April 29 - we've left the dock!

After berthing Infini at Opua Marina for 6 months, we have finally left the dock! We departed at slack tide and anchored near Pine Island. First job was to service and get the Tohatsus outboard motor working so we'd have dinghy transportation. After that, the watermaker was recommissioned, and testing of the water quality revealed very good results. We're on a roll. We then went to the Opua Cruising Club to attend a presentation by John Martin about So. Pac. weather. After, we visited with friends, had a few beers, and dinghied back to the boat. It sure feels different being at anchor! We have a few things to do tomorrow, but the BIG NEWS is that we're planning departure Sat. for Bundaberg, Australia. It's a 1355 nm run, and the weather window looks decent enough to go, so unless something comes up last minute, we'll be stored and departing NZ in two days! Hard to believe...

April 13 - We're in departure mode

There's lots of stuff happening in preparation for our departure to Australia. We figured it was better to do some of these upgrades and modifications to Infini here and now, so this last week finds us awaiting our new headsail and dodger, and we've made provisioning and fuel runs to Pahia and KeriKeri. There's a lot of activity in the marina and anchorage also; cruisers are coming to Opua from Whangerai and Aukland in preparation for departure to Fiji, Vanuatu, New Caledonia or Australia. Yesterday afternoon the Island Cruising Association hosted their first get together in advance of these departures, the topic being medical preparation for leaving New Zealand. A local physician and pharmacist gave short presentations, and cruisers were able to request any of their prescription needs thru consultation with the doctor. What a convenient way to stock up our medical kit and replace a bunch of our expired meds! We've also noted an increase in the work load of the local trade shops and haul out facilities as cruisers get last minute work done on their boats. Everyone's keeping an eye out for a good weather window, and several boats we know have already departed the area.

March 28 - Sand Surfing

We left Opua at dawn, traveling up to Cape Reinga with our friends Martin and Angela of sv Katie-M II. There wasn't much traffic on the road, and we made good time to the northern most light house in New Zealand. There's a lot of Maori influence in the area, and many of the rocks and promontories are annotated in informational placards along the trail to the lighthouse. North Cape, a few miles to the east, is actually the northern most point of land in NZ, but the Cape Reinga lighthouse has been around a long time, is now automated, and the view is where the Pacific Ocean and the Tasman Sea meet. We then went to the Te Paki 'Giant' Sand Dunes, which are natural mountains of sand stretching over a large area. You bring or rent a boogie board that has been fiberglassed on the bottom, and then start the arduous climb up a 50 degree hill that is, at least the dune we rode down, 62 meters high. It doesn't sound like much until you finally get up there, but looking down the slope, using your feet as rudders to surf down the dune face, and taking off with the sand blowing past you as you realize you're gaining speed, is an exhilarating rush. After eating lunch at Tapotupotu Bay, we drove over to 90 Mile Beach, where you can drive your car the 90 mile length of sand, but you had better pay close attention to the tide; many cars have been stranded as the tide rose and the sand became too soft to drive thru. As an alternative, we chose to park nearby and walk a bit of the beach to do some shelling. After, we started back to Opua, but stopped at Manganui for a fish and chips dinner. OK now, who else wants to go sand surfing?
Pic: Michael is heading down...you can't see the finish, but it's at the bottom by a sm. creek. There was a tour bus there when we did our slides. Angela took the pictures of us-Thanks!

Mar 20 - Rain, and more rain

The Northland has been getting inundated with very heavy rains for days now, and flooding has occurred in many of the surrounding districts. High winds and gale warnings have lashed the area, and a friend of ours at anchor nearby recorded 47 knots of wind the other night. Not too much fun for being outdoors, but we've been busy down below and even managed one short trip to Pahia to drop off Webb Chiles (who we met several years ago at Shelter Bay Marina in Panama) at a hotel there while he awaits to see if his flight from Keri Keri to Aukland is still on or cancelled due to adverse weather. Webb's told us he's bought a 24' Moore 24 and intends to set her up for long distance cruising, so The Hawke of Tounela, his present boat on a mooring in front of the Opua Cruising Club, is for sale. Btw, for all us dreamers out there, Webb's completed five circumnavigations, has written extensively, and you can enjoy his web site at http://www.inthepresentsea.com/the_actual_site/webbchiles.html
The water color gets the most uninviting shades of brown with all the runoff.

March 13 - We're back aboard Infini

We drove back from Whangarei; unpacked the car, did a laundry and are straitening up the boat. It's good to be back!
NZ is a diverse, amazing country to experience.
Pic: the view from our cockpit.

