_________________Sailing LandFall

Posting by Barb:

We left Hick’s s Bay and stopped at a Maori church advertised as being the most decorated church in New Zealand. It was another marathon of tripod-camera  pictures for Bill and Dennis as they focused their attention on the dark, intricate and elaborate wood carvings.I liked the simplicity of the individually sewn decorative pillows covering all the church pews in a myriad of colours, textures and personal themes.   I spent some time outside taking some macro pictures of the butterflies, bees and flowers just outside the church. From there we made our way to Tokumaru Bay, a quiet deserted place that showed some vibrant, economic history in a distant past.  Of course some of the old buildings needed to be photographed as well.

We drove through Gisborne where there was no room at the Inn due to the fact that they were hosting an all NZ school triathlon.

We drove all the way to Mahia and spent a night at a hotel on a beach where the wind howled all night.

Posting by Barb:

If you look up ‘Hick Town’ in the Urban dictionary it describes it as a town with one stop light, most of the inhabitants drive a trucks, cow/horse pastures everywhere and if you are lucky it has 2 convenience stores, a gas station, and a liquor store and one road in and out. Well that pretty well describes Hick’s Bay with a few minor differences. A ‘roundabout’ replaces the stop light and there aren’t t any trucks as it is just too expensive to buy in New Zealand. .

Along the way we made many stops taking pictures of the ‘free roaming’ cows and horses. To get to the lighthouse we had to run up 750 stairs but it was worth the view of Whangaokeno Island. On our way back to the motel we made a ‘lookout’ view stop. And what we saw was a huge centipede inching it’s way past our parked car. So out came the cameras and we took plenty of videos and pictures of the not so little critter.          

Posting by Barb:

We could not pass up a beach walk at sunrise. I tried to capture the glorious morning with my camera. Before heading out we had our ‘kid’ moment as we decided to jump on the permanent trampoline in the campsite playground. Let me just say that Bill outdid us all and was intent on being ‘King of the Castle’. Maybe it was payback time for being denied a side excursion to roll down a hill in a hamster ball. Yes, it was on his bucket list to pile us all in a big plastic ball with enough water in it to help one slip around the bottom as the ball careens down a hill. He could not convince any of us to join him in that adventure.   From Ohope it was on to Lotin point with a couple of touristy stops along the way. At Lotin point we stayed at a rundown 50 year old motel. But it was the beautiful scenic vista that brought out our camera senses again.

The best part of the motel was the beautiful, scary guard dog named Greta towing a line of rope that gave her some security(lots of bark but no bite) and the awesome group selfie that we did with the motel room 50’s mural as our backdrop.

Posting by Barb:

Our second excursion would be a weeklong road trip in a southerly direction from Whangarei.  First stop was Rotorua to visit Waimangu, a volcanic valley. As per the pamphlet, Waimangu was born in the violence of a volcanic eruption and in geological terms it was created this morning. We actually toured the valley late in the afternoon and only had two hours to make it to the end to catch the last bus back to the main entrance (we were armed with cameras, multiple lenses and tripods.  Ella skipped ahead while the three of us tried to use our Nikon cameras to capture the colors of the volcanic paradise.

At one point Dennis and Bill were reprimanded by the park staff for ignoring the Keep Out signs and instead hopping the ankle high fence so that they could get their cameras and faces a little closer to the  boiling masses. After about 2 hours of photographic bliss we started to wonder how far ahead Ella had gone. We saw one of the returning buses pass us by and Bill made a joke that perhaps he saw something pink on the bus and maybe it was Ella. And then somebody on the bus was frantically waving and it WAS Ella. It was hilarious to see Bill’s face change from a humorous grin to an abandoned pout as he came to the realization that Ella had in fact abandoned him and was on the way back to the car. We arrived at the car an hour later and were joyfully greeted by Ella and sandwiches she made for us while waiting our return.

We continued our drive to Ohope and stayed in a very nice Top 10 campsite by the beach.

Posting by Barb:

Our first excursion was a trip to the Poor Knights Island. It was an early rise to get to the dive place in Tutukaka by 8:00a m.  Once there Dennis and Bill were suited up for a dive and I was suited up for a snorkel. The Poor Knights is known for world class diving. The trip to the Island took about an hour and during that time we were entertained by the skipper of the boat who outlined all the rules to a safe dive. But in the end he explained that the only important thing to remember is to not ‘pee’ in our wet suits as it would require them to clean up after us. For me, it was entertaining to see everybody wriggle into their tight wet suits. The trip included 2 dives, one which was in a huge cave, the boat actually anchored right in the cave. Unfortunately the tail end of cyclone Lusi had touched NZ the previous week so the water was still murky and visibility not that great. Before heading back, the Captain did a little tour of the reserve and he showed his navigational skills as he cruised through some narrow, natural tunnels and brought the boat close to the island coast line.

