day 170: islands for days
Miriam: Perhaps continuing to blog is anti climactic, our followers perhaps imagining the journey is essentially over now that Bluebird is safely back in NZ. But the adventures continue! We will be another week plus wandering down the coast of the North Island before crossing the Cook Strait and cozying into the Waikawa marina. Then we will stop invading your inbox and go back to our unassuming lives. But until then we will do what we can to bring some vicarious thrills, laughter, and wonder to your days.
We set out just past dawn from Opito Bay, motoring into a still, glassy morning in the majestic beauty of the Northlands. We rounded Cape Brett with its picturesque lighthouse and the stone citadel of Motukokako Island, rising precipitously out of the sea in sheer rock and sculpted arches, and the coastline opened in front of us to the south in high cliffs and rugged grandeur. Amazing to have such incredible visibility, 30 nm at least which is a far cry from the 7 ish nm visibility of arriving in the mist to the Land of the Long White Cloud at the end of our passage from Fiji. We motored and sailed when we could to Poor Knight’s Island, a marine reserve, past huge flotillas of shearwaters bobbing placidly in the sun until we guiltily disturbed them. I loved watched them take off, paddling a few splash steps on the surface as they lifted into flight. We witnessed a massive boil up of hundreds of birds wheeling and chittering as large fish rippled the water from below and the poor bait fish in the middle of two masses of predators no doubt got devoured. There are so many amazing birds along this coastline; we are especially fond of the Fluttering Shearwaters because they are the tiniest and cutest sea bird ever.
At Poor Knights, Naomi and Jamie and I suited up in our wetsuits (Nao wore 3, a spring shortie and 2 overalls) and took off into the frigid water. The water was filled with jellyfish, more than I’ve ever seen, undulating along at variable depths which gave such a sense of dimensionality and looked like flocks of ghosts floating peacefully. So beautiful and terrifying, my senses on high alert with the cold water/danger combo. I re-enacted the Finding Nemo jellyfish scene and continued through, dodging the impossibly long hair thin strings of stinging tentacles that shimmered with caught light, realising that with the wetsuit hood, gloves, socks and full suit I was fairly impervious. I made it to the cliffs and marvelled at the seaweed dancing in the waves, huge urchins, strange florescent crusts, and fish of all sizes from tiny fingerlings to massive blue speckled snapper. Taking in the rest of the scene distracted me from the jellies and one finally got through to kiss my top lip and cheek with a stinging hair startling not only me but every fish around me when I thrashed. That was it, I was done. I headed back to Bluebird and climbed aboard and we sailed into the evening to anchor at Tutukaka.
Jamie here, The cool air of nz has welcomed me home and it feels great. The tui are sounding just as amazing as when I left and I’ve been hearing shining cuckoo here in northland, a sure time that spring is here. Staying with John and Lynette in Opito bay was amazing we were so well looked after. A hot shower and fresh bed on land was so restorative. And the walk behind the house in amongst the tui and Manuka was just great. Visiting poor knights island yesterday was a great insight into how a marine reserve helps the fish population. Surrounded by big snapper and a healthy ecosystem was amazing. Dodging the jellyfish which were prolific was frankly stressful and terrifying. Now on our way to Whangarei the journey continues. Im going to stay with my friend tommy p who is leading the kiwi trust at bream head. Tonight we are going to eat vegetables at casual Keith’s house and tomorrow I will don my red ASICS running shoes and do some trap lines with tom to see what’s going on at bream head. Todays WOD comes from my very own father, Brian in New Plymouth. I owe it to him to publish this as he’s looked after me for 18 years (plus the other 8 up until now really). Brian in New Plymouth, we sees ya! WOD: phosphorus. Phosphorus- a chemical element, symbol p and number 15 in the periodic table. Used in a senny: our family recently went to the local school fair. We were all getting hungry, fortunately we found the food stall and there was plenty of candy phosphorus all!