It was a treat to spend some time in Auckland with my friend, Mel. Over ten years may have passed since we last saw each other, but she’s still the same ol’ Mel. She even used one of the phrases that I always considered to be one of her trademarks: “I just can’t be bothered” (meaning: I don’t have time or energy to deal with that.) It was fun to meet her flight attendant friends as well. Even though they have spent time in many of the Pacific islands that we visited, they were still very interested in my lifestyle and our experiences aboard Pura Vida. It had been a long time since I had socialized with land-dwellers, and I forgot how utterly foreign our way of life is to some of them.

Mel and her mom, Wynn

In contrast, life in the city seemed pretty foreign to me. Riding in the backseat on the highway while Mel’s flat-mate frequently changed lanes was surprisingly disconcerting considering that I used to drive the same way. The next day I went to the mall downtown to buy a new cell phone. I felt a little out of place in the hub of consumerism, as I haven’t spent money on much of anything besides food and drink in several months. Naturally, I found my way to the food court…wow! So many choices! I settled for some mix-and-match Japanese sushi take-away, and it was like nothing I’ve ever tasted. One of the creative and tasty items was a triangle of fish, egg, vegetables, and wasabi compressed together.

I was pleased to get back to see Dallas, and after a couple of days away, even happy to be back on the boat. It seems like we’ve been in a state of transition since we arrived in NZ, but after a week, we finally felt in a position to get off the dock, motor a couple of miles, and drop anchor outside the quaint little town of Russell. It’s funny….the marina used to feel like the place to be due to its close proximity to hot showers and restaurants, but at the moment, it feels much better to be out on our own surrounded by aquamarine water.

This also seems to have rejuvenated us in terms of boat maintenance. Dallas and I put in a full day on Wednesday. I cleaned up the galley and helped him to re-bed (use adhesive to re-attach) and bolt a transom step, a through-hull for the starboard forward bilge (probably the source of the many gallons of water that we took on), and the mounts for the broken bimini. Dallas also learned to splice (braid rope back into itself) while rigging up a new painter and anchor for the dinghy.

Dallas was pleased with his new dinghy painter

We headed into town around 8:00 p.m. The town of Russell was very much as it was described in the cruising guide–up-scale, romantic, colonial. Nearly everything was closed except for a few of the up-scale restaurants and the Swordfish Club. We stopped in for a glass of local wine (NZ has tasty, inexpensive wine!) and gazed in disbelief at the photos of the enormous fish that various anglers have literally pulled out of the nearby bays. One of the most memorable replicas on the wall was of a 1,016 lb blue marlin! I still don’t quite comprehend how they manage to get these behemoths on the boat.

“Old Blue”

Today is Thanksgiving for us (tomorrow for those of you back in the States). We have spent much of the day talking about and ordering things for the boat, but we’ve observed the very worthwhile traditions of phoning family and eating lots of food. We weren’t able to find our new friend Ants to treat him to a meal and give thanks for his hospitality, so it has been just the two of us, but it seems like it’s not quantity but quality that’s important when it comes to holiday company.

Thanksgiving dinner aboard—fake meatloaf, scalloped potatoes, salad, and pumpkin pie

I wrote in a recent blog that our next step would be to haul out the boat, but we’ve changed our minds. We are going to head straight to the marina in Tauranga in order to get settled in before Dallas starts work on Dec. 1. There is a weather window for setting sail down the coast on Saturday, so hopefully we will have a chance to stop at one or two idyllic, uninhabited islands along the way.