Sorry but I disagree Tim. I've done the race about 6 times on Superbird With GD and the worst experience we've had was not finishing twice due to lack of wind,and that's not Taurangas fault, in fact they ended up being fishing trips at the Barrier so not all bad.
If it's a big Easterly or NE we probably wouldn't leave Auckland anyway.
I agree coming into Tauranga isn't easy. There's so many flashing lights it's like sailing into a disco, but if we wanted easy.... we'd sail to Waiheke.
But the of 4 races we finished, one was at anchor close in by the bridge, the shuttle was no more