Last Days in New Zealand

24. Apr. 2016
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New Zealand, Passages
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2 Comments

Author: Pete

Location: Bay of Islands, New Zealand

Well, it’s time to go. We’ve been drifting around New Zealand for almost six months and the time has come to head for Australia. Half a year seemed like a long time to stay in Kiwi-land when we were planning the trip, but so much has been packed in that the time has flown and all of a sudden it’s time to go. Plus, it’s getting to be fall and the weather is oscillating between gorgeous and rainy, and I my wimpy blood just can’t handle that kind of climate swing.

Standing in our way is the mercurial Tasman Sea. Somehow in my mind the Tasman looks like an ogre with a boar’s head, jealously guarding Australia’s golden shores. It’s late April now, and the highest chance of finding Taz in a pleasant mood. This is the sweet spot after the hurricanes stop threatening to drop in from the north and before hellacious winter storms roll up from the south. The window seems to last about four weeks and we’ve been watching the weather patterns closely as they develop over “The Ditch.” For the crossing, we’re enlisting the services of Bob McDavit, a local weather router guru who we used coming down from Fiji. The reassurance of an extra pair of eyes in the sky with current meteorologic data cannot be over exaggerated. I’d seriously sell my left kidney for it.

In the last couple weeks we’ve been working to get Tayrona gussied up and ready for sail and sale. After two years of salt abuse, some of the woodwork looked road-rashed like it fell off a Ducati. The varnish on the cockpit table was completely gone and the brightwork around the boat had dings and scuffs. Brightwork is commonly known in the non-anal-sailor community as ‘wood.’ We brought the two tables to a good local carpenter, and then I sanded and varnished everything else myself. It was a lot of dust in the boat, but now it looks sparkly and new. Hot showers in the marina take care of the dust even though you have to pay for them. I love the adage passed down from our friends on Pao Hana that, “Four dollar shower is more than twice as good as two dollar shower.” True dat.

We also took the bimini off and replaced all the zippers, enjoying our convertible for a couple of days in the process. Predictably, we got a good deal of rain just about that time. I also went up the mast and polished the upper rigging, changed the oil and engine mounts, replaced the sink faucet and refrigerator latch, replaced head mirrors, and ejected tons of redundant equipment. Four anchors? Who needs four anchors? Tayrona is sitting a good six inches higher in the water.

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Although a host of projects filled our time from dawn to dusk, but we did get to spend time with friends. Most of our cruising buddies are gathering in Opua, staging here to provision before sailing to foreign shores. Our intended trajectories spread out in all directions, and it’s bittersweet to talk about everyone’s plans for the next months. The end of this entire trip is showing itself on the horizon. I’m taken aback by the realization that we likely won’t see some of our good friends again after we leave here. There are only a handful of boats that cross the Pacific Ocean every year, and in sharing stories and libations over thousands of miles of ocean crews form a unique bond. Sailors are brought together by mutual love of the life aquatic, the freedom of the boundless ocean, and more than a touch of masochism. Sailing friends celebrate the stunning experiences and bemoan the sorrows of sailors together, leaning on each other for support and camaraderie in some of the most beautifully inhospitable places on earth. Then, as it always happens in life, especially ours as expatriates, paths diverge. You have to say goodbye, wish each other fair winds and following seas, and know that your courses may not cross again. It’s sad, but part of the deal.

On a positive note, we picked up Denny from the Kerikeri airport after five flights from Traverse City. I expected to see a trickle of midwesterner come oozing out of the airplane door and puddle on the tarmac when the hatch was opened, but he showed little signs of travel wear. That’s a good sign for crew! We all went out for ribs, and in the next days got a few more things done around the boat and introduced him to friends we’ve been sailing with for the last year and a half. Watching the weather we got dire news about the conditions in the Tasman. Our weather router predicted winds and seas to be “VERY HIGH”, so we sensibly opted to let the trough pass the north island before venturing out to Brisbane. No sense getting needlessly pummeled.

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It worked out well, actually. We had some down time to explore the old whaling town of Russell and get out to the islands for a couple of days.

Now, before shoving off, we’re checking out of the country and replacing the lost ballast with provisions, water, and fuel. Can’t get too greedy about the speed. Looks like the passage weather will be good, worth the wait as a big ugly trough is ripping through The Ditch right now. Taz seems to be in good spirits.

So now it’s time to go. That’s the short of it. Hauling anchor in the morning and out we’ll go on the falling tide. Back to the sea with Tayrona one last time.

