EBYMBC Trailer Yacht Quasimodo recently went on a cruising trip in the Hauraki Gulf, check out what they got up to below:

It’s been 9 years since we took our trailer sailer, Quasimodo, on a cruising holiday. So, we went to a familiar location - the Hauraki Gulf which has lots of great cruising waters and plenty of anchorages. We arranged to spend our first few nights at a marina so that we had plenty of time to sort things out when we got to Auckland. David Hogan joined Graham and me for the first week of our holiday.

Among the highlights of our trip was visiting Tiritiri Matangi Island, a wildlife sanctuary just offthe Whangaparoa Peninsula. The island has plenty of day anchorages but is not recommended for overnight anchoring. We last visited the island around 13 years ago and enjoyed seeing how much the bird life and bush had increased. There were heaps of tieke(saddlebacks) and korimako (bellbirds).

We also visited Rotoroa Island (off the eastern end of Waiheke Island). This is a morerecently established wildlife sanctuary. The island used to be used by the Salvation Army as an alcohol recovery centre and has an information centre about this. We anchored for acouple of nights in Home Bay, explored the island and swam at sandy Ladies Bay – which also had a cold freshwater shower on the end of the changing rooms!

Islington Bay is one of the closest anchorages to Auckland. It is the bay between Rangitotoand Mototapu Islands. We anchored there several times exploring the old bach areas,climbing to the summit of Rangitoto and visiting the lava caves. We saw and heard lots ofteike on Rangitoto and also a whanau of takehe on Motutapu.

We’ve already begun planning our next cruising holiday on Quasimodo.

Article added: Wednesday 26 February 2025