
Beautiful Weather for our eparture today.
Today is our Sunday, May 11, 2014 and please accept our apologies for not blogging for several days. We have been preparing the boat for the journey to Fiji. Yep we think we are as ready as we can ever be. All the provisions are now complete and stowed. We refueled this morning at 0800 and were back at our slip by 0845 in plenty of time to do some final cleanup and stowing of miscellaneous stuff before the customs guys showed up. They came aboard at 1000 sharp and were very nice and pleasant. We completed our checkout of the country in about 45 minutes and they gave us another hour and a half to depart.
Since the last blog, we picked up Walt at the airport on Tuesday and have been constantly on the go ever since. We also caught up with Jeff and Melody from Double Diamond who are moored here in Viaduct Harbor. Had beer and dinner a couple times and last night we did it one more time.

A beautiful night last night in downtown Auckland. But it is starting to get chilly, especially at night - time to head north to warmer climes!

We never get tired of this view. Gorgeous!

Sky Tower Close Up
The weather window looks good for a trip up to Minerva Reef before heading to Fiji. For a perspective Minerva Reef is about 850 nautical miles from here heading a little more towards Tonga than Fiji and Fiji will be another 400 after that but more on the trade winds. Also if you read our blog on our way down here to New Zealand, you know we stopped at Minerva but only had a very short time to stay there because of a threatening low pressure that kicked a whole bunch of boat's hind ends. Anyway if we can we really want to go back, only we might try to his the Southern reef.
One last thing before saying ado for the journey. We bottled the beer and put the brewing kit to bed in the port forepeak.
With that said, look for our blog on the high seas starting tomorrow.
John & Lisa