Tayrona’s Return to Opua, NZ

06. Apr. 2016
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New Zealand
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No Comments

Author: Pete

Location: Northeast coast of New Zealand

Before shoving off north, Miranda and I took our favorite mooring for a few days to get some work done on the boat. We ended up blowing off our to-do list to spend time with our Kiwi friends Bruce, Linda, Mel, and Nico, locals of Beach Haven. Bruce and Linda have an amazing house overlooking the water, complete with a boathouse and dock. We met them in our last couple of months around Auckland and have gotten together here and there when we’re in the neighborhood (read: moored out in front of their house). They took us out to a burgeoning taproom with local beer, we met up at a weekend farmers market, and went out to lunch. One night they even had us stay in their gorgeous house when we miscalculated the tides and Dinghy was stuck in the mud. It’s been fun to be around long enough to connect with interesting people. The flip side is that it’s sad to start saying goodbye to said interesting friends. On our last eventing in Beach Haven, we took Dinghy over to their boat shed for “an afternoon glass of wine and some snacks on the wharf,” turned into many glasses of wine, turned into delivery pizza, turned into trading our sailboat for Bruce’s country home in north New Zealand. Yup, these are those kind of good buddies and a perfect day was had by all. In the early morning we rode the tide one last time under the Harbor Bride and out of Auckland with heavy hearts and and slightly aching heads.

The winds were light as we left the city astern. We motorsailed to Omaha Bay our first day, then made for Whangarei the next. Miranda and I anchored Tayrona off Marsden Cove and went out to dinner with our friends on Georgia. We were all so involved in catching up from the last couple of months’ activity that we didn’t realize that we’d likely not be seeing them again after that evening. Back aboard Tayrona later in the evening I stood on the transom and watched the birds play in the flood lights of the shipyard. Their feathers lit up in orange under the sodium lamps as they caught insects, but they disappeared from view as they flew outside the light’s beam. The birds disappearing and quickly reappearing was an oddly comforting sight after saying goodbye to good friends.

The next morning we rounded Whangarei Heads and continued on our journey north, this time with much more favorable winds. It was a long sail up to Whangamumu Harbor, but in twenty knots of wind with full canvas up we scooted right along. It felt great to be stretching our sails after several weeks in Auckland.

When the sun was high overhead, a pod of dolphins swooped in to ride Tayrona’s bow wake. They ended up staying around the boat for two hours, jumping, cavorting, and carrying on. They’d take off for a few minutes, then chase the boat down, surfing along in the following seas. When they’d approach from the starboard, their spray caught the sunlight and lit up in rainbows. It was like an eight year old girl’s dream- dolphins and rainbows. I kept looking around for a boy band to show up riding unicorns.

Over the past two years I’ve developed a special technique to capture underwater images.

Sometimes the dolphins would zoom by the boat in a silver streak. They’re blowing bubbles out of the top of their head as they swim, leaving a trail like smoke off a stunt plane. I thought it might be dolphin flatulence.

After a night in secluded Whangamumu, we ran again under accommodating winds up to Cape Brett. We squeezed between the headlands and Motukokaku Island, the seas tumultuous from waves reflecting off the sheer bluffs. It can be difficult to see the sides of the pass with the sails eased out on a run. Sort of like driving your car with newspapers stuck to the windshield. We came around the point and jibed the mainsail, fighting some current to make it through the pass and feeling like real sailors with our fancy maneuvering. Then we were back in the sheltered waters of the Bay of Islands. The wind was still ripping at twenty knots as we raced into Opua- the place where our whole New Zealand adventure started and will soon come to an end.

Bay of Islands, New Zealand

30. Nov. 2015
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New Zealand
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1 Comment

Author: Pete

Location: Bay of Islands, New Zealand

You’d think things would’ve quieted down after the rally when all the rowdy sailers dispersed, but Opua was just starting up. We got a few things done on the boat that needed work, hoisted our newly refurbished jib, and started planning our time in New Zealand. So many bays and islands in the Bay of Islands (imagine that!); it’s almost impossible to see everything without staying a season up here.

We hitched a ride to Kawakawa, a tiny town down the road from Opua. Apparently it was an old stomping ground of Austrian artist Friedensreich Hundertwasser, who lived in the tiny town for twenty-five years until his death in 2000. He must have had some bladder issues, as his lasting legacy to the community were some fabulous public toilets in his signature style. He even asked that the vegetation dug up for the construction be planted on the roof. Brilliantly eccentric mind indeed. After ‘visiting’ the landmark we nosed around Kawakawa and found almost nothing else there of interest. Makes me wonder what Hunderwasser saw in the village. Maybe just a blank canvas to work on. We were markedly less successful catching a ride back and ended up hot-footing the twelve kilometers back to Opua. It ended up being a lovely evening walk on a railroad grade turned bike path, which toddled over streams and through green pastured hills. Even made some friends with the locals.

