We left Auckland on Sunday morning, 1 March and headed straight for Great Barrier Island. This island is the largest one off the North Island. Nearly a thousand residents live here in small settlements with small shops (electricity produced by generators).

Although we weren't lucky with the weather; cloudy, rainy and windy for the first two weeks with two spells of gusty winds over 35 knots; we had a good time. Met with our friend Bob (S/Y Boomerang) who introduced us to Rod and Viviane (S/Y Innovation). We cruised around together for a while and learnt from Rod how to smoke fish using our BBQ. We're now hooked on hot smoked fish!

Our favorite anchorage must be Blind Bay. We saw there huge bottlenose dolphins, dined on delicious scallops from the area and had the most fantastic views over the horizon. We haven't done as many walks as we wanted and there are still plenty of anchorages to visit... next time!

PS: During the windy days we dragged a couple of times. Our 25 kg Delta anchor is not very good in mud and we decided to buy a different type: Rocna or Manson.