New Zealand – Smokehouse Bay, Great Barrier Island

Carl Strange   Sep 14, 2020

For the most part, Great Barrier Island belongs to the “Crown” – that’s “public property” in Texas.  The Great Barrier Island lies about 40 nautical miles east of Auckland – the City of Sails.  It’s a large island with a few settlements, a tiny Post Office, a store that receives a delivery of fresh produce on Tuesday but can be counted on for good wine all during the week, and lots of beautiful bays for anchoring.  It’s far enough from the mainland that it’s not crowded with Kiwis except for the holidays.   According to the local boats we’ve met, the isolated anchorages we’ve been enjoying will have up to a hundred boats crowded into them during the New Zealand Christmas Holidays.  That will be summer here – time to enjoy diving, gunkholing, beach BBQs and generally fooling about in boats.  Our plans are to make the best of this off-season then head for the marina and big city lights of Auckland during the holidays.

We’ve been anchored off Smokehouse Bay for the last few days.  Back in the 50’s a Kiwi family had the dream of developing their waterfront property into a location that would be enjoyed by cruisers.  To insure the land would be available to all who came they deeded it to the Crown Trust.  Over the years people have cleared the natural spring, built a water reservoir, piped water down to the beach, built a bath house with a large sunken tub, plumbed in a pot-bellied stove to heat the water, built a smoke house, added three large washtubs with hand-cranked clothes wringers, strung clotheslines for hanging wash out to dry, added a couple of picnic tables, BBQ areas and so on.  Cruisers continue to keep the place up.  It’s a delightful place to spend a few days or a couple of weeks.

 

Mussel farms are across the bay.  It’s a short trip to collect a hundred or so for dinner.  We’ve had piles of steamed mussels, smoked mussels in pasta, mussels tossed on the coals, and eaten as soon as they opened – we’re still not tired of mussels.  Just around the corner is a nice place to catch red snapper and we’ve been working our way through recipes including fried, grilled, and smoked.  Locals pointed out a bay where pacific island oysters can be collected a low tide, there are scallops and lobsters for the taking around 50-60 feet.  We’re surrounded by seafood, beautiful hills and snug anchorages.

 

 

We’ll spend two or three more weeks in this area before heading to a marina in Auckland.  We bought a car last season and it’s waiting for us in the parking lot.  After a season of cruising in Fiji we have a long list of boat projects to attend to.  There are welders, alternator repair shops, libraries, internet connections, fresh vegetables, ice cream, traffic lights and all the complexities of civilization just 40 miles away.  Meanwhile we’re going to bed early, waking up to the song of the Tui bird and enjoying this bit of New Zealand.

 

 Author: Carl Strange
Carl and his wife Karen set-off on a journey around the world on-board their sailboat S/V Enchante. Along the way, they had a lot of adventures and in Aruba, a new member of their crew was born. Now a family of three with Rebecca’s birth, they sailed the Caribbean and the Pacific experiencing life along the way.