It was pretty impressive. Great dive but not as exciting as the snorkeling that we have done so far on many of the South Pacific reefs.

Posting by Barb:

On March 18^th our friends Bill and Ella arrived at Dockland 5 in Whangarei where our boat is. They just finished their NZ South Island road trip and planned to spend their remaining time with us on the North Island. We were definitely ready for a reprieve from our boat projects.  We decided to go out for Happy hour and a meal at an undisclosed restaurant where we enjoyed great beer and terrible food. Dennis ordered the ‘Crispy Duck’ leg, (what was he thinking). The blackened Duck leg was served over grey lentils. Appetizing it was NOT but his face when the plate was placed in front of him was priceless. Laughing and making the best of the pricey, poor food was a sure indication that the North Island road trip would be a great trip. And so it was. Check out our photo album!!!

Posting by Barb: 

Our final stop was in Christchurch. But first we made a stop to view the Moeraki Boulders. Striking, mostly spherical, ranging in various sizes and probably the most photographed boulders in NZ.  We also made another pit stop on the way and walked the beautiful beaches near Chch. 

Once in the city, we toured the devastation of the 2011 earthquake which killed 185 people.  There is still a lot of evidence of the destruction and for me it was a sad and sobering visit.

Chris and Paul drove our car down from Blenheim and stayed the night. We had a wonderful evening together and got up early next morning for another teary good bye as it is the end of Caroline and Vic’s visit and they are off to catch a flight to Auckland and then the many flights back to Thunder Bay .

We did have an amazing, fast tracked visit of beautiful South Island NZ with its vast palette of landscapes including alps, rolling plains, rugged coastline, imposing fiords, solitary miles of white beaches, regal castle to vastly populated campsites, dairy and sheep farmland to miles of wineries, the remarkable architecture of Dunedin to the earthquake devastation in Christchurch.

Posting by Barb:

Beautiful Dunedin Castle

We made the long drive to the East Coast and stopped at Dunedin (the name comes from Dun Eideann, the  Scottish Gaelic name for Edinburgh, capital of Scotland) so it was a very Scottish little town. We splurged and spent a night at Larnach Castle, a mansion on the ridge of the Otago Peninsula. The rooms, each with unique character reflecting the 19^th century era, were built in what once were the stables.

We decided to get fancy for our meal at the castle

We had an amazing dinner served at a round table with all the guests sitting together and as the meal progressed, the castle hostess would pop in during various intervals and tell the intriguing story of the various owners of the castle most ending in tragedy and death. As a result, the castle is said to be haunted and has been visited by paranormal investigators. Dennis and I spent a couple of hours touring the grounds and we were in a photographic bliss (the results can be viewed in our photo album).

We spent a day at the nearby Tairoa Head where the world’s only mainland breeding colony of the Royal Albatross is (putting the picture into perspective, this large Albatross has a wing span of about 6ft). It was a very windy, blustery day which apparently the Albatross birds need to encourage them to fly. So next time we are sailing in +40k winds I will refer to it as an ‘Albatross Day’. They are an amazing bird. They spend their first 5-7 years of their life in the water or in the air and when they finally come to land to mate they are unable to walk for the first day or so as their legs are not accustomed to carrying their weight. I can somewhat relate to that after my very first sail, 42 days from Chile to the Marquesa and my land legs were pretty wobbly. The wonderful fact about the Albatross is that they mate for life. Tairoa Head is also home to the fur seal which we were able to come within a few feet and the Blue Penguin, which unfortunately we did not see.

Posting by Barb:

Made it to the top of ‘Crown Range’

It was on to Queenstown via the highest paved highway in NZ, the ‘Crown Range’. The road wound, and twisted its way up the mountainside to a height 1080

meters. That wasn’t high enough for us. We parked the van and hiked for

another 250 meters to a spectacular, very windy height with a 360 degree view of the valley and Queenstown.

The downhill trek in the motor van included many, many switchbacks witch confused our GPS into thinking we were constantly doing u-turns.  In Queenstown we met up with Mary and Doug, also vacationing from Thunder Bay and Pete and Melissa who are living in the Whangarei Heads.  We had a fine meal in their beautiful, rented apartment. The next day we made our way to Teanau where Caroline and Vic did an overnight cruise in Doubtful Sound.

Snowy mountain caps view from the tour boat on the way to the underground Hydro plant

There was only 2 available spots on the ship Tutock II so Dennis and I could not go. We did a side tour of the Power Station instead and had a night to ourselves at Teanau.

Underground Power station

Dennis and I will probably sail to Doubtful Sound in the future.