So I've been here in New Zealand for about 6 weeks now, bought a boat, a 37 ft Tayana called Confidence from a lovely Canadian couple Dave and Betty Ann who had spend the last 3 years sailing her down the western seaboard of North America from Canada to Mexico then across the pacific to New Zealand.

My plans are not yet as lofty as that, kind of going in stages, i.e:

Stage 1: Get off the hard standing and back in the water without making a complete arse of myself: ✅

Stage 2: Navigate the coastal waterways, marinas, anchorages of the North East of New Zealand without sinking, getting lost, sinking someone else, being a general maritime nuisance or again, making a complete arse of myself: SO FAR SO GOOD!

Stage 3: Sail to Brisbane, Australia, which is going to be my home port: NOT QUITE THERE YET!

Stage 4: Sail to Scotland very slowly via lots lovely sunny places: I'LL CONCENTRATE ON GETTING TO AUSTRALIA FIRST ME THINKS!

Stage 5: Not quite sure what stage 5 is yet, but there is one......

So, so far so good, been sailing up and down the coast between Opua and Whangarei, was going to go as far south as Tauranga but cyclone Cook put paid to that, I hid the boat in the Marina and got a hire car for the Easter weekend with my Kiwi family, which was great.

Now back in Marsden cove getting ready to sail back to Opua, then hopefully back to Oz, need to finish getting the Boat registered before I'm allowed to sail and those customs folk have a lot of hoops for you to jump through, getting there though, hopefully be ready to sail back by the start of May🤞🏼

No massive hurry though, when the weathers fine it's a Beautifull place to be......