Out in the Bay of Islands

We seem to be struggling a little to get back our momentum. We guess that the trip back to Britain, lovely though it was, has unsettled us a little, reinforcing the 'long way from home' feeling that didn't bother us to any great extent before we flew back. The colds ("it's flu, I tell you") that we're only just shaking off haven't helped much.

However, we're definitely getting back into our stride and have just had a few days out in the beautiful Bay of Islands, anchored in deserted bays enjoying the wildlife and the views. On our way we passed the Cunard cruise liner, Queen Mary 2 anchored near the town of Russell; we last saw her in St Lucia so she gets about Mind you, come to think of it, so do we).

The imposing profile of the QM2

We anchored for a couple of nights in Te Hue Bay, also known as 'Assassination Cove', so named after the French explorer Marc-Joseph Marion du Fresne and 26 of his crew met an untimely end (and were eaten) at the hands of the local Maori tribe in 1772. The oft-quoted reason was that De Fresne offended the Maori by fishing in a tapu (sacred and forbidden) area but, according to an fascinating account on Wikipedia, the story is more complex and the surviving crew members had to fights a battle with 1500 Maoris to escape - have a look at the story here

Sunset at Te Hue Bay

Evening highlights

Having just completed a supermarket run in the nearest reasonably-sized town, Kerikeri (population just 5,800) we're stocked up again for a few more days of island cruising. The weather is definitely a little autumnal and the first of the south-westerly autumn gales is forecast for the weekend but we're still in shorts and t-shirts in the daytime and we'll go and explore some new anchorages.