Mar 12 - Aukland and Whangarei

We drove from Tauranga to Aukland, stopping there to see the Gromiteers. Mike, Cornelia and the Gromiteers (their kids Zoe, Maia and Liam) live aboard Gromit, and we hadn't seen them since Suwarrow Atoll. Again, briefly catching up with their lives and discussing future travels is so much fun. Peggy (sv Rhythm) surprised us by stopping by, making it an even better reunion. In the afternoon we drove to Whangarei to see Dennis and Mary Lee (sv Lardo). They had just returned from Aukland, so our collective timing was spot on! We all enjoyed a nice take-out Thai dinner at our Top 10 Holiday Park cabin, which turned out to be a really deluxe unit; appropriate for the last night of our road tour of NZ.

Mar 11 - Tauranga

We stopped in Tauranga to see our good friend Roger (sv Ballerina), who we've known a long time. It was so much fun spending the day with him and catching up with each others lives and events. It was also great to have a local's inside view of Tauranga and its surrounds, and we enjoyed our walk around Mt. Maunganui, our dinner at a local Indian restaurant, and were sorry to finally have to say g'night and call it a day.

Mar 10 Trekking and Rotorua

We hiked a bit around Huka Falls, which is where the Waikato River goes thru a very narrow area and falls into a maelstrom of water. Lots of hydroelectric power is generated in various parts of NZ by this enormous outflow. We then drove to a geothermal area called Craters of the Moon. It's a very short (45 min) walk around thermal steam vents and mud pools. There are lots of posted signs reminding folks to watch after their children and stay on the path....The late afternoon found us in Rotorua, and a heavy sulfur smell was prevalent. Of interest, there's a large Maori influence in Rotorua, and the area is also thought to have healing properties found in its many hot springs and mud pools. That night we attended, by pure happenstance, the 12th annual Lakeside Music Festival. Another example of being in the right place at the right time! Several thousand people brought their blankets and chairs, iceboxes, food, and children to a small park area by Lake Rotorua, and enjoyed a wonderful semi and professional performance of a variety of musical venues, with singers backed by a small orchestra. There were soloists as well as group acts, highlighted by several operatic numbers (!), which brought loud applause from the crowd. The concert was concluded by a fireworks display; it was an awesome evening.
(Pic is of the 'Craters of the Moon' area from the ridge walk.)

March 8-9 Picton to Lake Taupo

We drove to Picton, walked around the town in blustery weather, and relaxed and got ready for the ferry ride to Wellington the next morning. It's time we headed back to Infini, and our road trip is soon ending. We traveled via the Bluebridge Ferry, the same one we used for the ride south, and enjoyed a beautiful crossing, seeing dolphins and albatross as an added benefit. We also had the pleasure of meeting a wonderful woman who lived in Picton, and enjoyed sharing her views over the three hour ferry passage. Once off the ferry, we drove to Lake Taupo, a beautiful area of the North Island, very scenic, and another playground for many visitors. It's considered another adrenalin pumping area, and all sorts of tourist attractions are offered at NZ's largest lake. As an aside, trout fishing is also a huge sport in the area.
Each small town we pass through is unique, and they all seem to claim a 'theme'. One such picturesque town is Taihape, which lies on the southern edge of the Central Volcanic Plateau, and claims to be the ‘Gumboot Capital of New Zealand’. They, like many take pride in their parks and gardens, making it a delightful drive through, and inviting to stop for a break, or longer!

Feb 24 - Our last day in Wellington

We started the day by taking the famous Wellington Cable Car up the mountain where a Cable Car Museum, Observatory and Botanical Gardens are found. It's $6 round trip, although one way ($3) would have been OK, as walking down to town after viewing the Lady Norwood Rose Garden was all downhill and appeared easy enough. We spent hours walking thru the Botanical Gardens (founded 1891) and surrounds, identifying trees and plants by their posted names. For lunch, we walked thru more of the downtown area, and settled on a fresh fish market serving, amongst many other items, fish and chips. The store was so small there were no tables and was a take out place only, so we walked a bit more and stopped to sit under a tree to eat lunch. There are hundreds of shops and thousands of tourists and locals around; this is a very crowded city with lots of car traffic. One nearby street to the Trinity Hotel (where we're staying) is Cuba Street, and it's cordoned off for a few blocks for pedestrians only. There, we stopped for a beer at the Bristol Hotel, one of the many well known bars in town. Talking of bars, they, along with restaurants, coffee shops, clothing and jewelry shops take up many of the storefronts. The fashionistas are in vogue here, and short skirts are definitely the "in" fashion. Clothes, and especially shoes, are insanely expensive in NZ, and seem to be even more so here. Another observation of Wellington is the variety of old buildings and architectural designs; many have been restored from the early 1900's. Later, for dinner we ate Malaysian food at a place called the Satay Noodle. All in all, we had a full last day of walking and seeing the sites here, and if you're into exploring a bit of city life, we highly recommend you check out Wellington, the second largest city in NZ, as well as its capital.
Pic: Taking a break at the Gardens.

