Author: richwest3

February 23, 2019

It’s been a bit of a hectic time for Legacy as we’ve been hopping down the east coasts of both the north and south islands of New Zealand in an effort to get as far south as we can. When we’re not on the move, we’re either sightseeing, seeking out new and delicious things to eat and drink, or doing boat maintenance.

Meanwhile, I’ve decided to table my post about our arrival issues, my thoughts on the current management of the Opua Marina, and the new entry regulations until a later time. We have lodged a complaint with New Zealand Customs and will leave it at that for now.

I will mention here for the benefit of any cruisers unhappy with the northernmost entry-point marina, pretty much any other marina in New Zealand would be very happy to have you! Some, because of their remote locations, are better for short stays while others make terrific hubs for taking a breather from cruising and a base for road trips while having access to a good boat yard.

Over the past five years we’ve had terrific short stays at the marinas in Tutukaka, Viaduct Harbour, Gisborne, Napier, Wellington (all on the north island), plus Picton and Havelock (on the south island). We’ve had longer stays at the Bayswater Marina (near Auckland), Tauranga Bridge Marina, and lovely Nelson (on the south Island).

While these marinas may vary in the services and facilities they offer, they have all been terrific places to stay. (We almost stayed at the charming Whitianga marina but our draft was a bit too deep). I will add that we’ve never stayed at the marinas in Marsden Cove, Whangarei/Riverside, or Gulf Harbour so I can’t comment on those, but people seem to enjoy them. As for the other marinas in Auckland, they were either too big (Westhaven), too small (Pier 21), or too hard to get a slip in (Orakei Marina).

(Note: if you do decide to stay in Auckland, some of New Zealand’s other marinas might want you to haul out and wash your hull before coming to visit them. Auckland has fan worms, an invasive underwater pest that might attach to your boat, and New Zealand is working very hard to prevent their spread.)

Our favorite north island hub is the Tauranga Bridge Marina which, in our opinion, has one of the best boatyards in New Zealand because whatever boat problems you run across, they always have suggestions about what steps to take or who you can hire to fix them (and they will often call and arrange to have said person come over to take a look); plus they do excellent work. A big plus is that this marina has such a great location between two lovely towns and is the perfect spot from which to take road trips in the central and south North Island. It also has some of the best weather in New Zealand. While it is preferable to have a car here, we have a friend who got around fine by bus, and now there’s Uber.

As for us, we are now heading into new (for us) territory down the east coast of the South Island. We weren’t sure what to expect, but we’ve been very impressed! It turned out the new marina in Lyttelton, not far from Christchurch, is a fantastic place with great facilities. (More on this in my next blog post). In Dunedin we’re at a yacht club that’s been so welcoming and is also walking distance from town.

So far we are loving the east coast of the South Island. Lyttleton is a lovely little town and Dunedin a lovely little city. Both are surrounded by scenic beauty and have lots of day-trip excursions you can take. We’re hoping to get weather to go further south so we’ll see what the future brings.

Below, a map of New Zealand showing the marinas we’ve stayed in over the pasts five seasons in New Zealand (including a few we haven’t been in ourselves but know friends who have).

Below, the marinas we’re familiar with on New Zealand’s north island. Click on the markers below for a little information about each marina (with the notable exception of the Bay of Islands Marina–we’re not too happy with them these days).

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And here, our latest discoveries in the south island. One is big and modern, the other small and a bit rustic. Both are terrific.

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–Cyndi

February 19, 2019

We haven’t been up early enough lately to see a sunrise, until today…

As an afterthought, I turned and looked in the other direction. There was something I’ve never seen before: a sunrise rainbow.

We’re hanging out here (still), waiting for weather to go south. Maybe next week. In the mean time, it’s really a nice place and we’re having a great time. -Rich

February 11, 2019

After a very warm welcome and kind assistance from Barry, the Otago Yacht Club manager, we’re in and tied up after a pleasant, 200 mile motorsail down from from Christchurch. It’s crackling with nature and life down here. We had albatross as constant companions and frequent Hector’s dolphin escorts and bunch of terns, petrels and other birds beyond our abilities to identify. Here are some pictures but be warned, they were at the limit of our cameras zoomability.

