See the stars better than this on Great Barrier Island
When people say “Great Barrier,” many think of the reef in Australia. Kiwi’s know Great Barrier as another Island in the Hauraki Gulf. Only 100 km away from central Auckland, the Island is still under the cities Council. With under a thousand people living on the island it is also comparable to what “Waiheke Island used to be 20 years ago.”
Over the long Labour Day weekend we made a couples trip to the remote island. We boarded a 12 person plan and arrived in a Jurassic Park like land in a little under 30 minutes. You can also take a ferry, but that would take you about 3 hours. Our rental car was left unlocked when we arrived… waiting for us. We piled in and drove from the Claris Airport to our humble abode on the West coast.
View from one of our sun rooms
We loved our “HomeAway” bach. We unpacked all of our food and got into our bathing suits. We were told to bring as much food as possible because they are limited in what they have in small shops, and what they would have will be super expensive. Our house was in the Tryphena village, a 20 minute drive from the airport. We decided to go to the furthest beach, grab dinner in Port FitzRoy and then go to the Kaitoke Hot Springs.
We could not have asked for better weather all weekend
I left my nice camera at the house, but we had the ENTIRE Whangapoua Beach to ourselves. On top of that, we spotted dolphins. They were close to the coast so we jumped in and swam with them!
Our beach for the day
The drive to the beach was about 45 minutes North East from Tryphena. Port FitzRoy was another 20 minutes West but had a quaint pier. We got burgers and then headed to the Hot Springs.
Small Port FitzRoy
The Hot Springs were about a 30 minute walk through bush and marshland. We arrived just at sundown, and Moon-bathed in the luke-warm water. Again, we had the entire place to ourselves!
Sunset from the sun room
The following day we went to the Mermaid Pools. This was the most crowded area we went to all weekend; with a total of about 2 other families. The Mermaid Pools were so cool, as they were ocean water stuck in these large holes. We climbed the rocks, jumped in and enjoyed another sunny day. This secret spot is not marked and was even hard for us to find: it is down at the bottom of “Sugarloaf Rd.”
The last day was another beach day, this time Awana Beach. This is the surf beach, but we did not see any surfers.
Now, I named this blog as “A Star Lovers Paradise,” yet did not mention we did any star gazing. That was because we were too close to a full moon which meant it was too bright and we did not see that many stars. (The first photo is also of my boyfriend and I on our second date back on the North Island at Bethells Beach) Great Barrier is the second best place to view stars in the world because it is in a dark zone. The entire Island is off grid and depends off of solar panels for each individual home and building. This means there is no light pollution, and is one reason why you can see the star so well! This also means you cannot use hair dryers nor straighteners because it is not good for the batteries. The island does not have clean running water: residents either use bottled rain water or creek water. I was excited to view the stars but we will have to go back another time. Considering the flight was only $160 round trip per person, it’s not too expensive for a weekend away (from Auckland) where you feel so far away!
The bottom of Sugarloaf Rd
If you go for the stars, you can go to the Dark Sky Sanctuary where they can talk you through the cosmos. It was about $120/person, so if we could have seen the stars we were just going to use the “SkyView” APP.
TIP: When going to Islands like Great Barrier, make sure you bring as much of your own food as possible. Get a cooler, pack it all in and then you can also bring it to the beaches.
Have you been anywhere that was off-grid?