It's A Whole New World Here
15 December 2009 | Opua New Zealand 34* 42.150 S 174* 17.289 E
Linda
It's odd to be somewhere that everyone speaks English again. Nice to have a lengthy conversation without a lot of antics to get your point across!
We're on a swing mooring with an excellent view of the quarantine dock. Fun to see friends arrive from Tonga. First 'Shelette', 'Taraipo' next and then 'Niaouli' Every arrival requires a celebration. Gosh, life is tough! Taraipo's arrival completes Nicole's circumnavigation of the world. Roughly 4 1/2 years since she joined John on board and they departed Opua, headed west. Dinner on Kattywompus with a bottle of Champagne, then another celebration a few days later on board Tariapo with many friends they've made along the way. We met in Nuku'alofa Tonga. Nicole had a hula hoop in hand that she'd just bought and I was more than curious where she'd gotten it.
After a passage there is always laundry to do (nice laundromat here), boat clean-up, boat projects and just catching up on sleep and getting back on a regular schedule. Add in the celebrations here and we're exhausted! There is a cruiser net here, weekday mornings at 8:00 am. Weather, local events, lost and found, need or offering a ride, boat stuff for sale etc. Anyone can chime in if they have something to say. It's run by a few locals, with one of the cruisers as the controller. There's also a shuttle van that runs to Paihia (about 15 minutes drive) weekdays at 10am for $6.00NZ per person. Jeff picks anyone who wants to go here at the marina and the group chooses when they want to come back. Usually 2pm. There is a large grocery store in Paihia, so when he picks everyone up at 2, he has a small trailer behind the van for all the groceries. He's definately found a good niche for his shuttle business and is a welcome part of the cruising community. The van runs on old cooking oil and he calls it the "Frybrid".
We plan to do a bit of travel inland and also some sailing in the Bay of Islands in the next month. We'll keep you posted.