During discussions about our plans after New Zealand, we realized we would need to be doing some heavy provisioning for long stretches in poorly-supplied areas. After looking at our various options among the towns going up the coast, it quickly became apparent that Whangārei, even though it usually requires a day each to go up and down the Hatea River, would still be by far the most convenient place to stop.
This is, of course, because Town Basin Marina has a giant store right across the street that is so close you can even wheel the shopping cart you used at the store right back to the boat. If they don't have what you want, there are other stores about 2km away (that also deliver), plus hardware stores, electronics stores, all within easy walking distance. There are also several nice eateries steps from the marina and parks galore for just plain ambling. Thus, it wasn't too upsetting to have to cross off a couple of the more remote stops northward to make room for another Whangārei visit.
We even got lucky, if you can call it that, with regard to the weather. It was forecast to be just terrible, although at least terrible in the right direction. While everybody else was hunkered down, trying to hide from it, we dug out our foul weather gear and took Begonia out for a sail.
Some sunshine on passage - A LONG day with a mix of motoring and sailing to make it back to the Hatea River
With more wind than we would ever need, we reefed the sails for medium-fast speed for the long sail from Great Barrier Island to the mouth of the Hatea River. We got there just before slack water, which gave us just enough daylight left to ride the flood all the way to the anchorage by Norsand Boatyard before dropping anchor.
This is where the second part of getting lucky with the weather came in. Since the weather was forecast to be just awful for the next couple of days, rather than go to the marina, where we would be paying good money to be outside running errands in the deluge, we would instead stay here for free until the sun starts shining again. Days off in the rain with nothing enticing us ashore was just what we were getting low on. Our backlog of less-than-desirable, bottom-of-the-list jobs was growing and now we would have a chance of chipping away at some of it. Maryanne started making scary-long shopping lists and I filed our tax returns, for example.
Once the weather cleared and we headed to the marina, we were rested and ready to go. It turns out Maryanne had not been just making lists, she had been ordering stuff and scheduling deliveries. Three quarters of the stuff we were going to be spending a whole day shuttling back and forth to the boat was now being dropped right at the gate, leaving us with only one or two easy trips, which we could squeeze in whenever was convenient. We were able to cordon off Pi Day as a no jobs zone, and even had enough time left over after all our remaining arrands that we had nothing left to do except socialize on our last day there.
Collecting mail and groceries - and squeezing in some time for a wedding anniversary stroll on the Hatea loop Trail and into the forest
A big thank you to Helen Shrewsbery (a fellow sailor that lives in the area) who accepted a stash of parcels on our behalf.
Anchorage location in the Hatea River >> On google maps
Town Basin Marina >> On google maps
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