 |
| Dulcinea (& Owen) at Anchor in Russell |
We decided to stay in Russell for another day as we had hear rumour of a fireworks display over Pahia, but first we popped round the bay to Opua to take care of some washing, rubbish removal and showers. The channel coming into the marina was a little shallow on the charts so we took it easy. We called the marina and they told us to go to the far side of the marina and tie up to the visitor berth. There were a couple of boats on the quarantine dock that we passed, you cant help look at them and wonder what adventures they have had. As we came into the dock it became clear there was a strong current from the incoming tide that was going to make life a little difficult, Owen steered into the dock and I readied myself to jump with a line at the first opportunity - we couldn't quite get close enough for me to jump, luckily another boat owner came by and I was able to throw the line to him and he helped pull us in. I eventually managed to jump off and help bring the stern in, it was quite a task to pull us in, we nestled in between a motorboat and another yacht (incidentally the guy from the motorboat had recently been in Tutukaka and he couldn't speak higher of the marina there - we couldn't decide if we would go back to Tuts after being there a few months earlier, but after chatting to him we thought we may go back). We headed up to the Marina office to pay a small fee to use the facilities there, we put some washing on and headed for the shower block and then had some breakfast at the cafe next to the laundry while we waited for the dryer to finish.
 |
| In Russell |
After Opua we headed back to Russell to drop anchor and went ashore again, I love this place, its such a cool little town. It was formerly known as Kororāreka (translated into English this means "How sweet is the penguin") and was the first permanent European settlement and sea port in New Zealand. In order to attract ships to Russell the Māori supplied food and timber in return they wanted respect, firearms and alcohol. The result of this trade the area soon earned it a bad reputation and became known as the "Hell Hole of the Pacific" - it was a community without laws and full of prostitution, the law was seldom enforced within the town. Luckily a lot has changes since the 1800s (if your interested in the history check it out
here) and now its quite a charming town full of cafes, restaurants, shops and great walks.
 |
| The dock at Russell |
Anyway enough of the history lesson and back to the trip, we headed into the town again and made a stop at
Newport Chocolates shop for a hot chocolate (YUMMMMY) then had a explore about Russell again finally making a stop into the
Four Square for supplies for a ploughman's platter for dinner. Back on the boat we chilled out for a while reading, playing PSP, watching Breaking Bad (we did a bit of this at anchorages, we had 2 seasons left to watch!). Soon it was nearly midnight, we headed up on deck and wrapped up in some jackets and settled to watch the fireworks. They had set up a barge in the middle of the bay between Pahia and Russell, the show surpassed my expectations, it was really cool and being able to watch just the two of us on the deck was special - you get so used to being crammed into a park and sharing the experience with a couple thousand strangers that being on a boat together was quite special. As soon as the main show finished Russell started its own show that went for a further 10 minutes. After 15-20 minutes of fireworks we retired back below to turn in for the night. What a great way to welcome in 2015.
 |
| Happy New Years |
We thought we should treat ourselves to a restaurant breakfast for the 1st of the year so we jumped in the dinghy and headed into a Russell again. We headed into The Wharf for breakfast, I ordered some waffles and Owen had some eggs benedict, well we waited a good hour for food, and while the food was fine, the service was pretty shonky - next time we will just cook our breakfast aboard I think!
 |
| Dolphins playing in the water on the way out to Deep Water Cove |
We decided that there was no better way to start the year than with some diving so we headed out for Deep Water Cove to check out the HMNZS Canterbury (I am resisting a history lesson on the boat too so read about it
here if your interested). While at Pahia we had popped into the
dive shop and asked there advice on the dive and they told us all about it and that we could moor up the balls on the wreck - if your ever wanting a dive up there check them out they were super helpful. We motored out to Deep Water Cove, I was on the phone to my parents telling them about the trip so far when we had dolphins come and play with us of the starboard side - will never tire of dolphins. We approached Deep Water Cover and spotted a couple of dive boats with flags up so we took our time and went around them and grabbed the free ball at the middle of the wreck. Next we set up all our gear, struggled into wetsuits and within about half an hour we were descending down the line to the funnel of the HMNZS Canterbury. What else can I say but 'wow' the wreck was something else, the colours on it totally blew me away. The Canterbury was only scuttled in 2007, I didn't know really what to expect, but it was such a cool experience. We swam from the funnel through the bridge and round the bow. There were fish everywhere, lots of small shoals and scorpion fish camouflaged against the hull. The wreck lies in 36m but most of the dive lies between 25-28m, we did our deepest dive to date at 31m. All too soon we had to ascend, we headed back to the mooring line, completed our safety stop then surfaced. Clambering back aboard Dulcinea we excitedly chatted about the dive, deciding to head into the bay to anchor for the night and try for another dive on the wreck the next day.
 |
|
Chilling out with the HMNZ Canterbury |
 |
| Sunset at Deep Water Cove |
On the second we headed back to the HMNZS Canterbury tied up the stern mooring line and dropped in again. This dive took us down onto the helicopter hanger it was so eery being there and thinking about it above the water in action. We swam around and found some big winches, seated machine gun station, big ladders and of course some nosey wrasse, kingfish and leather jackets to keep us entertained. We rounded the bridge again and headed back for the stern to finish our dive. I loved these dives, it was amazing to see nature take back the ship and make it their home.
