Ocean Days and Starry Nights: Passage NZ to New Cal

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After patiently waiting (and occasionally refreshing weather models like it’s a full-time job), we are finally ready to start our passage from New Zealand to New Caledonia.

A good weather window has opened, and it’s time to go make use of it—heading out for 6–7 days of beautiful ocean sailing, starry nights, and the kind of quiet horizon that reminds you why you came to sea in the first place.

We’ve paused our scheduled blog posts for the duration of the passage.

Instead, Matt will be doing some “live blogging” along the way—real-time updates from the motion, the miles, and whatever the ocean decides to serve up.

Scheduled posts will resume on 16 June 2026, once we’re back in range of reliable internet (and slightly more stable footing).

In the meantime, you can follow our journey by heading to our website homepage, clicking “Current Location”, and then following the PredictWind link to track our progress across the blue.

Thank you for the continued support, messages, and encouragement—it means a lot to have you following along with our adventures aboard Sugar Shack.

Fair winds, and see you on the other side of the ocean.

Whangaroa’s Beauty and Protection

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Our main purpose for coming to Whangaroa was to find protection from Cyclone Vaianu (see post).  We were super pleased with the outcome and our safety after the cyclone.  Now it was time to go exploring.

Whangaroa is filled with dozens of anchorages and bays.  You can find protection from the wind from any direction and still have a beautiful view.  Lots of mountains and hillsides covered in trees, bush, and scrub.

Unfortunately for us, we were here after multiple storms so the waters were a milk chocolate brown. 

The soil from the mountains run down through the rivers and into the bays.  This gives the water its Hershey’s  color.  Eventually, the brown water will leave through the pass and clear up to its beautiful blue. 

Whangaroa Harbor after Cyclone Vaianu

Whangaroa Harbor after Cyclone Vaianu

One morning we had a particularly foggy morning which delivered some amazing drone shots!

Whangaroa Town

The Whangaroa town is very, very small.  The Whangaroa Sport Fishing Club and marina are the main focal point.  They have a restaurant and bar that serve pretty tasty food.

There is a town hall which also serves as the church, a huge recycling and trash center, and the Marin Whangaroa (hotel and eatery).  

Locals will drive 8km to the next town for a small grocery store or 30 minutes to Keri Keri where there is a large grocery store.

Trekking in Whangaroa

We visited Whangaroa in 2024 and had the pleasure of doing two fun but challenging hikes. See this post which has photos of Whangaroa’s much prettier water here.

We decided to replicate both hikes – because, why not.

The Duke’s Nose hike was a muddy mess but a good hike.  See the blog post “The Duke’s Runny Nose” for this adventure.

St. Paul’s Track

Explorers named it St. Paul’s rock because of its domelike structure which resembles St. Paul’s Cathedral. 

It is a relatively easy, short, but steep trek up to the top.

It took us less than 1 hour return to climb the 213m elevation.

St. Paul’s Rock track is a short but rather steep trail.  You walk along a dirt path which can be muddy after a rain storm (which is when we visited).  

Starting at the Whangaroa Sport Fishing Club, you turn left on the main road and then right on Old Hospital Road. 

You walk the road for about 10 minutes before turning right at the Kings view lodge where you climb over the fence (see stairs right photo).

The trail winds through manuka bush, through open fields, and between massive boulders where you use chains to climb.

D.O.C (Department of Conservation) has dug foot holes on the steep parts. 

In addition, they added a chain on the last 30 meters to help you climb the rock.

We were rewarded with spectacular views of Whangaroa Harbor once we reached the top.

Protecting Whangaroa

NZ installed a 6-inch gun in 1942 at Whangaroa Harbor.  Next to it was a bunker.

However, by the end of 1943 the gun had been removed and the land sold.

As you can see, it is now used as a seating area with a picnic table.

Whangaroa is a truly beautiful place to anchor and enjoy.

We feel so blessed to be able to enjoy the protection of the bays during Cyclone Vaianu.

Find the St. Paul’s Trek on No Foreign Land.

We were in Whangaroa for a week during the first part of April 2026.

