Sunday, April 18, 2010
North to Opua and our departure port
The last two months have been a mix of tidying up loose ends and cruising the wonderful islands and ports of northern New Zealand.
Tauranga was still in the heat of summer when we arrived with hot days and warm evenings—actually I am writing this two months later in late April and here in the north it has just started to cool off to autumn weather.
We climbed around and up the “Mount” at Mt Manganui rewarding ourselves with the fabulous yummy ice creams renowned in the area. We did go into the marina there to have a new dryer put in our freezer—we did not know we had one???!!. Anyway it turns out that you should replace it every few years.
We believe all cruisers should get to cruise for a few years and then get to start again with the same budget and spend it more wisely!!!!
Our next stop was at Great Mercury Island where we hiked all over the grassy hills—it is farmland but accessible to yachties. Ken also successfully dove for scallops—that was after the locals showed us where to dive—we had confusion with feet and metres and had spent the first few hours fruitlessly at 10 feet finding none. Once he figured it out he got lots and we now have the freezer still full—yumm. They are swimming scallops so open and close as they project themselves through the water; it is pretty funny to watch.
Next destination was Gulf Harbour north of Auckland around Cape Colville which as all Capes can be a difficult passage but we lucked out and had an easy trip and got into the marina safely.
We had been thinking of getting hauled to repaint the bottom some time before leaving NZ and upon enquiring as to the possibility they suggested the next day. We had spent a lot of time last year totally taking off all of the old paint so this time were rewarded by only having to do a hose off and roller two more coats on and were back in the water the following day.
We were offered the use of a car by other cruisers so took the opportunity to go to the Auckland Boat Show. It of course cost us money discovering a teak refinishing product which we have used and are delighted with (semco, for any interested sailors—an American product and far superior to anything we have used in the past) and we also committed to buying one more solar panel. That involves taking the radar from the back up to the mast which is something we should have done years ago as it has always shadowed our existing solar panels. We will have this done in 10 days when we fly to Wellington.
We then had a fast sail to meet up with John and Paula from Mr John, friends we had sailed with a lot in the Pacific, on Waiheke Island, a 30 minute ferry ride from downtown Auckland.
We are having quite the culture shock in this part of the world----Auckland has the most sailboats per capita of any city in the world and there are even more power boats!!!! One in three households has a boat of some kind. We had thought there were lots of boats out fishing previously in NZ—well we have had to rethink that!!!!! EVERYONE is out fishing here. It is amazing that there are any fish left!!!
We had a great few days with John and Paula and really loved Waiheke. It is so reminiscent of Salt Spring it is amazing. There are 10,000 people on the island which used to be a remote place where locals lived in small cottages and coexisted with the land. It has now become a mecca for retirees and even commuters and land prices have skyrocketed.
We cycled on very hilly roads to wineries for tastings why are all of our bike destinations anywhere in the world so hilly?? We went to the Saturday market. It was a smaller less organised version than Salt Spring but still had organic foods and jams. Even went as far as having beaver tails but their French baker did crepes rather than pastries and of course large numbers of soaps and creams. It was pretty funny and we had to giggle at the similarities.
The biggest difference is the lovely sandy beach coast line and the subtropical vegetation. The beaches were still crowded with swimmers although I am definitely a tropical water swimmer could be persuaded on a nice day here to take a dip whereas that would never be the case on Salt Spring.
After leaving Waiheke we headed into an anchorage by Rangitoto Island which is a volcanic island which came out of the sea 800 years ago and is very close to Auckland. We climbed it and watched the semifinals of the Louis Vutton cup (a sailing race with the boats they were using for the America’s Cup until this year with the multihulls). The next day we took our boat over and joined the masses of other boats watching the finals. Although NZ won, beating Italy which was great I have to admit that watching a sailing race is better on TV with the commentators and the cameras on the boats. It is even slower as a spectator sport than cricket!!!! It was amazing to see the size of the sails and realise that even though they looked as though they were going slowly we go about half their speed or less when we feel as though we are flying!!!
Next stop was into Westhaven Marina which is downtown Auckland—it always seems magical to sail so close to downtown in a big city and Auckland certainly has earned it’s reputation as “City of Sails”.
