Apr 12, 2015 New Zealand after Auckland

We have been very busy with school work and boat projects, so I hadn't realized how much time had passed since my last entry.

After we left Auckland we headed over to Rangitito Island and met up with Brian Krell. The hike to the top of this volcanic island provided us with excellent views of Auckland and the Hauraki Gulf.

We really enjoyed exploring Kawau Island. The first governor's mansion and grounds are very opulent and have been maintained as a park. Back in the day he kept exotic animals such as zebras and elephants, and there are still peacocks, wekas and wallabies on the property. 

 One of the many Wekas on the island. They are a flightless bird that is native to New Zealand.

We took about a week to cruise up the coast to Opua stopping in Omaha Cove, Tutukaka, and Omakiwi Cove in the Bay of Islands.

Once back in Opua, we got back into the routine of schoolwork, boat projects and fantastic dinners with my parents. This tranquility was broken up by the looming threat of cyclone Pam. Fortunately for us it passed New Zealand a safe distance out to sea. We had a couple of days of 25-30 knots, with only a few gusts as high as 50 knots. The night we expected the most impact we left the kids ashore with my parents, and Gary and I stayed on the boat to ride out the storm. Fortunately it was not as strong as predicted, so we had a nice romantic dinner, with one strong gust sending the wine bottle sailing across the table, but it was caught by Gary just in time.

Mom and Dad's landlady, Antoinette, is extremely friendly and has been super helpful to everyone. She took Mom out shopping with her when Dad was out sailing with us, plus too many other things to list. She is also a fantastic cook and used to live in Malaysia, so she gave Mom, Gigi and me cooking lessons. She taught us how to make spring rolls, Malaysian salsa, fish cakes, shrimp curry, and pavlova for dessert. So yummy! It took 2 nights to make all the food, then we had an amazing feast. Axel's compliment was "this food is so great I ate so much I think I am going to vomit."

Mom and Antoinette in the kitchen preparing the Malaysian feast.

The following day Antoinette and Jess, and Mom and Dad, joined us for a nice afternoon sail and dinner on Nirvana. It was a little intimidating making dinner immediately after the Malaysian feast, but I think our BBQ skills were up to snuff.

The next week we went out for a couple of nights in the Bay of Islands where Gary caught a kingfish and a tuna, and Gigi and Gary collected pipis, a type of clam, by digging them out of the sand at low tide. So we called my parents and had them come join us on the boat in Russell and we had a seafood feast. My Dad loved the pipis and was so bummed that we hadn't been collecting them the entire time he was here.

On April 1st my parents headed back to Canada. We really enjoyed having them around and they really enjoyed living in New Zealand.

Old friends we knew from Vancouver/Whistler, AJ and Roland Matthews, and their 4 year old daughter Isabella, joined us for a little Easter cruise in the Bay of Islands.

We had perfect weather so we enjoyed a little paddleboarding, kayaking, skurfing behind the dinghy and playing on the beach. On Easter Sunday we participated in a scavenger hunt put on by the Bay of Islands Swordfish Club. We had to go to 3 different islands to gather clues, treasure and shellfish. We also tried to catch a fish, but did not succeed. We were the slowest boat, as we were the only sailboat, but we still managed to come in 3rd. It was a great day and each of the kids won a fishing rod as our 3rd place prize, which they immediately used to try to catch tourists from the balcony at the fishing club.

AJ on Nirvana

Gary telling Roland a riveting tale

Isabella, Axel and Gigi on the beach

Isabella's first Easter egg hunt.

The scavenger hunt was a fancy dress occasion, hence the nice outfits.

Our gorgeous pirate

Collecting our 3rd place prizes

Now we are doing the final preparations for getting ready to sail to Fiji. The kids are working ahead on their schoolwork, as it is really hard to do most if it while at sea. I have been buying lots of groceries, and Gary's boat project list remains constantly long.

It looks like we could leave in 3-4 days or we will have to wait a bit more than a week for the next window. I will definitely post something when we leave and we will have the tracker on, so you can follow our route. We are hoping to stop at Minerva reef again, the snorkeling and fishing were so incredible there that it is hard to pass by a place like that. Then the plan is to head to Savusavu in Fiji. We are getting really excited to spend 3-4 months in Fiji, the people are so nice and region is a tropical paradise.

Fair sailing,

Julie