Daniel had planned a weekend trip to Great Barrier Island with his friends and navy colleagues Chris and Hayden to visit another former navy officer, Seagar who now runs an e-bike hire company (http://www.motubikes.co.nz) on the island. As it turned out there was also a perfect weather window for us to make the 45 nautical mile trip. So, as usual, Sue slept while Nigel left the mooring in the dark and sailed off into the sunrise.

Well not quite. It was so calm that it was more of a motor-sail to arrive in Fitzroy Harbour at about 4pm.

After anchoring securely in Smokehouse Bay, we were told by Daniel that they couldn’t get there by e-bike so we had to up-anchor, collect the four guys by dinghy from Fitzroy wharf and leave it to Seagar to find us a safe anchorage in Kaiaraara Bay where we stayed for the next three nights.

Some of the highlights were; BBQ with our navy crew on Friday night; exploring some of the walking tracks around Kaiaraara Bay and Port Fitzroy; arriving and departing through Man of War Passage – a narrow channel that separates Kaikoura Island from Great Barrier Island and provides a spectacular entrance to Fitzroy Harbour; skinny dipping from the boat to beat the afternoon heat; catching snapper for two nights’ dinners, and a fabulous, fast, downwind sail to return to Taurikura on Monday before the next bout of bad weather hit us!