Happy Easter!!

 

Our time in New Zealand is ticking away. We arrived in October and have seen Spring and Summer come and go - the weather is turning distinctly Autumnal now.

On Easter Sunday the clocks went back introducing shorter days and there is a definite chill in the air in the evenings.

Time to head North and find the sun........

Our great friends Maggie and Andy Telford arrived early March to be greeted by the tail end of yet another cyclone. High winds and rain meant that we were marina bound for a few days but we explored the Bay of Islands land side in our little rental car making the most of the local hostelries.

Once the weather had settled we set out for a spot of cruising, exploring the little bays and anchorages around the islands. We had some great leg stretching hikes up to peninsulars with great views, and spent fun filled evenings barbecuing off the back of the boat whilst sampling the local wines and craft beers.

All good things have to come to an end and we sadly said good bye to the Telfords, but it was short lived though as a few days later we flew to Melbourne where we met up with them again!

We left Safiya in the marina in the capable hands of our new crew and together with our American friends Ken and Liisa we journeyed down to Auckland for the four hour flight to the South East tip of Australia.

Our trip to Melbourne was two fold - firstly to visit the Australian GP, the first one of the F1 season with the new teams and drivers - a big treat for Ken and Harvey who are both huge petrol heads. Liisa and I trailed after them for the bubbles and the chance to be photographed with celebs!

And secondly and most importantly to celebrate my birthday!!

We loved Melbourne, it is a huge (by NZ standards!), vibrant, cosmopolitan City. It has an amazing public transport network with trams in the City completely free of charge. Our hotel was conveniently located just three stops from Albert Park where the GP is held and it was a 10 minute journey door to door.

The Australian GP is similar to Monaco in that it is not held on a purpose built track but on regular roads with massive amounts of infra structure - grand stands etc bought in especially for the occasion. We had fantastic seats on the first bend and saw a number of cars over the two days pirouetting into the gravel but luckily no major accidents.

We were lucky enough to have hospitality tickets which not only allowed us unlimited drinks and food but also pits and paddock walkabouts where we saw the Who’s Who of the motor racing world. We went to the qualifying day on Saturday as well as the race day itself and we had a fantastic time but with a disappointing result for Harvey (Hamilton came second!).

We were in Melbourne for a week and on Monday we visited the Yarra Valley which is Victoria’s big wine growing region. We met up with Maggie and Andy again together with their Australian friends, Ron and Sue and the eight of us took the 90 minute journey to Oakridge winery for a tasting and delicious lunch. On the way back we diverted through the National Park outside Melbourne which should have afforded some amazing views but unfortunately was shrouded in cloud on that day but gave us a taste of the Australian bush. We kept our eyes skinned for kangaroos but they were all in hiding although I did sample some on my lunch plate (I can’t believe I ate Skippy!).

On my birthday the sun shone and we decided after a day of eating and drinking previously we should do something a bit more active and we rented bikes and cycled out of the City to the coast. In the evening the eight of us met up again to celebrate my birthday in the very hip and trendy “ChinChins”, an Asian/fusion restaurant which was kindly organised by yet another of the Telfords Australian friends.

On our last day in Melbourne we decided to have some R & R on the beach at St Kilda and catch some rays before heading back to New Zealand.

The forecast was great for the Easter weekend so we left the marina to cruise the Bay of Islands with Ken and Liisa on Altair, and spent Easter weekend anchored in an idyllic spot. No Easter eggs for us but a nice glass of champagne and roast NZ lamb on Easter Sunday.

Happy Easter everyone!!