New Zealand - 4 weeks later
Aurora_b
Mike and Liz Downing
Mon 6 Dec 2010 11:23
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Still in Opua and have been here for 4 weeks now - the time
has just flown by. The first week was spent finding our way around and
starting to wash and pack away all the offshore gear. You don't realize how much
of that you have until you start and then find it goes on and on. Then it was a
week of festivities organised by the rally we joined in Tonga. The sailing aspect of the rally was a non-event - no coordination and
everyone did their own thing. Just Troutbridge and ourselves left Vava'u and we
followed different courses. The SSB net and weather reports were not good
either, but the socializing this end in NZ has been excellent. We had a
full week of events with seminars each day (on things like rigging, weather,
cruising NZ), trips out to local towns, and there was something every evening -
the local businesses sponsored meals or pot luck barbecues were organised. It
all finished with the final meal - a pork roast - and prize giving. Prizes
were nothing to do with sailing, boat names were just pulled out of the hat. It
was arranged so that every boat won something and our prize was a hire car for 2
days and a travel pack - cool bag, thermos, cups, rug, maps, so pretty good,
particularly as it didn't cost anything to join. It was run by the Island
Cruising Association and very well organised.
The last 2 weeks we've been continuing to
sorting the boat out and start to get work done by the local services, e.g.
having the rig checked by the rigging company here. I go up the mast
after every offshore passage to check all is okay and inspect the rigging
at deck level every couple of days while on passage, but it's reassuring to get
the professionals to have a look at it once a year. It came through with no
problems, so after a fairly boisterous Pacific crossing that was good news.
We're having a few other minor improvements made and have been getting
quotes. Whangarei, an hour's drive away to the south, is in competition with
Opua for boat work and they took a coach load of yachties, including
ourselves, down to tour the boatyards followed by a meal and a welcoming
speech by the mayor! Whangarei is the largest city in Northland (the top end of
the North Island) and has a huge number of small business to do work of all
kinds. So it's the best place to go to have any serious work done, but it's 15
miles up a river and you need to go up with the tide, so it's not so easy to get
out to sea again to go sailing. At the moment we're planning to stay around Opua
to get what we want done. In comparison with Whangarei, Opua in minute. It has a
good number of boat services and 3 chandlers around the marina, but there's only
one shop - a grocery shop that's also the Post Office. There are no ATMs so
we have to catch a bus (runs on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays) to the seaside
town of Paihia to get money out. But it is nice to feel wanted and the
people of NZ have definitely opened their arms and given a very warm
welcome to the yachts that have arrived here this year. Even customs
gave us a welcome pack when we checked in containing all sorts of goodies,
including a small bottle of rum! That's never happened to us anywhere
else.
With our 2 days of free car hire we traveled 300 miles in a
circle - up the east coast to 90 Mile Beach on the west
coast and then back to Opua via the inland route across the
country. 90 mile Beach is in fact only about 60 miles, but that's
still not bad for a beach! The sand at the water's edge is hard and you can
drive cars along it, and are allowed to do so - there are signs up saying normal
road rules apply. Coach trips make a point of driving along the edge of the
surf. The countryside in this part of NZ reminds us of the west
country, but better - very green and hilly with small woods scattered
across the pasture land - and very very picturesque - but all the trees and
shrubs are totally different to the UK. There's also a lot of tree ferns
growing wild here, the national icon. There are sheep here, but not
many in this part. There are a lot of cows - all the breeds we see at
home. One thing we saw that we don't get at home is a very
colourful parrot in the forest on the way back from 90 mile beach We think it
might have been an eastern Rosella. We haven't seen a kiwi yet as they quite
rare and nocturnal.
There is good wifi here at £20 a month - not too bad
- so we've started to put together pictures of Tonga for going up on
the blog and hope to get these up in the next week, followed by the first of no
doubt, many many photos of NZ.
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