Round North Island - Tutukaka to Urquharts Bay

Gun emplacement at the heads to Whangarei Harbour

It felt like we were running out of time for our trip (even though we still had a few weeks), but there was still hundreds of nautical miles to cover to get home and with that in mind we slipped the lines at Tutukaka marina, with a quick and troublesome stop at the fuel dock thanks to the wind (and a big thanks to the guys on the refuelling coastguard boat for helping us in). Grab some diesel, some water, last minute run to the toilet and we were off and heading south towards somewhere...we hadn't really decided where we wanted to end up and looked at heading for Great Barrier Island but changed our mind and kept heading south for Urquharts Bay just inside the heads of Whangarei harbour. And we are glad we stopped here, what an amazing little place.

We dropped anchor in several metres of water, and noticeably less clear than what we were getting accustomed to, the bottom was getting more muddy/silty but offered good holding which was nice as the wind was funnelling over the hills and gusting around 20kn. The boat next to us which had just come in looked very worried about his anchor setting so I dove it for him to make sure it was all ok.

The view down to the anchorage. Dulcinea is the yacht closest to our position.

With a little break down below to ride out the heat of the early afternoon before deciding to go ashore and have a look around. We pulled the dinghy up on the beach and left it sitting there (thankfully the tide was going out so we didn't have to worry about it floating away while away). We walked through some farmers land and onto a track to check out the old WWII gun emplacement we spotted when coming into the bay, the views were pretty good from here and we could see right into the Marsden Point oil refinery across the water, we sat there and watched the boats sail around below us before I though it a good idea to climb the near vertical hill behind the bunker. I led the way and Emma scarpered up soon after me, the sun was still beating down and it was hot hard work but we made it to the top and were rewarded with some stunning views across to the Hen & Chicks (islands), Taranga Island and Little Barrier way in the distance.

Emma stoked to be on the ridgeline, looking out to Taranga Island in the distance

We walked across the ridgeline for a while, getting buzzed by a very upset bird who must have been nesting in the area but she (or he) was all talk and wasn't gutsy enough to do more than swoop and squawk thankfully. We got to a point where it looked like a good idea to start the descent back to the track far below, and after a bit of mountain goating we were scaring the cows off and heading back to the beach. The dinghy was a long way inshore now and was a real lump to carry to the water, fired up the trusty outboard and we were back aboard laying below with the hatches open to keep cool. Before long it was getting dark, we put together some dinner and settled in for a relaxing night in a perfectly still anchorage. If you are in this area I would recommend checking out the bay, it doesn't look much on charts but certainly well worth a night or two here to relax. Its a shame we will be on the move tomorrow but the days are ticking over...

Read about the leg of our journey