Wednesday May 8th, Opua   New Zealand  South Pacific Ocean 35:18:884S  174:07.227E 

Today’s Blog by David (Time zone GMT+11.00; UTC +11.00)

We arrived here last Friday to wait for that “weather window” that would allow us passage to Fiji. If fortune had favoured us,  we would be pretty much in Fiji by now – broad reaching in sunshine in about 15 knots of wind. All would have been well with the world as we looked forward to encountering officialdom again in the next day or so.   If fortune had favoured us that is …………..        As you have probably already surmised, fortune did not …. and all windows  have remained tightly shut.

In the mean time we have done most things that can be done in terms of tourist ‘attractions’ (sic). We have already reported Sunday’s excursion. Yesterday,  we visited Ruapekapeka Pa HIstoric Reserve, Rawene and lunched there sumptuously in the world-renowned Boatshed  Café:

After lunch we viewed Hokianga Harbour and its 200 feet high sand dunes, travelled back to Rawene to catch the Hokianga Ferry and then drove back to the boat. Some of these destinations, well OK, all of them,  I had visited before and so  Richard spiced it up for me by  including  a tour of New Zealand’s historic public toilets.  

The only one we could find, at least only one worthy of comment,  was the HundertWasser Toilets in Kawakawa: these are quite photogenic and added a bit of zest to my day.

Hundertwasser Toilets: The Entrance Portal:

….. and where all the “action” happens:

Since these public toilets are also a tourist attraction and there is a procession of people hanging around the facilities, their cameras poised to record the image for ‘posterity’,  it was no surprise that we saw no ‘posteriors’ engaged in any Business.

Outside, It was a lovely sunny day and while we were touring  the weather forecast predictably failed to improve – in fact it deteriorated somewhat.  We had originally hoped to get away today; then we thought perhaps tomorrow. Right now,  the weather forecaster we have retained for the purpose is working on a cunning plan to have us “snake our way between a trough and a depression” ^{Note 1} each of which are, as I write,  converging on our intended track.

We are now hoping to leave on Friday morning.  If that doesn’t work we are stuck here till Tuesday after said depression has passed; thereafter there will be light tail winds and a big sloppy sea  making a departure ill advised – don’t have the fuel to motor all the way!

So Friday it is. If it is not, Opua has little left for us and  I will need to find a different kind of window to jump out of … lest  my “Gallant crew”  seek to make their own amusement – for example by  erecting a plank:  for their amusement -  if not for mine.  

Today, it rained. It’s funny how much it seems to rain in Opua. It was raining in Russell again when we went there for dinner on Saturday and it absolutely chucked it down last night. At least we haven’t needed to wash the boat down though.

Notes

1                     Somehow,  I do think those words will come back to haunt me.