We left the Opua Marina, along with Harmonie, on Tuesday, to sail to an anchorage in the bay of islands. The bay was really beautiful, and the island was a nature reserve with a well-maintained path all around. Harmonie and Lady Kay were the only boats in the bay that night, and it was very peaceful. The following day Michael and I walked around the path on the island, it took about 2 hours and was very up and down - going down to visit all the beaches and up again into the forest. The views were beautiful and I took a skinny dip at the most sheltered bay. It was slightly warmer than Cornwall, but not much, and I was unable to persuade Michael to join me. We collapsed after lunch after all our exertions, and went over to have a meal with Harmonie in the evening - very pleasant.

The following day, we all left early to start sailing down to Whangerei, where Harmony will be leaving their boat to go home for several months. We had a good sail, although it was hard sailing upwind, and stopped at a pretty sheltered bay about half way down the coast. We again left early the following morning to get to the entrance to the large inlet to the river leading to Whangerei. It was an excellent sail - and Hamonie's last for the season. Michael caught a good sized fish early on - we think it was a yellow-fin kingfish and very similar to a tuna. I had been wondering what to cook that evening, as Anne and Don were coming over, so it nicely solved the problem. The entrance to our anchorage bay was very shallow - the banks had obviously shifted since our chart was made, and Don ran aground briefly - luckily it was just sand and mud, so no damage was done. We had a good evening and the fish was delicious.