Decisions Decisions
06 March 2010 | Whangarei, New Zealand
Joan
We are starting to make preparations for leaving New Zealand in a leisurely manner now. Many things have been accomplished since we have been here, but there are still items on the "to do" list that will have to wait. We keep an ongoing list of boat projects and have everything prioritized as we can afford them. With the US dollar down, and the New Zealand dollar strengthening, our cost of living has been much more expensive than we had anticipated so some projects have been put on hold, and we did not do some of the sight seeing that we initially wanted to do. This does lead to some interesting possibilities as we make our 2010 cruising plans.
Our plans this year is to spend another year in the South Pacific Islands. We are going to flexible and see how the weather and our latest ideas shake out. Our only solid plan is to leave New Zealand for Tonga in mid to late April when the weather permits. We will cruise the islands of Tonga and Fiji. We will then make up our mind where to spend cyclone season. At this date we would like to go to the Marshall Islands. There is the outside possibility that we could come back to New Zealand to finish some of our projects. The plans are to be flexible this year and research our options for next year. We would like to see more of the South Pacific, and travel off the beaten path. We also need to set up our route for long term planning which includes the decision to circumnavigate the globe via South Africa or the Pacific Rim through Southeast Asia, Japan and back to Alaska. The political climate and economy will play a role in this decision. I have a hard time visualizing a circumnavigation without going to Europe, but for obvious reasons, the Red Sea will not be an option for the foreseeable future unless things change with the piracy issues in Somalia. We would dearly like to visit places in Southeast Asia, and some of the more remote islands of the Pacific. The most logical route is to continue westward and return to Alaska via Panama to Hawaii. Fortunately, we have lots of time to research our options this year and not make any westward commitments until next year. So our plans continue to be not having plans.