While the electricians and riggers were on the boat we flew to Wellington having a last minute dentist, doctor visit and farewell to my mom, brother and sister. We got a taste of reality as we had sold our car to Warren and Frances so spent many hours on public transport getting around. I had lunch with Anne so all in all it was a great couple of days and we achieved all that we had set out to do.
Upon returning to Auckland we stayed in the marina for a few days doing the city thing. Auckland is a lovely city. It lacks the downtown soul of Wellington but has great communities within walking distance of downtown (and the marina) and we enjoyed the outdoor cafes in the warm evenings. A large supermarket which in an American cruising guide is described as the “best supermarket in the world” is nearby and opens till midnight each day. I spent hours carefully combing for exotic “finds” on the shelves—even found a tube of anchovy paste—I had found one years ago, it is great to add to pizza. I had to be careful not get too carried away as it can be an expensive shopping spree.
After having our fill of the metropolis we went to Tiritiri, a small island which is a bird sanctuary. NZ has always had issues with the many animals early settlers thought they should bring in—stoats, possums deer etc. Many of these have decimated the native bird life over the years and they have gone to a lot of trouble ridding the predators from a lot of islands and reintroducing the birds previously there. We were rewarded on Tiritiri to see multitudes of various native birds although after reading about how rare some of these now are it was hard to take it seriously when you were coming across them at every turn. It was a great day of birdwatching and was capped off by the landing of hundreds of penguins swimming past our boat to go onshore at night. They are the same kind as we had seen in Oamaru and we just lucked out by being anchored in the bay they come into each night.
Next Island was Kawau where a governor of NZ back in Queen Victoria’s day had bought the island and built his retirement mansion. It is open to tour and is very grand. We wandered all over the island not finding any of the wallaby which he also brought from Australia. Apparently they are nocturnal and we were not prepared to come back into shore in the dark. We did have the tea with scones and cream served at the tea room as I am sure he would have had.
Our last major island stop was Great Barrier Island which is one of the more remote rugged islands in the area. It is the barrier from the outer Hauraki Gulf to the open ocean and the coast of South America.
It is a huge island with only 1000 people living on it with no water or power supply so everyone has their own generators, wind generators and solar panels. The locals are less welcoming than elsewhere we had been—I guess they chose to live out here for a reason.
We loved the hiking trails and hiked to a series of hot pools in a stream. The weather is cooler now so was a treat to soak in the hot pools for a while. We hiked quite a few other trails through lovely bush to various parts of the island.
Ken also tried to dive for crayfish—the name given to the NZ lobster but although he saw several huge ones they are still in their cracks in the rocks. We did manage to catch a lot of small but legal size snapper for a couple of meals.
One of the anchorages has been set up for boaties with a bath tub which you can heat the water with firewood and also a smokehouse to smoke the fish you caught.
A lot of manuka (a local flowering tree) is on the island and is a favourite of the bees who make a delicious honey from it. One couple had set up a honey and manuka products business so we bought honey from them.
We became friendly with a number of local “boaties” which was fun and our last night on the island invited the crew from a French boat and a Swiss boat over for hors d’ouvres which was a precursor of days to come. We are starting in the world of cruisers once again as we are now only 2 days from Opua our communal launching off place from NZ.
We are headed to Opua as I write this and where I will post this blog from. There is a trail of 3 catamarans and 1 monohull following us—no doubt foreign registered boats readying to “flock north”!!! We will spend the next week or so stocking up and readying the last minute things before we take off.
We have changed our plans and now are going to go straight to Fiji, Vanuatu and New Caledonia before heading to Bundaberg in Queensland Australia—of course all open to change again!!!!
Our previous plan to go back to Tonga and then Samoa before Fiji meant a lot of sailing and would cut into travel in Fiji and Vanuatu which appear to be the favourite countries of many cruisers. We have met people who have cruised for 10 years and rate Vanuatu as their most favourite place. We did manage to have an awesome swim with the whales while in Tonga which is one of the big attractions there and although we would love to go back if we don’t start to move west we will never make our circumnavigation which we are still committed to do.
We have loved our time in New Zealand and will be so sorry to leave. We will fly back from Australia and visit when Kristen and Kyle and their family are here next year and see my mom also. Part of my heart will always be here and I treasure this time we have had.
