From New Zealand, Year 2

Happy Easter! I must say, it doesn't feel much like Easter on our boat since there are no candy filled baskets, dyed eggs or big chocolate rabbits but of course that isn't what Easter is about anyway... We thought of doing baskets and then decided it wasn't good for us anyway.

Everything's going OK here in Whangarei and we're closing in on a departure date probably at the end of this week- just to move out of the river and explore a bit. It would be good to test things out before we leave New Zealand, not to mention have a little fun. We're pretty much done annoying people on the dock with our rigging refit. We've had to lower and change out 11 heavy wires that support our mast and sail furlers, each one needs to be laid out on the dock and the new wire measured, cut, new fittings put on and then hoisted back up. Jon & I have been spending some time apart lately- he's up the mast for a couple of hours a day while we take wires down or re-connect them! It's good to have it replaced and we've had new fittings/bolts made as needed where there seemed to be weaknesses. On the intermediate shrouds, the big bolt that passes through the mast holding the shrouds on was bent when Jon pulled it out which was really surprising. We wouldn't have known it by just inspecting the rigging and it happened during the past 3 years since we had the rig completely apart. Well now we have a much larger bolt & a solid tube going through the mast to support it so it can't bend. It's things like this that we're doing and it takes a lot of time and coordination with Trevor from Norstain, our stainless fabricator who we've come to know pretty well! He does great work.
From New Zealand, Year 2

The town of Whangarei had it's farewell dinner to all the yachties and we went to that. It was a really nice buffet dinner & they had a Maori entertainment group come to put on a few dances for us. As I've said before, Whangarei is unlike any other place we've been on the boat. A couple of nights later we went to a rally car race that was being held here in Whangarei over the weekend. We've found that New Zealand is really big on car racing with souped-up turbos put on all sorts of cars. Whenever we walk in town you can hear the turbos “sneezing” at intersections. Personally, I don't get it, but it was interesting to watch the race. The dirt race track is right near the marina and our vantage point was a sharp, hairpin turn which required some planning to get around quickly. It was no Daytona 500 but it was something different.

From New Zealand, Year 2

The docks are bustling here with everyone getting ready to leave for the islands. Grocery carts are coming down the docks loaded with provisions, people are scurrying around finishing up the last of their projects and there are frequent get-togethers in anticipation of parting ways. We've had a few in our group of friends. The other night, a few of us went to the Dicken's Inn for “Quiz Night” just to liven things up. It was fun until we figured out most of the trivia was New Zealand based of course! We came in last out of 4 teams but we did nail a bunch of questions so we didn't feel completely stupid. Ann took some pictures of us “thinking hard”. Cruising is definitely not good for the brain!

I'm finding it hard to keep the season straight right now. In my memories of years past, it is nearly May- a time of marathon training, spring boat maintenance, flower bulbs etc but when we're out & about here, the smell of the fallen leaves and golden color of the landscape reminds me of Fall with cross country running races from high school days, pumpkins, woodsmoke and crisp weather. It's messing with my head! We found yet another trail a few days ago that is right near the boat. We went out for a run and did the usual along the river, then up to the lookout, then down the other side. But Jon wanted to check out a trail that we'd noticed previously that went up another hillside. Turns out, it goes up to another lookout & ridge on an adjacent hill. So we did the “Double Bubble” and it was just ANOTHER beautiful wooded trail that looped around back toward the boat.

And that's the bulk of the “news” from here. We're glad Spring has finally arrived to the US after a very cold winter. We wish we were going to be home for summer but that's not in the cards yet. We have to get back to the northern hemisphere!