Taupo: In like Flynn

The Barbary's life as a tourist boat on Lake Taupo is a far cry from her days of being owned by ladies-man Errol Flynn.

I meet dreadlocked skipper Luke, at pier 10 down at Taupo's marina. It's a sunny but blustery day and Lake Taupo looks like the ocean with lumpy white caps racing the waves that lap on the shingle and pumice shoreline.

It's not a day to sail out to the stunning, 10-metre high Maori rock carvings at Mine Bay, but a great day to hoist the sails and join the ducks racing alongside us.

A couple from England and I are the only brave souls ready to go and, our weather-proof jackets zipped up to our chins, we clamber aboard the 12-metre wooden ketch named Barbary. Built in 1926 for ocean-racing in California, it should be able to cope splendidly with the elements today. Whether I will is quite another matter.

Luke starts the engine as owner Dave Nesbitt unties us and we putter out into the marina where Lake Taupo joins the mighty Waikato River.

Legend has it that swashbuckling actor Errol Flynn won the Barbary in a card game, although its official ownership papers show it registered to his father. But the two beliefs may not be conflicting, as the Flynns had many yachts.

The Barbary's history is full of intrigue and skulduggery and Luke tells us the story as we sit hunkered down beside him while the mainsail fills with the strong westerly breeze.

It sailed around the world through the 1930s and ended up in Sydney for a refit with Australian ladies' man Errol Flynn as owner.

However, the night before he was due to pay the bill, he stole it and took off to the islands, cementing his reputation for swindling and prospecting.

In 1947 the Barbary was sold in Fiji and sailed back to New Zealand. Uncles and cousins of our most famous yachtie, Sir Peter Blake, once sailed on it but still the Barbary had more adventures to come.

Luke tacks across the lake to a small bay where we anchor and shelter from the wind to put the kettle on for a cup of tea and a biscuit.

I'm glad for the calm water as we hear tales of its 1973 sailing with Greenpeace's anti-nuclear protest in Mururoa and even of drug-smuggling, which was discovered after it was wrecked after breaking its mooring in a storm in Auckland. During that refit, heroin was found in the bilges, sullying its reputation.

This is when Bill Dawson stepped in and with business partner Nesbitt set about restoring the Barbary to its former, innocent glory. It has been semi-retired since 1975, running out tourists to the Mine Bay carvings, which are accessible only by boat, and enthralling its guests with a taste of its swashbuckling history.

As we sail back to the marina, feeding little pieces of ginger nuts to the wild ducks who land on the deck, the wind has calmed and so has my stomach.

We're all offered a free return trip to see the Maori carvings another time. Maybe I will.