A Hike & a Chicken Anchorage

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Matt and I are still at Urquharts bay so we decided to get one more hike under our belts before we head to the Hen and Chickens Island group.  There is a great, “easy” walk called Smugglers Bay Loop.  It starts at the car park, takes you through a WWII Gun Battery, to the tip at Busby Head, across Smugglers Beach, and back to the car park.  Estimated 1.5-2 hour walk across wide open fields and pastures, through a nature preserve forest, along a beach, and over a tall hilltop.

Our loop is the dark dashes on the left.  We start at the car park, pass the gun emplacement, down to Busby Head, over to Smugglers Bay and back up to the car park (we don’t do the part that crosses in the middle).

The Path

There is a clear, distinct dirt path that takes you through the most beautiful green pastures dotted with grazing cattle.

After you pass through these pastures you arrive at the Bream Head Gun Battery.

The Bream Head Gun Battery – WWII

These buildings are the remains of the Bream Head Gun Battery. They were built to defend the port in 1942.  The builders carefully disguised the buildings to look like a farmhouse with out-buildings.  The house was the armory and accommodations for officers. 

Three buildings remain standing and in relatively good condition.

The Beautiful Forest Preserve

The forest is only a small portion of the hike, but lovely none the less.  We spotted a NZ pigeon which are really pretty birds.

View of the gorgeous waters.

Busby Head and Smugglers Bay

We head up to the top of Busby Head and get beautiful views of Smugglers Bay.  Afterwards, we walk down and over to Smugglers Beach where we are able to walk the two pretty beaches.

Back through more green pastures.

We end our hike feeling good.  There were several hills and lots of beautiful scenery.   Here is a comparison between our Mt. Manaia hike and the Smugglers Loop. Manaia first then Smugglers.

  • Floors Climbed:     104  vs 56
  • Steps:  9,759 vs 9,571
  • Miles;  4.1 vs 3.8
  • Calories: 543 vs 420

Hen and Chickens

After our walk we pull up anchor and make our way over to the Hen and Chickens island group.  In 1925, the Hen and Chickens Islands were declared a scenic reserve because of their valuable flora and fauna. They are now a nature reserve for seabirds, tīeke (saddlebacks) and tuatara – the ancient reptile unique to New Zealand.

Hen and Chickens Island Group

Hen and Chickens Island Group

The Hen and Chickens include the Wareware Island, Lady Alice island, Whatupuke Island, Marotere Islands and the Mauitaha Islands. 

We were only able to enjoy this anchorage, at the Starfish Bay (Hen and Chickens) for one night.  We left the next morning for Great Barrier Island.

Our blog posts run 10-12 weeks behind actual live events.  This blog post occurred at the end of January.  Did you read our last blog post where we climb a stairway to heaven?

 
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Mount Manaia – A Stairway to Heaven

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We pull off the Town Basin Marina dock with our friends on Q2 (Lewis, Sara and baby Skye) following us to a new anchorage, Urquharts Bay.  A beautiful, wide bay with lots of moorings and local boats.  This anchorage gave us access to many hikes and is located at the mouth of the Whangarei river. Despite how busy it was we secured a place all by ourselves.

Mount Manaia

Mount Manaia, Mt. Lion, Bream Head, and the Hen and Chickens, are scattered remnants of andesite, volcanic intusions that erupted 16-22 million years ago.  They are part of a 50km 2 (19 sq mi) stratovolcano that extended to the Hen and Chickens.

This is a sacred place for the Maori.  In former times, Maori placed the remains of their important chiefs on the tops of these rocks.  It is believed that the craggy peaks represent an important chief’s family who were turned to stone in a dispute over the infidelity of his wife.

The left arrow shows how high I went and the right arrow shows how high Matt, Rich and Michelle got (they rock climbed the last 20′).

Mt. Manaia is blanketed by native bush and has jagged peaks that jet up into the sky.  The entire area is a protected reserve which has a very well maintained track to the summit.

A Little Bit of Crazy

Our friends on Pogeyan (Rich and Michelle) invited us to go on this crazy steep hike up Mount Manaia.  We dragged Q2 along with us (even 3 month old baby Skye came along).  Matt and I had not been hiking in almost a year and I was a wee bit nervous to say the least.   Rich said it was a short hike (a little over an hour to the top), but it is straight up – a total vertical incline with over 800 steps peppered in to help you get up the super steep parts.  Yikes!