Tauranga was still in the heat of summer when we arrived with hot days and warm evenings—actually I am writing this two months later in late April and here in the north it has just started to cool off to autumn weather.
We climbed around and up the “Mount” at Mt Manganui rewarding ourselves with the fabulous yummy ice creams renowned in the area. We did go into the marina there to have a new dryer put in our freezer—we did not know we had one???!!. Anyway it turns out that you should replace it every few years.
We believe all cruisers should get to cruise for a few years and then get to start again with the same budget and spend it more wisely!!!!
Our next stop was at Great Mercury Island where we hiked all over the grassy hills—it is farmland but accessible to yachties. Ken also successfully dove for scallops—that was after the locals showed us where to dive—we had confusion with feet and metres and had spent the first few hours fruitlessly at 10 feet finding none. Once he figured it out he got lots and we now have the freezer still full—yumm. They are swimming scallops so open and close as they project themselves through the water; it is pretty funny to watch.
Next destination was Gulf Harbour north of Auckland around Cape Colville which as all Capes can be a difficult passage but we lucked out and had an easy trip and got into the marina safely.
We had been thinking of getting hauled to repaint the bottom some time before leaving NZ and upon enquiring as to the possibility they suggested the next day. We had spent a lot of time last year totally taking off all of the old paint so this time were rewarded by only having to do a hose off and roller two more coats on and were back in the water the following day.
We were offered the use of a car by other cruisers so took the opportunity to go to the Auckland Boat Show. It of course cost us money discovering a teak refinishing product which we have used and are delighted with (semco, for any interested sailors—an American product and far superior to anything we have used in the past) and we also committed to buying one more solar panel. That involves taking the radar from the back up to the mast which is something we should have done years ago as it has always shadowed our existing solar panels. We will have this done in 10 days when we fly to Wellington.
We then had a fast sail to meet up with John and Paula from Mr John, friends we had sailed with a lot in the Pacific, on Waiheke Island, a 30 minute ferry ride from downtown Auckland.
We are having quite the culture shock in this part of the world----Auckland has the most sailboats per capita of any city in the world and there are even more power boats!!!! One in three households has a boat of some kind. We had thought there were lots of boats out fishing previously in NZ—well we have had to rethink that!!!!! EVERYONE is out fishing here. It is amazing that there are any fish left!!!
We had a great few days with John and Paula and really loved Waiheke. It is so reminiscent of Salt Spring it is amazing. There are 10,000 people on the island which used to be a remote place where locals lived in small cottages and coexisted with the land. It has now become a mecca for retirees and even commuters and land prices have skyrocketed.
We cycled on very hilly roads to wineries for tastings why are all of our bike destinations anywhere in the world so hilly?? We went to the Saturday market. It was a smaller less organised version than Salt Spring but still had organic foods and jams. Even went as far as having beaver tails but their French baker did crepes rather than pastries and of course large numbers of soaps and creams. It was pretty funny and we had to giggle at the similarities.
The biggest difference is the lovely sandy beach coast line and the subtropical vegetation. The beaches were still crowded with swimmers although I am definitely a tropical water swimmer could be persuaded on a nice day here to take a dip whereas that would never be the case on Salt Spring.
After leaving Waiheke we headed into an anchorage by Rangitoto Island which is a volcanic island which came out of the sea 800 years ago and is very close to Auckland. We climbed it and watched the semifinals of the Louis Vutton cup (a sailing race with the boats they were using for the America’s Cup until this year with the multihulls). The next day we took our boat over and joined the masses of other boats watching the finals. Although NZ won, beating Italy which was great I have to admit that watching a sailing race is better on TV with the commentators and the cameras on the boats. It is even slower as a spectator sport than cricket!!!! It was amazing to see the size of the sails and realise that even though they looked as though they were going slowly we go about half their speed or less when we feel as though we are flying!!!
Next stop was into Westhaven Marina which is downtown Auckland—it always seems magical to sail so close to downtown in a big city and Auckland certainly has earned it’s reputation as “City of Sails”.
