Mazuran Sailing: Kawau Island, Hauraki Gulf

Our plan to escape the marina and head out on the boat over the Easter break didn’t happen because the weather was a bit “iffy” so we thought we could have our Easter break now with a lovely forecast. You never know when the last of the nice weather will end before the cold winter months begin. Heading out of the marina we were greeted by flat calm water and (almost) summer temperatures. It was nice not to battle strong winds as we’ve had constant strong winds that have been annoying. We hadn’t gone to Kawau Island since before Freya was born (now aged 7 years), so we thought it was a great weekend to go.

Kawau Island is a lovely island just north of Auckland, and can also be accessed by Passenger Ferry from Sandspit. Every day tourists head over there by ferry to experience the lovely quiet island and to see some of NZ’s history with Mansion House and the old Coppermine just over the hill. (There are plenty more walks over the island, but with little legs, they tend to run out of steam after about an hour or two so we will add them to our ‘to-do’ list.)

We went via Flat Rock (just to the East of Kawau Island which often bigger fish hang around) and didn’t catch the big whoppa I was hoping for, but did catch Kahawhai for dinner, which got smoked with our portable smoker. It’s so lovely to have fresh fish, such a treat!

After spending the night at Mansion House we went walking the next day to the Coppermine, then re-anchored further in Bon Accord Harbour to see friends to whom we spend a lovely sunset with having cocktails! (haven’t done that for a LONG time!) The next day I went fishing in the dinghy (to have a bit of ‘quiet’ time and came back with dinner which was quite exciting as that doesn’t happen very often! It’s not often you are fishing and have a Weka on the foreshore watching me. After a restful day we then headed back, saw dolphins and caught more dinner on the way home – a lovely bonus.