Malcolm and Lovat visit.

Bay watch!

On lookout

Brothers.

ba

Malcolm the hunter!

Hole in the rock.

Dune surfing.

More fun.

Hughie, me and the inevitable bear!

Pacific Ocean right, Tasman Sea left, me centre.

Cape Reinga, a long way from anywhere.

The rest of the picture.

From the coach speeding along 90 mile beach.

So nice to share our little paradise. Having come from such a dreadful winter on the east coast, as well as a painful operation we feel they were ready for this! The weather has been kind and we have managed some new trips. Lovat was a little overenthusiastic on the first day, walking into Russell and back. It is a lovely walk, partly through a nature reserve and up past the historic flagstaff, but a lot of up on a hot day and a swim as well was quite tiring without recovering from a back operation. Waitangi day on Sunday and a ferry across the estuary to watch the war canoe paying it's tribute. A nice walk around the treaty grounds and house and back in Russell to hear the 21 gun salute from The New Zealand Navy. Next day Malcolm Vincent and I went out on 4 reel without Lovat who had a good rest whilst we caught supper. 2  mako sharks for Vincent, both nearly landed and snapper for us all as well as a tarwhine for Malcolm. Perfectly filleted and onto the BBQ for supper after a lovely swim for us all on Long Beach. More Bay of Islands from the sea next day with the cream trip cruise to the hole in the rock, a first time for us although this is our 3rd year here. Perfect weather and everything as hoped for - dolphins, seabirds, fish, penguins and fantastic views. We stopped for a picnic lunch and swim before going to the hole in the rock and a lovely cruise home. Kerikeri for a walk at the stone house on Wednesday, visit to the falls and some shopping made a lazy day before a very long tip to Cape Reinga on Thursday. 6.30am start shocked us all but the comfortable coach with songs and amusing anecdotes from our guide and driver, Hughie, made us all very relaxed. A coffee stop to look at ancient, giant kauri trees, dug up from a swamp, then a fantastic drive along 90 mile beach to the cape. At the end of the beach the coach went along a river bed to get back to the road and we stopped for some dune surfing - fantastic! Down steep, high dunes on a body board. Cape Reinga was beautiful, with perfect weather (again) we looked down on the meeting point of the Pacific Ocean and The Tasman Sea. We planted a manuka tree overlooking the cape in memory of Pat and Alan, The place reminded me of them and their tales of their visit to New Zealand. Back for a relaxing drive home with more maori songs and stories and a nice walk through a kauri forest as a break on the way back. A meal at the fishing club in Russell finished another lovely day.   A quiet weekend enjoying the sunshine and swims with good BBQ's, a good walk to the whale station for 'the boys' and birding for Lovat.

Another island and another cyclone

Out of action!

Our lovely blue bay.

Blue trevally.

Too young to board!

The suit was wrong - nothing to do with the body!

Poor Knights.

Snorkelling through a cave.

Dolphins bow riding.

Our fishing spot but not today.

Cyclone Wilma hit us friday night with 24hrs of rain and very strong winds. We were cut off from Russell for a while by a fallen tree and landslip. The whole of Northland was cut off from the rest of NZ by floods and landslips on route 1 the lifeline to Auckland. Another jigsaw finished but at least no worries about water for the rest of our stay as the tank must be full. A trip to Kerikeri showed the extent of the damage with landslips and evidence of recent floods all the way. The river walk at stone house had great logs left up in the trees 30ft above the normal river level and the Haruru falls reminded us of Niagra for the speed of water going over the top and the spray above. Our lovely bay turned yellow from the landslip wash and other debris and there were few boats risking a collision with the many large logs being swept out. Monday was calm and sunny and we risked a booking on a trip to the Poor Knights Islands for Wednesday. Drove to Tutukaka for the 40min crossing then snorkelling in the clearest water we have ever been in. The Islands are a nature reserve with no landing and the marine reserve around them with the clear water place them in the top 10 dive sites in the world. The weather was perfect with calm, sunny conditions. Huge shoals of trevally on the surface could be clearly seen and dolphins played in the bow wave for most of the crossing. The only nesting place in the world for Buller's shearwaters, who migrate from the arctic, and flocks of storm petrels gave us a wonderful bird display. We snorkelled with shoals of demoiselles, trevally, large snapper, marblefish, blue mau mau, and sponges all set with wonderful background colours. Both had a go at paddleboarding and managed to stand and paddle the boards! A quick trip round the gannet colonies of the Squires pinnacles on the way back finished a fantastic boat trip. Too tired for a proper meal even when we got home but what an amazing day.

Holiday within a holiday

Helen guides the boat in at Sandspit.

Boat unloaded, Phil rows back.

View across Schoolhouse Bay from the deck.

Old copper mine.

I don't know why I am crying!

Preparation of the birthday breakfast.

Sunset from Phil and Helen's batch on Kawau.

