Originally posted on February 1, 2015, by cruisingrunner
Urupukapuka is a mouthful of a word that means “a group of puka trees” in Maori. It is the largest island in The Bay of Islands, and so far, we’ve been there twice. Once in mid-December when it was basically a deserted cruiser’s paradise and once during the holiday high season between Christmas and New Years Eve when the Bay of Islands erupts with a flurry of local boating traffic. I never did go for a run there, but the island had trails galore and I did go for a few short hikes on trails that were marginally runnable (spell check says that’s not a word, but I protest), so I have filed that knowledge for future reference.
The island lies mostly in a NNW to SSE direction and the bays suitable for anchoring in are mostly on the west side. However, our first stay there we started at the large bay on the southeast side called, appropriately, Urupukapuka Bay. We ventured there because the weather forecast was for substantial wind from the NNW and this seemed a suitable bay. There was one other boat there already, and being a large bay, it gave us the feeling of remoteness. Our first shore scouting excursion the boys and I found that the beach had nice soft sand, even though it was mostly buried underwater at high tide. There was a small stream with a bridge and a large grassy area surrounding the beach. It turns out that it’s a Department of Conservation (DOC) campground, and apparently you have to get there by boat if you want to camp there. Obviously tent camping only, no camper vans. There are a couple of clean outhouse style bathrooms but there is no where to dump trash. The camp policy is carry your own trash, I mean rubbish, out, so that doesn’t help those of us on boats looking for a place to dump our trash, I mean rubbish.
There are fences between the flat grassy camping area and the surrounding hills presumably to keep the sheep contained. However, the heaps of sheep poop on OUR side of the fence was evidence that either the sheep get out and party or they let them graze that grassy area in a controlled fashion. We are still not sure which one it is. The boys and I walked up the hill to the west and separated a bit while we each found our own views to admire. Or maybe the boys just ran around and wrestled in the sheep poop. What quickly became obvious about this island was the extensive network of tramping trails that had something for everyone. Short and easy to long and strenuous. Whatever you felt like conquering, this island had it.
The best part about this anchorage, though, was the scallops. Tim and the boys found a well populated spot out in the channel and pretty much gathered their daily allowance every day we were there. Now, I don’t dive for scallops myself, but from what I have gathered it is much different here in New Zealand than other places we’ve been. Here, the scallops are just scattered about the sea floor, and the hardest part about gathering them is finding them in the first place. Once you spot one, though, all you have to do is pick it up. Contrast that to French Polynesia where you basically had to pry the scallops loose from the coral and sometimes it could be quite a workout. The daily scallop limit here is 20 per diver, but there is also a provision that a single diver can collect rations for up to two “safety” people who stay in the dive boat. I’m not sure they did much to contribute to anyone’s “safety,” but the boys would go along and sit in the dinghy so that Tim could collect 60 scallops instead of just 20. Our go-to scallop dish is basically just a light sauté in butter, wine, and garlic. Heaven. We also dabbled in making spicy scallop rolls, which were one of my sushi bar favorites in our past life when we used to do things like go to sushi bars.
Due to a shift in the forecasted wind direction, we moved around to the other side of the island and spent some time at Paradise Bay. We were one of three boats in the bay, and our first night there we saw up to about 25 kts of wind, which is generally nothing to worry about, especially if there isn’t any fetch and you’ve got enough anchor chain out. This side of the island wasn’t as picturesque, but we did get a chance to go ashore and do a little exploring when there was a break in the weather. The boys even played catch with a baseball high up on the hill in the middle of the island. When finally heading back to Opua we had mentally marked Urupukapuka Island as a place we’d definitely like to visit again.
When we returned a couple weeks later, though, we could barely access the island. After Christmas, we got a little craving for some more scallops, so we headed back to Urupukapuka for a few days. The wind direction made Paradise Bay the better anchorage option, but we were absolutely floored when we rounded the corner and had full view of the bay. There must have been 40-50 boats crammed in there. Technically, we didn’t even anchor in the bay but right on the edge where we got a fair amount of swell wraparound. I didn’t even leave the boat, but Tim reported back that over at the campground there were wall to wall tents; that there wasn’t even space between the tents to walk. The boys collected scallops and we high tailed it back to Russell as soon as we could.
So, Urupukapuka island is a wonderful spot. However, the week between Christmas and New Year’s should be avoided at all costs. Unless you like crowds, of course.
Gresham Family Exodus 