New Zealand « Aboard Dignity (Lagoon 420) Blog

Back to the two of us

by steve, on January 15th, 2011 (New Zealand, Tracks)

Our last day together with the boys was emotional.

We had breakfast together at one of the marina restaurants before setting off in the car. It took nearly 3 hours to get to the airport but fortunately we had no problems with the traffic.

I stayed in the car so the boys could check in. As we had plenty of time our plan was to check in then go somewhere for lunch. I circled the airport a couple of times to avoid being moved on from the drop off area. Ben popped out once needing some cash for a visa which I thought was odd. Next time round Helen came out to say I should park and help out.

We had a bit of a problem. We are all dual national. When Ben left the US he ran into difficulties heading into French Polynesia with a one way ticket on a US passport so he switched to his UK passport. Since then we’ve cleared him out and into each country on his UK passport. When we inquired with NZ customs as to the best thing to do to avoid a wrangle when Helen and I left without him they suggested he should leave the country on his UK passport. Ben had diligently checked in using his UK passport and the checkout required him to have a valid US visa which is required these days. I managed to talk to an immigration official and agreed a plan that would probably not cause Helen and I any problems. Ben cleared out on his US passport. We then took a photocopy of his US and UK passports along with his boarding pass. We’ll use that as a starting point to demonstrate we have not brought in an illegal immigrant when we leave the country without him.

That being sorted we still had enough time to leave the airport for a bite to eat for lunch. Then it was back to the airport to drop them off and say goodbye. It was a little tearful. It’s been great having both of them aboard for the last 3 weeks and getting to know Ben as an adult over the last six months. Since December 2009, bar 2 weeks in Tahiti, we’ve had family aboard and now we’re going our separate ways again.

It is sad of course but one has to focus on the positives. It is a time of new adventure for all of us at our respective point in our lives. This is truly exciting for all. We are thankful for the opportunities we have for spending time together in fantastic places seeing and doing amazing things with the kids we brought up. There are enough estranged families to remind us how lucky we are. And, who knows, they may communicate from time to time to let us know how they’re getting on.

We returned to Whangarei a different route (RT 16) as I’m getting fed up of driving the Auckland to Whangarei main road. It didn’t take much longer and gave us some refreshing scenery. We stopped at a hardware store on the way back to pick up a camping table and some hosepipe attachments I need.

I’ve just spent the last couple of hours sorting out our tracks from Tonga so that Ben has a full record of the mileage he’s covered with us. His total is 3,137nm which is a lot more than many will do in a lifetime. Not bad. At the same time I’ve caught up with the tracks for this blog. Here are our tracks since we’ve arrived including the leg from Tonga if one can be bothered to zoom out and see it. If you’re really diligent, mad or both you can actually find the bit where we turned around to lash the broken rudder post and steering gear. During that time our course changed as the current pushed us south east.

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Family Day

by steve, on January 14th, 2011 (New Zealand)

Friday was our last full day together so we spent the day with each other. That being said, the sail maker did come around to inspect the boat and discuss work to be done.

Once everyone was up we went for a walk from the boat to the top of nearby Parihaka within Parihaka Scenic Reserve. It turned out to be a pleasant workout up to a great viewpoint over the town.

We then took the car to visit Whangarei Falls which we’ve been meaning to do for ages but only just got round to it. They turned out to be fairly impressive although it looked like they were down on water due to the recent dry spell. There was a circular path that took us over the top of the falls, down to the bottom and back up again. At the bottom Ben and Sam were able to find there way along the rocks behind the falls without getting too wet.

We were back at the boat in time for the boys to have a quick shower before we headed off to watch the movie “Unstoppable”. Although the pretext of a runaway train not being the most unique idea the movie was made well and quite tense in places. We all enjoyed it.

Our last dinner was, no surprise, a curry. The boys will miss Helen’s signature dinner so hopefully this will leave them with good memories. We then headed off to the bowling alley and had a couple of games where none of us did too well but had fun all the same.

Back on the boat we still had time to watch the movie “Get Him to the Greek” which made us all giggle in places – particularly with the song lyrics. The boys then went out on the town for a while while Helen and I retired for the night.

Today Ben and Sam leave us for their flight back to NJ. Sam goes back to his art studies and Ben goes back to his job hunting. He is pursuing an actuarial job in the NY area and has a few leads already. Fortunately the job market is picking up and actuarial work seems to be in some demand these days. Our fingers are crossed.

Project Prep

by steve, on January 13th, 2011 (New Zealand, Sea Mist)

We have about a week here in Whangarei before Helen and I (without the boys who leave on Saturday – sob) head back south. We have our ferry to the south island booked for the 24th of January and don’t want to rush the trip down. There are a few boat projects that shouldn’t really be left until we come back so yesterday was really all about them.

