From
New Zealand, Year 2
Greetings from the barnacle basin. We re-launched the boat from Norsand last Thursday with a very clean, smooth bottom but Town Basin was full so we rushed down to Marsden Cove Marina at the opening of the river to be ready to receive the remnants of cyclone Lusi. It came from where we're going in May- Vanuatu. Hopefully it didn't damage too much of the coral or the villages. Marsden Cove is a US style waterfront housing development complete with cul-de-sacs and tropical street names. The marina is big & fancy with docks that remind us of the days before Shipyard Quarters was condemned (well, way before!). There are completely beautiful mountains in the distance but NZ's proud oil refinery in the foreground. The water at the marina is full of huge fish and since the place is about half full, you get a great sense of space. But you're near nothing and there isn't much to do except work on your boat so it's hard to be there for any length of time. It started blowing Friday night so we had most of the day to rig extra lines and secure stuff. We expanded our running route to include a beautiful dirt road that cuts through farm land & pasture. NZ has a road sign which is black & white with a slash through it and that means "open road". Fortunately, there's not much of anyone around to use it so it makes a great running route.
From
New Zealand, Year 2
It blew like heck all day Saturday. I'd tell you what the wind speed was but our weather station broke- it doesn't like to be out in bad weather. It's about the billionth time it's broken- never buy a Maretron. I think they have a built in timer that says to quit after 1 year on the dot. But I asked the boat next to us and they say peak wind low 60's, several gusts to 50's and mostly less. We spent the whole day inside sewing and doing inside projects, watched a movie- it's OK for a day. The storm blew over & it dawned calm and sunny. We hopped in the car & headed to the Kauri Museum, famous for exhibiting Northland's pioneering days when they were cutting down & harvesting very old kauri trees. It was very interesting although I find the logging industry very disturbing. But, the old engines & sprawling display of equipment that they used to process the wood along with the way the exhibits were made to be so life-like was really well done. They had lots of crosswise cuts of huge kauri trees for perspective, many examples of kauri gum (kind of like amber) and exhibits on the lives of the men who spent years as gumdiggers since kauri gum was very sought after for VARNISH, linoleum, carving/jewelry, etc. When we got tired of being in the museum we headed out for several hikes. One was to Piroa Falls & the other to Waipu Cove. All the surfers were out because of the big swell and some were really surfing! We sat on the main drag in Waipu & ate a meat pie (Jon's favorite. It's only about 35g of fat per pie) and considered how NZ is like going back in time. The main streets are still thriving since there are very few big stores outside the towns and businesses are still in business! Another example of going back in time is deoderant. We are sadly running out of our USA provisions & we couldn't bring back all that we wanted to from our visit home due to weight. So, we're having to buy things like deoderant. Well, you cannot get stick deoderant, only roll-on or spray. Yup! When's the last time you sprayed on your deoderant in the morning? We joked that there is no worry about ruining the ozone layer here because there is none!
From
New Zealand, Year 2
On our last run at Marsden, we discovered more bags of avocados for sale at a little store. Avocado season is finally open and we are stocking up like it's a once in a lifetime chance (which it practically is) to have all you want because they're so cheap & good. We're trying to keep a constant supply of ripe ones so right now we have 18 in various stages of softness/rock hardness. We're not sure that's enough. I keep meaning to refresh my memory on the caloric value of 1 avocado. On our way back to the boat we saw this sign near the marina. Too funny! NZ has some great signs. This one gives you a good visual in case the words aren't enough. It's crystal clear now!
From
New Zealand, Year 2
Once the storm was over, we were able to get a slip at Town Basin so we moved up here yesterday. We don't want to stay for long because this is where we got all the barnacles. Even though the bottom paint wasn't working properly, this is still a pretty tough place for any bottom paint. But it's so nice here and everything is at your fingertips. Jan & Rich are a few slips down from us and since we both had GrabOne (NZ's version of Groupon) vouchers for the same Indian restaurant, we went out last night to use them. We had a nice curry dinner together.
From
New Zealand, Year 2
Here is a look at the paua shell trim on the backsplash I mentioned. Jon isn't done with it yet but you can get an idea. We had to take the watermaker motor to be serviced since we found it wasn't spinning fast enough which could but probably won't be the cause of the high TDS readings we got last season. Since the VHF broke, we had to replace it but of course the new one isn't the same size so it requires a smaller hole in the panel which means the whole panel needs replacing and all the instruments removed and re-cut into the new panel. So we did that today along with some provisioning. Another sad thing has happened. We are out of CoffeeMate and the Kiwi's don't use it! Last year, there was one place that was selling it as "coffee whitener" but they have had a falling out with the company that was distributing it so it is no longer available. I know it isn't good for us but the fact is we are addicted to it. Jon looked up ways to make your own in desperation but no matter what, coffee won't be the same. Had I only known this would happen; I would've brought back a stash of it. These are the issues we're dealing with here.
We need to replace the wire part of our rigging this year and the best deal was to buy it from my cousin Pedro, ship it to LA, then put it on a palate & have it come by ship to NZ. So it's on the way and is supposed to be here by the end of the month. So, we'll be heading out by land or sea to somewhere very soon to explore a bit & have some fun before the palate gets here. We're just trying to make a decision on where that will be.