New Year's Day 2011 01/01/11

Mt Hirakimata on Gt Barrier Island

The first day of the new year and an excellent day to sail east to Great Barrier Island. Named Great Barrier Island by our own Capt James Cook when he was here in 1769 because the 20 mile long island forms a barrier between the Pacific Ocean and the mainland. An area called Hauraki Gulf which includes many islands and Auckland city.

Gt Barrier Island is volcanic in origin and an extension of the Coromandel Peninsula to the south. Auckland is 45 miles to the SE. The whole island is a conservation area with DOC (dept of Conservation) maintained trails in the most scenic and mountainous central part of the island. For yachties there are many beautiful and sheltered anchorages. For the keen fisherman there are plenty of fish to keep them happy and for historians, lots of recent history to discover. There's an old whaling station, the site of the largest timber mill in the southern hemisphere, abandoned copper works and gold mines, kauri dams built to aid the movement of huge kauri trees from the mountains down to the sea to mention the highlights.

Kaiaraara bay, Gt Barrier Is

However, the first thing we noticed when we arrived at 6pm was the large number of boats. We'd been warned New Year was the busy time when every man, woman, child, looney gets in there boat and heads to the islands. And we'd found them. The other thing we noticed was the wind had dropped to a whisper allowing the leg twitching of the cicadas to reverberate off the cliffs.

Rare brown teal