Oneroa

Oneroa is a bit of a holiday destination which means the high street is full of places to eat, shop and buy houses.

I tried to catch up on some sleep in the morning but failed so we went ashore late morning to have a look around. The beach was hard and flat allowing the dinghy wheels to work well for us. The town is up above the beach so after a small climb up the winding path we found ourselves in the middle of the holiday weekend hustle and bustle.

We had a little walk around visiting the tourist center. We didn’t go too far as Helen has developed a bit of tendonitis in one of her feet. We visited a pharmacy to pick up some ibuprofen and were again impressed by the medical knowledge of the assistant. Here in NZ the pharmacists have a lot more medical training than we’re used to. You can’t just buy something, they want to make sure the product is appropriate for the symptoms and have the knowledge to help. Not that this isn’t true too in the US and UK but the service here always seems better.

After Helen popped a couple of pills we ate lunch. Helen had fish and chips and I had a pizza. After lunch the pills seemed to have worked and eased Helen’s pain. We headed back to the boat for the afternoon where we caught up on emails and sleep.

The anchorage reminds us much of the Caribbean. That’s because it is now filled with boats, presumably all out and about for the long weekend. Packed anchorages were common in the Caribbean but rarely seen since – the last time being off the marina in Tahiti. Well – there’s Opua too but not like this.

Now we’re here in Waiheke we’re going to have to work out what to do. We need to rest Helen’s foot a bit and not do anything too strenuous. I want to get to Auckland soon which is less than 15nm away now. Wind and weather will dictate when and where we go and what we do as ever.