034:58.828S 173:31.848E
It is a really nasty wet and windy Sunday
morning but it is not all bad as we are snugly tucked up in
friendly Mangonui and well sheltered from the gusty northerly which is
driving the rain across the decks of poor damp Bamboozle. We are also
happy to be back in this small Northland fishing port as it is home to the
"World Famous Mangonui Fish and Chip Shop" which may not yet sport a
Michelin star but is without doubt worth a detour.
We dragged ourselves away from the Bay of Islands and
spent most of this week amongst the many secluded bays of Whangaroa
Harbour. Our cruising guide had warned us "prepare to be
amazed".....and we were, not only because of the empty coves
surrounded by stunning rocky outcrops and peaks but also because we had a
totally unexpected wildlife encounter. We were anchored
deep in a inlet surrounded by steep sided hills with no cellphone
signal for our dongle. We jumped in "Spot the dinghy" just
after breakfast to go and pick up the
post.....i.e. whiz across close enough to the village to get
a mobile phone signal to download emails. On our
way our way across the bay we stumbled across a pod of five
Orca (what used to be called Killer Whales until they got a PR makeover) .
There were five of them including at least one huge male (we think!) and a
mother and calf. We turned the outboard off and just sat there drifting with the
wind and current with them swimming around us. Absolutely amazing and a
really special moment, particularly as neither of us had ever seen
Orcas before except Oceanworld with beach balls balanced
on their noses! They seemed totally unconcerned by our
presence and carried on cruising around with us both perched nervously
on top of an inflatable rubber dinghy trying to banish those thoughts of
them tipping seals off ice floes for breakfast. Sadly as we had just
jumped in the dinghy for a five minute run across towards the village we
did not have a camera with us. Those of you young enough to be digital
natives will also be amazed that not long ago you could actually get mobile
phones without cameras and our ancient handset is from those pre-historic
pre-Smartphone days (despite 7 years of damp and more salt water encounters than
the people at Nokia had planned for). On the upside the lack of a
camera did mean we concentrated on watching, enjoying and
remembering the Orca rather than worrying about trying
to record the moment.
