Back to Whitianga

After a relaxing night at Opito Bay, it was time to figure out how to get everyone back to their day jobs. A feed of bacon and eggs for breakfast before we pulled up the anchor and headed back to Mercury Bay. We pulled some sails out briefly, but when faced with a 25kt headwind once we were around the corner, we took the easy option and started up the engine.

We made a pit stop at Waitaia Bay for a snorkel. Nathan found another crayfish and pulled him out of his crack, but he was a bit small so we released him after showing him to the kids. The water was a bit murky, making it difficult to shoot any fish, but we did see a couple of eagle rays and an octopus hanging out on the reef.

We made our way back to Whitianga and delivered Jamie, Dave, Ash and the kids back to shore with all their gear before heading over to Maramaratotara Bay to spend the night. The views of the cliffs out the back of the boat were pretty spectacular, and both Vela and Nathan decided they were big fans of this yacht on a mooring (which we think was an Elliott 10.5).

Vela made a simple (but always delicious) dinner of pork meat balls in a tomato broth to keep our bellies from grumbling.Read more