November 30 – December 9, 2013 (with added thoughts from November, 2019)
In this day and age of cruising, most boats spend more than one season in New Zealand. I believe one of the chief reasons for this is that the average cruiser has changed from younger, hard-core adventurers who had the “right stuff” but lacked time and money to older retirees who don’t have to return to work and would rather see more of a few places than bits and pieces of many. There’s too much of New Zealand to be covered in one season, and the same goes for Fiji. Then there’s Vanuatu, New Caledonia, and for many cruisers, a return trip to Tonga. To really cover this area of the world takes time, and most modern-day cruisers are willing spend at least two seasons trying to do just that.
Another reason the cruising fleet has slowed down is the situation with Somali pirates off the coast of Africa. The classic world cruising route used to entail a trip up the Red Sea into the Mediterranean, but that all changed around the turn of the century when Somali fishermen, defending their waters, discovered they could make a good living, even get rich, by kidnapping people on passing boats of all sizes and holding them for ransom. The ransom money enabled them to buy bigger boats that cover an area so large that there’s no way to get to the Red Sea without risking an encounter with these pirates.
The piracy danger continued into the 2010s; so cruising yachts have been faced with the prospect of going around the bottom of Africa and either skipping the Mediterranean or making their way back there via the Caribbean and an Atlantic crossing. A few boats might cruise up the west coast of Africa, but for most that’s not an appealing prospect as there are simply not enough Starbucks (kidding).
Thus, most cruisers are in no hurry to get to that difficult part of the world. Frankly, I think a lot of us are hoping that with time, the situation will be eradicated, and we remain perplexed at how long it’s taking. Why is the world putting up with these pirates? It’s true there haven’t been any incidents involving cruising yachts for a few years, but that’s because so few of them go to that area. (I will add, though, that several yachts managed to do the passage in 2018; so maybe things are finally changing.)
Meanwhile, like so many, we were beginning a second season in New Zealand. Rich and I planned to spend more time in Auckland and weren’t sure how long we wanted to stay in Opua. A common saying is that one cannot step in the same river twice, which is generally interpreted to mean you should appreciate the special times in your life as they happen because in trying to re-create them, you will likely end up disappointed.
In our experience, it is possible to step into the same river again and have a nearly identical experience, sometimes even better as we have more wisdom with which to appreciate it. On the other hand, the saying is sometimes true that it’s better not to return, to leave a past memory as it was and not mar it with a lesser one.
We generally know what not to repeat and what we should absolutely do again. Usually what not to try to repeat involves a great group of people coming together for whatever reasons and sharing an experience. Things that are safe to repeat are special travel and food experiences.
As an example, Rich and I will never return to Viani Bay, Fiji, because even though it’s one of our top recommendations for anyone cruising to Fiji, it’s now full of the ghosts of times past for us. On the other hand, I’ve been going to the Hitching Post restaurant in Casmalia, California, since accompanying my parents as child. That tradition involves spending the night at the Embassy Suites hotel in Lompoc then driving up to the Hitching Post for a steak dinner that’s second to none. Since the childhood trips I’ve managed to get there about every six years or so, and the experience has always been great. Rich and I just did this again last July (in 2019), and the experience was all the more special in that, between us, we’ve had amazing meals all over the world, yet dinner at the original Hitching Post still stands out as a peak experience. We will keep repeating that Lompoc and Hitching Post ritual whenever we go back home, and I don’t expect it will ever get old.
In the case of Opua that year, we weren’t sure what to think. Would we enjoy it a second time, or should we leave as quickly as possible and let that first special year be the memory we carry? We decided to go ahead and get a slip in Opua, give it some time, and see how we felt. On this note, we began our second season in New Zealand.
One of the interesting things about modern-day cruising across the Pacific is its similarity to high school. Every year a large number (in the hundreds) of boats cross the Pacific Ocean from North America and the Panama Canal, and by the time they arrive in New Zealand most of these cruisers have either met or are aware of each other. At this point it’s typical for cruisers to have a core group of good friends, a wider circle of more casual friends, agreeable acquaintances (generally the rest of the fleet), and unless they’re fairly saintly, a few people they’d rather avoid.
This season our core group of friends were all in Whangarei and Marsden, while the few boats we’d rather avoid all ended up in Opua. With many casual friends and agreeable acquaintances around, it wasn’t a big deal; yet I would call it an unfortunate circumstance overall, like a small dark spot during an otherwise nice time.
At first it felt great to be back in Opua, and we found we enjoyed our favorite things there even more because we anticipated them and knew how special they were. Our first night at the marina we had a pizza from the General Store. We’d grown addicted to those during our previous season in Opua; so it was a real treat to have one again. What better way to celebrate being back in Opua than to curl up with one of those pizzas and a bottle of local white wine and catch up on the TV show episodes we missed while underway.
During the following week it felt very special to watch the pohutukawa trees start to to bloom and admire the wildflowers as we drove to Kerikeri. We also relished eating the world’s best blueberry pancakes accompanied by wonderful coffee at the Kerikeri farmer’s market, purchasing a box of the unbelievably-good macadamia butter toffee from Makana Confections, and enjoying bowls of our favorite seafood chowder at the Marina Cafe. Other things on our favorites list included yummy chocolate-mint ice cream affogatos from Movenpick, the wonderfully Mediterranean-tasting food from the Aegean Pizzeria, long-anticipated and very special meals at Jerusalem Cafe and The Italians (both located in Kerikeri), and taking the car ferry to charming Russell for the best fish and chips in Northland.*
As much as we enjoyed repeating these experiences, we began to notice a pattern: our excitement always deflated quickly once we’d returned to our boat, kind of a crash after the high of the experience. We started taking more notice of the things we didn’t like, such as the coldness of the staff and members of the Opua Cruising Club. In fact I’d say if you ever want to see what it’s like when you’re dead, come here as they they love to ignore the cruisers unless the staff is giving you the stink eye as they take count of how many times you’ve been there.
We were also getting black fly bites, better this year than last as our immune systems were starting to tolerate them, but still an itchy annoyance. Then making a couple of visits to Whangarei to visit our friends (the Bright Angels, Dean on Local Talent, the Lisa Kays, and Aleris) made us feel more the presence of the few annoying boats and less like we belonged in Opua. At the end of this rather confusing week of ups and downs, we decided that while we were glad for the mostly-wonderful week we’d spent in Opua, it was time for us to seek out some new surroundings.
One thing I didn’t do much this week was take photos (I took so many the previous year I hardly needed any more), but below is a photo of a pohutukawa tree on a beach near Paihia, a couple of photos from a visit to Wharau Beach (which we hadn’t visited before) and on the top right a photo we took of Whangarei Heads from Marsden’s marina. We’re not big fans of that area, but I have to say this is a pretty nice view.
We also visited and took a tour of the world’s biggest beehive, which you can walk through, outside of Kerikeri. No photos were allowed, but we very much enjoyed the tour and learning about bees. –Cyndi
*Note: Sadly as of 2018, the blueberry pancakes at the farmer’s market, the Aegean Pizzeria, the Italians restaurant, and the fish and chips place in Russell are all gone. There was a rumor last year that they might open The Italians again in Paihia, but I haven’t seen any sign of that on Google.
