Rapidly becoming our favourite spot to anchor in the harbour…

Moved down to Whenuakura island (also known as Donut island). It’s interesting because it’s a former volcanic vent in which the lava tubes have collapsed, leaving a tunnels through and into the centre of the island.We’ll stay here for an explore, possibly staying the night. Then Tauranga and Duplicat’s new home berth tomorrow!

We moved on down to Slipper Island - which given the holidays and the weather was incredibly popular. This panorama was taken before it got truly manic.We anchored a way out, but as it got busier and busier, it got more and more crowded around us. We were enjoying the people and boat watching. I must say, I’ve not seen such bad anchoring and jet ski behaviour since Columbia on New Year’s day! High speeds around anchored boats when people are swimming is just asking for trouble! Just when we

Beautiful but absolutely manic on a New Year’s Day!

Happy New Year from Whitianga…

What a perfect little bay! Just enough room for a few vessels to swing at anchor, protected from the wind we expect tonight. We have it to ourselves now which makes it pretty heavenly!We had a brief walk ashore but couldn’t find a track through to Coralie Bay on the east side of the island - but we could see the masts of the yachts anchored there rolling pretty well. Glad we’re this side.Tomorrow, we’ll look along the south side of the island, but with the wind shift coming, we’ll head t

We had a wonderful day ashore at Great Barrier - visiting Aotea Brewing again along with a number of great hikes. In fact, Aotea Brewing had just got their licence to sell, and we were officially their first customers! It was nice to have a pint after the hike to the hot pools and a walk along the beach. We also filled our growler again :)The weather the next day was a bit average, and so we ticked off a few boat jobs (mainly trying to work out why the water flow through the starboard engine was

We’re back on Aotera (Great Barrier island). Yesterday was light winds, and plenty of rain, so we opted to move south rather than sit onboard for another day. The weather here is better today, and tomorrow we’ve got a car hired on the island to do some more exploring.Currently anchored at Smokehouse Bay, a place we’ve not been since February and the cyclone that we experience here. Much calmer today! We’ll do some walking ashore on Motu Kaikoura today…

After a couple of rainy days in Whangaroa where we really couldn’t get off the boat, we decided to chase the better weather down south. So we’re now in Whangaruru (a new anchorage to both of us - though I have anchored in Whangamumu before).Its going to be windy but hopefully less rain. We’re well protected, tucked up in the inlet, with plenty of protection ahead of us. Bland bay over the spit looks much more exposed!We’ll spend Christmas here, and then look to head out to Great Barrier

Its been a while since Duplicat has ventured beyond Whangarei Heads and out into the ocean. So after (quite a bit of) fettling, we splashed, recommissioned things and left.It was a long day of motoring, sailing and motoring again, but we dropped the hook in Papatara Bay off Motukawanui Island in the Cavelli group.It was pleasantly suprising how things came back to us, and how much wasn’t broken - but there were a few issues. The solar string which had stopped working came back after the MPPT b