Trev, Dorita, Bron and Helen eating the birthday breakfast. 

We swam round this.

Our lovely NZ friends Phil and Helen invited us to stay for a long weekend at their batch on Kawau, an island about 1hr north of Auckland. We met them at Sandspit where they launch their boat, Sir Reel, and 20mins later we are unloading the booty at their jetty. People have to walk the 180 steps up to their spectacular erie but the luggage goes on a winch. The batch must be in one of the most enviable sites in NZ. with views across to the mainland one side and to schoolhouse bay on the other, completely secluded with the night sounds of morepork, tuis, and wekas as well as sightings of the wallabies,  descendants of the escapees from the governor Grey 'zoo' at his residence on the island. The water around Kawau is a most wonderful shade of blue/green from the hint of copper in the water from the deposits in the island making the views even more mesmeric. Our first day was a mainland trip with Dorita, Helen's lovely mum, to some of the nearby beaches. We visited their first batch at Omaha after a picnic by the river at Matakana then went to the marine reserve at goat island for spectacular snorkelling. Saw my first 'school' of large squid with their huge eyes as well as lots of large fish and rays. Wine tasting at a local vineyard on the way back continued during the meal that evening. Trev, Bron and Shaun arrived the next day to celebrate Shaun's birthay on Sunday. Phil took us fishing and the ONLY catch of the day was a whopping nine and a half pound snapper caught and landed by me! Another good meal with lots of laughs and a hilarious game of charades. Off to snorkel round a wreck the next day followed by a stroll on another part of the island and view of the old copper mine. Boules before dinner but sadly Bron slipped and twisted her ankle. Another good evening despite that. Shaun's 16th birthday spent quietly after a huge cooked breakfast . Phil, Trev and Shaun caught another 2 (small) snapper to add to the fish plus fry up in the evening. Back to Sandspit early Monday morning for a scenic drive along the coast past Manganui Heads and Langs Beach. Barely saw either through the torrential rain and arrived back in Tapeka after a shop in Wangerai unable to see the house through the warm mist. Rainy catch up days until weather settled again by Thursday. A dramatic sub plot to the whole week was Matt's  month long secondment to Brisbane for training. He arrived Monday, was evacuated from his office Wednesday, from his apartment Thursday finding himself in the midst of the worst flooding Brisbane has ever had. He got back in his flat Saturday with power but no lift, not good on the 14th floor, and was told Tuesday that he was going back to Auckland Wednesday! He did make his first sale amid the turmoil and earned his first commission. Well done Matt!

First week of 2011

Kayaker for supper?

The new David Bailey?

Bear and I at the 2nd largest kauri.

Orca invading our swimming space

I felt a little strange!

Is it the Nile? No Hokianga harbour.

Matt joined us in Tapeka on the 2nd and we all went fishing from the rocks. Matt and Vincent successful but not a bite for me. The water quite clear for snorkelling and saw sting rays, small squid, and some largish fish as well as different types of starfish. Got quite brave about snorkelling from the rocky beach with lots of seaweed. Had a day trip to the west coast and Hokianga harbour where we found the slowest service bakery in NZ, 40mins for 3 panini, as well as a lovely harbour entrance looking like the banks of the Nile with huge sand dunes on the other side. Walked to the 2nd largest kauri tree in the world where a woman had decided to have a breakdown and a poor policeman was trying to persuade her to make an effort to get back to her life again, preferably without him carrying her back to the distant car park. Walked into Russell seeing a kingfisher nest in the bank and listening to the 'buzzing' babies inside. Had a delicious meal at Sally's. Matt took lots of photos with his new camera, all so good we gave up photos until he had gone. Also got soundly beaten at bananagram, rummikub and yahtzee. Had a whole day walk to Whagamumu bay stopping at the old whaling station for a picnic lunch and swim. Lovely spot and hope to do the quite testing walk again with Malcolm and Lovat. Matt got the coach back to Auckland from Pahia after an early birthday BBQ, very sad to see him go but an exciting year ahead of him. The next evening we noticed boats milling around, usually a sign of something interesting, spotting orca! a pod of 5, 4 small and one very large just offshore. They ended up just into our swimming bay by the platform chased by kayaks, a paddleboard, and small inflatables. They were well into our daily swim route, quite shallow and surfacing very near the boats. Once out of the bay they rounded the headland and appeared off our rocky beach. I googled orcas in the bay of islands and got horrific pictures of them killing dolphin by tossing them up and breaking their backs before eating them. The kayakers and paddleboarder might think twice about a repeat encounter. We shall certainly be very wary when swimming. Tame-ish moreporks just outside that evening saying 'morepork, morepork' and tuis in our tree during the day. Had also had parakeets and a kingfisher as well as wekas and quail in the garden. The tall ships race to end the week with just about every sailing boat in the Bay of Islands going past our deck. Had lovely BBQs for food and just a great start to the New Year.