Bay of Islands I - Rawhiti and Urupukapuka Island

Andy and I drive south to a small bay in the south end of the BOI. A place called Rawhiti. We launch out into blue skies, Green glassy water and just a hint of a breeze. The water quickly turns to dark aquamarine as we cross over to the island of Urupukapuka, which has and abundance of sea caves and golden sandy beaches. We take our time checking out all the little crags and crannies looking for caves and finding quite a few. This paddleturned out to be one of the highlights of the entire trip!

We also happened upon a basking Seal. Now I’ve seen plenty of seals so I don’t understand why Andy gets so excited and motions for me to get out the camera. It turns out that seal sightings are extremely rare in the BOI. I get out the camera and get some great shots as I pass within inches of the basking Seal. The seal is completely unconcerned with our presents and if anything is simply annoyed that we are disturbing his solitude. He allows himself to drift out the way we came in and leaves us to the cove.

We stop for lunch on this golden beach on a passage that separates Urupukapuka and Okahu passage. The rest of the paddle is a leisurely cruise to complete the circumnavigation no caves but numerous camping sites. We make the return crossing and have the boats packed up and were ready to roll on home. We take turns driving the long grind south to Andy’s house.