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.

Wes and Tiff also made their way to Auckland this morning to catch their flights back home. Tiff has been counting the days until she is able to see her family, and now she can finally stop counting. She has lived most of her life within a few blocks radius of her family, so she has been quite a trooper coming all this way!

The City of Sails (as viewed from the bus)

 

 So we are now in the Eastern hemisphere, but I could swear today that I am back in the West. Granted the Maori culture is prevalent in certain areas of NZ such as up in the Bay of Islands where we met Ants, but here in the city (so far) there is a distinct absence of anything remotely resembling Maori or even Asian heritage (although the population is very diverse). With the skyscrapers and strip malls, it seems like an American city. It’s already having an influence on me…I keep thinking about how I need to get back to work! I found a couple of interesting leads in the newspapers, so we’ll see…

Dallas is holding down the multihulled fort for a couple of days back in Opua. When I return, we will most likely move the boat to a boatyard to get hauled out and take care of some of the major tasks on the boat maintenance list such as the “bottom job” (sanding and repainting the hulls), repairing the starboard trampoline, and having the bow inspected and potentially repaired by a professional. (There was damage to the stainless steel plate and base of the roller furler as a result of pounding into the waves.) In the meantime, he is working on the multitude of minor repairs and taking time out now and then to explore the Northland. Yesterday, for example, Ants came by the boat and took Dallas out pig hunting in the woods! Ants has a couple of very big and mean but well-trained dogs that do the actual killing of the pigs, but alas, Dallas didn’t have a chance to see them in action yesterday. Interestingly, Dallas learned that the NZ Department of Conservation is in the process of poisoning all of the large animals such as the pigs in the area in an effort to restore the original habitat of the area (i.e., primarily birds and fish). Obviously, this places the government at odds with many of the locals such as Ants who rely on the pigs for sustenance, but somehow I think that Ants will always find a way to get by.

We had plenty of time to stretch our legs on Tuesday morning, walking up and down the arrival dock waiting on the customs/immigration folks to arrive and clear us in. They finally arrived around 10:00 a.m. and were gone no more than an hour later. It was definitely a more thorough process than we’ve experienced before (with the exception of the Honduran Navy’s search for contraband in tiny Swan Island), but it wasn’t as nerve-wracking as other cruisers had made it out to be. The three female officials were not at all imposing or threatening, although the woman in charge of inspecting the bottom of the boat for growth (using an underwater camera) appeared pretty stern initially. By the end, everyone was smiling, and they walked away with nothing but some dried beans and one of Tiff’s wooden masks from Tonga that had some wood-boring insects in it. (It was returned to us the same day after a pesticide treatment.) They do take biosecurity very seriously here, but it seems that they have good reason to work so hard to preserve the awesome natural beauty of the environment.

Green mountains of the Northland

We opted to take a spot on the dock rather than picking up a mooring so that we could take full advantage of the land-based amenities. Once settled, the first order of business, naturally, was to find something to eat and shower. We settled for a quick lunch from the general store here (there’s only one restaurant, and it’s pretty pricey) and headed to the showers. (As usual, I feel the need  to go into some detail about my experience.) First off, the water pressure was excellent, and yes, it was HOT! However, you have to pay $1 NZ (about $0.75 US) for every 4 minutes of hot water, so I didn’t spend a luxurious hour soaking up the hot water, as I would have liked. In fact, I only spent $3. I guess I’m so cheap that even hot-shower-deprivation can’t bring me to put a high price on a shower. Even so, I walked out feeling clean and refreshed, and my husband hardly recognized me with my hair down and my "Western" clothes. (We tend to dress purely for comfort when off-shore.)

Settled in among large neighbors on the boatyard dock

That afternoon, Dallas was already attacking his boat maintenance to-do list. There are quite a few marine services located here by the marina, and he stopped in to speak to a mechanic about the port engine’s oil pressure problem. An hour later, a mechanic came by with an oil pressure gauge, but wouldn’t you know it, the problem (the oil pressure alarm sounding when the engine is at idle) didn’t occur when they actually wanted it to, so we’ll have to take the boat out into the bay in the next few days in hopes that the mechanic can observe the problem once the engine has warmed up and the oil is more viscous (I just confirmed that this is in fact a word).

