New Zealand is about to go into full lockdown for at least 4 weeks. This means (amongst other things) that only essential services will be available and movement in and out of marinas will be restricted. It seems that most marinas are not letting boats in or out at all during lockdown. Luckily we are fairly well provisioned and Mari is in pretty good shape so we will just leave the marina and live on the hook.
We made a quick trip up to Paihia to collect the repaired wind generators that had kindly been picked up from the workshop by our friend Philip, just in the nick of time before official NZ lockdown. After spending the night just outside Russell, we made our way to Whangaroa Harbour where we planned to stay for at least a few days.
Whangaroa harbour is spectacularly beautiful, with towering rocky outcrops, surrounding mountains and calm waters. There are numerous walking trails in the region and we are doing our best to explore the region without violating the rules of lockdown. So far we have done the Duke’s Nose track and the Wairakau Streams track which are very close to our anchorage in Rere bay.
The Duke’s Nose 
One of the handrails 
From the top 
More from the top
Wairakau streams walking track 
The last day of March we did a day trip up to Mangonui. There’s a very pretty township which we didn’t visit and a famous fish and chip shop which we also didn’t visit (a local paddling by on his kayak told us it was closed anyway). We caught another fish on the way back! We chose a different anchorage back in Whangaroa and were rewarded by a magnificent sunset.
Fish caught between Mangonui and Whangaroa. 