\Farewell Wellinton

We spent the next month in Wellington.
This was mostly spent with my family trying to spend as much time as possible with Mum, once we leave it will be a while before we are back.
Wellington finally had 2 weeks of lovely weather—a reminder that summer really does come here and it was great to see the annual migration to the local beaches. New Zealanders have a huge affinity to the sea and they swim in water temperatures which I consider more suited to the little blue penguins we see in the local waters.
The other passion, besides rugby and cricket is fishing. There are approximately one million adult males and I think at any one time a half a million are out fishing. They go out in all weather and a nice day gives reason for the other half million to go too. This year a new passion has become soccer—a sport traditionally thought for sissies is quickly gaining legitimacy. The national soccer team managed to beat Bahrain in Wellington which gave them a berth to the world cup to be held in South Africa next year. The game in Wellington was a sell out and when NZ won everyone became an expert. To add to that the local Wellington team playing in a league with Australian state teams suddenly started to win their games. They were the underdogs with no one really paying any attention but they won an important game—Ken went to that with Harvey along with 14 thousand other Wellington fans—and all of a sudden they became the local heroes. The next game they won in front of 24,000 fans with the goalie becoming the hero making 2 saves in a kick off in a tied game. The next game is already sold out for 35.000 fans and if they can win this they will go to Sydney or Melbourne for the final. The confused rugby fans are all out trying to figure out the rules. Nzers take their leisure time seriously, other than the Winter Olympics which are not really followed despite a small NZ team—most of who learn and train on the other side of the world. We have been trying to follow Canada’s efforts which seem to be great and we wish we could see more of it. We are at the mercy of Mum’s TV or a bar which has not noticed they did not change to a different sports channel. The other night we were in a packed bar where the local fishing derby was being celebrated and realised we were the only people watching the figure skating.
We had an enjoyable few days with Barb and Frank on Destiny—we had sailed with them for some time while in the Pacific and they were coming through Wellington on their way to the South Island.
We also spent more time with Harvey—Anne was lucky enough to go on a 3 week trip to India so we had our wedding anniversary and valentine’s with Harvey. Ken helped him cut some trees and Harvey with his calm methodical manner encouraged and helped Ken fix the leak in the generator.
We spent more thousands of dollars on the engine which we hope will mean no more thousands for some time. We are very happy with the calibre of work done here and the ethics of the local boat people so although the amount we have spent is scary we feel it is well justified. We hope it means some problem free sailing to come.
We spent time with Warren and Frances enjoying cream cakes with Mum on Tues morning—Warren’s treat to her. Warren also stocked us up with his delicious home made liquor so we will not need to buy any for some years. They also offered to buy our car when we left which solved one more issue for us. It has been a great vehicle for us and we hope it gives them more trouble free miles.
We also managed to persuade Frank to come out for a harbour cruise. He is terrified of the sea but it was so calm even he couldn’t come up with an excuse. We took him and Lynda out for a couple of hours.
We bid a fond farewell to our friends at Seaview Marina, it has been a great experience being there despite the exposed location where either the winds from the north or south—being Wellington it is always one or the other—howl through. Ken has become a regular at the coffee mornings and we have become friendly with Ann and John in the catamaran next to us as well as many of the other “live aboards” there. We will miss the easy friendly daily life there.
We set off to head north to make out way slowly back to Opua. Our first intended stop was White Island, an active volcano which apparently we can anchor at and hopefully dingy ashore—depending how sulphuric and steaming it seems.
Our first day or two were uneventful topped of by a lovely albacore tuna which Ken caught. However the weather deteriorated and with a 25 knot wind and rough seas in our face after an uncomfortable night decided to head into Gisbourne to await a southerly, forecast later in the week.
We tied up there and had a great rest and enjoyed the warm temperatures which northern NZ offers. We took the opportunity to wash off the boat and start to wax the hull. Ken went to start the engine when it appeared to be sucking air—one of the issues we thought we had fixed!!! The mechanic offered to drive the 8 hours to come and fix it but Ken saw a small leak at a junction that he tightened and it appears to be OK. The mechanic will be in Auckland when we are there so he will check it then. The freezer seems to have a faulty electrical connection so that will have to be looked at too—you do not get very far on a boat without a new issue.
After a few days of wandering Gisbourne we set off in a south wind to go up around East Cape to the overnight trip to White Island. The conditions were blustery but with a following sea it never feels bad.
We arrived at White Island watching the sulphuric smoke as we approached. The only place to land was where the old ruins were but that was very close to the steam vents so we just observed it from the boat. We could smell the sulphur and the steam was continuous. This volcano has killed many over the years.
We decided to spend the night drifting slowly towards Mt Manganui in Tauranga which was our next port of call on our northward cruise. We were sailing slowly intending to come into the anchorage at dawn when at 2am there was the first of the tsunami warnings. At that stage they did not know how big it would be and Tauranga was meant to get the first waves at 7am. We decided to slow down as we certainly did not want to be entering the harbour at that time. After listening to updates and as the warnings were downgraded we came in at 10am. The current coming in was a knot stronger than is normal and apparently there is some rise and fall in water depths but this seemed to be the extent in this area.
We happily put down anchor behind “the mount” and will spend the next few days visiting around this area and hopefully posting this blog before heading north again.