Friday, April 22, 2016

Back in the River

We are back in the Hatea River and will be heading back to the Whangarei Town Basin Marina when they have room at the inn for us! For now, we'll enjoy being at the mouth in Urquharts Bay. But before we got here, we did enjoy more time in Great Barrier.

We made our way out of Kaiaraara Bay and went around to the southern part of the island and into Whangaparapara Harbour. The beautiful black barquentine "Spirit of New Zealand" was anchored in the middle. We have a friend, Simon, (whom we met with his partner Barbara aboard their beautiful old yacht in Vanuatu), who works aboard the ship. We had called "Spirit" a few days before and knew he was aboard. As we went by, the captain of the vessel yelled out that Simon was ashore. He recognized the name of "Astarte" and new we were friends. Classic NZ friendliness!

We decided to anchor in a very protected spot called "Graveyard Bay." Sure enough, you face a graveyard. We had the place to ourselves and it was a lovely very calm spot – though pretty deep. Once the anchor was secured, we launched the dinghy for a trip ashore and a walk to the hot springs. The DOC brochure said it was an easy 45-minute walk to the springs. So we set off and we climbed...and climbed...and climbed. Easy? We kept going uphill and after an hour we came to a park entrance – but no hot springs. It seems we missed a path (the easy way). It was getting late so we decided to turn back and head to the Whangaparapara Lodge. At the Lodge, a pretty place, Archie, the proprietor told us where we went wrong bit said it was much more than 45 minutes...that just takes you to the entrance to the track that leads to the hot springs. Oh well, we did earn our cold beer. At the lodge, we did run into an acquaintance hat we met on our 2012 Pacific Passage. We chatted with Sondra from the Brazilian boat, "Santa Paz." We saw Lucas, her partner aboard as they were anchored quite close. Four more boats were anchored in our private little bay and it was now quite cozy.

Before heading back to the boat, we stopped at the "Spirit of New Zealand" and saw Simon. We clambered aboard for a brief tour of this training boat. It is not designed as a sailing training ship but rather a team building and educational vessel. It has a crew of 6 paid; 8 volunteers and in this case 40 teenagers. It is a beautifully laid out boat and a flash engine room! It was a brief walk through as the boat was about to pull anchor and leave. It was great to see Simon.

The next morning, we got a sunrise start to our trip to the "Hens and Chickens." These islands are not very protected so can only be visited in fair weather which we were predicted to have. We motored with no wind for awhile. Motor sailed for another bit. Sailed for awhile. And then motor sailed again. The winds were light and variable and there was a swell...and because of the swell, we decided to keep going to the river and pass on stopping at the "Hens and Chicken." We anchored around 4 pm and felt like summer vacation was over! We enjoyed our time in the Hauraki Gulf islands of Waiheke, Tiritiri Matangi, Kawau and Great Barrier. We saw lots of new spots and visited favorite old haunts. We also got a fair amount of nice walks/treks in during the time. We saw great land birds, penguins, dolphins and even some whales. Bad news – no fish caught!

After a good night's rest, it was time to hike the Urquharts Bay trail. It was a beautiful sunny day but not too hot. The almost four mile trek took us over hills to the other side to see the gulf and we took a side trip to Busby's Head. This is a high rock overlooking the river entrance. Great views! We also went by the WW II artillery placement and watch station. Another good walk that tired us both out...lots of uphills!

Now we are making our lists for projects in Whangarei to get ready for going back to the islands. Michael fixed the leak in the water heater this morning – a long tedious project – but its done and off the list. We only have a few weeks so the list has to start getting smaller not longer.

Its a holiday weekend here – ANZAC Day on Monday Hopefully we'll be able to get a space in the marina by Tuesday.
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At 4/22/2016 9:54 PM (utc) S/V Astarte was located at 35°50.86'S 174°31.87'E

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Sunday, April 17, 2016

Muddy Waters

Saturday night and Sunday was wet and windy in Great Barrier. We remain in Kaiaraara Bay coming up with indoor boat projects and reading. The wind was a steady 20 out of the northeast with gusts a bit higher. The rain almost filed our near empty water tanks. That was a good thing because there is no way to make water now...no, the water maker is working fine – its just that the water in the bay is like coffee with a bit of milk. It is very, very muddy with logs and debris floating in it. The river that we are near is carrying all the mud from the slopes and what may have been a few mud slides (or slips as they are called here).
Guess those old kauri dams that we hiked to see don't work too well! It is certainly not as pretty here as it was on the beautiful sunny days with bright blue skies. We are well protected here for now – the winds were out of the east/northeast so this was a good spot. Late yesterday afternoon – everything just died. The wind stopped and we only got brief showers now and then. Guess the front passed – and that meant for a much calmer night of sleep without anchor watches.

