Information
- Rating
- Bottom
- shells
- Depth
- 10.1 meters
- Latitude
- 36°18.455′S
- Longitude
- 175°29.016′E
Great Barrier Island is about 45nm north east of Auckland, a four hour ferry ride or a 20 minutes airplane flight. However, it's a world away from the hustle and bustle of the big city. We headed over here on the leading edge of a front and storm system that would have made anchorage in Waiheke not so comfortable. We spotted this bay as an ideal location to wait out the 35-40kt winds and associated swell from the passing system. As it turns out we were spot-on. Overnight we had huge winds howling and the plotter showed us a perfect swing pattern from the anchor.
After two days of harsh weather, we broke out to sunny skies today. The wind is dropping off and we're excited to explore this part of the Great Barrier Island. The bottom is shell and mud and we have excellent holding. There are a few homes around the bay and a small supermarket/bar where we will visit for lunch and resupply. We also have a good line-of-sight to the Vodafone cell phone towner so internet and phone connections are very good as well. The NZ Coast Guard is excellent for providing weather information via VHF and there's a repeater here on CH21 with a continuous broadcast of current conditions and the forecast of the next several days.
All in all, a really great place to come wait out the weather if the winds are from any direction except from the south east.