Month: December 2012

December 6, 2012

We’re here at the Opua Marina!

 

If you use the above interactive Google Map, you can check out the marina or the nearby town of Paihia just to the north of the marina.

We’re on the E Dock.  We were confused and alarmed by the number of boats at moorings and at anchor as we came into the marina in the middle of the night.  There are a lot of boats here!

 

December 5 – 6, 2012

The Bay of Islands is a very large area, about 7 miles across at the entry and about 12 miles deep.  In the bay are islands, jutting rocks, peninsulas, etc.  We probably entered the area around midnight and then had to motor through all this to Opua (our port of entry) at the innermost part of the bay, a trip that took a little over 2 hours.

I would love to say that, like our friends on Bright Angel, we were astonished at the incredible scenery and beautiful green of the islands. Unfortunately, it was dark . . . really, really dark.  There was a moon, but the cloud cover was thick.  We could barely see the outlines of some of the islands we passed by.  We have a good chart plotter and we trust it; so we were able to just go from one waypoint to another and carefully make our way down to Opua.  Luckily, the wind had nearly died, and it now seemed much warmer and more comfortable.

As we continued inland, the channel became more narrow, and we started to see boats.  There were boats on moorings and boats at anchor.  And they just seemed to be increasing!  We were trying to find the marina and the customs dock, but all these boats made everything confusing.  Why is it that things in real life always look so different than they do on a map?  We even had an aerial photo which didn’t seem to match the reality of the situation.

We finally saw the main wharf but no customs dock.  By now Rich had me get the big spotlight and use it to look at the boats that seemed to be closing in on us.  I was like that panicked girl in Jurassic Park struggling with this giant flashlight.  I know it’s unbelievably bright, and now all the people whose boats I shined it on know it, too.  I also accidentally turned the strobe on, which temporarily blinded Rich.

After the wharf ended, Rich noticed a strange-looking sort of dock structure off to our right.  It didn’t look like anything useful to me, but Rich studied it awhile, then made a sudden hard right.  It turned out we were looking at the very end of the customs dock, and as we motored up to it we could see a sign that confirmed this. Then the dock started to come into view, thank God.

There was plenty of room; so we just headed to the nearest area to get tied up and then figure out what was what.  There was a current running (currents can be wickedly strong through here) but we managed without too much trouble.  After tying up, I found a sign that confirmed that yes, we were in the right place.  We weren’t quite in New Zealand yet as the customs dock floats unattached to land, but it was close enough.

By the time we got showered and the boat straightened up, it was around after 2:30am, but it’s never too late for an arrival drink.  In this case, it was rum.  Well, one rum turned into four rums, which was great fun but not one of our smartest moves considering customs was supposed to come “at first light” whatever that meant.  (It turned out it meant around 10am).  We were conked out by 3:30am.

We woke up around 7am to a cool, gray morning, gusty and even rainy at times.  The weather had taken the predicted turn for the worse, and we felt so relieved to have made it in.  Rich called the Opua Marina and we were thrilled to get assigned a slip, which would save us from having to try to find an empty mooring ball or to have to anchor in this weather.

In preparation for customs and Quarantine, I worked on putting out everything they might be interested in.  I put out every shell we had collected and every woven basket from Tonga.  I located the beans and lentils (which I knew would be confiscated) and put those out, along with the spices for examination.  I opened the food lockers and pulled out the food bins and made a list of all the alcohol we had on board.  We were ready.

A woman form the customs office came by and talked to us and took our pre-filled-out paperwork.  That was very easy.  Then the Quarantine guy came by.  He didn’t have any dogs as we were told he might, but he did go though our all our food storage himself.  Away went our onions, beans and lentils, honey, and surprisingly, our Trader Joe’s Wasabi Mayonnaise. Everything else got to stay (I was especially relieved about our rice and spices).

The Quarantine officer left with our confiscated food and our trash, and we were done!  Now, we could really go to New Zealand.  It was gusty and drizzly outside and we thought we’d wait for a lull before moving to our slip in the marina.  We did wait awhile, but we’d run out of coffee yesterday and had to resort to instant this morning, and we were hungry for a meal ashore.  We decided wind and rain be dammed, we wanted our slip!  We motored over in the wet windy weather and our friends Bob and Linda kindly helped us get tied up.  Now, we were really in New Zealand at last! -Cyndi

December 06, 2012

We arrived this morning at 2:30AM local time after a nice, eight day passage.  We did a lot of motoring in light winds and one day of “hangin’ on” in 20 to 25 knots of wind and bumpy seas, but all in all, it was a great passage.  We’re exhausted.  It’s time to sleep – for two days or so.  More soon.  -Rich

November 27 – December 5, 2012

Weeks before leaving Tonga, we’d been hearing about the massive pumice field that we might have to traverse to get to New Zealand.  There’s an underwater volcano that’s spitting the stuff up in massive amounts and these lighter-than-water rocks float in what looks like endless, flat islands on the water’s surface.  Crossing them can be a problem.  They can plug engine water strainers and even damage the hull as they constantly sand away paint and fiberglass as you motor or sail through them.

It turns out that the rough weather preceding us did wonders in breaking up these pumice islands.  Now, we were left with only streaks of pumice to sail through.  We kept a close eye on the engine water strainer and engine temperature but there was no problem there.  They only problem the pumice caused for us, besides making us nervous about encountering more, was stopping the little paddle wheel that gives us our speed-through-the-water reading.

