This place is boater's heaven! They say that New Zealand has more boats per capita than anyplace else in the world. I believe it! Pulling into the Bay of Islands and Opua I was amazed at all the boats moored in every available cove. Once we got ashore in Opua I felt like a kid in a candy store with all the boating supplies and services. I'm still a bit overwhelmed, but am making good progress on my to-do list.

We've been in Opua for 5 days and have kept busy with assorted boat projects, cleaning and getting settled. Now that we're on the dock, one of the first priorities was to get checked out to use the shore power. Since we are a USA boat we are wired for 110 V and NZ is all 220 V. The best solution for us is a dedicated battery charger that plugs into the dock to keep the batteries charged. Then we can use our inverter to generate 110V on the boat. This seems to be working well and is even managing to support the water heater. Hurray - hot water on the boat! Not a biggie in the tropics but at this latitude it's getting down into the 50s at night. Another boon has been the diesel heater which keeps the salon and our cabin a toasty 75 degrees. We can switch it on from our bunk and just stay in bed until the boat warms up. Although it's officially Spring, the weather has been cold, windy and wet. There have been a couple nice, warm days, which gives us hope and the locals tell us it will warm up soon.

A few days ago we bought a used car (Honda CRV) from a place called Cars for Cruisers. They have a guaranteed buy back program if you bring it back in roughly the same shape. This will be hugely convenient for us when it's time to go, but also just running around. It will also put a lot of geocaches within reach... It's pretty weird steering from the right and driving on the left, but since we haven't done much driving in the last couple of years, I think it might be easier to learn. I'm sure it's frustrating to the locals that I drive too slowly, but maybe they appreciate that at least I'm staying on the left side of the rode. They say you can tell when a Yank is driving because the windshield wipers are always on; this is because the turn signals and wiper levers are reversed from a US car. Anyway, we're getting used to it and it's fun having ready transportation.

A couple nights ago we took some American friends into Paihia for dinner and ended up at Jimmy Jacks Rib Shack which was quite good and tasted a lot like home. Still, you really can't beat the New Zealand ice cream. I wouldn't unlock the car until we'd had ice cream. Last night we were invited to drinks on another boat who we'd bumped into a few places up in the islands. After a few bottles of wine we went up to the Opua Cruisers Club to watch the Wet Wednesday Race finishes and have some dinner. The food was excellent and the club was hopping. Turns out it was Guy Faulkes Day which celebrates a 13th or 14th century revolutionary that tried to blow up the English Parliament (re: the movie Vendetta). So, the club had fireworks off the dinghy dock and we were warned to move all our "rubber duckies" lest they be melted. All good fun!

Next week I replace the stove and oven and we get ready for Jessie and Grant's visit.