Smokehouse Bay

 I made a very short passage from Kaiarara Bay to Smokehouse Bay.  On the way I passed a large square-rigged training ship the Spirit of New Zealand anchored just outside the anchorage.

The Spirit of New Zealand 

Smokehouse Bay was named for the old smokehouses which used to be there.  There were still two smokehouses along with cooking, cleaning, laundry and even bathing facilities on a property which a family had donated to the state.  The property is to be used by yachties visiting the anchorage and a trust was created to maintain the property.  In the late afternoon the anchorage filled up with powerboats and the sundowner crowd onshore was a bit rowdy.  The sailors socialised by inviting each other to their boats and I spent two evenings on other yachts and had guests over to True North one evening.

Of course there were hiking trails nearby.  The first hike I did was from the beach at the smokehouses and went to the highest point in the area.  This rewarded the climb with good views of the Port Fitzroy harbour and the ocean towards the mainland.

Port Fitzroy harbour

The view back to the mainland.  The point on the left side background is the Coromandel Peninsula.  Auckland is on the other side of the bay the peninsula forms.

There were at least a dozen sites with bee hives along the trail.  The bees were very active.

A selfie with Port Fitzroy Harbour in the background.

The beach at the smokehouses.  True North is the yacht furthest out on the left.

Looking back towards Whangarei from the lookout.

True North at anchor as I returned from my hike.

The hike was fairly easy only about 5.8km long and 266 metres of elevation.

The next hike was on Kaikoura Island which is the large island that forms the west side of Port Fitzroy Harbour and creates the north and south entrances to the harbour.  Another yachtie, and Englishman named Colin joined me on this hike.  We took the dinghy a short distance to the public dock on the island.  There are many trails on the island but we decided on a loop which went from the dock on the south side up to the top of the island where there is an airstrip and then down to Bradshaw Cove on the north shore.  The return took the same trail back to the airstrip but then a trail further east looped back to the dock.

The airstrip - I’m not sure why it is maintained since there is only 3 weekend houses on the island and there is a larger airstrip on Great Barrier Island.

Bradshaw Cove - a very pretty and well sheltered anchorage with no one there.


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