16 November 2011

The water at the fuel dock is painfully slow. We're talking 4 hours to fill up the tanks. So, yesterday, I thought I'd start doing dinghy rides to the dock to fill the jerry cans - 400 litres needed - might take all day. I got bored after 200 litres. Luckily for the past two days it has rained non-stop and we have actually been able to fill our tanks using rain water, do another load of laundry (yet to dry it!) and scrub the decks. Today has been a sit-in-a-cafe kind of day and catch up on weather reports. Unsurprisingly, there is a big low over us at the moment which is why we're not going to leave until Monday. We have shared paying for a voyage plan from Bob McDavitt, the NZ weather guru, with Heartbeat, so we should get that back tomorrow.
We've washed the kids' bikes; taken the mud off the wheels - for NZ biosecurity and we still have to clean under the water line, but I am putting that one off until I really have to.
All the local kids are going mad in the rain - showers in the street, jumping off the pier, I think it was a half day off school today because of the rain it was that wet. All the roads in town were flooded. We've been reminded of the hatches that leak - another job for NZ. And also on the list? A new bimini please!