Approaching the dramatic Whangarei Heads with their Gormenghast-like rock spires is knowing you’ve arrived at a worthy harbour.
At the entrance you pass Smugglers’ Bay, Busby Head, Frenchman and Calliope Islands, and Snake Bank (all harbours should have place names like this, eh) – and you know there’s much history and epic tales to be experienced here. Where we’re heading is justifiably a sought-after haven for yachts inbound from the vast blue Pacific – and the base for many fine boatyards too.
All the markers mentioned above are on the starboard side of the entrance channel. It’s almost as if the chart is calling out ‘Look this way!’ because on the port side are the less-than-lovely Marsden Point refinery’s towering towers, and NorthPort’s shipping wharves, giant cranes and stacked primary industries cargo ready to leave our shores.
So you keep on going up a wee way, veering to the right of Snake Bank and away from the main channel – at this point named Shell Cut Reach – around Reserve Point, and into The Nook. This is one of the loveliest anchorages we’ve encountered in Te Ika a Maui the North Island. Certainly the most favourite one for Skyborne (our 12m cruising catamaran), Lesley and me.
Once ensconced in The Nook, and sheltered from almost all winds, the refinery etc are out of sight, sound and mind; and the sublime, deep-green bush-clad South Seas poster peaks and emerald water