While the electricians and riggers were on the boat we flew to Wellington having a last minute dentist, doctor visit and farewell to my mom, brother and sister. We got a taste of reality as we had sold our car to Warren and Frances so spent many hours on public transport getting around. I had lunch with Anne so all in all it was a great couple of days and we achieved all that we had set out to do.
Upon returning to Auckland we stayed in the marina for a few days doing the city thing. Auckland is a lovely city. It lacks the downtown soul of Wellington but has great communities within walking distance of downtown (and the marina) and we enjoyed the outdoor cafes in the warm evenings. A large supermarket which in an American cruising guide is described as the “best supermarket in the world” is nearby and opens till midnight each day. I spent hours carefully combing for exotic “finds” on the shelves—even found a tube of anchovy paste—I had found one years ago, it is great to add to pizza. I had to be careful not get too carried away as it can be an expensive shopping spree.
After having our fill of the metropolis we went to Tiritiri, a small island which is a bird sanctuary. NZ has always had issues with the many animals early settlers thought they should bring in—stoats, possums deer etc. Many of these have decimated the native bird life over the years and they have gone to a lot of trouble ridding the predators from a lot of islands and reintroducing the birds previously there. We were rewarded on Tiritiri to see multitudes of various native birds although after reading about how rare some of these now are it was hard to take it seriously when you were coming across them at every turn. It was a great day of birdwatching and was capped off by the landing of hundreds of penguins swimming past our boat to go onshore at night. They are the same kind as we had seen in Oamaru and we just lucked out by being anchored in the bay they come into each night.
Next Island was Kawau where a governor of NZ back in Queen Victoria’s day had bought the island and built his retirement mansion. It is open to tour and is very grand. We wandered all over the island not finding any of the wallaby which he also brought from Australia. Apparently they are nocturnal and we were not prepared to come back into shore in the dark. We did have the tea with scones and cream served at the tea room as I am sure he would have had.
Our last major island stop was Great Barrier Island which is one of the more remote rugged islands in the area. It is the barrier from the outer Hauraki Gulf to the open ocean and the coast of South America.
It is a huge island with only 1000 people living on it with no water or power supply so everyone has their own generators, wind generators and solar panels. The locals are less welcoming than elsewhere we had been—I guess they chose to live out here for a reason.
We loved the hiking trails and hiked to a series of hot pools in a stream. The weather is cooler now so was a treat to soak in the hot pools for a while. We hiked quite a few other trails through lovely bush to various parts of the island.
Ken also tried to dive for crayfish—the name given to the NZ lobster but although he saw several huge ones they are still in their cracks in the rocks. We did manage to catch a lot of small but legal size snapper for a couple of meals.
One of the anchorages has been set up for boaties with a bath tub which you can heat the water with firewood and also a smokehouse to smoke the fish you caught.
A lot of manuka (a local flowering tree) is on the island and is a favourite of the bees who make a delicious honey from it. One couple had set up a honey and manuka products business so we bought honey from them.
We became friendly with a number of local “boaties” which was fun and our last night on the island invited the crew from a French boat and a Swiss boat over for hors d’ouvres which was a precursor of days to come. We are starting in the world of cruisers once again as we are now only 2 days from Opua our communal launching off place from NZ.
We are headed to Opua as I write this and where I will post this blog from. There is a trail of 3 catamarans and 1 monohull following us—no doubt foreign registered boats readying to “flock north”!!! We will spend the next week or so stocking up and readying the last minute things before we take off.
We have changed our plans and now are going to go straight to Fiji, Vanuatu and New Caledonia before heading to Bundaberg in Queensland Australia—of course all open to change again!!!!
Our previous plan to go back to Tonga and then Samoa before Fiji meant a lot of sailing and would cut into travel in Fiji and Vanuatu which appear to be the favourite countries of many cruisers. We have met people who have cruised for 10 years and rate Vanuatu as their most favourite place. We did manage to have an awesome swim with the whales while in Tonga which is one of the big attractions there and although we would love to go back if we don’t start to move west we will never make our circumnavigation which we are still committed to do.
We have loved our time in New Zealand and will be so sorry to leave. We will fly back from Australia and visit when Kristen and Kyle and their family are here next year and see my mom also. Part of my heart will always be here and I treasure this time we have had.
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