A Procession of Boats- Tauranga Harbour

Catch-up; And there I was finally thinking I was catching up on blogs when summer arrived in the Bay (Hawkes Bay that is). Beautiful hot sunny weather, too good to not get outdoors and enjoy. We've had two short sojourns away from suburbia in the last few weeks; one out to Oceanbeach and the other up to Kuripapango on the Napier-Taihape Road. 

We still have another week or two here in Napier before we'll be back on the road; David is steadily working his way through his maintenance list for 'Out There' and I have been busy working on an exciting project (another reason the blogs have been a bit slow in coming). I'll be able to tell you more about it in the not too distant future.

And now back to the blog;  while I was going to do one post on the Mt Maunganui cruise ships, I decided I had too many great photos not to share more of them. But don't worry (famous last words), I won't do a blog on every ship that arrived and left while we were there. This one is on the Golden Princess (the first to arrive when we were there) and I'll try and combine the others in another one or two posts. Bear with me (I sound like Tilly in Miranda).

I'd downloaded the Port's cruise ship schedule which helpfully listed arrival and departure times so it was just a matter of whipping a couple hundred metres along the Base Track past Pilot Bay to one of the many vantage points near the Entrance to Tauranga Harbour, to watch the ships arrive. 

A slight spanner in the works had been thrown in since our last visit to the Mount; a major slip (actually several large slips) came down around the Mount back in April, 2017 during Cyclone Cook. The track reopened within a week or so but people could only walk to the slip and then return the same way.

You couldn't walk the complete loop around the Base Track until stairs were built up and around the top of the slip in June. And while they aren't too much of an obstacle, when you're rushing to catch a ship, camera in hand, it's a fair slog to the top.

And more so if you're coming up the other side; they are very steep.

Luckily, I knew (from past excursions), where the best spot for capturing ships coming through the Entrance is; over (or under) the stair railings, out on a ridge at the top of the stairs and past some beautiful old pohutukawa trees in full bloom. 

From my vantage point I was able to watch a steady procession of early morning boat traffic leave the harbour, many heading to their favourite fishing grounds out in the Bay of Plenty. A couple of local charter boats full of eager punters were also off for a day's fishing; I suspect these may have been staff Christmas functions. 

The Motiti Island barge, 'Deliverance', with a tyre recovery truck on board, was one of the more unusual boats to pass. Motiti Island (permanent pop. around 30) is a small flat island that lays about 10kms offshore from Papamoa, and 21kms from the Harbour. Motiti was a favourite place to visit and fish around when we lived in the Bay and had our launch.

It wasn't long before I spotted the pilot boat 'Arataki', heading around the point and back into the harbour; I knew the Golden Princess wouldn't be too far away.

This was also confirmed by the arrival of the two tugboats; Sir Robert (named in honour of Sir Robert Owens, who played a key role in developing the Port of Tauranga and was also Mayor of both Mt Maunganui & Tauranga before they amalgamated)....

& Tai Timu; (Tai Timu means ebb tide in Maori, her sister tug Tai Pari is flood tide).

They then waited patiently...

...until the bow of Golden Princess finally appeared from around the side of the Mount.

Sir Robert moved to the stern, as the pilot carefully guided her through the entrance.

The occupants of a yacht heading out, waved furiously at many of the passengers- some still wrapped in white toweling robes- watched from their private balconies.

Tai Timu spun around and led the way into the harbour.

Little Toot...I mean, Sir Robert was towed in from behind. 

Once Golden Princess passed my vantage point I raced back to the stairway, clambered over the railing and ran (as fast as my damaged foot allowed me to) along the path to an opening in the trees where I could watch as the ship headed towards the port.

A bit further on and another gap provided the perfect framing...

There's lots of little detail in some of the close-up shots (remember to click the photo to enlarge)- how's this for a view? People lined up along the top of the bridge. Also notice the open gangway door near the bow.

Berthed at Tauranga Port's Pilot Bay, Mt Maunganui

Golden Princess facts and figures-

Class and type:	Passenger
Type:	Grand class cruise ship
Tonnage:	108,865 GT
Length:	951 ft (290 m)
Beam:	118 ft (36 m)
Draught:	8.7 m (29 ft)
Draft:	26.2 ft (8.0 m)
Decks:	17 total, 13 passenger
Ice class:	1A Super
Propulsion:	diesel-electric 2 propulsion motors (19,000kW each)
Speed:	22.5 knots (41.7 km/h; 25.9 mph)
Capacity:	2,600 passengers
Crew:	1,100

Later in the evening and right on the dot at 8pm, the ship sounded its horn as the tugs pulled Golden Princess off the wharf...

...and she sailed off towards the Entrance, heading for her next port of call.

A brave paddle boarder makes for a lonely figure, as he manouveurs himself out of the way as the huge ship approaches. 

Maori God of the sea, Tangaroa performs a wero, or challenge, to those entering Tauranga Harbour. Here he looks to be challenging the ships officers standing on the gangway door.

Check out that BIG screen, I can hear the movie voices from where I'm standing.

The sun is setting fast and it's right in my line of sight as the ship glides past me, down at the water's edge. Passengers line the rails waving to us (and a launch) as they pass.

The sun is now directly in front, the ship silhouette against the bright light, I wait until the sun goes behind the funnels and take a sunburst shot just as it reappears.

The Sun Princess heads out into the Bay of Plenty...