That night Wes and Tiff rode the bikes to Paihia, 7 kilometers away. Dallas was tired, but the money we just received from his brother Tim for our just-made-landfall dinner was burning a hole in our pocket, so he mustered up a second wind, and we made our way to the nearby restaurant. Unfortunately, it was closed, so we had no choice but to start off walking to Paihia. (We could have returned to the boat for a home-cooked meal of course, but neither of us considered that very seriously.) The walk along the windy road into the rolling, forest-lined hills was beautiful, but it was getting dark and there wasn’t much of a sidewalk, so we were relieved to come across a tavern serving pizza just a couple of kilometers from the marina. We walked into the middle of Quiz Night, so all of the tables were full of Kiwis intently examining the question on the screen and whispering to their teammates about the possible answers. We located an empty loveseat by the wall and learned the answer to questions such as "How many tries did so-and-so score in last week’s rugby match?" while enjoying a cold beer–I opted for a locally brewed draft, while Dallas enjoyed his first Guinness in almost a year.

Paihia from a distance

After the quiz ended around 10 p.m., everyone cleared out quickly except for us and a couple of locals, one of whom was a very animated local guy named Anz. He had a fairly light complexion and later explained that he was the "white sheep" of his Maori family, most of whom have browner skin. He wore baggy cotton pants tucked into tall fishing boots, which seem to be the footwear of choice here in the Bay of Islands. We enjoyed "yarning" with Anz and taking in his funny Kiwi expressions such as "sweet-az!" (cool).

Even though we are now in a 1st world country, people like Anz take advantage of the abundant natural resources, hunting or fishing or collecting shellfish and oysters to feed their families. Anz was quite proud of the plentiful food, social services, and natural beauty of his country as well as his subsistence lifestyle and was surprised to find on his travels through the States that no one, not even the Native Americans, relied on hunting as a means of survival anymore. Anyway, we hope to see Anz again while we are in the area, and I plan to take him up on his offer to introduce me to local delicacies such as pink abalone (shellfish).

Wednesday was occupied by boat projects (e.g., repairing a broken step on the transom and re-installing the indoor VHF receiver) and catching up with cruisers who just arrived such as our friends on S/V Anima and S/V Marionette. However, Dallas and I took in some natural beauty surreptitiously on our walk to the Yamaha store to get a new propeller for the dinghy’s outboard engine. As the friendly Kiwi who gave us directions informed us, "You just follow the railroad tracks till you get to a wee bridge, then there’s a wee dirt road." It was a beautiful sunny afternoon, the tracks and road were lined with wildflowers, and the indigenous birds accompanied us with their unique sounds. I suggested to Dallas that whether we decide to spend the cyclone season in Tauranga, Whangarei, or Auckland (it’s still a bit up in the air), it would be nice to take time each day to avail ourselves of the local scenery.

We have to make time for such things, because there is plenty to do on the boat. As my dad said while skyping yesterday, "I didn’t realize the ocean was so hard on boats!" You can say that again. After bailing several gallons of water out of the forward starboard bilge this morning, Dallas is regretting pushing the boat harder than usual so that we could get here a day earlier, but hindsight is always 20-20. Hopefully he will feel as though he’s accomplished some major boat repairs before he starts work in a couple of weeks.

Back in the bilge

We recently learned that Wes is going to return to TX to work during the cyclone season rather than trying to find work here. He and Tiff will be on the same flight back on Nov. 23. That leaves Dallas and I to try to create some semblance of Thanksgiving, just the two of us, here on the other side of the world. Maybe we can introduce some Kiwis such as Anz to pumpkin pie. 

Well, we finally made it, but not until we got knocked around one more time. We did get winds that let us sail the rhumb line into the Bay of Islands, but as forecasted, they became fairly strong between midnight and dawn yesterday.  With an overcast sky and no moon, the large seas forward of the beam and gusts to 35 knots or so made for a long night.  We spent the worst of it sailing under only a partially reefed jib.  Because air is so light, the winds aren’t much to worry about, but slamming into large waves, with their high density and their approaching velocity combined with ours makes for some pretty jarring collisions.  The boat’s kinetic energy goes like the square of the velocity, so increasing our speed by a factor of two quadruples the energy we have when we slam into a wave.  Although we were trying to make it in by Monday and take advantage of the brief wind change, we eventually slowed down to try to minimize the pounding, though not as much as we would have under "normal" circumstances.

