Tintin secure in Marsden Cove Marina, Northland NZ

From Matapouri Bay we entered the narrow entrance to Tutukaka Harbour, raising Tintin's centreboard to anchor overnight in a shallow bay close to the marina (pictures below).

The following day was calm, grey and damp and so we motored to Tintin's longer-term berth at Marsden Cove Marina (near Whangarei), and cleaned and packed up the boat.  Richard and I spent a few days land-based relaxing in beautiful Northland with family members, and we have now finally returned to North Canterbury, spending today moving our personal belongings from a storage container on the property back into our house - it is wonderful to be back home again and unpacking things we haven't seen for nearly 5 years is like having Christmas arrive early!

So Tintin now awaits her next adventure in the southern hemisphere - which will be Rob and Jo's visit to New Zealand, starting in mid January. Tintin, thank you for taking great care of all your various crew members in the last several months while I have been on board, and Rob and Jo we very much look forward to catching up with you both in NZ when your travels allow….. 

Nicki and Richard

Dolphins and Stingray....

A pod of 5 very large bottlenose dolphins joined us for our final sail with Cris and Tracey from Whangaruru Harbour to Tutukaka, swimming alongside Tintin in glorious downwind sailing conditions for several hours, and even entering Matapouri Bay with us and leaping around the bay chasing fish when we anchored off the golden sandy beach for lunch.  On the way we launched Tintin's large blue-water-runner downwind sail (a.k.a. the Stingray)

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For the Tinin Blog

Tracey here;

We are now home in Australia after what was a great adventure with lots of laughter. 

Our crossing from New Caledonia to New Zealand was boisterous at times but safe thanks to the boat and skipper Nicki. There is nothing quite like the night sky at sea with bioluminescent plankton sparkling all around.

This was my first trip to the beautiful Bay of Islands and what a way to see it. Nicki captured some lovely images of rare birds and Richard captured sea creatures for dinner :) 

Many thanks to Rob and Jo for having us aboard Tintin, Nicki for her impeccable skippering and Richard for his fish dinners and dad jokes! 

Cheers

Tracey and Cris 

Whangamumu Harbour

Richard enjoyed more fishing action at our lovely tranquil anchorage in Whangamumu harbour, providing several snapper and a kahawai.  He also kept us entertained by hooking a large sting-ray which pulled him around the bay in the dinghy!

 

Birds and fish

Richard hooked a large kahawai from the huge school which appeared to make the water 'boil' around Tintin, sadly with very soft mouths the hook ripped out but moments later Richard landed a trevally which was delicious for dinner.  

'Hole in the Wall' (Piercy Island) and a 'boil' of fish and birds

Rounding Cape Brett

We sailed between Cape Brett and Piercy Island on a glorious sunny day 

Oke Bay

This image of Tintin in front of the cliffs could have been taken in Scotland or Norway - except for the New Zealand bush behind her. On the beach we found that someone had woven some flax leaves together.

 

Oke Bay flora and fauna

Oke Bay, heading towards Cape Brett

Tintin is now secure at her marina berth at Marsden Cove Marina.  Finally now we are in decent internet communications we can update the blog for the last week….

After provisioning at Paihia we had an exhilarating downwind sail through the Bay of Islands to Oke Bay, with gusts up to 43 knots and maximum boat speed of 9 knots!  Arriving there in a rain squall, Oke Bay proved to have very hard sand with rather poor holding, but we managed to dig the anchor in on the 3rd attempt and decided to stay there overnight rather than round Cape Brett in poor conditions - fortunately the gale eased overnight and the following morning we had a lovely walk on the beautiful white sand beach and up the cliffs.

 

Oke Bay, heading towards Cape Brett

Finally now we have decent internet we can update the blog for the last week….

After provisioning at Paihia we had an exhilarating downwind sail through the Bay of Islands to Oke Bay, with gusts up to 43 knots and maximum boat speed of 9 knots!

Arriving there in a rain squall, Oke Bay proved to have very hard sand with rather poor holding, but we managed to dig the anchor in on the 3rd attempt and decided to stay there overnight rather than round Cape Brett in poor conditions - fortunately the gale eased overnight and the following morning we had a lovely walk on the beautiful white sand beach and up the cliffs.

 

Saddlebacks

Fantastic to see so many native NZ birds including saddlebacks, fantails, NZ robins, bellbirds and tui.

