Mercury Islands

We spent a few days in the middle of January in the Mercury Islands. I wondered why we hadn't gone here before. It's much easier than you'd think. There's a psychological barrier about leaving the Gulf and going through Colville Channel, but the distances are short and you could go here in any sort of boat just by choosing a good weather window.

And the beaches, oh the beaches. Divine. Sweeping white sand, pohutukawa fringed. The water is exceptionally clear. One of my favourite moments was watching 4 dolphins swim right under me as I stood on the transom. They turned to look at me. Love it when they do that.

This bay is on the southwest corner of Great Mercury Island. After we left here, we sailed around Great Mercury and headed back to Barrier. The wind died so we ended up anchoring in a fairly exposed bay on the south side of Barrier. Great spot not mentioned in the cruising guide, just to the east of a wee island.

In the absence of TV, the children drew prolifically. Look at my two lefties. They also played 500, played Cranium, and just played.

The next day we sailed around to Tryphena. It is quite an underrated harbour. The shelter isn't great, but the beach is very pretty, and there is a place to tuck in in a sou'wester (which we got). Also, the store is the best place for groceries on Barrier. They even have organic and gluten free stuff.

Then we sailed to Blind Bay. Here is Poz on the helm. He does well. He's a great shipmate.

One of my favourite things about life on board is the evenings, when everyone is actually outside enjoying the soft warm light.

And here is Why I Hate Launchies. Yes, he's waterskiing right past a DIVE FLAG. Yes, he has no spotter! Unbelievable - but it happens all the time. We also spotted launchies taking their dogs ashore all over the place on conservation islands. I'm sure it's possible to do these things from a sailboat too but nobody seems to.

Anyway, that's my little moan over.

Next on our holiday came a big cyclone, from which we hid in Whangaparapara Harbour. I have to say it was a great place to hide from a hurricane. Nor'easters gusting in the sixties followed by sou'westers gusting in the fifties. You wouldn't think it would be good in sou'westers but it was so calm in there that if it hadn't been for the nowcasting we would have thought the wind wasn't there. We met people who were stuck in Tryphena and said it was horrible. So remember not to go there in a sou'wester.

During the cyclone we got to see a kidnapper who had just been arrested and was being moved onto the police launch. That made quite an impression on the kids. Lots of armed police with their guns too.

The next day was the most amazing fishing we've ever seen. The whole harbour went crazy with fish and the gannets were diving all over the place. I might post a short video we made of it.

And then, the calm after the storm. Ironically, we had to wait for enough wind for our homeward passage. The 38-mile passage ended up taking 7 hours, but at least we managed to keep sailing and with no horrible flogging of sails. In fact, it was very relaxing. Just not fast. This wasn't quite the end of our holiday, as we anchored at Moturekareka and, joy of joy for our children, reunited with their cousins that evening.

I'll describe the last few days of our holiday once I've uploaded pics.