We had an easy trip back up to the Bay of Islands, passing another massive flock of birds and then a great view of The Hole in the rock off Cape Brett. At Russell, we found our friends on the Nordhavn 52, Mermaid Explorer. One of the joys of cruising is running into the same boats from time to time. Had a lovely curry dinner with them.  Russell is all spruced up for the summer, and has a new set of ‘stocks’

 

  

 

 

 

Sadly we had to move off to a calmer spot the next morning.  While we are happy to be back here, we are hating the weather. Most days are very windy and it rains every second day, forcing us to hide in the best calm cove – where we can sit out the 35+ knots without any chop. Mike says he feels like a prisoner, not able to move off the boat. So we are doing spring-cleaning, filing, watching movies and eating too much. We bought a great new 18v vacuum cleaner, that uses the same battery as Mike’s drills – Makita have an amazing range in 18v....even a bicycle. See how bored we are, even the vacuum cleaner is exciting

 

When one nice day came along, we scooted down to an island where we can take a walk – Urupukapuka, a national park.  This time of the year, the sheep have just been shorn and the last round of lambs are looking very fat & cute. What a nice life they have here in the national park.  Other game spotting news – we saw 4 orcas the other day, first time I have seen them in the wild.  They were very close to the shore, but not close enough to get a decent pic. Wonderful to see.

 

We also got a bucket of fresh oysters, which Mike smashed open with his hammer and we ate off the back deck .... yum!

 

 

 

     

 

Enough of the bad weather, heading into the marina for a few days.