Having come back from Great Barrier we spent a couple of nights in Parua bay from where we able to visit Colin and Marjorie in their lovely house perched on its own peninsular. We had a walk around their garden, a series of paths which Colin has cut into the peninsula to allow access to the bush.

Then up to Town Basin for shopping and more boatwork. The dinghy now has wheels, the upholstery in the aft cabin is finished, we are stocked up with food for 3-4 months (except obviously for fresh). Having been to a presentation on sailing to and around Fiji we discovered that our ipad could not download the cruising guide to the islands, it was too old, so we now have a new ipad. The satellite phone which we have been using for occasional emails at sea and downloading weather forecasts has proven to be quite limited and so we have upgraded to iridium GO a much faster system which when used with a program called Predict Wind enables passage planning and departure planning to fit the forecast weather, it also has text, email and voice call ability so worth the cost. Now we really must go away and save money.

At least when shopping at Pak and Save you can bring the trolleys to the boat.

After a week in the marina we felt like getting out for a long weekend and headed out toward Great Barrier again but the wind died away to just about zero and we definitely were not going to motor out there. We ended up anchored in Urquharts Bay at the entrance to the Hatea river for the weekend and did a couple of walks. Out to Smugglers Bay and up the Te Whara trail to Mount lion. Smugglers bay is an anchorage just outside the river entrance, usually quiet but it does suffer from swell rolling in, it is a short walk from Urquharts around a headland or over the top.

Smugglers Cove

The Te Whara trail goes from Urquharts to Ocean Beach  a 5km ridge walk, we had done part of it last year so this time just went up to Mount Lion another short walk,  3.4km round trip, but 395m of climb and over 1100 steps.

Typical New Zealand walk, steps trees and very occasional views

“Te Whara was the principal wife of chief Manaia. It was here that Manaia first met Puhi-moana-ariki, an early ancestor of the Ngapuhi iwi. Manaia’s wife is said to have slighted Puhi and was turned into stone. She stands as the projecting up-thrust rock at the east-most point of Bream Head, known as Te Wahine iti a Manaia” (the little woman belonging to Manaia). Dont you just love the legends and names.

The view to Ocean Beach from Mount Lion

Now we are back in town again but intending to leave by the weekend and head up to Bay of Islands, we can clear out from there to head North to Fiji.

Sent from Mail for Windows 10