Autumn is a lovely time in the Mahurangi. The water can be calm and clear, and still warm from summer’s seasonal lag. Beaches are deserted, but the seas are alive with wildlife.
So over the last few weeks I’ve managed to get some camping in at Lagoon Bay. It was not too chilly in the tent and I’m still swimming, although immersion is harder than it was. While kayaking one day, we saw a pod of bottlenose dolphins feeding around us and across the bay.
Thousands of fluttering shearwaters fluttered around us, creating a sound and vision maelstrom whenever they saw food, and we saw inky sea hares in the rocky reef. Sea hares are molluscs with their shell on the inside and multiple little fleshy antennae. Sort of slimy and cute, they release ink when threatened – or when stood on, which is how we noticed them.
One recent special kayak trip was out to Motuora. After the eight-kilometre paddle, we came ashore over tropical sapphire water and white sand. I had a swim and we sat on the beach with a cup of tea.
Our friend spotted some splashing and before we knew it, we saw a great white shark thrashing airborne several times in truly awesome breaches. The length and girth of the shark were tremendous. If there was an archetypal shark leap, that was it.
We saw the shark’s gleaming pale underbelly, its spread pectoral fins, its stubby snout. It was beautiful, but we were quite glad we were on land. We’ve seen a lot of sharks in the Mahurangi – hammerheads, mako, and recentl.