Exploring The Coromandel Peninsula
Sunday, January 24th – Avante is provisioned and ready to depart Gulf Harbor Marina to go cruising in the Hauraki Gulf and the Bay of Islands for the next month. Before embarking on this venture, we need to top up our fuel. There is a privately run fuel dock in Gulf Harbour, but we have heard that there are two issues with it. First: it is fairly expensive, and second: it is totally automated and probably will not take our American credit card. There is reasonably priced fuel at the marinas in Auckland Harbour, and a quick check on the phone shows that at least one is open with an attendant who can handle any credit card issues. We decide to head to Auckland first.
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It’s a beautiful day for a sail, and sail they do! It’s Sunday, and who would want to pass up a day like this? It’s delightful to see so many boats out on the water. Untouched, this photo reminds The First Mate of one of Monet’s sailboat paintings. How she wishes she could paint it, not just photograph it!
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Entering Auckland Harbour, winds have picked up giving us a fantastic sail past the land-mark Sky Tower and down the middle of the harbour to the marina.
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Though the numbers on the mast’s instrument boxes are indistinct , they show we are speeding along at 8.5 knots. What a kick it is to be racing down the harbour like this!
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A huge sign welcomes us to the marina where the fuel dock is located. The masts of sailboats are the predominant feature.
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Fueling completed, we leave the marina, raise sails and head back out the harbor. It is now approaching 1600 when many boats are heading back in at the end of the day. We are one of the few boats heading out the harbor and feel bit like we are running counter to commuter traffic. Winds have kept up nicely, and almost every sailboat has its sails up. What a pretty sight! We assume that for most Auckland boaters, this “rush hour” traffic is hum-drum, but for those aboard Avante, it is quite a thrill!
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Anchored in Huruhi Bay on Waiheke Island, we enjoy the pastoral setting just as much as we had in November. This time of year, however, we must share the bay with other boats whose owners are out, as all people should be, enjoying the fine summer weather.
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Monday, January 25th – Gazing toward Auckland as we leave our bay on Waiheke Island, we can see the Sky Tower. With hourly ferry service running between this island and Auckland, it is no wonder that many people have decided to call the island home. The First Mate has no doubt that she would.
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And — just as that thought crosses her mind, out comes a morning ferry from the town of Ostend inbound to Auckland!
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The Coromandel Peninsula is our destination today. Not having had enough time to explore this area on shore, we know little about it other than from what we have read in our guide books. We wonder what it will show us from sea. This long finger of land runs north and, along with Great Barrier Island, is the reason the Hauraki Gulf is so sheltered and protected. Its prodigious length and massive mountain ranges block the swell of the ocean and temper the winds. The Coromandel Peninsula and the small town of Coromandel owe their names to the British Admiralty supply ship Coromandel which, in 1820, arrived on the shores of what is now that small town to collect Kauri for masts and spars. Though forested areas remain due to sheer rugged terrain, a good deal of the land is now pasture. In 1852, gold was discovered in “them thar hills”, and the rush began. A rich heritage from those gold mining days remains. In the 1960’s and 1970’s, due to low land prices in former mining towns and low population, the area saw a great influx of hippies, artists and alternate lifestyle people. Though it has long been a get-away spot for people from the Auckland area who built simple weekend homes or baches, there is a growing trend to replace those simple structures with affluent retreats as more people seek the beauty and solitude of the area. As we saw on Waiheke Island, many are also finding ways to call this area a full-time home.
The windward east coast of the Coromandel Peninsula can have a wilder, more remote and more rugged feel. Long, beautiful strips of beaches run along many sections. These are surfer beaches where the ocean waves pound toward shore. The leeward side has a more cultured air and gentler beaches, though they are subject to very muddy shores at low tide. Remembering the yucky mud we encountered leaving Bushs Beach on the leeward side of Great Barrier, we can well imagine how uninviting the sucking, gooey mud at low tide would be. Thus, many people supposedly prefer the surfer beaches on the east coast.
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With light winds, we motor-sail southeast along the south coast of Waiheke Island. Near the end of the island and jutting out from Pakihi Island is a long sandspit whose end is marked by a fairly large tower. Sandspit Passage is deep, but it is narrow and curves around the sandspit. With no markings but the tower, we proceed through it cautiously.
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Exiting the passage, winds pick up nicely to 8 – 10 knots. With the mainsail already up, we put out the jib to sail across the Firth of Thames to the Coromandel Peninsula which is visible in the distance.
