Great Barrier Island

We spent last weekend with some old friends - the first time we have slept off the boat since leaving England last January. On Saturday we went racing with them in their boat - a 28 footer. There wasn't much wind when we started, and we were the only entrant in a 'no spinnaker' class. We were delighted that having finished the course we went on record as having won! It took us 8 hours to get round the course - round one of the islands in the bay - the wind came up to a good 25 knots in the afternoon, but we had to beat against it and tack our way back to the marina.
On Sunday we went to Katikati on the Bay of Plenty. It was an interesting and varied drive. We passed through a gorge and through a gold mining area which is still being worked (Waiki). There's a huge hole which is the open cast mine. Saw some large kauri trees about 600 years old, and had a walk along a lovely 6-mile long wild beach. On the way back stocked up with kiwis and avocados in an area where they are grown, and visited a winery.
At the moment we are exploring Great Barrier Island 36 09 890 S and 175 21 567 W which is very quiet at the moment but evidently gets up to 1,000 boats visiting during the Christmas hols. There are lot of sheltered inlets to anchor in though, and lots of walks to do on the island. Yesterday we did a longish hike to an old kauri dam built in about 1920. In the days when they were logging the huge kauri trees they got them down from the hills by building wooden dams, in this case in a series. When the water level had built up they released it and all the logs that they had rolled into the water. They must have lost quite a lot of the wood as the stream is full of huge boulders.
Having had three gorgeous days - blue sky and hot sun but the air is still cool in the shade - today it is raining, light but consistent. The days are getting nice and long - not dark until nearly 9pm.