Friday, January 8, 2016

New Zealand with Erin and Tim, December 2015

Our daughter, Erin, came for 3 weeks and invited her friend, Tim, to join us.   Before Tim arrived we took Erin up North to Kerikeri and Kawakawa and the Marsden Winery.


Here's the stone store again from across the river.

We made a quick stop in Kawakawa to show Erin the Hundertwasser Toilets, an artist's fanciful imagination gone wild with a normal, everyday, facility.  



Tim barely got on the boat and we told him we were pulling out for a short cruise.    I think both of them were pretty happy to get out on the boat for a while.    We exited the river not exactly sure of which way we would go first:  up to Bay of Islands or down to Great Barrier Island.   The wind would make the decision and since it was out of the North we sailed the 60 miles to Great Barrier Island at a pretty good clip and anchored off of Port Fitzroy.  Great Barrier Island is great for hiking, although many of the trails are still closed from a surplus of rain and subsequent damage it did to the trails a couple of years ago.  


We decided to make an overnight sail up to Bay of Islands to save time and take advantage of the SE winds.   Our first stop was Opua again, then off to Russell, a quaint village settled by whalers.   The houses here are a treat to look at.







Another quick motor around to Roberton Bay.   This bird was guarding her nest and was pretty annoyed with me for taking her picture.


The next bay was Urupukapuka.    The "trails" were for the most part mown into the grassy hillsides. It was seriously pastoral with grazing sheep, farm buildings, fences to crawl over, a favorite for all of us.







Tim got into the sailing thing and became a great crewmember.   He helped with everything, asking questions, eager to learn, so he is invited to come back anytime.


This is rounding Cape Brett

We stopped in Whangamumu Harbor for a night to visit the ruins of a whaling station.




Coming back into Whangerei around Cape Bream

We tried, not too hard and, therefore, not to successfully, to catch fish.

Tim and Erin took for a couple of days with our car to go to the Waitomo Caves then came back in time for CHristmas on the boat.

The next day Erin flew back home and Tim began the next stage of his New Zealand trip when we dropped him off at the rental car agency and he headed to points south.    Before they left we had a nice lunch at Ascension Winery near Warkworth and toasted the end of a perfect few weeks.


2 comments:

  1. Very interesting, I'll read more, I just met you two on the dock in Fort Bragg after your latest survival at sea experience. !!

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