Auckland is one of the few cities in the world where you can leave a marina in the middle of town and be among islands within half an hour. Most people who live here have never really looked at the Hauraki Gulf properly, and almost nobody could name more than three or four of the islands in it.
This is a plain guide to what is actually out there, and what you see on a day on the water leaving from Z Pier at Westhaven.
The ones you see straight away
Rangitoto. The obvious one. Auckland’s youngest volcano, about 600 years old, and the reason the skyline looks the way it does. You pass it within about twenty minutes of leaving Westhaven, and it is the landmark everyone points a camera at on the way out.
Motutapu, joined to Rangitoto by a causeway, is the older, greener one behind it. Farmland rather than lava.
Browns Island (Motukorea). Small, round and volcanic, sitting off the end of the Tamaki Estuary. Easy to miss, worth looking at.
The sheltered middle
This is where most of a day charter actually happens, and where you end up when the outer gulf is unfriendly.
Motuihe sits between Motutapu and Waiheke, with sheltered bays on both sides. It is one of the standard answers when the forecast is not playing along.
Waiheke needs no introduction, though it looks very different from the water than it does from the ferry terminal. The northern and eastern coasts are mostly cliffs and empty bays.
Rakino and the Noises sit north of Waiheke. The Noises are a handful of rocky islets that punch well above their weight for fishing, and they are a genuine conservation story - the same family has looked after them for generations.
The sanctuaries
Motuora is a pest-free island sanctuary north of Tiritiri Matangi, near the mouth of the Mahurangi. It has been cleared of predators and used as a nursery for native species for decades, which is why it looks the way it does.
Tiritiri Matangi is the famous one - an open sanctuary where takahe, kokako and saddleback live in the open and are genuinely easy to see.
Both are a reminder of why we take the pest-free pledge seriously. Every boat that moves around this gulf is a potential vector for rats, mice and argentine ants, and the rules exist for a reason. If you are ever landing on an island, check your bags.
The outer gulf
Further out, past Kawau and Tiritiri, the water gets deeper and the islands get wilder.
The Mokohinau Islands are the pick of them - a cluster of rocky islands and stacks about 100km from Auckland, holding snapper, kahawai, trevally and kingfish inshore and a completely different range further down. Burgess Island has the old lighthouse and the view from the top is worth the climb. We wrote about a trip out there in Mokohinau Islands - fishing in paradise.
Great Barrier and Little Barrier close off the gulf to the north east. Little Barrier (Hauturu) is one of the most strictly protected places in the country and you cannot land without a permit.
What you actually cover on a day charter
Worth being straight about this, because it is the thing people get wrong when they book.
A day out of Westhaven works the inner and mid gulf. That is Rangitoto, Motutapu, Motuihe, the Noises, the Waiheke coast, and up towards Kawau and Tiritiri depending on conditions and what is biting. On a good day with a longer charter you get further out.
The outer islands - Mokohinau, Great Barrier - are a different proposition. They are a long steam each way, and the honest answer is that a lot of the day gets spent travelling rather than fishing. That is one of the most common complaints people have about charters in general: six hours booked, two hours actually fishing.
We would rather put you on fish closer in than sell you a boat ride. If you want the outer gulf, talk to us about it directly and we will tell you honestly whether the conditions and the timeframe make sense.
Seeing it for yourself
Most people book a charter for the fishing, or for a work function or Christmas do, and the gulf ends up being the part they talk about afterwards. MV Koru has a covered lower deck for fishing and an open upper deck for exactly this - sitting down, having a drink, and watching the islands go past.
Large group fishing charters run out of Z Pier at Westhaven, and harbour cruises are the shorter three-hour option if looking at it is more the point than catching anything.