I spent my house deposit on a boat to reach the Mokohinau Islands – the magic on our doorstep
My entire experience of Auckland changed when I got a boat. It was the perfect antidote to a professional DJ lifestyle, where getting up at 5am to be on the water become immeasurably preferable to coming home at 5am from work. On trips out I began sticking my head underwater with such vigour that I somehow turned it into a whole new profession.
It didn’t happen straight away, of course. My 40-year-old, 14-foot beige fibreglass boat with a semi-reliable twostroke engine, named Brown Thunder, only had so much range, and my real goal lay much farther offshore, tantalisingly out of reach. A place where tales of clear blue tropical water and huge fish swirled around a group of uninhabited islands, teasing me from the pages of marine magazines or the crusty lips of old salty sea-mates.
I don’t mind sharing the Mokohinau Islands with you because getting to them is not an easy trip. They’re just shy of 40km out to sea, with no shelter in between, with calm weather windows fleeting. A bit of wind against tide can quickly make an uncomfortable trip turn dangerous. Of course, this only adds to the intrigue.
From launch the islands aren’t visible but trusting a compass bearing the horizon gradually throws up a lump of land that splits into three on approach. It’s precisely this remoteness that makes the islands so special to me. The Auckland isthmus is lapped by different oceans.
On the Pacific side, the Hauraki Gulf is described as the city’s jewel in the crown. It’s an expanse of water filled with more than 50 islands and an incredible diversity of life. More than 20% of all the world’s seabirds can be found here; five of these birds breed no where else on Earth. And out along one boundary lies the Mokohinau Islands, the location a true convergence zone where the rich gulf waters merge with a distinct eastern current.
In summer this warm conveyor belt brings a stunning range of tropical visitors. I have found myself in the water here with tuna, marlin, mako sharks, bronze whalers, manta rays, sunfish, false killer whales, real killer whales, pilot whales and even a massive spinetailed devil ray.
As an active freediver I have been humbled in huge vortex clouds of blue mao mao, giant schools of trevally, acres of kahawai and, of course, New Zealand’s legendary monster yellowtail kingfish. They are an internationally renowned sportfish and New Zealand happens to hold 23 of the 24 world records relating to them. I was even lucky enough to once win the national Kingfish Cup, spearing a specimen of 34kg – all at this magical place fishers affectionately call “the Mokes” but I like to refer to as Jurassic Park.
The rock formations that rise out of the water differ to the mainland so much that visitors I bring here describe it feeling more like Thailand than Aotearoa. On the right tide I can fit my boat through an archway into a lagoon in the middle of one island, half expecting Leonardo DiCaprio to leap out and stab a shark, à la The Beach.
The islands weren’t always uninhabited: alongside their rich Māori history it’s still possible to go ashore and view a once-occupied lighthouse with a troubled past. One lighthouse keeper ran out of food so attached urgent notes to a model boat he made from tin and aimed for the coast. Miraculously, supplies were sent out just nine days later. Another keeper wasn’t so lucky and the extreme isolation drove him to take his own life.
My journey to these islands also changed me in ways I couldn’t have imagined. I had been saving for a house deposit but when my very good friend’s breast cancer got the better of her I decided to live in the moment as she had so valiantly, and spent my savings on a bigger boat. While not a financially astute action I finally had the ability to get to the Mokes, and I honoured this impulse by naming my boat after her.
The first trips were everything I had
hoped for and I started to make videos of the experience because I wanted to show others the unseen magic we have on our doorstep. This led directly to me developing my own television fishing/travel series now five seasons deep and playing in more than 85 countries as a National Geographic title. It developed in me a strong belief in finding ways to connect people to the ocean, to give them a reason to care about what’s going on in and around it.
I owe those islands for opening this whole new chapter and helping me discover in myself the things that are truly important in life.
Clarke Gayford is the host of television series Fish of the Day and author of the book of the same name
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