We’re delighted that Geoff and Scottie have been able to join us on the passage to Fiji. As many of you know, Geoff Sherman (aka ‘Sherm’, aka ‘The Pirate’) is very familiar to Toucan, having travelled with us from the Caribbean to the Marquesas last year. Last time we saw Scottie was in 2010 when we were crewing together on ‘Secret Men’s Business’, in the Sydney-Hobart. So it was wonderful to see them both step off the bus from Auckland last Wednesday ready for the next exciting chapter in Toucan’s travels. Continue reading “On The Road Again (sort of, maybe) – Opua, Bay of Islands”

Town Basin Marina is a log-jam of cruising boats waiting for a weather window to leave NZ. Sharon and Brian at the Marina office are wonderful at being able to squeeze in ‘just one more’, including us. In fact, there’s so many big cats here it’s starting to look like a safari park… Continue reading “Exodus – Town Basin Marina, Whangarei”

Yakka noun. Work, strenuous labour, hard yakka, a common Australian phrase.

Forgive us. It’s been a long time between blogs and for those of you not on Facebook it might seem as if we’ve dropped off the edge of the world. In fact it’s quite the opposite – for the last eight weeks we’ve been high and dry, living and working on the hardstand while we grind through the seemingly endless list of boat jobs. Continue reading “Hard Yakka – Norsand Boatyard, Whangarei”

Last month we had another excursion with our cruising buddies Jack & Marce from “Escape Velocity”. This time it was to historic Waitangi in the Bay of Islands, for the Waitangi Day festival which commemorates the signing of the famous treaty in 1840 between the British Crown and the Maori chiefs. When we picked up our hire care from our local ‘Rent a Dent” agent Colin and told him where we were going, he raised his eyebrows and warned us to beware of flying sex toys. Exchanging bemused glances, we reckoned we were in for an interesting day….. Continue reading “Treaty – Waitangi, New Zealand”

Earlier this month we took a rare day off from boat jobs, and with our buddies from ‘Escape Velocity’ hired a car to explore the famous Kauri forests at Waipoua.

Continue reading “Into The Woods – Waipoua Forest, NZ”

We’ve decided that working on a boat is akin to being involved in a never-ending game of ‘twister’ – you know the one, where you have to place your hands and feet on the circles until you’re in an impossibly contorted position – which is fine if you’re young, slim and flexible, but not so great if you’re…… not. Continue reading “Twister – Whangarei, NZ”