September 29, 2021
I guess it’s time for a blog post, having been duly chastised by our friend Tom…
Ok. I’ve been patient. I haven’t said anything until now.
I want something new! I need vicarious travel stuff I’ve seen enough about your lockdown. I’ve been locked down for 18 months. Your readers deserve more. Boo hoo (that’s me feeling sorry for myself).
Well, there’s so little to write about and so little time to do it with being locked down and having all this wine drinking, TV watching and napping to do and all! But here goes anyway. We’ll take a look at where we are and where we have been for over a year now: Pier 21 Marina.
I used pictures from drone video we took a few months ago (please excuse the lower image quality as they are screen captures). (Click on any image for larger version.)
D’Urville, a beautiful launch (that’s Kiwi for power boat) belonging to our very dear friends, Richard and Charlotte. I’ve spent many hours helping with electrical and electronic projects aboard – including designing and building a new stabilizer control system.
There is a hardstand (that’s Kiwi for boat yard) right at the marina. They use a travel lift to pull boats out of the water. It’s a small yard that’s often full. There are a lot of boat stores and services located just a few minutes from here.
There’s a drystack (Kiwi for boat vending machine, we think) at Pier 21. Fizz boats or tinnies (both Kiwi for small power boat) motor up and are lifted onto the shelves by a big hoist. From all accounts, it isn’t much less expensive than keeping your boat in a berth, but I guess it’s nice to have it out of the water. Below are some pictures.
Cyndi and I call this the boat vending machine. Pick your boat and insert your credit card. (This is actually a parking meter, but it should be the boat selection kiosk, don’t you think?)
Below is the Skytower behind Pier 21 Marina – about a 15 minute walk from our boat. It’s in the CBD (Central Business District – that’s Kiwi for downtown). Auckland CBD is loaded with great places to eat and lots to do.
The massive Westhaven Marina is next to our tiny Pier 21 Marina with the Auckland Harbour (that’s Kiwi for harbor!) bridge in the background. We looked at getting a berth (that’s Kiwi for slip) here but found that it would be a 20 minute walk from the where they’d put us to the head of the dock. This place is HUGE with about a million boats!
It’s really been nice living here at Pier 21. We have wonderful neighbors and there is a great staff at the marina. There are only about three dozen boats here so it’s very small and usually hard to get a berth. We just called on a whim when we came up from Nelson and got lucky. We’ve traveled all over NZ and there’s really no place we’d rather be!
-Rich