This morning, the effect of pushing the boat harder than usual into the seas was readily apparent.  The mounting points for the inboard side of the starboard trampoline were all ripped out and the metal strip that covered them is still hanging from the bow.  We were occasionally on water from the tops of breaking waves that slapped against the starboard hull, and some water got sprayed into the starboard engine room (primarily through the air vents intended to provide air for the engine, I think) and onto some unprotected electronics.  Luckily, our autopilot computer wasn’t effected, but the sensor for the battery monitor suffered come corrosion damage so our battery monitor isn’t working.  The bilge pump in the port engine room quit a few days ago and this morning we had our second round of manually pumping it out using a hand pump to fill a small bucket.  It seemed easier than messing with a new bilge pump installation out there and the manual bilge pumps that are installed don’t have hoses that reach to the bottom of the engine bilges (that would be a nice change to make here in NZ).  Other than that, an alternator belt on the port engine, a strange loss of power in the port engine, and some new creaking sounds, we’ve made it through OK.  The bows are looking a bit low in the water, though so we may have taken on some water forward that still needs to be pumped out.

Busted tramp. Sleeping a few feet away was not easy.

After dealing with the engine rooms, it looked like the wind had changed enough that we could no longer sail the rhumb line.  With the seas still too large to motor into it looked like another night of sailing into waves before reaching land, but after we raised the main with a single reef in it we were able to hold the rhumb line with no problems.  We also saw another mola mola while we were raising the main.  This time, it was close enough to the surface that one of its fins was actually out of the water as it swam, making a motion sort of like a skulling oar.  They are pretty amazing creatures to see randomly when you look over the side, and it was again while we were stopped or making slow progress.  In addition to being on course we were also making really good speed and the pounding was minimal.  For the first time in days, we were actually sailing directly toward our destination, with a reasonable motion, and making good time.  The night before we had been able to pick up some AM and FM radio stations from NZ while we were still almost 100 miles offshore.  We were around 40 miles offshore when we raised the main and by 30 miles the seas were noticeably smaller.  Even though the wind was down a little, it really seems like it was due to the reduced fetch (open sea miles for the wind to build up the waves) due to being near land.  It was a pretty cloudy day, so we were only 17 miles from the mouth of the bay when we could definitely say that we say land — a large mountain marking the northern mouth of the Bay of Islands.  At 12 miles, we were formally in NZ waters raised the yellow Q flag (the international sign that you’ve just entered a country and need to clear customs), and at 8 miles we were socked in by light rain and could see a single bit of land. 

Happy to finally be headed in…

View of the south end of the mouth of the Bay of Islands

Fortunately, the rain cleared and we actually had a little bit of sunlight as we sailed through the bay and then south to the quarantine dock at the Opua Marina.  After such a long, rough passage, we were all looking forward to a hot shower and restaurant meal, but it wasn’t to be.  New Zealand has pretty strict clearance rules and processes, and since most boats check in at Opua, it’s a tight operation — quite a change from the island nations we’ve become accustomed to.  There’s a special floating dock here for boats to tie up at while they wait to clear in.  It’s the only dock I’ve ever seen that’s not connected to land.  Since we came in after hours, we have to wait until morning to clear in and we’re strictly prohibited from going ashore until then.  There was a group of boaters enjoying drinks on a balcony at the cruising club by the quarantine dock that yelled a hello to us as we came in.  Unfortunately, all we could do was wave and watch them, the restaurant nearby, and the boaters grilling on the shore-side docks just across from us.

Pura Vida alone at the quarantine dock

Not so happy with the sign

Oh well.  All told, we ended up making the dreaded passage to NZ without encountering any really bad weather — uncomfortable, but not dangerous.  Although the weather and flora are completely different than the tropical locales we’ve been enjoying the last few months (no coconut palms anywhere), this is a very beautiful place.  For all of our friends and family who’ve been patiently waiting for us to reach someplace where we can Skype reliably, we’ll try to call in the next day or two.  First, we’re going to enjoy a good night’s sleep with no getting up to stand watch on a freezing, windy night and no pounding into waves to jar us awake.