Cavalli Cruising with Canny...

Tuesday Feb 9th - Wednesday Feb 10th

Ahh, the familiar bleary-eyed early morning arrival into Auckland Airport...

Not much sleep this trip as I swear those airline seats are getting harder and smaller.  Right on time at 0515 we touched down to a grey Antipodean dawn.  

A brief encounter at Customs: "Nothing to declare, sir!" and on to the 0615 shuttle to the City.  Unfortunately little brother had forgotten our agreed breakfast rendezvous and was out on a morning ride.  Fortunately Ryoko graciously let me in and we had a nice catch up over a cup of tea before Roger arrived back.  

On to the Naked Bus (aka the big red double decker Mana Bus) at 0800 and off we went.

 A brief stop in Whaaaangarei enabled the acquisition of the very fine Smoked Hapuka crusty pie from the Hub Eatery.  A worthwhile pause indeed!

Young Canny Caston dutifully was waiting atop the Opua Hill and we loaded bags, nicked off to Paihia for a few more supplies and within an hour or so were poking our noses down the estuary on a beautiful afternoon...

A brisk easterly was predicted to remain constant for the next few days so we tucked in to the south side of Moturua island (Waipao Bay).  A delightful spot.

 Several swims later confirmed the impression that this was an idyllic hiatus - visited briefly last year with sister Jan and Sir Graham.  Though this time the water temperature crept toward an unseasonably warm 22 deg.  Some interlopers had impudently attached themselves to the hull with slime accompanying so I swam, scraped and brushed the offenders while Brian dutifully dove to clear Cretaceous accumulations around prop and rudder...

 ...before putting the 'Little Boat' through its paces around the Bay - he reckoned over 6.5 knots from 2.5 horses wasn't bad!





   

A little reef fishing at a 'secret' nearby location proved fruitful with half a dozen eatable schnapper and a decent sized Yellow-fin mackerel.  The BBQ , twinned with lemon and good old NZ butter proved ideal companions that night.

Such was the serenity and the vibe that we elected to stay he next day - we had no set schedule!

A little walk over the hill the next morning turned into a circuit of the island over several hours - equipped as we were with the ubiquitous 'tramping' footwear, aka Jandals!  Naturally we had to swim (contour) each bay visited, until arriving at Army Bay on the NE side where I spied another Davidson 31 that I thought was the same one I'd seen over at Waitangi previously.  So, naturally, we swum out to say hello and were welcomed on-board by the charmingly loquacious Rozanne Barton and her more taciturn husband Peter, out cruising with their friend (Lisa?) for the day.  Immigrants from England and previously peripatetic round the world cruisers, they told us how they had sold up in their early fifties and bought a 35' yacht in which they spent the next number of years idling on the oceans.  Now retired to Haruru Falls here in the north they'd  recently bought the boat having previously raced a half-tonner in the UK. An hour or so later we managed to get away by agreeing to sign their visitors book(!) and swam ashore to continue our circuit.  Several gut-busting climbs later and we descended back into 'our' bay and settled down for another night in paradise...