy (note: we still have mastered this fishing malarkey). After leaving Oneroa Bay we sailed around the western end of Waiheke to Rocky Bay on the southern side of the island. From Rocky Bay we took the dinghy ashore to Whakanewha Regional Park where there were some beautiful beaches and walking tracks in the bush.

Freshly caught Kawhai for dinner

Sunset at Rocky Bay, Waiheke Island

Nikau Palms in Whakanewha Regional Park, Waiheke Island

On the beach at Rocky Bay, Waiheke Island

We had arranged to visit some friends who have recently moved to Auckland so, after a few nights at Waiheke, we set sail toward the city, stopping off overnight at a little sand spit island, and DOC nature reserve, called Motuihe Island. The island was used as a quarantine zone for migrants in the 1800s. We had a perfect sail into Auckland on the Friday morning and even managed to get our spinnaker out for the first time ever! This was pretty exciting for us but we weren’t sure whether we had packed it correctly and were a little worried about ropes getting tangled when we hoisted it. However, everything went smoothly and we had a beautiful downwind run into the city of sails flying our largest and most colourful sail. Another tick off our sailing bucket list.

Our colourful spinnaker with Auckland on the horizon

We arranged a berth at Bayswater Marina on the north shore for a night. All of the marinas in Auckland were pretty full at the time as the Volvo Ocean Race was on in Auckland, and I think we were lucky to get a spot at all. The Volvo Ocean Race (formally the Whitbread Round the World Race) is held every 3 years and has 9 or 10 legs to the race and in-port races at many stop off cities. As it happens the boats were doing a harbour race in Auckland that Saturday and there was an extensive exhibition area set up with models of the boats and what the inside crew quarters looked like – definitely more sparse than our living quarters on Desolina! I also had a good time with my mum having a girl’s day out in the city with some shopping, lunch and a massage. It felt good to be pampered in civilisation after so many weeks on the boat.

View of Auckland City from our berth in Bayswater Marina

Our time in Auckland was cut short by the impending Cyclone Pam, which was headed toward New Zealand after wreaking havoc in the South Pacific Islands. We wanted Desolina to be safely tucked up in the marina when the bad weather hit (apparently starting to come in on Sunday morning). Bayswater marina had limited availability over the weekend, was not particularly sheltered having only a floating sea wall, and was the most expensive marina we’ve stayed in yet at $45 a night, so we decided to sail back up to Gulf Harbour marina to weather out the storm there. We had relatively quick but blustery 3-hour sail back to Gulf Harbour, arriving in the dark. One of the marina staff came out to meet us on the dock and help us find our berth in the dark, which we were very grateful for. I think we made a wise choice to stay at Gulf Harbour for Cyclone Pam as the marina seems to be extremely well sheltered from the wind. We only saw 20kts of wind in the marina at worst, while it was blowing 40-50kts out in the Hauraki Gulf.

 

Shakespear Regional Park, near Gulf Harbour

While Desolina was confined to the marina to wait out the worst of Cyclone Pam, we took the opportunity to do the usual boat chores – laundry and re-stocking food and water ready for the following week up to Kawau Island. Kawau Island was a 3-4 hour sail north of Gulf Harbour and felt a million miles from Auckland although its probably only about 30 miles from the city in reality. The island is mostly privately owned although there is a DOC reserve where you can get off and walk around. We also had a look around the Mansion House, which was the private residence of one of New Zealand’s first governors, Sir George Grey, and is now managed by DOC.

Mum with the giant redwood on Kawau Island

Messing about on Kawau Island

During our stay at Kawau Island we went into the Boating Club bar and got chatting with the owners there. It turns out that they are short staffed over the Easter weekend and they offered us some casual work for a few days. So we’ll be back at Kawau in a couple of weeks to earn a few more dollars for our cruising kitty. In the meantime, we’re off for a week in the Coromandel on land. We’ve rented a batch for the week with my mum and are looking forward to the luxuries of a house and exploring the beautiful coastline there.