Great Barrier Island and Orca’s!

Hi again to everyone. last time we left you, we were still in the Bay of Islands in the North of New Zealand. This time, we leave that and head south down towards Auckland, with the first major stop at the Great Barrier Island.

We left the Bay of Islands on a beautiful sunny day with nice Force 4/5 winds on a broad reach back down the West coast of Northland, following the track we had taken to come here a month ago but in reverse.

Our first nights stop was at a huge open anchorage in Puriri Bay where we dropped the anchor off a beach for the night. The next morning we set off again on a dead run south to the stay the night at the Marotere Islands offshore from the Whangarei Estuary and dropped the hook in a very remote feeling place called Starfish Bay. The wind squirrelled round the bottom of these islands as we approached and accelerated through tight passages giving us a fast beam reach to the anchorage as Azimuth heeled over hard.

You were not allowed to land at these islands, but they are thickly forested and impenetrable anyway. All we could here was the bird chorus from the trees, the birds were really thriving here.

After a peaceful nights sleep, we pulled up the anchor and headed on course to Great Barrier Island on an easy and lazy broad reach and arrived a few hours later to a gorgeous setting. The approach to Great Barrier is very spectacular. Its a large island and looks and feels like the island in Jurassic Park with thick forest, foreboding rocking shores and pinnacles of mountains in the interior. There is a narrow channel that takes you in to a sheltered and protected lagoon with lots of anchoring choices and a great place to hide from inclement winds and weather. Our first anchorage for the night was in a place called Stoney Bay.

I shot this video which summarises some of the highlights of the trip down.

We hunkered down for a few days as the wind picked up strongly from the North. This turned out to be a great anchorage that gave no sense of the gale blowing offshore with just a few gusts of wind making it in to the lagoon and the only waves coming from passing fishing boats and the island ferry.

After a few days we decided to move a mile of so around the lagoon and to one of New Zealand’s most iconic anchorages called Stonehouse Bay.

On shore here is a meeting place for sailors, bequeathed by a old sailor family who set it up for others to enjoy. We have never seen anything quite like it on all our travels. There was an easy place to tie up your dinghy, a firepit with seating area, a wood fired pizza oven, a smoking shed (for your fish), clothes washing place (complete with mangles!) barbeques and even a bath house (with wood stove to heat your water)!

We went to shore a couple of times, to explore. There was a track that took us up in to the forest to an old farm track where we went for a very pretty walk.

We came across this cool piece of machinery abandoned in the forest. Our thoughts turned to gold mining!!

On returning to the communal area, there were a number of other sailors arrived and we sat for a couple of hours meeting the locals and learning about Great Barrier Island and some of the other places to cruise in NZ. All very social!

We had been in Stonehouse Bay for a few days. I woke up early one day to an absolute millpond. I was sitting in the saloon having a cup of tea when I heard what I thought was a blowhole from a whale. I grabbed my camera and rushed out on deck and wow I was not prepared for what I saw next! Three or four Orca’s had swum in to the anchorage! I watched as they surfaced initially in the distance right near another anchored boat. Then I couldn’t believe it as a group surfaced right near Azimuth! They came right up to the boat, a group of three swimming together and then dived right under Azimuth with me watching from the deck in amazement. I have never seen anything like that. Luckily I caught this on video!

Speaking to some of the other sailors later that day, apparently its very rare to see Orca’s in Great Barrier Island Lagoon, so it sounds like we got lucky.

That weekend, the anchorage got quite crowded with boats turning up from Auckland including lots of small fishing boats. For a change a scenery we decided to move another mile across the lagoon to another anchorage which we had to ourselves called Kiwiriki Bay. Arguably, prettier than Smokehouse Bay and it also gave us access to the main island trails.

Here’s another little video to give you a taste of Smokehouse Bay and Kiwiriki Bay.

We took the boat for a long row to the shore and then what we thought would be an easy walk to a nearby peak to take in the views. It was a hot day, and we had packed plenty of water. The path was far from easy! We could have done with a machete at times to cut through the thick grass and undergrowth. There were lots of fallen trees to negotiate as well as a steep path that cut its way in to the side of a clay cliff. We never made it to the top and had to retrace our way back. It was still good fun though!

The rest of the time, we relaxed and enjoyed the view, and I decided to take the canoe out to explore some of the little islands further as well as discovering a mangrove swamp at the head of a concealed bay. The trees were alive again with birds, which I think the video below has managed to pick up. Its an untouched place, and full of wildlife.

it had been several weeks since our last shopping expedition and we were out of fresh vegetables and resorting to tins again. So, we decided to make the run south to visit the area near Auckland and in particular the island of Waiheke to restock and continue our exploration of New Zealand.

Join us next time then as we head to Waiheke, and then on to the Coromandel Peninsula.

Dom & Ailsa on Azimuth.