M/Y Iron Lady

Well, we made it back to Russell after all and this time, I didn’t delete the pictures. We anchored just around the corner in a small bay so we rode around in the dink in the morning to attend church.

I couldn’t get all of the pictures that I had, but here are a few.

This is a picture of the Duke of Marlborough Inn. Originally this was the home of the Swordfish Club where Zane Grey and his fishing buddies held court while big game fishing here in the 1920’s. More on that in another post.

This is a shot of the museum with a 1/5 replica of HMS Endeavor as well as other objects full of local history.

Here is a picture of the Anglican Church we attended, the oldest church in New Zealand. Founded in 1836, the Missionaries came to the “hell hole of the Pacific” with the intent of improving its character.

It was just charming – the residents of Russell each made an embroidered cushion for seating in the pews.

In addition to being Lent, it was a special Sunday for it was the commemoration of the battle with the Maoris and the HMS Hazard on this same day – 11th of March, 1845 in which much of Russell was destroyed by canon fire from the Hazard.

After church, it was off for a quick bit of shopping for some fresh produce. Back to Iron Lady and up anchor bound for Ashby’s Boat Yard near Opua where Joe was able to get us a slip to sit out the next blow securely tied to the dock with 36 amp shorepower – nice to have the air con on for a bit.

Best

(Correction – there were lots of cows and related byproduct, but the correct name of the bay(as pointed out by John Henrics – FPB64 – 5 – Tiger) is Mimiwhangata – not MooMooWhangata:) )

Nice day and we slipped the lines in Whangarei and headed north with no definite plan as to where we were going to end up. First, a few shots of the Whangarei heads as we left the harbor.

Headed north from here, most people head for Tutukaka or leap all the way around Cape Brett to the Bay of Islands. Fact is, there are numerous small places to stop along the way (taking in to account wind direction and swells) that few, if any, people ever visit. So we passed on Tutukaka and made for Mumuwhangata – a nice bay that one of the cruising guides speak highly of (and specifically mentions that hey have never seen anyone there).

Enroute, a large pod of very large dolphins showed up and put on a show that makes Sea World pale by comparison. These fellows were running on the pressure waves off the bow and stabilizer fins and were jumping out of the water as high as 8 to 10 feet. They seemed to like all the attention we paid to them and the more we made a fuss, the more they put on a show. Really neat.

As we approached the bay, the rock formations were fantastic. We anchored off a lovely beach and got permission to come ashore and do some hiking.

The views were spectacular.

Joe went on a more ambitious walk then Deb and me, but you still have to be part billy goat to get around NZ. That’s the dink down in the bay.

Great day, nice sunset and we battened down for the next round of nasty weather (which arrived – you guessed it – at 2 AM). Gale to storm force winds are forecast beginning tomorrow so the plan is to seek a safe anchorage in the Bay of Islands.

We arrived in Great Barrier late Wednesday just before a forecast gale arrived with 35 knot winds and gusts over 40. All week, the Met Service has been calling for a Weather Bomb on Saturday. While the rain passed quickly, the winds at great Barrier blew from Wednesday night until around 2 AM Friday. A brief period of light winds was forecast for Friday with deteriorating conditions Friday evening.

We made the decision to head off at first light to take advantage of the brief window. I firmly expected ugly conditions after 36 hours of wind, but Joe told me that things settle quickly here. He was right – there was very little evidence of the prior blow and by the time we hit the Hen and Chicks, it was practically flat with light south westerlies. The old adage of the calm before the storm applied and you could see that something bad was afoot in the clouds.

Steve Dashew does a great job explaining a meteorological bomb in his Weather Handbook, but a short version follows. There was a very deep troff on the 500 mb charts moving in from the Tasman and a developing surface low over New Zealand. As the upper level troff approached the developing surface low, the surface low literally exploded as the upper level troff pulled air out of the low – hence the term weather bomb.

The following is a shot of the system from MetVu. You can see the central pressure is around 980 mb – pretty impressive.

Winds with this system over open water were reported to be over 65 knots. We had 40 knot gusts in the marina.

Anyway, the winds started coming up in the evening, torrential rains arrived around midnight and it really started howling at 2 AM. Why it always happens at 2 AM is still a mystery to me.

