Paihia

Paihia is the town on New Zealand's Bay of Islands. Scream anchored overnight in the bay north of Paihia, between it and Waitangi. The anchorage is a vast area of sand bottom with about 2.5m at chart datum. Given that zero tides are rare in New Zealand, boats drawing less than 3m can anchor here routinely. There is good wind shelter from South through West, though the wind did shift to a light northerly while we were there and it was still pleasant. We recommend anchoring near but outside of the yellow buoys marking the swimming area.

This is Scream at anchor in Paihia as seen from Waitangi. The perspective is a little odd in this photo. We're much closer to the beach at the right than to the town in the centre.

While anchored here we went to the Countdown grocery and to the Waitangi treaty grounds.

Most cruisers leave their boats in Opua and travel to Paihia for groceries. We took the infrequent, inconvenient, and expensive shuttle from Opua to Paihia a few times last year, and decided that there must be a better way. Now that we have tried it we definitely prefer anchoring at Pahia to get groceries over travelling from Opua.