Great Barrier Island, Mt. Hobson / Hurakimatā

 I departed from Whangarēi headed for Great Barrier Island, about a 45 mile passage.  Unfortunately the wind died just after leaving the river so I diverted to spend a couple nights at the Hen and Chicks Islands waiting for more favourable wind.  After two nights, a light breeze in the right direction was forecast so I drifted out to Great Barrier taking all day to arrive at the closest anchorage Nagle Cove.  I anchored In the cove overnight and headed to Ungunu Bay near Port Fitzroy.  There was no good place to anchor in this bay because the shallow areas were full of moored boats and the rest of the bay is very deep.  I sailed around to Karohara Bay just south and had lots of room to anchor.

The next day I took my paddle board to the beach and headed out for a hike to the top of Mt. Hobson or Hurakimatā in Māori.  

True North moored off the beach

A map of the area.  True North was moored in the bay south of the “you are here” spot on the map.

I had come from Bush’s Beach and headed to Mt Hobson summit

The trail was one of the best I’ve been on with great maintenance, beautiful terrain and wonderful views.  There was over 18 bridges over rivers coming down the slopes and 7 of the bridges were wire suspension bridges.  The trail also had the most stairs of any trail I’ve hiked with over 2400 steps in each direction!  It was a struggle to climb but the views from the top were amazing.

The walk went up a canyon as I approached the steepest climb to the summit

Stairs going up as far as can be seen….

The view to the Eastern side of the island.  Andrew and I rode out a storm at anchor in the bay with the long beach last year.

A very zoomed in view from the summit back to the anchorage where I started the hike.

… and the never-ending stairs back down.

After having a nice break and sandwich at the summit I headed back down the trail.  My knee which I injured last year immediately started to hurt but I arrived back at the beach much quicker than the climb up took.  At the beach I met an American couple who were on a triamaran anchored near me.  We chatted and I invited them over to True North for sundowners.  We had a nice evening together.

Almost back at the beach!


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