Commodore
November 5, 2024

Wednesday 6 November – hike up to the top of Motukawanui Island

Rowan had his usual early morning work calls to attend to before I even surface, not quite sure how he does it! The bay is stunning and we had it to ourselves briefly. After a good breakfast we went off to the beach in JeldiJeldi, luckily it was calm, we left JeldiJeldi on her anchor in the water. There was a government refuge hut for hikers near the beach, which was really impressive. I guess you get a code to let yourself in, the room has some mattresses, and a basic kitchen, plus outside loo. We were soon on the path, it was a very steep vertical ascent which had us gasping initially, until we got onto a contour. It was actually coming back down that we marvelled at how steep it was, I was very glad to be wearing my walking shoes. The island is covered in dense vegetation and once again full of bird life and lots of bird song. We got to the top and it was a spectacular view, I was so glad I had remembered my binocs. The island has a very jagged coastline with some lovely little coves and loads of caves …. smugglers paradise, which is maybe why we got visited by Customs yesterday!

We were very relieved to find JeldiJeldi still there when we got down, even if the tide had gone out so much she was out of the water. We had to do a lot of shuffling to get her back into the water, but got there in the end. Two sail boats had arrived while we were hiking and later in the evening a motor launch arrived, it really is not surprising as it is a really beautiful bay.

The evening was consumed with gasping at the realisation that Trump was winning the election…….. poor Ukraine, poor environment!