Bay of Islands, March 2010

Bay of Islands, March 2010
Bay of Islands is the top cruising destination in the north of New Zealand, a bay about 10 miles wide sheltered from the prevailing winds.
Cape Brett, shown here from inside the bay, was our first landfall as we arrived in New Zealand.
The rock on the left has an arch, through which we had, of course, to take the dinghy. You can just make it out in this photo. Swells from both directions made it an exciting ride.
Bottlenose dolphins are common around Cape Brett. Here is a short clip from a video made by our friend Jan Maes, of a pod that played with Sentinel. (Note: 2.6Mb download. You need Windows Media Player on your PC. With Firefox you also need the Windows Media Player plugin.)
The bay is, as one might guess, full of islands. They are pretty, with sandy beaches, trails and many sheltered anchorages. This is Roberton Island, with Sentinel anchored in the bay ...
... and this is Pareanui Bay.

The climate here is sub-tropical, and where it has not been cleared for farming or logging, there are still stands of the native tropical rain forest, once dominated by the giant kauri trees. This is Tane Mahute, the largest surviving kauri in NZ, 52 meters high and possibly 2,000 years old.

There are no major towns, just a few villages and scattered holiday homes. Yet this was the region where the first Europeans settled. Russell, the oldest town in New Zealand and briefly its capital, once known as "the hell-hole of the Pacific", is now just a tourist backwater of pretty weatherboarded houses.

At Kerikeri (right) is the oldest house in New Zealand, the white one on the right, built by missionaries in 1821. Paihia is the place where a historic treaty was signed between British and Maori in 1840. The well-endowed gentleman (far right) is one of many totems on a field where the Maori tribes camped prior to signing.
Opua is a major yachting centre. We arrived there in November, along with the great majority of yachties coming to NZ this season having crossed the Pacific. Here we all must stay until the Pacific cyclone season ends in May. This photo shows many of those who arrived at the same time as us, from countries as far apart as Brazil, Japan, Finland and Canada.

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