Best

As mentioned in my last post, we had hoped to get to a few more islands before heading back north. Weather forced us to head from Whangamata to Great Barrier for two overnights and then across to Marsden Cove.

First a few shots leaving Whangamata – just about 1 to 1 so know telephoto here. Nothing dangerous but certainly interesting.

Now to great Barrier. I thought we would be bored since we have been there a bunch. Not so. We snuggled up in Forestry Bay to wait out the gale plus blow – a very nice hidey hole.

While not ideal, we put the dink in next morning and went touring. We went to Sven and his wife’s (I think Tracey) Manuka and Kanuka operation. Very interesting and well worth the visit. He harvests something like 2 tons of manuka and kanuka to make a variety of healing products – the smell is delightful.

Lest you think this is easy, the terrain is steep and it takes 2 days to harvest enough to put in to his cooker to distill out one or two liters of the essential oil. Here are some pics of the plants operation including the “cooker distiller”.

After visiting, we went for a “walk”. Joe went well ahead of us and did the whole thing – we were content to get near the top – maybe four or five hundred feet above the bay.

Back at the boat, we went off for mussels – big mistake with the winds but we did get enough for a nice dinner.

Just at dusk, some folks we had met in the morning and given a boat tour to showed up with three nice snapper. Plan is to smoke them for breakfast – Joe brought a great smoker with some Manuka wood – now how good a day is that (despite some tired legs).

Who says you can’t have fun in a gale!

Best

Plan was for another day of touring. Shortly after I got up though, these fellows were wandering around. All shore birds and the one with bright orange beak is an Oyster Catcher.

Once we were in motion, it was off by borrowed car to Kerangahake Gorge. We have been using the Lonely Planet guides and they have been excellent and this was one of their recommendations (along with the recommendation of our neighbors at the dock).

This area was the home to large gold mining operations around 1900. The gold was embedded in quartz so it was hard to extract – the quartz had to be crushed. Around 1900 the extraction process was augmented by using cyanide to leach the gold and silver from the crushed rock. All in all some 130,000 ounces of gold and silver were mined here. The area had to be a mess from the logging and extraction process. Now it is a protected scenic area. To my fly fishing friends, those are monster trout.

Deb and I went for a 2 hour scenic walk thru the gorge area and the following are pictures from that walk.

The following is a picture of the old concrete foundations from the mining operation.

More pictures from the gorge.

A narrow gauge railway originally served the mine sites. Part of the railway remains as a tourist attraction but our walk included an old 1.2 kilometer railway tunnel. MUCH longer then we thought and we were happy to get out at the other end.

These plagues show additional information about the site of the mining operations.

There was a winery across the road but it didn’t look too impressive so we passed.

Our next stop was at a station for the Paeroa to Waihi RR. Nice cafe and Deb had a great raspberry muffing and flat white.

The train came in to the station while we were there.

Finally, a shot of the old mining operation in Waiha. The mining operation is still running in another area – but just barely.

Another good day.

After a good nights sleep, Deb and I went to town to rent a car to do some local touring. Seems the only guy who did this retired recently so no joy. Turns out that Deb was visiting with some local folks while exploring yesterday (as only Deb can do), and she stopped by to see one of them (Sharon) and mentioned our predicament.

Sharon quickly said that she had a second car that was for sale and we were welcome to use it. THink that might happen in the US – not. Two complete strangers show up and you hand them a car. Gotta love Kiwi land. So off we went.

First some shots that expand upon Whangamata harbor and its approaches. First a shot looking out from the marina at high tide.

Here are a few shots of the entrance across the bar. The last shows a commercial boat making its approach over the bar – note the wake (speed) he had just to counteract the current.

And then the mass of boats to avoid as you head down the harbor.

Turn the clock forward a bit and here is the harbor and entrance to the marina at low tide.

While in town, we got to witness the Whangamata Saturday afternoon water fights staged by the Fire Department.

Anyway – we were off to the country and visited a park at one of the headlands overlooking the town. The next is a series of shots along the way.

On this next shot, you can see Iron Lady sitting at the dock in the distance.

Deb and me on the walk thru the bush.

On the way back, we stopped by a local farm for some fresh produce. No shortage of that here and it is all organic and wonderful.

Out to dinner tonight at one of the few bistros in town. More adventures tomorrow.