Feb 22 - Wellington

We thought the drive from Masterton to Castlepoint was pretty windy, but the drive from Castlepoint back thru Masterton and on to Wellington was also one that required careful attention to the road. It rained heavily all day and night, and the forecast was for gale warnings across the Cook Strait. Since you have to take one of two ferries across the Cook Strait to get from North to South Island, we decided to wait in Wellington and see the city sites until the weather cleared up a bit. (One advantage of not being on a tight schedule.) It turned out that the Interislander Ferry wasn't taking bookings due to "technical problems," so that left only the Bluebridge Ferry to go from Wellington to Picton, and we're booked for an 0800 Sat morning crossing. We stayed the night at the Top 10 Wellington in lower Hutt, then decided to leave and booked into the Trinity Hotel in downtown Wellington today. Yesterday, we went to the Te Papa Museum, a wonderful place that celebrates the culture and history of New Zealand. Today, the rain has finally stopped, but the winds were howling most of the day. We continued our walking "tour," gazing into the many shop windows and stopping at book and camping stores. This evening, we ate dinner at a notable place; the Tulsi Indian Restaurant, where we very much enjoyed a wonderful, fairly priced meal.

Feb 21 - Castlepoint

After going to Whakapapa Village in Tongariro National Park, we drove to Castlepoint. There, we met up with Martin and Angela (sv Katie M) and stayed at their friend's bache overlooking the beach. The coastal views were incredible and we went hiking during the afternoon. Although Castlepoint Rock is only 162 meters high, the climb up was arduous, but worthwhile. Overlooking the small settlement of Castlepoint on one side and on the Wairarapa Coast, the other side is bordered by Christmas Bay, where Capt. Cook was anchored Christmas day many years ago. We also hiked the stairs up to the Castlepoint Lighthouse, which is still a functioning lighthouse, first lit in 1913 and automated in 1988. Around the Lighthouse grows the yellow daisy, unique in the world, and a gray/brown moth, also only found in the immediate area. Kewl. After our climbs, the hot showers felt great, and we enjoyed a home cooked steak dinner with accoutrements with Martin and Angela. (Sometimes, it's just plain tough being a cruiser.)

Feb 20 - Road Trip

We departed Opua and met up with some friends of ours in Aukland. They're living aboard at Pier 21, in the heart of downtown. The mega sailing yachts were there for a regatta, and the expected complement of super expensive European luxury cars were parked nearby. Aukland downtown is like any other big city downtown, but we had a really good time visiting, and had a chance to stop at a chandlery for a Raritan head part - a small gasket seal costing $30! (It's cheaper to use a bucket...) The next day we drove to Cambridge, a small town near Hamilton, to visit some family of a dear friend of ours back in Florida. They immigrated here from South Africa, and we had some quality time with the family and some friends of theirs, and hope they visit Florida so we can reciprocate their incredible hospitality. The next morning we drove to the Waitomo Cave area, and went hiking on the Ruakuri Tunnels Bush Walk. Limestone caves, tunnels and grottos wind around a stream, and it's a beautiful walk. After, we drove to Ohakune, a small town on the way south to Wellington. The scenery of rolling hills and winding roads is beautiful, all rural, and sheep and dairy farms are everywhere. We stayed the night at the Top 10 Ohakune, which is a Holiday Park camping area which offers small motel rooms (your choice of ensuite or communal bathroom facilities, and some rooms include bedding, towels and cooking facilities also) as well as camping accomodations. It spreads out over a clean, safe few acres, and we're planning our next day's adventures towards Castlepoint to meet up with some other yachtie friends there.
To look at a map of the North Island, go to-
http://www.backpack-newzealand.com/mapofnorthisland.html

