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”
Into The Woods – Waipoua Forest, NZ
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.
Twister – Whangarei, 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”
Fun, Fun, Fun – Whangarei, New Zealand
No, we haven’t fallen off the edge of the world – we’ve just been enjoying a bit of down-time from blogging over Christmas and New Year, which somehow stretched into all of January. So now it’s back to work, the skipper is cracking the whip and there’ll be no more lollygagging on this ship! Continue reading “Fun, Fun, Fun – Whangarei, New Zealand”
Landfall – Opua, New Zealand
Well, suffice to say we made it to New Zealand! The last three days were a long hard slog, but we finally tied up to the quarantine dock at Opua at 3am, 9.5 days after leaving Neiafu. The straight-line passage is approximately 1200 NM, but we racked up just over 1400NM after all the tacking and zig-zagging. Continue reading “Landfall – Opua, New Zealand”
You Can’t Always Get What You Want – Passage to New Zealand
The last section of Bob’s passage forecast looked relatively straightforward. As we headed south to New Zealand we’d encounter a weak front from the low passing to the east, and then we’d take advantage of the winds from the high coming through. As the southerly winds came in we’d go west, then as the westerly winds came in we’d go south and so make our way into Opua in light winds. Simple. Continue reading “You Can’t Always Get What You Want – Passage to New Zealand”