Sailing Destinations: New Zealand

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Photo by: George Sass Jr.

I don’t have an easy answer. It’s not the jet lag. I’m no stranger to long flights across the International Dateline. Nor is it my inability to package large concepts into concise tag lines. After all, I pretended to write advertising copy in a previous life. “It’s a tough question,” I confess to the gentleman in seat 38C, who asked me to describe New Zealand in a few words.

During my trip, I take copious notes attempting to extrapolate the essence of New Zealand. I think, oh, this looks like Ireland. Then I turn around the next bend and think oh, no, look at this, it looks like Thailand. Nope, it looks like the English countryside. This looks like the South Pacific. Just when I think I can place New Zealand in context, she reveals another, even more seductive face (view the complete photo gallery).



Two weeks before, a block back from the water on a quaint side street in Piahia, we find a sidewalk café offering a hot, flat white coffee and moist muffins. Tunes from The Greatest Hits of the 1950s float above the chatter and clanking dishes. I slump into my chair, lacking the motivation to return to the boat and sail to Whangaroa Harbour for the night. The light, the setting, the view: It’s perfect. My friend Graeme Mellor — a Kiwi who recently moved to Australia after living in the U.S. for 20 years — concurs with a slow smile and a nod.

Walking to our tender, I notice the sleepy little town, nestled in the Bay of Islands, start to shake off the morning haze. A few pensioners looking over the tour bus schedule giggle away like school children. A family waits patiently for the ferry to take them over to Russell. The little girl offers a “good morning” and a smile as we make our way to the dinghy dock.

With a few pulls of the outboard and adjustments of the choke, we putter back to our Moorings 4600 sailing cat. The off-season means an empty harbor with the exception of a rugged French steel sailboat in the distance that hosts a raisin-of-a-man who appears to embrace a clothing-optional policy.

The Bay of Islands lies within the Northland region, on the eastern tip of New Zealand’s North Island. The area was first discovered more than a 1,000 years ago by the pioneering navigator Kupe. Later the Maori followed, then the Dutch and finally the famed Captain Cook, who gave the area its name. Whalers settled in, and of course so did the missionaries looking to save a few souls. Today the Bay of Islands is one of the most popular cruising destinations in the country. During the high season the area is overrun with boats and tourists. The autumn weather and quiet streets we find during our April visit are good reasons to consider an off-season cruise.