This morning (Monday) the winds are supposed to pick up again to the low 20s and switch to the southwest. Haven't seen it yet and hope we don't. The spot we are in should still be okay, if not we will move someplace else for better protection. After the southwesterlies end it is supposed to be back to Northeast. The seas are said to be 2.5 to 3 meters (that's 10 feet!) so we won't be moving anywhere far for a few days. We don't see any swell where we are currently anchored.

We are looking at moving back towards Whangarei late in the week so we can start on the final preps to leave NZ. For now its lots of indoor boat projects, some writing, some reading and lots of "napping for peace."
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At 4/17/2016 8:33 PM (utc) S/V Astarte was located at 36°11.04'S 175°21.64'E

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Friday, April 15, 2016

1264 Stair Steps

Plus at least a dozen bridges- three of which were cool but wobbly suspension bridges, and miles of up and down tracks – that was yesterday's adventure. We took a four hour trek to the Lower Kauri Dam on the Kaiaraara Trail. The walk was as challenging as the trails name! We did not originally set out to make it all the way to the dam … but it was an absolutely perfect day for a walk. The temperature was cool, the sky was perfectly blue and the sun was out. It is what New Zealand weather forecasts call "periods of fine." We started off with the plan to get to the first suspension bridge, a trek we did before. But we decided to keep going (this trail was closed last year) and see how far we would get. The trail, like most DOC tracks, is very well maintained. This one has lots of wooden stairs built into the hills (632 to be exact) to help control erosion as well as protect the black petrol nests in the area.

The trail took us through lots of kauri trees and we had to do the shoe cleaning routine. There is an area where there are hard brushes for cleaning the bottom of your shoes and then you spray them with a disinfectant. This is supposed to help protect the kauri tree from what is a root disease called kauri dieback disease. The kauri forests on Great Barrier Island had been logged intensely between the 1880s and 1930s. The kauri dam we went to see was part of the logging operations and the track we hiked followed an old logging route. The dam was built in the 192os and along with the smaller dams built upstream, contained seven million feet of timber. They were designed to send big kauri logs down the stream. The logs would be loaded into the stream and the dams tripped to send the logs cascading downstream into the bay where we are anchored.

The large old growth trees are long gone, but they are working hard to regenerate the kauri. The kauri was a much sought after wood for boats and building as it is a hard wood and the trees were very large in diameter. Many of the classic New Zealand sailboats are made of kauri wood.

The kauri dam, our destination, is quite destroyed at this point. There are just a few logs left in place. Between all the slips (landslides) and age, the large logs have been displaced and there is very little left. The trail took us over many bridges – some hard wooden ones as well as three incredible suspension bridges that wobble as you walk on them. They are all feats of engineering placed in these remote places. On the return our legs were a bit wobbly and on the wobbly bridges it was like being aboard Astarte in a rough sea.

It was one of our better hikes and we were very glad to have done it – though we got back quite exhausted with jelly legs and aching knees and hips.

We came over to Kaiaraara Bay from Smokehouse Bay on Thursday morning. The wind was predicted to pick up later in the day and come from the easterly quadrant – not the best direction for Smokehouse. The wind did indeed start to grow and we saw the low 20s for awhile but were well situated in this protected bay with big hills to dampen the wind. As we arrived here, we saw the tamest little blue penguin ever. We could have dropped our anchor on his little head as he just swam nearby and watched us. They are so darned cute! It was a good day to move as we did have rain and squally weather through most of the afternoon and night. But we awoke to a very calm day. It was calm enough that we took a dinghy run into Port Fitzroy – the little town a bay away. We needed some bread after being away from Auckland now for 11 days (anything to not have to bake bread!) It was an easy dinghy trip and good to give the dinghy outboard run at a high speed. The other good thing about Port Fitzroy is we could get rid of our garbage – they have a great recycling area here. With bread aboard and garbage disposed of – heck, we can stay another few weeks here!

Before leaving Smokehouse, Michael continued to do some work on the plumbing – anything to try to get a hot shower. He donated a few plumbng parts from our boat supply to try to get it sorted...but still no joy. It seems the leak may be in the water tank liner. That's a project out of our area of expertise.