Cyclone Vaianu Causes Extreme Havoc

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Our worst nightmare is being caught in a cyclone.  We do everything possible to avoid it, but sometimes Mother Nature has other plans.  Cyclone Vaianu pummeled Fiji and headed straight for Northland, New Zealand.

This cyclone brought with it very unusual wind directions.  The most severe winds would start out coming from the E-SE and as the cyclone passes through will change to the W-SW. This makes it very difficult to find a safe haven from both directions.

We monitored multiple weather forecasts for 10 days leading up to the storm.  Nothing looked good!  Most models showed the eye of the storm coming right on top of Northland (the upper peninsula of the North Island).  

Right where we are located.  We are the white dot in the photos on the upper right of NZ North Island.

Each day brought greater concern and worry for our safety.

Preparation and planning begins  The first decision is where can we go with the most protection and the least impact?

We spoke to a lot of locals after spending hours researching the safest anchorages.  We determined the eastern basin of Whangaroa would give us the best protection from the E-SE and W-SW winds.

Whangaroa for Protection

Coming into Whangaroa was a shock as we crossed the divide between clean ocean water and dirty muddy water.

The red arrow below indicates our location in relation to Northland.  We are hoping the eye passes below us but we are not delusional.  We know we will get bands of heavy rain and strong winds.

We selected this particular bay because we have protection from the east, south-east, west and south-west.  We are in about 3m of mud with excellent holding and have full 360 degree radius all around us.

Cyclone Preparations

It is standard procedure for cruisers to have cyclone plans.  We just hope we never have to use them. 

We have a 2 page plan that includes when we are at anchor and when we are at a marina. Shoot me a note if you are interested in seeing our plan.

Key steps prior to a cyclone:

  • Monitor weather multiple times a day from various reliable sources
  • Fill up both fuel and fresh water tanks
  • Ensure batteries are 100% charged
  • Ensure all bilge pumps and portable bilge pump are in working order
  • Remove all loose items (cushions, gauge covers, window coverings, cockpit enclosure, canvas, etc…)
  • Tie down anything that can’t be removed (boom, main sail, genoa, dinghy)
  • Ready additional anchor, fenders, foul weather gear, ditch bag, first aid kit
  • Make contact with neighboring boats and set a communications plan.
  • Notify land based contacts of location, position, and status

We had to re-anchor during the last violent storm where we saw 42kts.  So, we were reluctant to cover the helms.  We opted to remove the gauge covers and tied the helm wheel down leaving it accessible should we need to do an emergency evacuation.

24 hours Before the Cyclone

Friday night arrives peacefully, calm, and beautiful.  It was as if Mother Nature was providing something beautiful before the ugly took over.

Ex Tropical Cyclone Vaianuu

On Saturday we stayed on the boat waiting for the inevitable storm to hit us in the afternoon.  The winds started to build in the late afternoon and the rain did not start until after dark.

The rain was a constant rain, not torrential rain.  

The wind was remarkably calm compared to expectations.  On average we had 15-18kts of wind and gusts were 20-25kt.  The max gust was 31kts.

The fairly good conditions can be attributed to several factors:

  • Vaianu moved more east away from NZ
  • Vaianu slowed down due to the colder water between Fiji and NZ
  • We were tucked in to a really good bay with protection from each direction of the cyclone.

Our bay was fairly flat.  However, just 100′ away you could see the white caps and swell.

Just outside of Whangaroa harbor, less than 1nm, there were 6 meter (over 18′) seas and massive winds.  

The Back of the Storm

The back end of the storm really dissipated by the time it got to us.  We expected Sunday to be more rain and strong winds from the west and south west.  We got the wind direction, but not the strong winds in our bay.  Again, we picked a good location!

We spent Sunday on the boat trying to dry everything off. We decided to wait until Monday to start to put the boat back together.

Praises and Gratitude

All in all we were so very blessed to not have encountered the full strength of this cyclone.

Thank you to everyone who reached out to us and continued to check on our safety.  We are so grateful!!

Cyclone Vaianu came through Northland on 12 April 2026.