After just under 11 days, we motored across Tasman Bay early this morning. The sun came up, casting a beautiful light on the familiar outline of the Mt Arthur Range and turning the water of the bay into a deep blue. We headed into the harbour and, as arranged, met the customs and quarantine officials at the quarantine pontoon. The formalities were free, brief, professional and friendly and after only 45 minutes, we took down our yellow ‘Q’ flag and went over to tie up on the end of the visitors’ pontoon. It was really lovely to be back in the warm Nelson sunshine. We were just tying lines, when friends Scott and Jen turned up with their son Angus, bearing a welcome home warm fruit cake and a bottle of champers. Having had nothing to drink for 11 days, a glass or two of bubbles at 10am, went down a treat! Didn’t help our landlubbbery legs however! No sooner had they left and we headed up to the marina office, meeting first Pat and Dick from ‘Irene’ and then Steve and Catherine, who have added beautiful baby Jason to their family since we left. We moved the boat to our allocated berth as Heather and Mike arrived. Non-stop celebrations! After 11 days of only speaking to each other, Simon and I were wittering on like mad, but no-one seemed to mind (or at least didn’t say so). Heather and Mike waited patiently as we got our stuff together and then took us to their home. We have both showered, Simon has shaved off his 10-day stubble and we have had a beautiful lunch. The first load of laundry is in the machine and we are beginning to unwind. Too early to be reflective of the trip, but we are devastated to hear the extent of the havoc wreaked by Cyclone Pam in Vanuatu. Our thoughts are with the wonderful people there, and we will be looking for ways that we can help them over the next few days. Thanks again to those who have sent emails, messages of support or have just kept reading our blog and to Heather and Mike for posting updates while we were on passage. Really looking forward to catching up with Katie and Angus soon!