After our dive we headed for Urupukapuka Bay, according to the leaflets for all the tourist cruises in the area this is the bay to go for, so we thought we would check it out.
Holy Moley was it busy we found a spot and dropped the anchor, no sooner it was dropped Owen was in the water much to his disgust the anchor seemed to not have grabbed and we looked to be dragging. We tried a couple more times and decided that it wasn't worth it just to share a mega busy bay so we headed over to Poroporo Island for a snorkel. This wasn't going to do for the night either as it was a bit choppy so we lifted the pick and headed over to Pareanui Bay and unusually there was only another couple of boats there! We couldn't go ashore as it was a private beach but that didn't bother us to much.
 |
| Lots of fish! |
We saw a reef dive in our dive book that was close by called Matai Rock so we headed to check it out. It was sort of in the middle of nowhere and we felt a little ridiculous anchoring there. I was a little nervous as the power boats kept speeding past us without slowing down, even with the dive flag up. We made a plan, jumped in and descended down the anchor chain. It was a little surgey but not too bad. It was a fairly weedy dive, but there was some cool fish life to be seen, Owen spotted a massive snapper and was GUTTED he left his spear gun on the boat. we spotted a porcupine fish that I enjoyed watching, it looks like it has been plucked from a cartoon world and doesn't belong in the real world - very cute. After a little more exploring we made it back to our chain and ascended carefully near the boat.
 |
| Porcupine Fish |
After all the excitement of seeing a huge snapper Owen decided he wanted to go for a free dive to find us some dinner so we headed for a nearby bay and he went for an EPIC spear session, he was determined to catch us a snapper for dinner. I was watching him from the boat and after a bout 35 minutes I decided to jump in the dinghy to see if he was OK. This was when we realised that we had been correct and our dinghy definitely had a small hole somewhere and in the past few days it had got very very saggy, it wasn't bad enough to stop me so I went out to Owen. I got out to him and towed him out to a boil up of suspected king fish, but by the time we got there it had moved further out. I towed him out to another spot around the rocks and let him carry on. This ordeal happened a couple of times until I just left him to it and I went back to my book. Eventually I got waved over and I got back in the dinghy and headed back to him, he had managed to get a goodie (about 1 and a half hours later!) So with Owen and our dinner loaded on the dinghy we headed back to the boat. We decided to move a little round to Oke Bay for the night, we spent the night eating snapper and relaxing.
 |
| Snapper for dinner! |
The next day we set off for Motuarohia Island, it was another busy bay and there was regular tourist boats being ferried over. We found ourselves an anchorage and jumped in for a snorkel and friendly how deep can you dive down the anchor chain challenge, that Owen consistently won! After we dried off we got in the dinghy and went ashore. Explored the beach, then headed up the walking track to the top and holy moley what an amazing view, panoramic views for 360 degrees around the Bay of Islands, just stunning. We took some photos chatted to some other tourists then walked back down and explored the rest of the island, checking out some nesting birds and some rock pools.
 |
| The amazing view from the top of Motuarohia Island |
 |
| At the top |
 |
| View on the other side |
Back on the boat later that night we had been wondering if we had dragged the anchor and were concerned we had drifted closer to a rather large steal yacht to our starboard, just as were discussing it we saw this guy jump off the boat into his dinghy and reverse (yeah I'm a little jealous his dinghy motor does reverse) towards us. He asked us if we thought we were maybe a little close for comfort, he said he wasn't worried as his boat was 40 tonnes of steel and was basically built like a brick and wouldn't go anywhere, but Dulcinea may not be so lucky! We hastily pulled the anchor up found ourselves a little more room and re anchored for the night. Feeling a lot more secure we headed for down below for the evening.
 |
| Dolphins giving a morning show at Motuarohia Island |
Mum and Dad have decided to come up and meet us at our next stop, Tutukaka, so in order to make it there to catch them we have to think about leaving the Bay of Islands soon. I was desperate to check out Russell again and we had to go buy some more food so we headed back to the bay near Russell to resupply and explore. It was an absolute scorcher of a day and we decided to walk up
Flagstaff Hill to check out the view. Owen moaned and groaned and plodded behind like a Clydesdale horse, but when we made it to the top it was quite something. After our walk we went into the
museum to have a look around, it was a cute and well done, we learnt quite a bit and enjoyed the visit. We tried to book in for dinner at this
amazing sounding restaurant on the waterfront but it was chocka and couldn't fit us in, neither could the
hotel so we found a little pizza place (
Hones Pizza) and grabbed a pizza and a beer - it was delicious! They are only open through the summer as its an outdoor eatery, but if you are in Russell and fancy an pizza check them out.
 |
| View from Flagstaff Hill |
With our trip to Bay of Island coming to a close we were a bit sad that we didn't really get to explore as much of it as we would have liked. We pretty much didn't see any of it north of Pahia, you could easily spend a month exploring this amazing part of New Zealand.
Oh well Next stop Tutukaka!
ConversionConversion EmoticonEmoticon