Reports into the NZFN office indicate there's been some good action just east of Tiri, between the island and the start of the cable zone (be careful where you drop your lines!)

Thanks Miahd that's hugely helpful!
Any and all advice appreciated. We will give that a shot!

Also maybe consider going for a couple of test launches when the ramp is quiet so you know your system works.We have all been new to this game at some stage and some people forget the mistakes they made through trial and error.Nothing worse than being the guys in the line of boats holding up the process with an audience watching.

You can download the Navionics charting software onto your Android or Apple phone. Useful if you don't have a chartplotter or want to look at charts at home etc.

Right now, if you use the fishfinder, and are patient enough to only fish once you find fish, you should have a good day every day. If you stop where the fish might not be you can waste most of your day fishing for nothing, or you might get lucky. This is one of the best times of year to be fishing. Take a sabiki and grab a Jack Mac to put down near the bottom as a livie. Kingfish often hang with the Snapper schools around now.

As its the first trip I would suggest fishing comes second and launching/retrieving/getting out and back safely if the priority.  It will take a while to get used to what you need to do.  Might be worth going somewhere like Westhaven at a quietish time to launch, retireive, laucnh, retrieve etc.

Take some time to find the fish on your sounder. Once you've found them, it's often (but not always!) a matter of simply dropping a slow jig and catching them. Your kaburas are a good choice, probably the easiest to fish. Stick with it if you don't catch. 95% of my fish fall to slow jigs and we are never hungry for fish! 

Relax don't worry about the queues, fish will bite all day and very often better in the arvo in spring.

Worried about backing up?
I echo the words of my father.. how to.. unfortunately he died a couple yrs later before actually showing me. So my 1st attempt was th 16' caravan into a narrow space once got to the camping ground.
1/ take it slow
2/ When stats to go wrong, do not keep going back HOPING u will get it straight again... pull forward a little..and aslightly more than you think
 2/ is where people waste a lot of time, trying to 'fix' something that cant be..

Cant find a ramp...a no exit street and a driveway.

Some trailers reverse straight, do what you want, others will hook one way or the other, espec with no load on.

Regardless though steps thanks for your words of advice. I will certainly put it in the memory banks!