Waitangi Day, Feb 2016   Pahia, New Zealand

Canoes, tattoos and hakas galore.    Waitangi day in New Zealand celebrates a treaty made between the indigenous people of New Zealand and the colonizing forces.    Sometimes the festivities incite tribal violence but we saw none of that at the celebrations in Pahia at the treaty grounds.    We lucked out with a beautiful day, wonderful music, Naval bands, and good food and a cultural feast for the eyes.    Jim, as usual, wandered away and chatted with some of the tribe members getting ready for their haka and made new friends and came with with a tribal name.

The canoes arrive!

And a Haka ensued.

Work Work Work - Jan-Feb 2016 in Whangerei

We did a lot of maintenance chores on Kelaerin while in Whangerei.   We pulled the mast at Sea Spar  with  Matt Smith .    Jim spent 6 weeks inspecting, removing pieces, replacing pieces, including all the wiring inside the mast, painting it himself and then putting it back on the boat.

There she goes and successfully at that.

Mast looking all new and back in place.  

Please don't hit the wine locker!!!

While he was doing that, I painted most of the interior of the boat again (by again, I mean this was probably the 5th or 6th time I've repainted the interior over the last 26 years).     We also replaced the cushions (badly needed); restitched the bimini and dodger (still will have to be replaced),  installed new radar and chart plotter, beefed up the wiring for our SSB radio, and many other projects.