December 14, 2012
We’ve been here a little over a week, started to do just a little sightseeing, and we can say that New Zealand is . . . amazing. It is gorgeous, it is pristine, it’s well-run and efficient, the people are incredibly nice, the food is wonderful, and the coffee is good. Did I mention that it’s beautiful?
When we arrived, we noticed that the cruisers who had arrived earlier seemed to have big goofy smiles on their faces. We soon found out why as New Zealand seems to cast a kind of spell: you actually fall a little bit in love with it. You go around smiling, saying how beautiful it is, how amazing, how much there is to see, in a way that brings to mind a pre-teen girl talking about Justin Beiber.
So far, every cruiser we’ve run into (and we’ve run into a lot of them) seems to have fallen under this spell. (Well, all except one who really misses the tropics). We, too, have succumbed: we have a crush on New Zealand. (Rich… yes, even me, walking around with the pre-teen-smile… I love you Justin, I love you New Zealand!)
As far as temperatures, it has gotten warm. We ran the boat heater in the morning for our first 3 days; then we didn’t need it any more. The afternoons get pretty warm, although I’m still wearing jeans, socks and sneakers while Rich sometimes wears shorts and flip flops. It gets cool overnight and we are using our blankets and down comforter to sleep, but then it’s very comfortable.
One of the reasons we lingered in Tonga was wanting to get as close to summer in New Zealand as possible, and this strategy has paid off. We’re a lot warmer than the cruisers who opted to arrive for the Regatta a month ago. I will say the water temperature is cold, too cold to swim now. It should warm up enough for us to swim in February (equivalent to August in So Cal which has similar water temperatures), but we’re pretty spoiled after the tropics.
So, that is the answer to the question, “How’s New Zealand?” We love it (you’ll have to picture our goofy grins and dreamy eyes).-Cyndi
If you want to see the full-size version of this photo, you can click on the above photo then click on the “1662 x 400” link above the photo.
