New Zealand - Part 1 (Nov 2015 – May 2018)

When Bob McDavit the weather guru says it's go time! It's Go time. There was a fleet of boats that had been waiting in Nukualofa for weeks for a good weather window to New Zealand and those who were subscribed to Bob's weather advice parted Tonga on November 9th or 10th. Paul checked our Grib files and we decided to hang back for another two days which suited us fine as we still had some last minute preparations on the boat. One job involved scrubbing the bottom of our dinghy because it collected so much scum. We stored the dinghy down below for the multi day passage to free up a lot of space on deck. With a surplus of diesel and excited anticipation to start our new life in New Zealand we picked up the anchor on Nov 11th. Destination Opua, New Zealand. I remember talking to Paul back in Greece about wanting to stop in NZ for an extended period of time to live and work. There have been times during our trip where I questioned what our purpose is and what we are contributing so, New Zealand was a welcome change for us. As we were leaving Nukualofa s/v Machushla was sailing in and we got some nice close up shots of Mark and Sue and their beautiful boat. Our passage from Nukualofa to Opua was eventful. The wind/weather was constantly changing on us and we were downloading grib files twice a day to suss out the best route. We checked in every morning and evening to the SSB cruisers net and it was fun to compare everyone’s progress and conditions to ours. After hearing sv Rhombus’s position and bearing we knew we had to be vigilant during the night as we would be verrrry close to them if the conditions remained the same. AND holy moly we got a call on the VHF from Rhombos because they had a visual of us. Paul was on watch and he said he had seen their lights awhile ago. All was good and we had a boat 1nm from us! Our dinning table turns into a gigantic bed for our long passages.  I'm cutting up a gord outside so I don't get seasick from being inside so long. The closer we got to New Zealand the colder it got!!! Holy smokes I had to dive deep into the depths of the V-Berth and dust off my toque and thermals. We’re not in the tropics anymore Toto! Tuna central!!! 20 nm off the coast we were hooking bonito one after the other! It’s like they wanted a free ride into NZ on Arbutus because customs would deny their entry. (Hazardous goods). We happily obliged but their free ride equated to their last ride, ever… At one point we had to remove our line and deny entry aboard because our fridge was full.

Oooooooo ahhhhhhh we could see land in the horizon and New Zealand’s peaky-ness and city lights were a welcome sight. Radioing into immigration was a chore. Paul wanted to test out his English and see if the Kiwis could understand his accent (NZ would be Paul first professional job in an English speaking environment). I think they asked for all of our information including my mom’s maiden name. It felt like an eternity for us to finally reach the quarantine dock. Night had fallen and there were already 4 other boats docked. Arbutus and her crew were in quarantine and had to wait until morning before we could check-in with customs and immigration...and take a hot shower.

The next morning customs and immigration came aboard and thoroughly inspected Arbutus and asked many questions...over the quota. Some of our perishable food didn’t make it through including my home made kimchi :(. They even asked us to open up our camping tent on deck to make sure we weren’t transporting any pests. All officials were friendly. Shocker!! We decided to take a berth at the marina instead of anchoring out. It was our first time at a marina since Oct 2014 in the Canary islands in Europe!!! Wtf. I can’t remember what we did first...LUNCH at a real restaurant!! Mmmmm the Kiwis put beetroot in their hamburgers. Yummy. For the past few days the Blue Water Festival organizers had a bunch of events for the cruisers and we arrived on the last day where there was a huge party "Princess of the Pacific" Everyone had to dress up as their version of a Pacific Princess. Paul took this very seriously as did many of the other cruisers. Some had spent the whole day crafting their costumes. My costume was finished in a matter of minutes. I grabbed one of my sarongs and made a dress out of it and donned some beachy jewellery. Paul got super crafty and made himself a coconut bra and shell HEADPIECE. He borrowed my super short, tight, and revealing sarong/skirt which was very revealing...it was a tight package. We had sundowners on Helios and Dominic’s bikini top was equally revealing. My face hurt from laughing and smiling so much :) The party was fantastico!!! Everyone was dressed up in “interesting” costumes and we danced the night away. We spent a few days in the marina then set off to explore The Bay of Islands. Such a nice introduction to New Zealand :) So much greenery, hikes, blue skys, perfect clouds, and sheep! The selection at the grocery stores vastly improved from the Pacific Islands. My birthday dinner prepared by captain Paul. Traditionally Paul makes me French crêpes every year but New Zealand inspired him to make cook up some lamb. Home made cookies from Corinne!!! Forgot to take a picture of my full name before we devoured the cookies. We spent a few days to visit with now landlubber Megan in Kerikeri. We were able to lift up the keel and rudder and get a front row view of The Stone Store at the end of the river.

We had some serious work planned on Arbutus so we lazily sailed down to Whangarei to haul out at Dockland 5 boatyard.

Our cruising buds Alison and Geoff on sv Saraoni trying to overpass us.

We spent 5 weeks on the hard and spent Christmas and New Years on the boat. Christmas was spent with fellow cruisers who were also hauled out. We had a potluck BBQ at the common area in the boatyard. New Years was another story. It was pouring rain for the whole day and we were stuck in the boat.

Major boat work included getting the haul professionally sandblasted and painted with epoxy and antifouling. To save heaps of money we prepped the boat ourselves (taping and covering her in plastic), cleaning up ALL of the sand after they did the sand blast  (it was like sweeping up the Sahara), and applied the last two coats of antifouling.

Another major installation was the shower!! I thought there was no way we could fit a shower in the boat...but Paul was determined and he made it work. He designed it and with the help of an aluminium welder we now have a cozy shower on Arbutus with hot running water.

After a long 6 weeks, working 12 hour days (maybe less for me…maybe) we were back in the water. New and improved.

We did have time to attend a Wedding!! Randomness, my classmate from Canada was getting hitched to a Kiwi lad in Dargaville just a 45 min drive from Whangarei. So we rented a car and drove out for the celebration. It was a lovely reception on the beach and we felt so welcome from Jeremy’s family. Lindsey looked beautiful (of course).