Aboard Dignity (Lagoon 420) Blog

Helen declared herself fit enough for the climb up Rangitoto so after a bit of morning, international, stress we left the boat and tied up the dinghy to the wharf.

The path to the summit was not too strenuous. Lower down it took us through lava fields where the vegetation was still struggling to take hold. Further up the soil had developed and the vegetation was more diverse.

Because we had left the boat a little late the weekend tourists had arrived. A lot of families were on the trail but we still got sections to ourselves. At the top is was a much busier as it was reachable most of the way by road so many people there had taken the easy way up.

From the top there were great views all around including over Auckland. quickly moved on from the crowded section and made our way around the crater and then onto the lava tubes on one side of the volcano. We had again forgotten our torch so we made our way through the main lava tube using the ranging light on our camera.

We made it back down in time for lunch. Helen’s foot was beginning to ache but not too badly and her back was ok. We had our lunch aboard and waited for the incoming tide to head into Auckland Harbour where we picked a spot to anchor and wait out the night. We ended up anchoring more or less opposite the Viaduct Marina where we’ll be heading today.

Once settled, and because there was no wind, we removed and packed the mainsail ready to take to Whangarei tomorrow.

This morning Helen’s back and foot both feel improved. The recent easing up appears to be working.

To allow Helen to rest her back (which incidentally is getting better) we made no plans for yesterday. I did get some mail (via St Brendan’s Isle) that required me to send some mail to the UK so I went ashore in the morning to visit the post office. I timed it so the tide was going out and wouldn’t have far to drag the dinghy. I learned a thing or two about beach landings on my own.

I called Vodafone who were able to give me an idea of the bulk of my traffic immediately prior to our bandwidth being used up. Turned out is was our anti-virus s/w trying to update itself. I’d just reinstalled it before leaving Auckland and had forgotten to turn off the automatic updates. Arrggghh. If my monitoring s/w had been working I’d have caught this before we blew $30 of air time. Double Arrggghh.

The rest of the day was R&R. I cranked out the XBox and played for a while and we both read our books too.

This afternoon, when the currents are in our favour, we’re going to move over to Rangitoto. If Helen is up it, we’ll climb to the peak of this 700 year old dormant volcano.

Once breakfast and our usual morning chores were sorted we raised the anchor and headed around to Onetangi Bay. There was insufficient wind to sail so we motored round.

We had an idea we might go ashore during the day but I got stuck into some admin. I sorted out our advance departure paperwork for New Zealand as well as our advance arrival paperwork for Fiji. They’ve all been sent off. I then got stuck into our UK taxes which took the rest of the day and I still didn’t finish.

We went ashore shortly after 6pm to meet our friends. Having dragged the dinghy up the beach we realized we’d forgotten the wine and had to return to the boat getting soaked in the surf doing so. We made it back to our rendezvous just ahead of time so we kept noone waiting. Murray picked us up and took us to their home which we found delightful – just the sort of open plan and size we like. Sian cooked up a delicious dinner. We were joined by Vickie who was also present in the hot springs at Great Barrier.

As ever, good food, good friends and a little fine wine makes for a great evening.