{"id":3604,"date":"2016-02-03T22:11:14","date_gmt":"2016-02-03T22:11:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/svtoucan.com\/svtblog\/?p=3604"},"modified":"2016-02-03T22:11:14","modified_gmt":"2016-02-03T22:11:14","slug":"fun-fun-fun-whangarei-new-zealand","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/svtoucan.com\/svtblog\/?p=3604","title":{"rendered":"Fun, Fun, Fun – Whangarei, New Zealand"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Town<\/a>
Town Basin Marina, Whangarei<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

No, we haven\u2019t fallen off the edge of the world \u2013 we\u2019ve 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\u2019s back to work, the skipper is cracking the whip and there\u2019ll be no more lollygagging on this ship!<\/p>\n

We had a fabulous trip back home, spending Christmas in Cairns with our boys, Nick & Rob, and our future daughter-in-law, Sally. Even the constant rain couldn\u2019t dampen our spirits and it was a wonderful, special reunion.<\/p>\n

\"All<\/a>
All together again, after nearly 2 years!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

From there we headed to Sydney for a whirlwind few days catching up with friends and family and retrieving a few needed items out of storage. Again, it was so wonderful to catch up with (almost) everyone and we thank you all for your hospitality \u2013 we felt (and looked) like stuffed turkeys by the time we left!<\/p>\n

And now we\u2019re back in Whangarei catching up on a multitude of boat jobs and waiting for parts to arrive. Whangarei (pronounced Fung-a-ray) is a great place to spend some time \u2013 the marina is right in town and very cruiser-friendly. Yachts from around the world congregate here to wait out the cyclone season, and we\u2019re catching up with many familiar faces that we\u2019ve met on our journey through the Pacific, which is just lovely. Every few weeks the marina managers, Sharon & Brian, host a cruisers BBQ which is a great forum to catch up or meet new friends. And the town itself is large enough to meet all our supply needs, but small enough to have plenty of character. There are myriads of coffee shops, bookshops, art and craft centres and ice cream outlets, so we\u2019re in heaven!<\/p>\n

\"Our<\/a>
Historic Reyburn House – not a bad back yard view<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Waterfront<\/a>
Waterfront cafes, Whangarei<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"The<\/a>
The sundial and flower gardens, Town Basin<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"There's<\/a>
There’s even a small fishing fleet in Whangarei<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Saturday morning is the Grower\u2019s market, held in a car park under the bridge, where we can source organic fruit and veggies, local cheeses and meat. It\u2019s not quite as big as the Narrabeen markets back home, but it\u2019s pretty damn good \u2013 especially after the dearth of fresh produce in the islands.<\/p>\n

\"My<\/a>
My favourite haunt on Saturday mornings – the Growers’ Market<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It was great to see our buddies from \u201cRehua\u201d last week \u2013 they drove up from Auckland and spent a night with us, and kindly loaned us their fold-up bikes which will make getting around town a lot easier and faster. There\u2019s also plenty of walking tracks here so there\u2019s no excuse not to shed some of those Christmas kilos!<\/p>\n

\"Part<\/a>
Part of the Hatea Loop walkway<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"the<\/a>
the bascule bridge which opens on demand for sailing vessels – except when it’s too hot and expansion causes it to fail!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Even<\/a>
Even the ducks are a bit special here<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

There\u2019s no lack of cultural events either \u2013 when Marce from \u201cEscape Velocity\u201d told me there was an African drumming workshop and concert happening at one of the local venues, I didn\u2019t hesitate. It\u2019s been about 8 years since I did any drumming in Sydney, but I loved it then and it was just as much fun here. Koffie is from Ghana, but now lives in NZ, and was a great teacher (and a pretty cool guy all-round \u2013 love those pants!).<\/p>\n

\"Koffie<\/a>
Koffie & friends drumming up a storm<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In the evening Jack & Marce from \u201cEscape Velocity\u201d joined us at the Old Stone Butter Factory for an evening of music and dance, finishing with some audience participation from the workshop attendees. So much fun!!<\/p>\n

\"At<\/a>
At the Old Stone Butter Factory with Jack & Marce<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>
A bit of audience participation – big fun!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

No, we haven\u2019t fallen off the edge of the world \u2013 we\u2019ve 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\u2019s back to work, the skipper is cracking the whip and there\u2019ll be no more lollygagging on this ship!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3604","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-svtoucan"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6B46t-W8","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/svtoucan.com\/svtblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3604","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/svtoucan.com\/svtblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/svtoucan.com\/svtblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/svtoucan.com\/svtblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/svtoucan.com\/svtblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3604"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/svtoucan.com\/svtblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3604\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3605,"href":"http:\/\/svtoucan.com\/svtblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3604\/revisions\/3605"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/svtoucan.com\/svtblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3604"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/svtoucan.com\/svtblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3604"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/svtoucan.com\/svtblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3604"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}