It is just amazing how quickly the time is passing. I still cannot belief that I was so stupid not to see that we are sailing straight onto Whale Rock! I do not even have an excuse that it is not charted, or something like that. Johan even called me showing that the buoy close to the rock is saying 'keep north' whilst we are sailing south of it. The plan was to sail between the rock and the land, not onto the rock. And the next minute we heard a big bang and Ntombi lifted into the air, sitting on the rock. I rushed inside to fetch the passports and the emergency container. Johan came inside asking me if there is any water coming into Ntombi. I got to my senses and realised that there might be no need to get into the life raft or calling for help. I lifted the first floor board, and there was no water coming inside. What a relief! We also heard the water flowing on the outside and realised that we went over the rock and are sailing on. I went through all the lockers and there was no water at all.

We turned around to go back to Opua, but decided to rather continue to Whangarei. In the end we decided to turn around and go back to Opua to haul out Ntombi. There might be damages underneath and we cannot take a change in the open waters. I phoned Opua Marina office and arranged for the travellift to be available to haul us out at Ashby's boatyard. The guys were waiting for us when we arrived. They took us out and we found that the keel came loose. It would not fall out, but it is better to 'glue' it back on before we continue our journey to Auckland. Whilst we are on the hard, we might just as well remove the windows to fix the water leaks. Johan also wants to get a keyway cut in the propshaft and it is an ideal opportunity to do that, except that the engineering places are all closed for the holiday season. We will have to wait until the 3rd of January to get the engineering work done. Ample time to do all the other odd jobs we wanted.

Another low came through with the usual spell of bad weather and we decided to leave Ntombi in the boatyard whilst we go visit Johan's friend in Greymouth. We could not postpone the visit any longer, because his holiday was coming to an end. We drove through to Auckland to catch a flight to Christchurch, which is on the east coast of the South island. Petrus fetched us from the airport and introduced us to family and friends (fellow South Africans) on our way out to Greymouth. Greymouth is on the west coast of the South Island. It is a picturesque drive through Arthurs pass with snow on the tips of the mountains and temperature of only 6 degrees. We arrived in Greymouth with temperature of 12 - 16 degrees. Petrus and his lovely wife, Alicia could not understand why we were cold. We were spending a whole year without winter and being in the tropics most of the time.......

Every morning we spent time with Alicia before she had to go to work. In the afternoon Petrus took us for a ride to some of the attractions in the area. We explored the town of Greymouth and the suburbs, including a stroll on the walkway next to the beach and a walk on the beach with the two dogs, Blackie and Milo. They have their own facebook pages if you want to see what they are up to.

On one of the days we went to Punakaiki pancake rocks and blowholes. We had to leave the two dogs home because they are not allowed on the well-maintained walkway that leads you to the pancake rocks. The walkway takes you through native forest before emerging into areas of coastal flax and scrub. The views of the inland mountains, the rugged coastline and the pancake rocks and blowholes are magnificent. There is also informative signage along the way that helps you to make sense of what you're seeing. The advert says "Here you can gaze in wonder at nature's artistry as columns of water shoot skyward from rocks that resemble giant stacks of pancakes."

We went to Shantytown, which is in Paroa (suburb), just 10Km south of Greymouth. The advert of Shantytown says "Discover fascinating stories of real New Zealanders and experience a recreated gold-rush village just 10kms from Greymouth, West Coast isolation, extreme weather and rugged terrain produced stories of fortitude and ingenuity. Shantytown tells these pioneering stories through a fascinating mix of experience and displays. Ride the Steam Train through native rainforest, experience the sights and sounds of a working sawmill, watch the sluice gun blast gold bearing rock and soil from the earth, then follow the races to the gold claim and pan for your own gold a strike is guaranteed! The village, with 30 shops and buildings to explore shows life the way it used to be. For a memento of Shantytown nothing is better than an old time photo" sounded like Gold Reef City in South Africa. We arrived at Shantytown in a light rain and seeing that it looks like a miniature Gold Reef City, with a price tag of NZ31.50 pp, we decided to rather spend a quiet afternoon at home. Petrus would be able to assist Johan to change the SA terminology in his CV to the terminology that New Zealand is more familiar with.

The next day, we went to Lake Brunner. Blackie and Milo enjoyed playing in the water, running up and down with us. We stood on the walkway bridge over the railway track when the train passed beneath us. On our way back we went to the famous Blackball. Blackball is a small village, with general store, a hotel/backpacker and famous salami company. Despite its small size, Blackball is famous in New Zealand for its rustic charm, and militant union past from its "glory days" as a coal mining settlement.

The last day of exploring was spent driving to Hokitika where we bought fish and chips and ate it at the lake, where the 2 dogs could play in the water. We drove through to Dorothy Falls, a beautiful waterfall in the area. Thereafter we went to Hokitika Gorge with the water from the glaziers flowing through. The water is milky blue and there were a couple of youngsters swimming in the ice cold glazier water. They were almost freezing when they came out, but they enjoyed the thrill. On our way back we stopped for ice cream cones to round off a perfect day. Alicia was able to spend the day with us, because her holiday just started. We left the following day on the bus to Chrischurch to catch our flight back to Auckland. We drove back to Ntombi, our "home" on the hard in Opua. We were going into the water on the following day, which had us both very excited!

We will however spend a week or more in Opua, waiting for the next weather window to sail to Auckland.