Whangamumu (Funga-moo-moo) … I Just Like Saying It

Bay of Islands Marina, Opua, North Island

Thursday 24 June 2021

After a restful night in the calm, yet expansive Bland Bay, a small indent on the coast a bit further north of here beckoned … uniquely named Whangamumu Harbour; phonetically written as…  Fonga-moo-moo.

As it turns out, Bland Bay was just a short walk from another bay called Whangaruru … but Whangamumu was a lot more fun to say … Fonga-moo-moo.

It sounded so much like that mythical New Zealand town of Waikikamukau, or phonetically written … Why-kick-a-moo-cow.  So, it was decided … we had to stop in at Whangamumu!  Just to say we’d been there … unfortunately there’s no T-shirt we could buy.

Our ultimate destination for the day, was of course Opua and the Bay of Islands Marina, about 35 miles away.  But conditions were sunny and still, and so with the aid of the motor we figured we could make a stop off at Whangamumu for lunch and even indulge in some fishing.

John was getting a little frustrated at not catching much and so he’d texted one of his brothers, Phil, who has a serious reputation as a hunter and gatherer.  “Troll the lures along the 20 metre line around the coast, and fish off the kelp covered rocky coastline in the remote Whangamumu Harbour – where the old whaling station is” came the response.

So off we headed into the glare of the morning sun – and I do mean glare.  It was low and bright, with barely a cloud in the sky.

As you can see from the tracker “bread crumbs”, rather than take the direct route, from one headland to the next, we instead took the more circuitous approach.  At least for the first half the day – following the 20 metre depth line

By around 10:00am we were dropping anchor off the old whaling station – now just a collection of crumbling relics – in the idyllic Whangamumu Harbour. 

The dinghy was soon lowered, Nicola dug out some flippers, mask and snorkel and jumped over the side, with Martyn and Annette being dropped ashore to go for a walk.  This left John and me to race off and try our hand at fishing … again. 

Suffice to say, all our trolling yielded nothing and an hour of fishing with handlines from the dinghy delivered just two smallish snapper.

Realising we may be running short of time to make it up and around Cape Brett and onto Opua before night time, we prepared lunch on the way out of Whangamumum … see, it’s nice just saying it … with our next “stop” being Cape Brett – really just to soak in the dramatic scenery and the wonderfully still and sunny conditions, before carrying on to the Bay of Islands proper.

We made contact with the Bay of Islands Marina, to let them know an update of our arrival time, with Gary liaising via text with his wife Theresa who was due to meet us on arrival after her drive up from Wellington.

In the end we made better time than expected, over oily-flat seas and with the aid of the motor alone.  Plus the incoming tide gave us a push-along of around 1 knot in speed.

By 4:20pm we were tying up the lines in our berth number F37, with Theresa onshore frantically waving her greeting.  It really was great to arrive, after roughly 700 miles of travel from Wellington, spread over nearly 30 days.

Arriving before 5:00pm, there was still time for me to complete the arrival formalities at the marina office, and after a cup of tea aboard we all briefly went our ways to freshen up for “a night out”.  Very kindly, this resulted in Gary, Theresa, Martyn, Annette and Nicola shouting John and me out to dinner at a nearby restaurant, in appreciation for having brought everyone back safety. 

On reflection, we’d really had a great adventure together, taking in some spectacular country and a wide variety of weather and sea conditions.  Certainly, the “unpleasantness” of the first day – or two – was long forgotten when everyone strolled ashore late today; seriously wondering whether the walkway was moving from side to side, or was it just us?!

Smooth seas, fair breeze and Whangamumu (Fonga-moo-moo) … … I Just Like Saying It

Rob Latimer