March 28, 2013 – Port Fitzroy, New Zealand
We made it to Great Barrier Island on Tuesday – about a 65 mile motor into light wind and fairly large swells. Even with that, it was a fairly nice day at sea.
Yesterday, we motored about five miles into the very well-protected bay where the tiny town of Port Fitzroy is located. On the way in, we saw a pretty little green boat coming out. Sockdolager! It must be them! We called on the radio and we were right. They’d been here for a couple of weeks and it turns out that they are heading for Tauranga – our destination as well. Here we are in a strange, new country and there are friends around every corner. It’s so nice. (We wrote about this a while back – here.)
And not only old friends (well, “old” as in we’d met during our passage across the Pacific), but new friends also. We met Dale and Jeannie (S/V Hautere) a few hours after arriving at Port Fitzroy and ended up sharing dinner with them at the boat club in “town.”
At dinner we ran into this old friend…
Oh yea, that’s right… Pizza! We also found a new bird friend – one we hadn’t seen before…
A Banded Rail. What can we say? Another wonderful day in paradise! -Rich
