{"id":3094,"date":"2018-03-09T03:06:25","date_gmt":"2018-03-09T03:06:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/svslowflight.com\/?p=3094"},"modified":"2019-06-10T07:38:30","modified_gmt":"2019-06-10T07:38:30","slug":"the-passage-to-auckland-here-we-come","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/svslowflight.com\/index.php\/2018\/03\/09\/the-passage-to-auckland-here-we-come\/","title":{"rendered":"The passage to Auckland…Here we come!!!!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Goodbye Whangamata…hello Auckland… the City of Sails!<\/p>\n

It had been a long time at the dock and frankly I was a bit nervous getting back out on the water…STILL.\u00a0 But we finally un-tied the lines from Whangamata Marina on March 4th and hit the morning high tide out of the harbour.\u00a0 It was important for us to hit high tide as the sandbar at the entrance\/exit of the harbour is only about 4.5 feet at a mean low tide.\u00a0 We draft 5.5 feet and needed the extra 7 feet (swing of depth between high and low tides) so we could clear said sandbar.\u00a0 Additionally, the wind had kicked up the last few days so the swell had potential to be big at the sandbar in which case we would want more clearance under our keel.<\/p>\n

Great Mercury Island (GMI)-<\/strong> We decided to try to get all the way to GMI, about 47 miles away….for us that is 8 hours of motor sailing.\u00a0 The particular anchorage at GMI is pretty wide open so we thought we may be exposed to the swell (we were experiencing 3 meter swells getting there) that can often wrap around an island….but was pleasantly surprised to find 7 or so boats tucked away and we felt great just being out once again!<\/p>\n

GMI is a private island, owned by Michael Fay and David Richwhite since about the 1970’s, two of the richest men in New Zealand.\u00a0 But the beaches are public and you are allowed to land.\u00a0 We didn’t go to land but rather stayed in the boat ready to leave early the next morning.<\/p>\n

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Image from Google Earth. I traced out our route from Whangamata to GMI.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Winds and swell were predicted to be out of the Southeast so we were pretty protected but you can see in this Google Earth image that this bay is wide open…possibly an uncomfortable anchorage if swell found it’s way into the bay.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Finally…at anchor enjoying our anchor beer…once again!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Great Barrier Island (GBI) –<\/strong> We had been told to stop here by many people and this was our chance!\u00a0 We left GMI early morning to “sail” the 25 miles to the southern anchorage of GBI and anchor at Tryphena Harbour.\u00a0 The weather predicted 10-15 knots of wind but it turned out ZERO wind!\u00a0 We didn’t need to be in Auckland until the 11th of March so we decided to stay here a few days.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Google Earth image of our route from GMI to GBI<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Google Earth Image of Tryphena Harbour<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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We decided to drop the dinghy (first time in about 4 months) and go ashore to walk to town. Here is a view from the beach…..also we had to drag our dinghy (300 pounds) about 400 feet back to the water as we beached at high tide but left at low tide….man we need those dinghy wheels back!!!!\u00a0 On the project list.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Walking to town we got a great view of Slow Flight<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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The town store…we bought a cider and beer and drank it there to cool off.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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On our way back we heard a noise and then 2 Kaka’s flew right in front of us and landed in a tree before us. The North island Kaka are in a “recovery” conservation status. They are super chatty and I guess the Maori people use to refer to them as “gossips” due to their chattiness.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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(from the internet) Here is what a Kaka looks like when a professional takes the photo : )<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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We would see floating things in the water….not a bird…not a stick…but a PENGUIN<\/strong>? There are many species of penguins here in New Zealand and it was on my list to see them here…it’s too bad I couldn’t get a better photo…\u00a0 but we think it’s a Little Blue Penguin.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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(from the internet) These little Blue Penguins are the smallest penguins in the WORLD<\/strong>! They are about 25 cm tall and weigh about 1 kg…so cute….<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Waiheke Island –<\/strong> After a good few days of rest and relaxation, we headed to Waiheke island, about 35 miles west of GBI.\u00a0 We stayed here for a few nights catching up on movies and making plans for being in Auckland.\u00a0 BUT…we saw incredible lighting!<\/p>\n

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Google Earth image of our route from GBI to Waiheke Island.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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We anchored at Woodsland Bay near Onetangi town. There wasn’t much in the town so we just hung out on the boat.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Taken from a video I took, here is the start of a lightning flash…Photo 1<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Photo 2 – the flash<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Photo 3 – the bolt and last of the flash<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Photo 4 – and it fades<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Here is an independant photo of another lighting bolt<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Auckland…City of Sails<\/strong>\u00a0–\u00a0 We had been in contact with our friends on SV Sky Blue Eyes, Karl and Julie, who had been in Auckland receiving visiting family for the last month.\u00a0 We were having little luck getting a reservation at Westhaven Marina, where they were, but Karl and Julie kindly offered us the remaining time they had reserved at Westhaven so that we could come in as they were headed back up to Opua, Bay of Islands.\u00a0 However….we saw them again in Auckland but that will be in the next post.\u00a0 We coordinated the “slip swap” and we literally saw them sailing by us as we were coming into Auckland bay!\u00a0 Thanks to them we were able to come into Auckland at ALL<\/strong> and even a few days early!!!\u00a0 Thank you Karl and Julie : )<\/strong><\/p>\n

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SV Sky Blue Eyes…..Julie at the starboard bow waving<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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SV Sky Blue Eyes looking GOOD!!!!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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This is how close we were to them…we literally could of given each other a Hi-Five!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Google earth Image of our route from Waiheke Island to Auckland Harbour<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Coming into Auckland bay was just amazing for me…to see the iconic Skytower in the background….it felt really good to be here.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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As we were coming closer to Westhaven Marina, all the Volvo Ocean Race boats were out for a test sail getting ready for tomorrow’s New Zealand Herald In Harbour Race…they literally get points for the race if they win it! It was so cool to see these boats up close and personal…they are HUGE<\/strong> to say the least.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Here is Team Sun Hung Kai\/Scallywag with the Auckland bridge behind them. As I am writing this, last week their teammate, John Fisher was lost at sea…. I had been loosely following the Volvo Ocean race for some time but dove in as soon as I knew we were coming to Auckland at the same time the race had their stop over here in Auckland and can’t express how sad this story came to me. More to come on John Fisher….<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Thankful we arrived safe and sound on March 9th…Cyclone Hola was on our tail and was supposed to make landfall north of us in 2 days time.\u00a0 We were happy to be at a slip in a marina, just in case the weather turned bad.\u00a0 Thankfully it was a non-event but you never know!\u00a0 We now get ready for our South Island Routeburn hike and gathering supplies for our boat.<\/p>\n

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Our view of the city from our slip at Westhaven Marina in Auckland. I could see the Skytower light reflections at night through a hatch near our bed…it was so cool to go to sleep and see the Skytower each night.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Goodbye Whangamata…hello Auckland… the City of Sails! It had been a long time at the dock and frankly I was[…]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[14,26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3094","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-new-zealand","category-passages"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7iVSN-NU","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/svslowflight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3094","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/svslowflight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/svslowflight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/svslowflight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/svslowflight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3094"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/svslowflight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3094\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3276,"href":"https:\/\/svslowflight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3094\/revisions\/3276"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/svslowflight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3094"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/svslowflight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3094"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/svslowflight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3094"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}