Our stay on the private island was a success. We were
allowed to go because Denise has friends who are part owners.
Walking on the island was interesting; the views are
spectacular and at one end are World War Two ruins of gun placements. We walked
for about four hours; it got very tricky when we decided to go back along the
coast line, along the beaches, which did not always connect. We ended up doing a
fair amount of climbing. Not ideal when Ewan had little Stanley on his back, but
we all made it safely back to the cottage. The younger ones (and Duncan) did
some paddle boarding; the water was still too cold for swimming.
We then spent another few days with Ewan and Jem and did
some more work on "Uta Pati Farm" with tree planting and sorting the veggie
garden. Duncan and Ewan also hung the heavy gate.
Then back to Mount Mauganui for a last weekend with
Denise and Tim. We walked along a river with several waterfalls in the Roturoa
area and Denise gave me a lesson in paddle boarding, which was great fun in
shallow water.
We left Auckland for Hong Kong on the 25th November,
where we stopped for a few days to spend time with Colin, Ian and Luke and see
Frankie. We also had a evening with some Gurkha friends and did some
shopping.
We got back to Phuket on Saturday and are now well into
working on Sea Topaz again. This time sandblasting (and then painting) the hull
below the waterline.
Then we can start thinking about putting the boat back
together again.
