Preparing the preparation so we are prepared to prepare to stay here for a while

Salsa af Stavsnas
Ellinor Ristoff Staffan Ehde
Sun 24 Nov 2013 08:36
We feel very welcome to NZ. For sure! Everybody is so friendly and helpful. Today we had a long walk with the family of Miss My, maybe something like 5 km with the kids along the shoreline from Opua to Pahia. Sunshine and a very thin layer of ozone. Even though we are coming from the tropics we have to be careful with the sun.
After a long walk we ended up in some art and craft market and since we were hungry a chinese restaurant with buffé was tempting. And was it good and fresh? YES!
Everything was good and even the kids loved it (yes even Andreas).
Getting ashore the challenge is Andreas who is more wild than tame. So now we have to keep him on a short leash. Yesterday we talked seriously with him about not disappearing from us. After a few very clear sentences we asked," what did we say?" He looks at us, does not know what to answer, he just stays silent.
"Andreas! This is SERIOUS talk! What did we say?" He looks at us again and then almost whispers "It is so hard for me to remember restrictions..."

This coming week is a fixing and travel week. First of all we have to finish the fun work we have started with the toilet tanks (in english known as black water). The valves are no good. And because of that one of the tanks is full... Yes I will not give you any more details on that if you do not wish to know.
We will have a checkup on our dinghy, if it is worth repairing.
The Windlass, we hope to get an answer on if it can be repaired.
The engine will be aligned etc.
Wednesday we have rented a car (rent a dent) and will travel down to Auckland and then to Whitianga. A marina and village recommended by our NZ friends Ian and Jan. We will try to find out if that is a good place for us to stay the rest of the time in NZ and to leave the boat while we are in Sweden.