Army Bay, Motura Island, Bay of Islands, New Zealand
Harmonie
Don and Anne Myers
Fri 7 Nov 2008 00:41
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35:13.077S 174:11.682E
On October 28th, we left Opua Marina with Lady
Kay and sailed a quick ten miles out into the Bay of Islands to cozy Army
Bay off Motura Island. The Bay of Islands is just as it sounds - a
bay of islands. Opua is on the mainland at one end of the bay
and when heading out to sea, you must first pass through the Bay of Islands
with its bunches of islands and marvelous scenery. It's not the 1,000
Islands we are used to in the St. Lawrence River, but there are
still plenty of islands to hide behind for a night or two and lots of
incredible views of rocky shores topped by emerald green forests and surrounded
by sapphire blue water.
Picture 1 - Motura Island is part of a National
Park and therefore has a walking trail around its perimeter.
This is the view from the trail of Army Bay with Harmonie,
Lady Kay and one other boat - all looking rather lovely and quite
pleased with themselves.
Picture 2 - Another view of the Bay of Islands
taken from the Motura Island walking trail (credit goes to Michael of Lady
Kay for this shot).
Picture 3 - Don resting. Other than Norfolk
Island, this is the first place we've been where trail signs and stairways and
rails and benches are strategically placed along the way.
Picture 4 - Because the North Island of New Zealand
has a subtropical climate (we are still waiting for the tropical part
to reveal itself), banana trees, orange trees and tree ferns grow just as
well as pine trees and others. The newly formed, unfurled fern on a tree
fern is a popular symbol of new beginnings and new growth in New
Zealand culture (almost every New Zealand company logo has a tree fern
swirl incorporated into it in some fashion). Motura Island was
covered with tree ferns, and this is a picture of a newly formed, unfurled fern
(say that ten times fast!).
We spent two nights in this spot - just enough time
to wind down from our eating escapades in Opua and to get ready
for the last few day sails down the coast to Whangarei.
Anne
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