At the beach

> We enjoyed hearing and occasionally seeing lots of birds on this island....
>

A walk ashore - Hahangarua Bay, Moturua Island, Bay of Islands

> We had 4 seasons in 1 day... rain, gale force winds, calm, sun, t-shirt weather on
> the beach and several layers of thermals while sailing! ( Of course Cris wore shorts and sandals, as always.)
>
> We enjoyed dramatic, moody views out towards Cape Brett.
>

Sights of the Bay of Islands

We were overtaken by a foiling dinghy while passing the historic house where New Zealand's Treaty of Waitingi was signed. We are currently on spring tides and it appeared that the large tidal range had perhaps taken someone by surprise …. this keelboat appeared to be held to the wharf by very taut lines and a lot of good luck.

Bay of Islands Marina - manuka flowers

Bay of Islands Marina, Opua

Our first morning in NZ we woke to a beautiful misty scene, which quickly cleared to a warm sunny day with wonderfully clean, fresh air - perfect for heading out to explore the Bay of Islands at a leisurely pace and enjoy swinging on the anchor again.  

Opua is a great port of entry: with friendly, cheerful marina staff, clean and modern marina toilets/showers and washing facilities, a great store for and a quintessentially 'Kiwi' fish and chips shop nearby.   It is in a very attractive sunny location protected from the winds and seas, with native pohutakawa, manuka, and cabbage trees lining the shore.

New Caledonia to New Zealand - Voyage information

During our 6 day passage we actually sighted only 1 other vessel - a cargo ship 2 days out of New Caledonia. We identified 4 or 5 other vessels via AIS within a range of ~ 15 nm of us (but could not see them), including on our last night a racing trimaran 'TeamVodafoneSailing' which was heading from NZ to Mackay; their boat speed of 19 knots roaring downwind put our (very respectable) 7 knots  upwind to shame…..

Tintin's log indicated that we had sailed 885nm between Baie de Prony, New Caledonia and Opua, New Zealand , which was remarkably not much more than the straight-line route of 870nm…. We averaged 148 nautical miles/ day (i.e. an average boat speed of just over 6 knots).  

We received this weatherfax image to Tintin's SSB on 25th September (2 days out from our arrival in Opua), showing the Western Pacific Ocean and Tasman Sea.  The very deep low to the SE of NZ's South Island generated the very heavy swell and strong S/SW winds south of Norfolk Island.   This was very much what we expected when selecting our departure date from New Caledonia - fortunately we arrived ahead of the next system which is equally vigorous with many embedded fronts and is currently bringing gales to Northland. (shown in the 2nd image) - if we had not left when we did we likely would have been well advised to wait at least another week.

Tintin is a very strong and capable boat and handled the Tasman Sea very well indeed.  I am pleased to say that the only breakage during Tintin's trip was a thermos flask which fell out of the cupboard under the sink while washing up in big seas!  

Landfall in NZ

New Zealand put on a stunningly beautiful morning for our arrival, the wind finally easing to < 20 knots so we finally had full plain sail for the last 10 miles through the Bay of Islands in lovely flat water.

NZ Customs, Immigration and Biosecurity officials cleared Tintin at Opua without any issues - complimenting us that our preparations for arrival were 'very efficient' (i.e. advance cleaning of the hull, eating up most fresh and declarable stored food items during the passage, spraying for any hitch-hiking pests / insects and preparation of ships and crew documentation).   

Tintin is now able to continue her adventures in New Zealand through until September 2021.  And Richard and I are delighted to be back 'home' again!

Landfall in New Zealand - Cape Brett at dawn

Cris refused to go to bed after his watch as we raised lights from first Tikitiki Island then Cape Brett as he was enjoying himself so much…. he hoisted a courtesy flag for NZ and the yellow Quarantine flag in anticipation of arrival into Opua.

Exhilarating sailing for last ~400 n m

We had ~ 3 days of 20/25 knots from the S/SW (Close to the wind with just cracked sheets, 2 reefs in main and Genoa most of the time) with mostly bright blue skies with squally showers with gusts up to 30 knots... living at an angle of 20 degrees had its own challenges.

Tintin - logged 21,000 nm

On Wednesday morning 25th September Tintin logged over 21,000 nautical miles since she was launched in 2016. (Note that flying in a straight-ish line Auckland to London is 14,000 nm)…..

In the Tasman Sea