...with the launch bobbing along in its wake.

I take a final shot as it disappears around the point and head back to camp...

...passing my two long time favourite fishing boats (and Pilot Bay icons) along the way.

Wild Ride - Elaine Bay

We survived a wild ride last night, a ride that felt like an eight hour earthquake as the van rocked and bucked underneath us. It was our wildest night ever on the road. We’d arrived at the DOC camp at Elaine Bay yesterday afternoon. Elaine Bay is 17kms further on from Okiwi Bay on the otherside of the Sounds ‘arm’ that we are exploring. This side should have been more sheltered than the west side but now I’m not so sure.

The severe gale force winds that were forecast around the country started battering us early in the evening and by midnight were thundering over and under ‘Out There’, banging, crashing and rattling us from all directions while we hunkered down in bed waiting for the next big thump. Today we are shattered, I think we had about 3 hours sleep all night. Poor David must have made about a dozen forays out into the weather to check on things, shift the ute, tie down the boat and tie down the van! Thankfully it wasn’t cold and the rain only came for a brief time just before dawn which was also when the sky lit up with lightening!

We pulled the slide out in just after dinner when the wind started picking up, the awning that unwinds and protects the top is sprung-loaded & acts like a sail when the wind gets under it and we didn’t want to have that rip on us or pull out. We have quite often pulled the slide out in, that’s nothing new, it just depends on the direction of the wind.

But last night the wind just kept on intensifying and it swung wildly around us rattling the awnings on both sides so David threw a couple of ropes over the top and tied them off to the suspension. The boat was tied to legs of the van and he shifted the ute around to the front to try and break some of the force. That was good for an hour or so but then the wind changed and came roaring at us from the sea, blasting us with sea spray which has coated the van from head to toe in salt, and threatening to blow us over. I had visions of us climbing out through the escape hatch and a flattened ute. I kept recalling mentions of ‘willywhirls’ in the Sounds, great funnels of wind ripping down the steep sides of the hills and capsizing boats. Well never mind boats, I’m sure it was going to tip us over too.

Inside the van the noise was at times deafening, you could hear a gust winding up, roaring down the slopes around us as it whipped through the trees and then whacking us full force. I thought the roof hatches were going to blow out at every blast, I kept leaping out of bed to re-tighten them frightened the wind would get underneath and rip them off. In the end David tied them down with electrical ties. Finally around 6am the wind settled a little and we were able to grab another couple of hours sleep before it picked up again and has been battering us off and on all day.

David spoke to a couple who came down to check on us this morning, they had been worried as there has been a motorhome blown over here in the past. We couldn’t have shifted last night even if we wanted to as the wind was just too strong, along with the fact that there was nowhere to go close by, we’re on a small reserve tucked into the end of a bay with a steep narrow road up onto an exposed ridge. If this wind keeps up (and it looks like it might) we’ll hitch up the ute to add some stability to the nose of the van. David already has the ropes in place ready to tie down and the hatches have had the ties replaced and are ready and waiting. Wish us luck!

Of course, this blog post now hasn’t quite followed the sequence of events as they happened so I’ll step back 24 hours and post some of the photos from the trip over to Elaine Bay.

This is climbing out of Okiwi Bay on the other side of the harbour; Okiwi settlement is on the far left, Goat Hill (where I walked the track) is across the water, centre right. In the water just below you can see the remnants of an old mussel farm. The road up this side is steep and very winding, David had the ute in low-range 4WD and it handled the work load really well.

Once up the top, the road is an easy run along the ridge for the next 10kms or so before dropping down into Elaine Bay on the opposite side to this cove, which I see is aptly called Squally Cove. I bet the westerly wind whipped down this narrow bay last night.

Squally Cove is also part of Croisilles Harbour where Okiwi Bay is located. If you look closely you’ll see hundreds of rows of mussel floats lining the shore all the way around the bay. Here’s a zoomed in shot.

And the only reason we have such a magnificent view is because the pine forest below us has been felled, the slopes are now covered with pine seedlings and a mass of bright yellow- gorse bushes in flower. The air is saturated with a sweet perfume, I didn’t know that gorse could smell so lovely. I assume that this is where the logging trucks we were warned about, were coming from. They’ve long finished their job.

At the end of the tarseal the Elaine Bay road drops off to the right, a gravel road continues on towards French Pass.

Elaine Bay is a quiet little bay (well it was) with just a few holiday homes, a handful of permanent residences, a jetty, a wharf and a tiny marina. It is here that the mussel barges come to off load their sacks of harvested mussels. Mussels from the hundreds of mussel farms located around this part of the Marlborough Sounds. This does not include the farms in the photo above; they’re harvested from the other side directly to Nelson. The mussels that land here are loaded daily onto truck & trailer units that make the journey to Nelson twice a day. It’s these trucks that rumbled passed us while we were parked at Okiwi Bay and the ones we timed our run to miss when we came over the hills to Elaine Bay.

Looking back from the end of the jetty, you can see us parked to the left behind the bush. The yellow house (a holiday home) looks totally out of place in this environment, not only the colour but the size. The people that came to check on us this morning said that the glass panels around the deck were shattered on this house the same time as the motorhome was toppled over.

And with the wind still blowing a gale, this loaded mussel barge came down to the wharf this afternoon but didn’t off load it’s cargo. It pulled in for a minute and then backed out and headed off. We’re not sure if it was dropping someone off or it was too windy to offload.