As we begin our journey our little pack slowly starts to split up.  Matt takes off, in flip flops no less, and leads the way, the other two guys are behind him for most of the trail.  Us ladies take it at a “more leisurely pace” and rest periodically as I am totally out of shape!

They installed really nice stairs over the super steep parts of the trail.  Every 100 steps there is a small mark, but I don’t believe it so I count myself.  I was spot on up to 600 steps but then things got wonky and I ended up wit 1226 stairs to the summit whereas the markers had 1136 steps.  Hmmm.  I had 2 other witnesses so I am going with my number of 1226 – which is a lot of stairs!

The Summit

After an hour we reach the platform and hope to find Matt.  And wouldn’t you know he found a crevice to hang out in….can you see him in the far left photo or the top right photo?

Michelle and I at the platform summit – I’m so happy to be sitting down.

The unbelievable views….

I’m guessing these are the children in the fable….

The Pinnacle on the Summit

We continue on around the corner from the platform summit.  Rich says we are not at the top yet.  So, we carry on and do a few rock scrambles.  At this point my legs are burning.  I made it to the 2nd highest point but couldn’t carry on so Matt, Michelle, and Rich did the last 20′.

The views were spectacular.  I wish I had the power to go up the last section but I had to save my reserves for the climb down.

We saw lots of beautiful Kauri trees and this beautiful stone archway.

At the end of the day we hiked up 1226 stairs or 104 floors, 4.1 miles and 9,759 steps.  The numbers don’t seem so impressive when you break it down. But it was a hard earned workout!

Our blog posts run 10-12 weeks behind actual live events.  This blog post occurred in late January.  Did you read about our new set of wheels in our last blog post?

A New Set of Wheels

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Boy that could mean so many things…a new boat — na.  A new dinghy — na.  A new car — na.  We literally mean a new set of wheels.  But why do we need wheels on a boat?  Well, we don’t “need” wheels but we got them for our dinghy.

Many cruisers use wheels to help them pull their dinghy onshore during a beach landing.  Our previous dinghy was soooo heavy. We could have used dinghy wheels for her but she was too heavy for the wheels.  Yes, the wheels have a weight restriction.

But, our new Highfield 360CL weighs in at 75 kilos, the outboard weighs 55 kilos and we carry about 15 kilos in fuel for a total of 145 kilos.  Just the right amount of weight for a set of new wheels.

Which Wheels to Buy?

There are lots of different types of wheels on the market and we really had to do our due diligence.  We made sure they would accommodate our dinghy’s make, model, and weight while still being able to work in hard and soft sand.  Beachmaster consistently came up as the top brand. 

Matt emailed them to make sure they would work and hold up with our set up and we received an affirmative reply.  We ordered the removable mount set with retractable wheels.  We wanted to be able to take them off if we were not planning on using them for a while.

Matt placed the order on Thursday.  On Friday we received a call from Beachmaster asking if we were a foreign flagged vessel and I said “yes.”  She then asked if the wheels were being installed onto our dinghy which would be leaving the country with us, I said “yes.”  And then she said, I will then send you a new invoice as the original invoice charged you for GST (tax) and you qualify for a GST (tax) free order.  

What?  Yes, that is absolutely true.  Normally, both Matt and I automatically request GST free so I assumed he did on this order.  But he forgot.  So, the company proactively realized this and reached out to us to credit us the GST!  Seriously an amazing company.

Drilling Holes Into Our New Dinghy

The package arrived on Monday (1 business day after placing the order).  Talk about service.   We measure multiple times, tape off the area, and measure again.  We then put them up with VHB double stick tape so we could raise and lower the wheels without hitting the rub rail.  Then we drilled the holes into the transom.

The top photo shows he wheels down and the bottom photo shows the wheels up.

It took two of us to drill the holes so no photos.  Once the bolt holes were drilled, Matt taped them off and filled them with 5200 so they would not leak.  Then we installed each side.

Here are the final photos.  The before (upper left), installed and up (top right), installed and down (bottom left).

Now all we need is a beach to try them out!

Our blog posts run 10-12 weeks behind actual live events.  This blog post occurred around mid-January 2024.  In our last post we spend a lot of time redoing our dinghy chaps which came unglued.