We also had do dodge a few kelp patties. While not usually remarkable, we haven’t seen these very often since leaving California, where they were a constant companion in our pre-cruising boating and scuba diving lives.

Here’s where we are and where we came from…

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-Rich

February 10, 2019

During our passage last night to Dunedin, I looked around and couldn’t find the Southern Cross. It’s always there and it’s always easy to find.  I looked to the south. Nope. I checked the compass to see if we were really going south (that would be a big problem if we weren’t) and we were. It wasn’t until I looked up that I found it, above our mast.

The further south one goes, the higher in the sky the Southern Cross gets. This tells me that at 45° south, we’re already too far south! -Rich

 

February 1, 2019

We arrived at the entrance to Lyttelton harbour (near Christchurch New Zealand) last night just after the sun set. We were trying to beat the darkness in and mostly made it which made for a gorgeous sky – and a very dark arrival an hour later at the marina.

The two-day passage was pretty nice. We expected light winds and a lot of motoring. Fortunately and unfortunately, the wind was stronger than advertised (as usual). I say fortunately because my fix for the engine fuel filter leak didn’t hold and we lost enough fuel that it made sailing part of the way a necessity. We made it in with plenty of fuel to spare and the sailing was pretty nice with the wind (at times 25 knots) behind us.

Speaking of wind, it’s different down here (based on my vast, one-day experience). The water is different, and the wind is different. It seems less friendly and seems to announce “What did you expect, you’re in the roaring forties!” This is our second time in the forties, the first being Tasmania. It didn’t feel this way, so maybe it was just the day. -Rich

Comment from Cyndi: Rich made the observation that it’s different here, but his observation was about the ocean. I’ll add that in spite of the fact that it was being well behaved as we approached the coast, something about these seas did seem intimidating. Then again it may have been the day.

What was so striking to me was how different everything else was. We’ve been to the south island before, but just the north end of it (the Marlborough Sounds, Able Tasman National Park, and Nelson). We’re further south here near Christchurch and it feels like it. In fact it feels like another country, and at times even another planet! Being further south, we knew the sunset would be later and the evenings longer, but we didn’t know it would look so different.

Our first impression was the sky. The clouds are different here, not the long white clouds we’re used to in the north island. This sky seemed to be what I call soupy with large swaths of clouds, streaky and milky along with strange little disc-shaped clouds.  This made the surroundings a different color in the evening light, getting pinkish with the sunset and the sea a strange shade of green. And for how far south we were, it was surprisingly warm.

As we motored along, the clouds turned pink and the entire sky seemed take on an ethereal glow. The seas under the clouds turned pink, too. Just then we were visited by some Hector’s dolphins with their strange rounded dorsal fins, different critters in a different world where earlier we’d begun  spotting huge albatrosses. Then we were hit by a smell much like a strange perfume, floral at first then becoming more grassy as we neared the shore.

Ahead of us the land seemed massive, with huge hills and cliffs. This is a big-scale place! The light remained a long time, the pinks becoming grays and pale yellows as we entered the harbor between two peninsulas, their sides looming high above us. They were surprisingly dry and as far as we could tell, uninhabited.

It took about an hour to motor through the harbor to the marina. The sky become deep blue, and the floral grassy smell stayed strong. By the time we got to the marina it was dark. It’s tucked into a little harbor off the bigger one, circular and surrounded by hills. We could see the lights of houses on the bottom half of the hills and the entire visual had a fairyland impression. We’d had a bit of swell behind us in the outer harbor but it was flat calm in the marina, no wind. As we tied up the strange floral smell remained (for some reason the phrase freshly laundered baby clothes comes to mind) and the air felt soft and warm. We are definitely “not in Kansas” anymore.

Looking out our companionway this morning (I haven’t actually been outside yet) I see hills and trees and scattered houses, overall such a pretty and charming-looking place. And while it’s chilly inside the boat, the air outside is warm, bizarre since it’s generally the other way around. Rich has been up to use the facilities and reports that they’re really nice. It’s time for me to quit typing and go out and see our new home. –Cyndi

Here’s where we are…

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Note: This marina is so new, it doesn’t even show up on Google Maps yet. Here’s the maps image and one from Google Earth historical imagery that does show the new marina.