Feb 14 - Valentine's Day

We all remembered today, didn't we? Wanting to do something special, we drove to the Puketi Forest, near Keri Keri, and walked amongst the kauri trees. The oldest kauri tree in the Puketi was about 500 years old, but the oldest one known in NZ was over 4000 years old, and extinct a long time ago. We enjoyed reading the Forest Service informational plaques and wondered at these beautiful trees which can grow so tall (up to 150') and had diameters up to 15'. We're happy to report that efforts are being made to save the kauri from extinction, and that wholesale cutting has been prohibited for many years. After our walk we drove to the nearby Ake Ake Vineyard & Restaurant for a late lunch. We can tell you from first hand experience that their wines are really good, and the meal we had was some of the best food we've had in New Zealand (we shared a delicious sirloin steak and bowl of green lipped mussels). We returned to the boat in the late afternoon to clouds and rain, as a trough is slowly settling into the North Island. What a fun day; we hope you enjoyed your Valentine's Day as much as we did ours!

Feb 13 - Infini went sailing today!

That's right - we left the dock! Roger Hall, the Doyle Sails pro suggested we take the boat out, hoist the new main, check things out, and go over the details. Seeing that we hadn't left the dock since arrival in Opua about 4 months ago, the burning question was whether the barnacle growth on the prop was too great to get steerage and gears! I probably haven't mentioned that the currents here are quite fast, and can easily reach 2-3 knots thru the marina area, not counting any cross breeze that generally is happening also. Getting in and out of your slip can be a bit nerve racking, but this morning things went smoothly, with our friend Rich (Slip Away) in his dinghy ready to act as a tug in case we needed it (we didn't); and we motored out to the fairway and hoisted the main. It set beautifully and the Doyle workmanship is definitely up to offshore standards. We then put a reef in to see how things set up, spending about an hour going over things with Roger. Coming back into the marina we had 10-12 knots of wind directly astern along with a 2 knot current pushing us along. We had to make a hard right turn and then a hard left into our slip, so timing is everything. Our friends Paul & Karen (Gigi) took our lines as we berthed gently and secured the boat. Things went great, for which we are so thankful! We also had a chance to go over a few sytems we hadn't used for quite a while, and all was well. Roger then measured for the new sail cover we need made and we sat and visited for a few minutes before he had to scoot off for other appointments. We then went into Keri Keri with Paul and Karen to do a bit of shopping and for us to get a few items we'll need for our upcoming road trip. It's been a long day.
(Infini is hull #49 of the 43' Westsails...)

Feb 10 - Happenings

We picked up our car yesterday from Phillip (Cars for Cruisers; phillipzisakis@yahoo.com) and are now driving a sharp looking Mazda Capella wagon. We think it will serve our land touring purposes well, and many kudos to Phil for finding it on the spur of the moment for us. Roger of Doyle Sails brought our new mainsail to Infini today, and we've planned a test sail this Monday to see the shape of the new sail once its hoisted and figure any other refinements needed. Sue's been busy sewing up new hatch covers, so it's been a busy day for everybody. Tomorrow is the cruisers swap meet, and we hope to lighten the boat by at least a few ounces...that is, if I don't find anything from anyone else's crap pile, I mean treasures of the bilge pile, to buy.

Feb 6 - Waitangi Day and Superbowl

It's Waitangi Day here in NZ, a public holiday to commemorate the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi in 1840. To quote Wikipedia, "The Treaty made New Zealand a part of the British Empire, guaranteed Ma-ori rights to their land and gave Ma-ori the rights of British subjects. There are differences between the Ma-ori and English language versions of the Treaty, and virtually since 1840 this has led to debate over exactly what was agreed to at Waitangi. Ma-ori have generally seen the Treaty as a sacred pact, while for many years Pa-keha- (the Ma-ori word for New Zealanders of predominantly European ancestry) ignored it. By the early twentieth century, however, some Pa-keha- were beginning to see the Treaty as their nation's founding document and a symbol of British humanitarianism." Many stores and public businesses were closed. We cruisers, however, got together to watch the Superbowl at the Opua Cruising Club. About 18 people shared a potluck, and enjoyed the game on the wide screen TV. Interestingly, we didn't get to see any of the American TV ads played during the game, as all the ads were either NZ or European!

Feb 2 - Update

I installed our new batteries late yesterday and everything checked out OK. Our 2T chain hoist came in handy and saved everyone's backs from strain lifting the heavy 8D batteries. The replacement element for the water heater was installed, wiring rechecked, and we're awaiting one bronze elbow to complete the install of the Aqualarm Save Your Engine Kit (part 20064). The new Doyle mainsail arrives next week, and our projects should be winding down enough to take off for our extended road trip of north and south island. We've been checking maps, noting places we want to see and hike, and are getting ready!
(Rich and Michael unloading our dead batteries)