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The winds gradually back and increase to 10 – 12 knots. Rounding the north end of Rangipukea Island, we enjoy a wonderful downwind sail to Te Kouma Harbour. With sails down, we motor into the harbour passing West Bay which already had several boats anchored in it and tents on the beach. A little further down on the north side of the harbour is Squadron Bay.
The anchorage is pretty and only has a few boats. We drop anchor, secure the boat, go for a swim and enjoy a sunny afternoon aboard Avante either reading on deck or down below when it gets too hot in the sun.
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The First Mate is delighted in her Captain, for it does look like he is on his way to becoming a truly relaxed cruiser — finally! Reading he is, and in the middle of the day with no particular place to go or be. Wonders never cease!
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We enjoy dinner on deck and, savoring the last of our wine, watch the final burst of color as the evening light fades behind the island.
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Wednesday, January 27th – After spending yesterday snug in our pretty bay, today we are eager to continue exploring, though we are forced to do so under an overcast sky with a misty light rain and no wind. We motor out Te Kouma Harbour, around Te Kouma Head and into Coromandel Harbour.
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This harbour is not as pretty. There are 2 small settlements, the town of Coromandel being one of them. A lot of moored boats are below the settlements which peacefully run up the gently sloping hillside, and many mussel farms run along both sides of the coast.
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After a brief circuit, we exit the harbour motoring north to Waimata Island where we anchor in a small bay on the east side of the island. From Avante, we can see a small beach, cattle silhouetted against the sky as they graze across the top of the green hills and a small paddock and loading platform to transport livestock off the island.
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Thursday, January 28th – We had not paid any attention to the other 2 boats until this morning when The Captain asks The First Mate if she remembers a J-boat named Gryphon. Sure she does. She cannot remember the names of the owners, but we had met them up in Tonga when we were first there in 2010.
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They were sailing to New Zealand from the States with plans to permanently establish a home in New Zealand. Having circumnavigated the world once before, they had decided that New Zealand was where they wanted to live and, with approved documents in hand, they intended to do so. The First Mate pulls up her computer list of boat people with names, boats and contact information. There they are: Rain and Jeff Williams. As they pull up anchor, The Captain hails them. They had not recognized us at first either. Motoring over, we catch up with each other’s doings. As we would have not doubted, they love New Zealand and the life they have made for themselves here.
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Our goal today is to go from the west side of the Coromandel Peninsula around to the east side. Unfortunately, there is not much wind this morning, but it is forecast to get stronger by noon. Since we have over 40 miles to go, we start out under motor. It is also overcast at first as we start out.
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The view to shore is, according to The Captain’s description, a “classic” New Zealand coastal view: the water, the green hills rising to steep mountain heights and puffy white and grey clouds obscuring the very peaks.
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This section of the Coromandel Peninsula is quite pretty with a number of small islands offshore. After a while the wind picks up giving us a nice sail for an hour, but once again, it drops off giving us a nice motor up the last 5 miles of the coast to Cape Colville, at the northern of the peninsula.
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As we approach Square Top Island, winds begin to pick up. Should we put out the sail? Sometimes that can be the proverbial “kiss of death” as far as winds are concerned. The sail is put out. Slowly the winds build so we can finally enjoy a sail down this eastern coast.
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Sailing past this impressive rock formation called The Pinnacles, our initial impression of this ocean-exposed east coast is one of ruggedness and remoteness.
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As we sail further down the peninsula, the wind, which is from the NW, begins to be more affected by the land. This causes it to shift direction, then practically die off, and then suddenly to return with a vengeance. This is not The First Mate’s favorite kind of sailing. She knows the boat is not going to be blown over on its side by the wind, doesn’t she? But that’s such a big sail we have up there. The Captain stoically and patiently (somewhat) reassures her. We have one “hell of a heavy” lead keel under us that definitely wants to point downward, and the further over the wind blows the sail, the less total force the wind has on the sail. Okay. She knows that, and one would think after 45,000 nautical miles on this boat, she would be used to it. She blames it on her inner ear problem which is the root cause of her bouts of queasiness and sea sickness. That darn ear of hers only wants to be straight up and level!
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Late in the afternoon, we drop our sails and motor into Kennedy Bay, anchoring on the northern side of the bay to avoid the swell coming in from the ocean. Even with a large mussel farm running down the port side of Avante and evidence of human activity at the head of the bay a few miles further in, there is a feeling of untouched remoteness to the bay.
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Sitting on deck in the evening, the low rumbling sound of the surf is like a hum in our souls. We love it, and that’s a good part of the reason why we are out here sailing around in this little boat on a great big ocean.