When all the necessary projects were done and we felt confident that neglecting the unnecessary ones wouldn’t endanger the boat, we pulled anchor and got out of dodge. Though we consulted weather predictions before we left, the three nautical-mile passage downriver to the next little town of Russel happily left little time to find ourselves besot by raging storms.

Russel, formerly Kororareka, has come full circle. The town’s original name in Maori means ‘Sweet Blue Penguin’, but received the handle “Hell Hole of the Pacific” in the 1800’s due to the debaucherous whalers who took leave and excessive liberties there while ashore. It’s ‘Russel’ now, and despite a touch of an identity crisis, it’s pretty much quaint and touristy, drawing crowds like zoo-going ice cream slurpers around the Sweet Blue Penguin exhibit. We even saw some penguins on the way which should’ve cued me in on the water temperature. But more about that later.

Thanksgiving stretched out for a few days like a fat and happy cat in front of a fire. Miranda and I made a small, pseudo-Thanksgiving dinner on Thursday and had a beautiful evening to ourselves on the boat watching the sunset. On Friday it was Thanksgiving back home, so we spend the day calling friends and family. Saturday we had plans with friends on a couple other boats to have a proper Thanksgiving dinner, so we descended with the crew from Georgia and Pau Hana on the unsuspecting Second Wind and feasted. Staggered around Russel for a scenic tour to walk off our distended bellies. Ended up laying in the grass.

Motorsailed another three miles to Robertson Island, also called Motuarohia. I always wondered how anthropologists knew where and when early peoples moved around. Apparently New Zealand was populated not from Australia or even Fiji, but from Tahiti! The connection can be seen in the native languages which are pretty similar. The names of all the islands here start with ‘motu’, which means island in Maori and also in Tahitian! Same with va’a and waka which is canoe in Tahitian and Maori, respectively; the k and the glottal stop make the pronunciations very similar and both starting sound taking on more of an f-sound. Tracing these language similarities is one of the means for mapping the flow of human migration. Pretty neat. We hiked around Motuarohia, up to a pa site, a primitive fortification to ward of sieging neighbors. Not much was left of the site, but the view was excellent.

Red shows migration 30,000 years ago; green 3,000; maroon 2,000; and dark blue 1,000 years ago.

Speaking of primitive, rock oysters are everywhere down here. They cling to almost all rocky seashore you’ll find. Following as the locals do, we pried a few off and brought them home for dinner! I was just hamming it up with the faces; they were slurp-risingly good! Enough butter, lemon, and parmesan make even the most repugnant bivalve delectable!

I broke out the heavy suits, hoods, gloves and went to check out the underwater flora and fauna. Lots of kelp, shellfish, and rocks. Reaching down to pick up a cockle shell out of pile, I was startled to see a large monochromatic iris dilate to look at me. The octopus poofed out his skin to make it look spiky and changed from brown to orange. It did the job, and I backed off. In an hour of snorkeling I had seen five of them. I love calamari and liked octopus when I’ve had it before, but I can’t bring myself to catch (read: impale on a harpoon) any of them. I’ve read accounts of them sneaking out of their tanks in captivity to eat fish in other tanks at night, then pop back into their tank and look innocently out in the morning. There’s also account of them ripping the stinging tentacles off jellyfish and using them to hunt their own prey. Don’t just take my word for it, check out Inky’s story. That kind of smarts deserves a pass. Plus they’re scary looking.

The cold water and warming summer air make for some great fog banks in the mornings. As we sailed three more miles over to Urupukapuka we ran the radar looking for other boats in the mist. Fabulous hiking and a great name? What’s not to like about Urupukapuka?

Another thing to love is the scallop beds! In an hour of free diving I gathered a dozen scallops and five green-lipped mussels. They lie in shallow depressions on the bottom with a light covering of silt for camouflage. It’s not too hard to see and pick them up, but they are wilily and open and close rapidly to jump out of your hand and then can actually swim away from you with jets of water! Cleaning them isn’t difficult, though it’s off-putting to have the ones awaiting shucking start clapping and spitting water out of the bucket. “Let me out!” Alas, ’twas not to be. There was ‘streaky bacon’ in the fridge, waiting to be wrapped around the scallops like an octopus tentacle around an unsuspecting wader’s ankle. Into the oven with ye!