Great Mercury Islands

The most beautiful and bountiful secret in New Zealand some would say!

As the only accessible island in the Mercury Islands, Great Mercury Island is a true Pacific adventure playground, with sheltered bays to moor your boat for a picnic and swim, wakeboard and snorkel.

Just 60 nm from Westhaven, Auckland this best kept secret is just around the corner of Cape Colville and just 12 nm from Whitianga.  No matter what the wind direction, there is always a bay on Great Mercury Island in which to shelter.

Perhaps the best-known bay on Great Mercury Island is Home Bay, at the northern end. Here the owners of the island have established some of the most stunning and expensive holiday homes in New Zealand. The bay provides the longest beach on the island and is a perfect anchorage in all tides. It’s also one of the more popular bays for water-skiing and wakeboarding and provides its fair share of scallops for the keen scuba diver otherwise known as Huruhi Harbour.

Keep heading south in an anti-clockwise direction and you will get to Ahikopua Point otherwise known as Kingfish Point, there always seem to be kingfish ready to go!.

Continue round in to Peach Grove whilst passing other gorgeous bays, you will find the finest silica sand, bright white, Pohutukawa lining the beach, superb anchorage sheltered from the North/North East surrounded by crystal clear turquoise waters providing the best playground to relax!

Peachgrove offers idyllic and safe anchorage at all tides and a wide, expansive beach with plenty of mooring space. There are also excellent smaller beaches with good tidal access on either side, with places like Whale Cove and Momona Bay worth visiting. Bumper Cove can be good if the wind is blowing from the north, although in all bays it pays to watch out for the shallow reefs that may show only when the tide is low.

Then go further around (we are travelling Great Mercury Island anticlockwise), and we will come to Coralie Bay, just at the entrance in just 20-30′ of water crayfish are lingering… once inside the bay a good anchorage sheltering you from the West/South is found.

Note: From Manganui Point – Huruhi Harbour – Ahikopua Point – please download the fishing app (see bottom of newsletter) to show you this area is Controlled/Restricted which means you need to read what you can or can’t do.   Such a shame as around Parapara Bay scallops are plentiful…

History

Legend has it that it was the white cliffs of Great Mercury Island that Māori first saw as they navigated toward Aotearoa.  Certainly as reflective landmarks they would have been important coastal navigation aids for early sea travellers.

The spectacular white sand dunes of Peachgrove Bay are visible from quite a distance out, a beacon for boaties heading north for the sheltered waters. Great Mercury is the largest island, privately owned and a pest-free sanctuary. If you leave only footprints and pack out all trace of your visit, the owners allow you to land on any of the magnificent white sand beaches to picnic and relax, water-ski and wakeboard.

The other six islands, Middle, Double, Koropuki, Red Mercury, Stanley and Green are Nature Reserves. So collectively the islands in the group are an important and protected habitat for many of New Zealand’s endangered species. That’s why you are not permitted to go ashore here, rather cruise past to appreciate their beauty.  These islands are volcanic and rocky, with no sandy beaches, but the dramatic landforms, rock wall and deep lagoons provide excellent fishing and great dive and snorkel sites

While not officially part of the Mercury Islands, there is a large reef area, rocks and other islands to the south that add to the extraordinary abundance and variety of sea life to be found in this part of the region.

Great Mercury Island is an accessible location that feels truly remote – if you close your eyes and daydream, it’s easy to believe nothing much has changed since Captain James Cook sailed past more than 230 years ago.