Firefly - Mansion House Bay on Kawau Island

Its Sunday 21st December and Firefly is anchored in Bon Accord Harbour on Kawua Island some 40 miles north of Auckland. On Friday we stopped in a small inlet called Mansion House Bay and for once the weather was glorious.

We took the dinghy ashore to make a tour of the Mansion House, its most famous resident being Sir George Grey, who had 2 terms as Governer of New Zealand. Sir George owned Kawau Island from 1862 until 1888. Grey had a keen interest in the natural sciences and in horticulture and collected plants and animals from all around the world. He developed Kawau as his island home, planting hundreds of different plant species and introducing many exotic as well as native animals including wallabies, kookaburras, weka, peacocks, zebras and monkeys. We walked for a couple of hours through the grounds and on a well prepared track through forest. We saw weka and peacock but did not spot any wallabies, although they are still on the island - the zebras and monkeys did not survive long term, the Zebras could not cope with the climate and the monkeys reeked havoc and were therefore removed!

With wind and rain forecast overnight and for Saturday we moved further up the harbour to get better shelter and anchored off Smelting Cove. Kawau has in the past been mined for copper and on the fore shore there are the remains of an industrial building. Before the rain started we managed to walk along a track up to a ridge overlooking the harbour. We landed outside the Kawau Boating Club and asked the new manager whether we could walk through the village. She had just moved here from Wellington and laughed at us for calling it a village - it was almost deserted, just a few empty holiday chalets. Despite being relatively near to Auckland and a beautiful setting it is nothing like as developed as it would be in the UK.

Prior to heading north to Kawau, Firefly was moored for 7 nights at the new Fairway Bay Marina at Gulf Harbour on the Whangaparoa Peninsula. As we were heading south towards Auckland the long range weather forecasts were looking grim and we decided to do more land based touring and leave the boat. Avoiding wet weather while living on board a yacht is good idea as being confined down below with the hatches shut one can go 'stir crazy'.

We spent some time 'down on the farm' with Barney and Juanita in their rented 'bach' near wellsford. Great fun and memorable for the torrential rain and the walk we took across the farmland. The farm has 800 head of cattle so after the downpours the paths and tracks had become a quagmire and we arrived back covered in mud and 'shite'.

Moving down to the north shore of Auckland city we did go back on board a yacht. However, we were staying with our friends Pat and Stuart on their Discovery 55, Brizo from Dartmouth in the UK. Brizo, being larger and somewhat more luxurious than Firefly copes better in rain and wind, which is good as it was howling through Bayswater Marina. A ferry trip from there takes you to downtown Auckland and we had 3 enjoyable days seeing the sights. We visited the Sky Tower, Aquarium, Eden Gardens and the Maritime Museum where Paul felt very at home - with a large number of exhibits related to dinghy and yacht racing.

With Christmas approaching the holidays have started here and there are many more boats appearing. The weather forecast remains poor so we will probably only see it get very busy once the bad weather is past. Today we will be heading further north towards Whangerei, making an overnight stop in Leigh harbour if its suitable. We are joining Barney, Juanita, Jasmine and James who are staying for Christmas on the north shore of the large harbour at Whangerei and fortunately for us their rented property comes complete with a mooring suitable for Firefly.

All the best for Christmas and the New Year - Paul and Susie