It has been really nice to be on Great Barrier – and perhaps we'll explore a few new anchorages...or not!
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At 4/15/2016 8:27 PM (utc) S/V Astarte was located at 36°11.03'S 175°21.62'E

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Sunday, April 10, 2016

Hikes, yes. Showers, no.

This island is great. We have settled into Smokehouse Bay and enjoyed two great hikes. Day one, we were in search of the viewpoint at the top. Now you would think that would be easy to find, right? Just keep going up. But after gaining a good amount of elevation the trail petered out. We tried a few different paths that looked like overgrown trails – but no joy. So we went a different direction and ended up crossing a creek several times and got to a lovely bay that we passed by boat on our way in. It was a nice walk and the woods are lovely...but no viewpoint from the top. Day two, we tried a different direction and trail, and after a few wrong turns, we ended up on the path to the top. It was quite an uphill trek, but worth the view of the Hauraki Gulf and the many islands was pretty spectacular. The day was a bit more cloudy and the sky hazy, but it was still a great view. We also saw the parrot, several fantails, emerald pigeons and heard a bunch of tuis. The paths here are not the great DOC trails because this is private land that the Webster family allows people to use. It was two great day of walks – and our legs felt it.

The reward was going to be the hot showers that you can take if you cut the wood for the stove that heats the water. But there is a problem with the plumbing. Michael and Phil and Mark off the boat "Icebreaker" went in search of the problem. They checked the tank, the grates that lead to the tank, the pipes and turned on and off valves. There was no apparent leak upstream – but Phil found a leak along the beachfront pipe that led to a small "bach" (that is a summer home in "kiwi.") Hope was high...but still not enough water to get to the showers. The water in the bay is quite chilly – but we will have to resort to the salt water bath with a fresh water rinse. Brrrrrr.

Projects continue as we enjoy this anchorage. We continue to get lots of small stuff done on the boat. Though we didn't do a major haul out this season we have gotten a lot done aboard. We'll recap the projects in a separate entry. In between walks and projects, this is a great place to watch the boats that haul out on the "grid." This is a set of pilings that boats come in and tie to at high water. When the tide goes out, the boat sits high and dry and they can clean the bottom and a few have even put on bottom paint. It has been busy with boats this week as the tides are perfect for the projects. We also enjoy watching the boats come and go in this very popular anchorage. Its a great place to meet lots of New Zealanders – who continue to ask..."What's going on with that election of yours? Trump? You gotta be kidding!" It's all they want to talk about with us

We'll be here a few more days to a week. Perhaps we'll even get up the energy in between projects to move to a few different anchorages...(or not!) The weather has been great – though some rain is expected this afternoon. Doesn't look it now.
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At 3/11/2016 8:24 PM (utc) S/V Astarte was located at 36°25.51'S 174°50.35'E

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Wednesday, April 6, 2016

Great to be in Great Barrier

New pictures are up on the photo page so check them out. We had some "free" internet and took advantage.

We have left the Auckland area and continue our visits to various islands in the Hauraki Gulf off New Zealand's North Island. We are back in a very favorite spot – Great Barrier Island after a stop at Kawau Island's Mansion House Bay. We have been sailing a lot to and between the islands which has been great. It is good to get all the systems checked out before we do the long passage back to the islands. Yesterday we had a six hour sail to Great Barrier – a bit hard on the wind, but very pleasant. It was a bright sunny day but the southerly quadrant winds do bring a chill to the air.

Reconnecting with our friends, Sandy and Rankin on "Gypsea Heart" was fun. We delivered their mail and had a great sausage sizzle when we met up with them in Mansion House Bay. It is always fun to catch up. They had spent three weeks here in Barrier so they had lots of good new anchorage suggestions. We are settled in our favorite spot for the time being – Smokehouse Bay. Last night was so calm you hardly knew you were afloat. The sound of birds is wonderful. It is nice to be out again and enjoying these islands. But you definitely feel fall in the air. It is downright cold at night – well, at least to us – the kiwis are still jumping in the water. Brrrr.

Today we plan a long hike on the island...and perhaps building a fire in the smokehouse for hot showers! This place is unique. Glad to be here to watch the blue penguins, shags, parrots and other interesting birds.
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At 3/11/2016 8:24 PM (utc) S/V Astarte was located at 36°25.51'S 174°50.35'E

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