News from New Zealand!

First, apologies to all our readers for the long delay. We'd like to say that we were too busy having fun but mostly, we have been carrying out boat projects!

We spent our first 6 weeks in NZ in Opua marina working on the boat! Our list of projects was 3 A4 pages long so we started to work down the list. The mast was lifted so that all the rigging repairs could be done and the boat looked very strange without any rigging. We now have a much improved and stronger rig. We also wanted all the wire on the rig replaced . Unfortunately, the riggers could not get parts from the US in the time we were there, so the mast got put back in with part of the old rig so that we could leave Opua before Christmas. We then had to get the remainder done when we were in Whangarei.

The first week in Opua there was a cruisers regatta with lots of events such as talks on boat issues and get togethers in the evenings. It was a very social time with lots of friends we had made across the Pacific arriving safely in NZ.

Between the chores we managed to do a little sight seeing. We had a lovely day visiting Hokianga harbour on the west coast and walking to seeing the giant Kauri trees. We also drove further up the Bay of Islands which was very pretty. The car we had borrowed from Richard and Dawn was very useful for our trips and for all our shopping trips into Kerikeri. This was until it suddenly stopped! We had seized the engine. Unbeknown to us the car had a water leak. Richard had never checked the water and neither had we, not being used to old cars. So that was the end of the car but fortunately it happened just before we were due to leave Opua.

One of the big jobs while we were in Opua was to have new davits fitted to carry the dinghy on the back of the boat. Chris from Simply Stainless has done a great job and the new davits look strong enough to lift the boat with! Hopefully this will remove a lot of stress from our sailing as we often sit watching them wondering if they will break and if we will lose the dinghy!

We finally left Opua a few days before Christmas which left us no time to explore the Bay of Islands. We sailed straight out and headed to a lovely bay down the coast called Whangaruru. We are hoping to stop there again as we only got to spend one night before having to leave for Great Barrier Island. Our rush was due to the remnants of Cyclone Evan which had hit Fiji and was on its way to NZ. We had one beautiful day at Great Barrier before the rain and the wind arrived.

We spent Christmas day at Great Barrier with our friend Chris off 'Ladybug'. We both had to re-anchor first thing in the morning but then we opened the champagne and the eating and drinking began. After smoked salmon for breakfast we had roast lamb for dinner, yummy!

On Boxing Day we had to leave as we were meeting friends in Auckland the following day. We had a great sail and arrived at Rangitoto island just off Auckland for the night. The following morning we collected Sally our friend from the UK and Steve, Jackie and their son Connor, friends from Wellington. They all spent 2 days on the boat with us. We went to Waihiki island and had great weather. All the girls even had a swim in the sea!

We spent New year at Rangitoto island and had a very quiet evening except for the horns and fireworks going off at midnight!. During the day we walked up the volcano which has views across Auckland harbour. We then started to head north spending a few days on the Whangaparoa peninsula. Then we met up with friends Cameron and Catherine from Auckland who were camping on a little island called Motuora. We spent the day with them and all had dinner on the boat. We were hoping to go Kiwi watching that evening as the island is predator free but the weather was not good for leaving the boat unattended.

Then we headed to Kawau, another popular cruising destination, to sit out more bad weather. It was sunny so we did some walks on the island with Chris from 'Ladybug'. Then we bid farewell to Chris and headed to Whangarei and the next round of boat projects. It was a very bouncy trip but fast and so we headed up the river for 2 hours and moored the boat at the marina in the Town Basin.

Next instalment will follow in a week or so as we are just off on a 5 day canoe trip down the Wanganui river!