The Great Barrier Island’s rocking chair effect was more than enough for Te Kaihōpara and her intrepid crew as we set sail in the valiant search for sun shores and calmer seas. The plan was to reach Arid Island, a.k.a Rakitu Island and cozy up into a North Western Bay known as ‘The Cove’. We deftly dodged to mooring points on either side and dropped anchor in a sweet spot after threading the needle through quite a fine margin of rocks, also, incidentally on either side. The water looked welcoming but I resisted the urge to jump into the cold icy sea water as the crew geared up to go hiking ashore. I was going to drop them off on the beach and pick them back up once they were done, no way was I trusting this lot with the tender again!

The crew hiked up the hill as I came back onboard to keep up my karaoke skills up to-date. I was later informed that Mick was the first one up the hill, but was coincidentally also the first one to promptly fall asleep. The rest of the day was spent mostly avoiding the urge to jump into the blue-green waters (I must invest in a wetsuit soon) and providing adequate sympathy for Ross and Helen, both of whom had managed to water-log their phones and were now faced with cruel concreteness of having to get to know their fellow crew-members.

As the crew settled in for the night, Mick briefed us about his plan to sail to the Poor Knights Islands, a.k.a, Tawhiti Rahi, the following day, in the wee hours of the morning. Helen struggled to find the switch to turn off the red emergency lights in her room, but did manage to wake up early the next day. I informed her about the location of the switch (it wasn’t accessible to her from her room) and also reminded her about the ancient belief of not sleeping with a mirror right next to you. It is said that if your reflection is directly visible to you when you’re asleep, there’s a chance that your reflection might exchange places with you in the real world….leaving you stuck in the mirror-world. Talk about ridiculous superstitions, but do you really want to risk it? Fortunately, all of Te Kaihōpara’s sleeping arrangements are completely mirror-world free. 

The journey to the Poor Knights was quite incredible as Te Kaihōpara sailed with three-quarters of her sails up towards one of her favourite destinations. Mick played some of his favourite songs for us, as Cheryl showed us some of her dance moves, when she took a break from hanging on to the saloon’s sofa for dear life. Getting the anchor down and downing an exquisite dinner of Thai green curry with rice (prepared by Team ‘A’’s Delwyn and Mick) was beautifully topped off when I saw a gargantuan bat flying through the night sky. No one really believed me, when I accurately described its proportions, but that’s okay, Te Kaihōpara and I know what we saw!

The Poor Knights Islands lived up to his reputation as Mick took the others on a tender ride around its wonders. The crew didn’t pay heed to my warning to wear some proper wet weather gear as they came back absolutely drenched! I chose an all-knowing smirk over exclaiming the old classic, ‘I told you so’! Honestly, with all the underwater caves and hidden mountain entrances that they had just experienced, the wet-crew didn’t really seem to mind a little sea-water on their favourite pair of socks.

The race against heavy wind warnings was on, as we set sail towards Whangārei. Not to tempt fate, but no race is much of a challenge for Te Kaihōpara, considering her secret weapon, its Iron Sail. The six cylinder iconic British Gardner engine, made short work of our passage as our speed seemed a bit too much for tender (which was being towed behind us up until our Davits are repaired), as Mick and I had to carry out a mini-consolidation mission for our tender’s well being. The winds and rains were beginning to making their presence felt as we managed to tuck inside a bay just inside Whangārei’s first bay. As I write this, howling winds and unforgiving squalls are making Te Kaihōpara’s anchor earn its worth in gold and its crew is ever thankful to be warm and dry.

- Arjun Thimmaya, Chief Mate, Te Kaihōpara