I know some people are interested in the detail so here’s what was accomplished day 1.

Sail maker called and booked to come to boat today to talk about inspecting and servicing our current head sail, designing a better headsail and seeing if anything can be done with our shredded Code Zero (the original one). He will be here quite shortly so I’m rushing.

Rearranged our haul out date for March 24th. Yardmaster and works foreman both visited boat in afternoon to plan haul and discuss work to be done to boat (bottom paint, gelcoat patch up, anchor shield and a few other things.

Ordered shower sump float switch (just got call to say it can be picked up today).

Ordered new battery for car (current one is 9 years old and tired)

Had genset guy around to inspect generator. Fuel lines are now stiff and need replacement. Will get new replacement raw water pump and heat exchanger.

Dropped of outboard for professional service.

And a few other small items not worth mentioning.

We’re going to town on the boat at the moment. We’re up in the air with our plans for the next sailing season. One idea is to stay in the South Pacific islands north of the cyclone season in a years time. This would mean being 18 months away from major boat yards so we want everything to be as good as it can be. In general the professionals who looked at the boat yesterday said everything looked in pretty good order. But this is the best opportunity to have expert eyes and hands on the boat for a while so we’re making the best of it.

Helen attacked the pile of washing from our recent adventures and sorted out one of the boat lockers. Sam and Ben toured the town and tackled a bottle of spirits they needed to warm up their last two days here. In the evening, they went out on the town with Ian from Sea Mist. In fact John and Cherryl came over too to say goodbye to Ben and Sam. They ended up on the grass outside the boat with a bunch of locals (we think) making noise in the early hours. Seems they had a good time.

Back to Whangarei

by steve, on January 12th, 2011 (New Zealand)

We’re getting better at packing our tents so we were out of our campsite in good time. Our first stop, as planned, was the 3D maze. This turned out to be a lot of fun. The maze was made of wooden walls and included a number of overhead walkways with the maze snaking around under them. Our challenge was to make our way to each coloured corner and exit the way we came in. Ben finished first, I came second and Sam and Helen finished together. While waiting, Ben and I were given a second challenge which was to find our way through to the second exit in under 4 minutes. I made it in 2 but Ben got lost. A lot of fun all round.

The rest of the journey was simply long. We stopped for lunch along the way and Helen took over for an hour driving when I became tired. We arrived in Whangarei around 4pm and had time to move the boat onto a slip near the fishing dock. It’s quieter than the last place we slipped but a little further away from the amenities.

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I have now caught up on publishing all our recent pictures and video.

Hot and Cold Water

by KC2RIY, on January 11th, 2011 (New Zealand, Video)

We had a pretty active day here in Roturua. In the morning we visited the Te Puia Maori cultural experience. The place was set on a plot of thermally active land. We arrived well before our prebooked 10:15 cultural show so we spent a little time walking over to their main active geyser. We saw it erupt in clouds of steam and mist. To our surprise rather than explode in one big column of water it went on for quite some time. In the end we had to leave for the show before it had finished.

The show was interesting but not astounding. I think part of it is because the maoris here are a long way removed from those who performed the dances and rituals we were shown. Nevertheless we got to see how one village would approach and greet visitors, some singing and dancing including some audience participation huka dancing.

After the show we were given a guided tour of the complex. We were shown where they keep their arts of carving and weaving alive. That was pretty interesting. They had a nocturnal kiwi exhibit where we saw a pair of the strange birds moving around in an artificial night time habitat.

After a stop at a mud pool we were taken to the geyser we had seen earlier. Here we learned that if we stayed longer a second and larger geyser would eventually erupt. So stay we did and were rewarded with a finer display. The overall eruption seemed to take about half an hour.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=seoWD7Mgw2U[/youtube]

We didn’t have long before our afternoon activity. We grabbed lunch and our swimming clothes before heading out of town to Waitiaki White Water Adventures for our cruise down a local class 5 river. This turned out to be a huge amount of fun. 23 tourists in 4 inflatable rafts with professional guides both in the rafts with us and in kayaks ahead of us went down 13 rapids and 3 waterfalls, the largest being a 7 meter drop. We had to work by paddling forward and backward on instruction and when necessary jamming ourselves down into the raft for the big drops. Towards the end we were allowed in the water to float down one of the rapids which added to the fun. On two occasions we paddled back into the rapids to bury the nose of the raft into the water flooding the front section making us all very wet. This was all funded by Helen’s missed sky dive so we all ended up happy.

Today we’re heading back to Whangarei. We spotted a 3D maze on the way back yesterday which we’re keen on doing today. So it’s off to breakfast and packing up the camping gear. When we get back to the boat I have plenty of pics to upload.

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Back to the two of us

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Hot and Cold Water