Classic style
To recapture the heritage spirit of Auckland's Anniversary Weekend, go classic.
• The Voyager New Zealand Maritime Museum's replica coastal trader Breeze is returning to Auckland from a soujourn in Northland.
It will take to the waters for a full six hours of the regatta action tomorrow.
For a taste of what it was like on one of Auckland's working boats, the museum's replica scow Ted Ashby is also taking of spectators on to the harbour.
Both boats do regular sailings from the museum's waterfront base over the summer and the Breeze gives would-be sailors the chance to get to know the ropes - literally - on the 18m, square-rigged brigantine. "You can do as much or as little as you want," says Voyager's Sarah Bennett.
"You can just sit back and relax, but the crew are happy for people to help out - they'll always find you a job to do if you want one."
Set sail on the Hauraki Gulf.
• The historic tug boat William C. Daldy will also be working up some steam for Anniversary Weekend. The Daldy, built in Scotland in 1935 and the only surviving tug of its class in the world, was saved from scrapping in 1977, when the then-harbour board sold it to a preservation trust for just $1.
It's not dainty at 38.4m-long and 9.75m-wide but it can still do 13 knots if its bottom is clean. You can get on board to check out its best turn of speed in the regatta's tugboat race, starting at 10am. The Daldy is also acting as a marker boat for the city's huge fireworks display tonight, leaving Hobson Wharf at 8pm for a harbour cruise and barbecue before taking up a position for the show at 9.30pm.
Daldy will also be taking enthusiasts for rides on the Staying Alive Emergency and Volunteers Services Day at Queens Wharf on February 14.
• Auckland's most beloved tall ship, the 45.2m Spirit of New Zealand, will be returning from a sail-training voyage over Anniversary Weekend. With its distinctive black hull, the three-masted barque is a familiar sight around the Northland coast, taking crews of young people on life-changing voyages involving much cold-water swimming and scrambling up the ratlines.
In between youth voyages, the Spirit holds public days for those keen for a traditional sailing experience - either to soak up the atmosphere of the glory days of sail or to get involved in handling this beautiful ship. Upcoming public sailings will be held on Sunday, February 15, Saturday March 7 and Anzac Day, Saturday April 25.
City of Sails
• They don't call Auckland the City of Sails for nothing. Even though the city is not currently the home of the America's Cup, Explore Group offers a two-hour harbour sail on New Zealand's only genuine Cup yachts - albeit old-school ones.
The retired IACC boats now look a little prehistoric compared to the high-tech catamarans raced in San Francisco in 2013, but they are lot easier to handle and still provide plenty of excitement. On Saturdays, match races are held between the company's pair of AC yachts - a chance to play Dickson vs Conner, Coutts vs Conner, or Coutts vs Barker, depending on how long your memory is.
Explore also has three 15m yachts which go out for afternoon and dinner cruises around the harbour. During summer there's a morning "sail to Waiheke" option, returning by ferry.
Aucklanders enjoy the harbour during the annual Anniversary Day Regatta.
• In late February-early March, Auckland will again host the Volvo Ocean Race stopover. Things have changed since the pioneering round-the-world Whitbread race arrived in town in 1977 after a pasting in the Southern Ocean. Today, the modern racing yachts are all one-design, crewed by professionals and will have sailed southeast from China to get here. But you can relive the glory days of Sir Peter Blake's 1985-86 and 1989-90 campaigns aboard Lion New Zealand and Steinlager 2.
Both yachts are now owned by the New Zealand Sailing Trust which, in the spirit of Sir Peter, runs educational programmes for school students. The trust also offers public sailing days, including on Anniversary Day. Trust acting general manager Raynor Haagh says the eye-catching red ketch Steinlager 2 will also be doing some "rum racing" - fun, Friday afternoon harbour racing - in February and March. "It's a fantastic experience for people, and it's fun for us to get out on the harbour and have people see the boat being sailed again."
Just cruising
• If going yachting sounds a bit too energetic, then maybe it's time to take a cruise. Fullers runs twice-daily cruises around the harbour and into the channel, with a quick stopover at Rangitoto.
Louise Hyde of Fullers also recommends enjoying a cruise on the ferry to the Rotoroa Island sanctuary, where skinks and kiwi have recently been released, or to Waiheke to check out the headland Sculpture on the Gulf art trail at Matiatia (until February 15).
During the summer Fullers also runs a "vineyard hopper" shuttle service, linking ferry passengers to a circuit of eight Waiheke vineyards such as Cable Bay, Stonyridge and Mudbrick.
Home Bay on Motutapu Island.
• For a different perspective on Auckland's harbour and islands and a taste of cruise-ship life without having to go far, Hauraki Blue Cruises is running its "mini cruise ship" Ipipiri around the Hauraki Gulf.
Ipipiri, which has previously been based in the Bay of Islands, is 44.5m long and has 30 ocean-view cabins over four levels, large decks and a restaurant and bar. You can cruise around the islands or take off overnight, have a swim, snorkel or kayak, enjoy a three-course dinner and wake up in a quiet bay before heading back to the "real world".
Thrills and spills
• If you feel the need for speed, you can blast around the harbour on the saucily named Ruby Red Lips, Auckland Jet Boat Tours' custom-built 7.8 m V8 jet boat.
Ruby is capable of speeds of up to 42 knots, as well as high-speed spins, fishtails and other malarkey. The 35-minute tour, starting from the company's base at Te Wero Island in the Viaduct, also includes the main sights of the harbour - if you can keep the spray out your eyes.
Take a blast on a jetski.
• If you want to take the controls yourself to see the sights, hire a SeeDoo jetski from Auckland Jet Ski Hire.
Fun, noisy personal watercraft can be launched from any of the main beaches, such as Takapuna, Maraetai and Bucklands Beach or at Westhaven, so you can explore the harbour and gulf as you please. Just remember not to annoy other water users with your zooming and spraying.
Marine life
• January is the start of snapper season in Auckland, as warm water heats up the harbour. But Andrew Somers of The Red Boats says the best time for fishing "in close" is February and March.
The company runs two charters a day, seven days a week, heading off either up the harbour or down into the Rangitoto Channel to give hopeful fishos the chance to drop a line.
"We get absolutely everyone - we have regulars who come out every week, people who have never fished before, people from overseas and grandparents bringing the grandkids out for an experience," Somers says.
During the summer, Red Boats also runs daily cruises up the inner harbour to Riverhead, following the old settlers' route north using waterways. The cruise includes a commentary on the sights of the upper harbour, as the boat winds its way past Hobsonville, Herald Island and Whenuapai for a lunch or dinner stop at the historic Riverhead Tavern, established in 1857.
Red Boats cruise the inner Waitemata Harbour.
• If you'd rather observe the marine inhabitants of the Hauraki Gulf than eat them, it's a great time for dolphin and whale-watching. Brad Kirner of Auckland Whale and Dolphin Safari says its crew and passengers have been enjoying the company of a juvenile Bryde's whale which they have nicknamed "Curious George II".
"He just loves hanging out and interacting with the boat. Most of the time when we see Brydes they are 20 or 30m away, but he keeps just doing laps around the boat and coming up between the hulls."
Large pods of dolphins are also enjoying feeding in the gulf's warm waters at present and a pod of orca has been hunting stingrays in the inner harbour.
A dolphin leaps from the waters of the Hauraki Gulf.
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