I’m glad that it turned out to be inconsequential but I really did look forward to seeing one of these endless pumice islands.  Oh well.  -Rich  (There are some great pictures of these islands on the internet. If you want to see them, search for “pumice island” on Google images.)

November 27 – December 5, 2012

Back when we were getting ready to leave from Big Mama’s in Tonga, I had started reading a book called “Culture Shock New Zealand.”  Culture Shock books are a series of insightful guides to understanding and adapting to various cultures around the world, and I’d been reading up on New Zealand.  We had just gotten to know Danny and Mo, a Kiwi couple on the boat Sam, and I had asked them about a couple of things I’d read.

When we all left for New Zealand, our radio net was so small and informal that Danny suggested I could make it more interesting by doing a Kiwi Tip of the Day.  I’d had the same idea!  I would find find some interesting tidbit of information in my book, have Rich relay it over the net (he does the radio nets), and Danny and Mo would then confirm or deny the information.

As it happened, we ended up doing a Kiwi Tip of the day twice a day, for both radio net times.  I hadn’t intended to do this many and was often anxiously reading to come up with something interesting and worthwhile.  Sometimes the things I came up with seemed like a bit of a stretch.  After all, is it really worth noting that a culture likes to go barefoot in the summer?  As it turned out, yes, it was noteworthy!  I haven’t seen more bare feet anywhere than I have in New Zealand! Kiwis will go barefoot to work, to restaurants, across gravel parking lots and gas stations, etc.  It’s impressive! (And if you ever visit someone’s home in New Zealand, be prepared to take your shoes off when you enter.)  In the end, Danny and Mo confirmed every tip I managed to come up with.  Rich and I lost radio contact with the group as we got closer to New Zealand as there was so much interference, but we had learned a lot about New Zealand along the way.

Here are some more of our Kiwi Tips of the Day (and after spending time here; we’ve found them all to be so true!).

1. Kiwis (New Zealanders) have a strong sense of fairness, thinking everyone deserves a chance to prove and improve themselves.  They root for the underdog. (Also, you will probably never see a Kiwi cut in line.)

2. Kiwis are not impressed by status symbols.  I’m sure there are exceptions, but for the most part there’s no point in carrying around status luggage, wearing a designer watch, or driving a fancy car to try to win respect.  They just aren’t into that class/status/wealth thing at all.  The best way to impress a Kiwi: be great at a sport, or fishing, or sailing, etc.

3. There is something here called The Number-8-Wire Mentality.  Number-8 wire can be used to fix everything; sort of the New Zealand version of America’s Duct tape.  The Number-8-Wire Mentality refers to the strong Kiwi tendency to “do it yourself,” and be self-sufficient and able to work with whatever you have on hand.  (Apparently this mentality has caused a lot of disastrous home remodels).

4. There is something called The OE, which is short for Overseas Experience.  Young people in New Zealand are strongly encouraged to take off after graduation and travel to other places in the world, perhaps even live there for awhile and experience the culture. Kiwis strongly value travel and for young people to expand their horizons through experiencing foreign places.

5. With the exception of one or two seldom-seen spiders, there are no dangerous critters in New Zealand.  I wouldn’t say this in itself is all that noteworthy.  What is noteworthy is the response of these strong, resilient and independent people to the idea of deadly creatures.  So often when we tell a local that we plan to go to Australia, the first thing we hear is, “Everything will kill you there!!!”  To the average Kiwi, Australia is one big ongoing episode of When Animals Attack!  Rich and I grew up in California and have hiked in areas where people have been mauled or killed by mountain lions or bears and have swum in waters frequented by white sharks.  As children we played in fields harboring rattlesnakes, and moving lawn or home furniture that hasn’t been moved in awhile generally includes squashing the Black Widow Spiders who’ve homesteaded there.  (And of course there are the serial killer sprees that happen every so often in California; human predators are the scariest of them all!).  I guess we’re just used to being around deadly creatures. New Zealanders aren’t and find the idea rather horrifying.  (Note: Sadly, there was a deadly great white attack recently off the western shore of New Zealand.  They are not immune to sharks.)

6. If you get invited to a Kiwi summer evening barbecue, use insect repellent.  Alas, they do have these black flies that tend to bite like mosquitoes: you don’t feel it; you only know by the itchy bump the next day.

7. The All Blacks are the winningest Rugby team in the world. Kiwis Danny and Mo readily agreed with this.  Tom, a Brit on another boat, was highly doubtful.  I never confirmed this either way.  I’m sure if you asked anyone who has the best rugby players in the world, Kiwis would say New Zealand!, Brits would say Great Britain!, Aussies would say Australia!, South Africans would say South Africa!, and Americans would say, “What’s Rugby?”  I do know that the All Blacks are very important here as Rugby is the most popular sport, and the players are national heroes.  If you want to fit in here in New Zealand, you’d better be an All Blacks fan.  If you’re from Australia and visiting New Zealand, keep your mouth shut about rugby until you get back home.

I think that about covers it, but if I could have added one more, I would say that New Zealand is a dog-loving country.  It seems as though everyone has at least one dog!  Having a dog is just, well, something you do.  They are very well cared for, like part of the family, and I can’t imagine ever seeing a stray dog here—I’m not sure they even exist.  They especially seem to love terriers (and Jack Russells in particular).  (They have cats, too, but you don’t see them everywhere like you do dogs.)  -Cyndi