Two At Sea

September 2021

OK, time to get back to working on our blog. Where have we been? Well, we’ve both succumbed to a bout of Lockdown Malaise (mine more severe than Rich’s, I think).

What is Lockdown Malaise? It’s sort of a human hibernation syndrome where one does a lot of sitting around and conserving energy. It’s not depression (although there are some similarities) and it doesn’t mean sufferers don’t fully support the lockdown (which was and continues to be absolutely necessary!). It’s just a form of the blahs in which it’s hard to get things accomplished.

I will say we haven’t been totally hopeless. We generally go for a daily walk, but a long walk now feels like a big accomplishment to be rewarded by afternoon movies, naps, and at times, wine. I wish I could be like those people who use a lockdown to get all sorts of projects and housework done. (They probably even change clothes every day instead of sitting around in the same sweatpants and T-shirt!). All this time on the boat, I could have gotten so much accomplished, but I’ve been going at a snail’s pace.

What I have been doing is reading lots of global Covid news as so much of what’s going on is relevant to our situation. I keep track of Australia and Indonesia (where we’re hoping to head next), of Fiji (plan B), of Europe and the United States (which paint a picture of the future ahead as they were first out of the gate with mass vaccinations and now are experimenting with lifting restrictions), French Polynesia to see the situation for the Puddle Jumpers, and of course, New Zealand. I also like to look at Facebook because it gives me an idea of how people are thinking and feeling. The photo below sums up the past few weeks of my life pretty well.

I will add that Rich has actually gotten a lot of projects done. He gets daily news summaries, analysis, and predictions from me (the poor guy can’t escape it!).

Meanwhile, I’ve had to do more cooking than usual. I enjoy cooking, but making 2 or 3 meals a day gets old quickly, and these days grocery shopping is stressful. But we can’t feel sorry for ourselves. We know the rest of the world has spent far, far longer in lockdowns than we have. We’re very grateful to be here in New Zealand, which, in our opinion, has handled the pandemic better than any other country on earth.

Currently, we’ve completed five weeks in Level 4 before dropping to Level 3 (the food takeout level!), hoping to go to Level 2 (every other table in the restaurant or café taped off) next week, then hopefully this entire country can get back to Level 1. Right now there’s lots of mask wearing and increasingly, disdain for those who won’t get vaccinated. I know this has become prevalent in places like America and Europe and was due to happen here. Hey, if one wants to be a part of society, one has to do their part for the good of everyone in that society.

Anyway, it’s time to get back to work on blog stuff and to wean myself off Facebook and the fear of missing something important. I also have a fair amount of cleaning to do on the boat.

So picking up where I left off on the blog, we had just spent our first night in the charming and remote city of New Plymouth on New Zealand’s west coast. Next: sightseeing around the Taranaki region.

–Cyndi

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

September 7, 2021

We’re here in downtown Auckland which is in full Covid-19 lockdown right now. We’ve been at level 4, the highest level, for almost three weeks. It’s likely to last another week or more.

Above is a seldom-seen sight, an empty highway at midday. Only businesses deemed essential are open. This all started with one case of the delta variant.

Some people thought this was an extreme reaction but it’s working and it looks like New Zealand will be able to stamp out this latest outbreak. Already, all but Auckland have gone down to a much more relaxed level 2. In the meantime, us Aucklanders can only eat at one restaurant: Kitchen! While the food’s good here, the service is often lacking and the idea of having to cook all your own food sounded fun at first, but now, not so much! I’m not optimistic about the chances of this place staying in business with their DIY policy.

We still have our application go sail to Australia in but we’re not holding our breath. They are having a very major outbreak with little chance of containing it. In the meantime, we’ve been given a visa that’s good until the end of June, next year. We’re thinking, if we stay here, we might head back down south to Stewart Island and maybe Fiordland this time. Who knows.

Just a side note: we did manage to get fully vaccinated with the Pfizer vaccine. We’re sure glad we made the effort and NZ was kind enough to accommodate us. It’s giving us a lot of peace of mind right now while Covid is in the community!

-Rich

September 3, 2021

Reading Reddit today, I came across this great video…

About two thirds into his brilliant video, Richard Macfarlane points out something that is seldom considered: shallow water requires more scope than deeper water does. He gives us this graph:

I thought I’d print this out and laminate it to use when anchoring, but then he went a step further and gave us a simple formula to approximate the above graph:

I mentioned this concept, though not as concisely, in a post about changing our anchor chain. In that post there was this link to a great article from Rocna about depth and catenary.

From now on, for me, it’s going to be “double the depth plus 15 meters” and “add another ten meters if it’s windy or over a questionable bottom.

-Rich

March 06, 2014

The Taranaki region sits way out on the westernmost point of the North Island, far away from everyplace else.

 

The iconic landmark of this area is the volcano-shaped Mount Taranaki. With it’s perfect cone shape and large size (8000 feet high!), it’s New Zealand’s most recognizable mountain, its solitary presence creating a striking backdrop for this area. It’s also the location of the lushly primeval Egmont National Park.

Mount Taranaki sits inland from artsy, eccentric New Plymouth, a small city with a busy deep-water port and offshore oil rigs. Remote and surrounded by dairy farms, it would be easy to assume that New Plymouth must be a rural sort of place, but it’s not. Different, yes, but justifiably proud of its cultural amenities which include art galleries, mural-sided buildings, world-class festivals, sculptures, and beautiful parks and gardens. It’s actually received a Liveable Communities Award for “Best city of its size in the world.” Whether one would agree or not, it goes to show that, “no one puts New Plymouth in the corner!”

Thirty minutes after leaving the Forgotten World Highway, we entered New Plymouth. Arriving here was actually a pretty cool experience because the city lies on a slope; so it’s a place one drives down into, getting frequent glimpses of the ocean from between the buildings. The city was rather nondescript in the upper areas, but as we got closer to the water the buildings became more historic with lots of character and charm, actually reminding me a bit of New Orleans. The shoreline of this city is mostly dark sand and rocks, but just around the headland were the nicer beaches and famous surf breaks.

As we drove through the area, we could see this town was all about art as murals and graffiti (the kind done by professional artists, not taggers) covered many of the building walls. In fact creative, arty touches seemed to be everywhere. Below, a few photos from around New Plymouth (click to enlarge any photo).

Our Mystery Deal had turned out to be a Copthorne Hotel, a mid-priced chain of hotels in New Zealand. I worried when I first saw the building, which looked rather dated and funky, but inside the hotel was beautiful. It was almost as though this was a deliberate design choice and fit well with the character of this town. Our room was very nice, and I was thrilled to see a big, deep tub!

After settling into our room, we decided to walk down to the Coastal Walkway and take in some of the city’s sights. We walked past the Puke Ariki Cultural Center which serves as a museum, library and information center. It was closed for the evening but we could still admire the innovative and uniquely beautiful main building. We also walked by the Wind Wand, a kinetic sculpture consisting of a 160-foot long red tube with a ball at the end. It stands vertical in still air but dips and bends with the wind. This piece was done by the renowned artist, Len Lye, and since our visit, the city has constructed an entire building, a piece of art itself, devoted to his work. (Maybe we’ll get back to see it someday.)

We continued to the New Plymouth Coastal Walkway which followed the shoreline, heading south to the harbor area known as Breakwater Bay. We walked out onto the wharf and checked out the local boats. Our cruising plan at this point was to sail to the tropics in June, then instead of returning to the New Zealand’s North Island for cyclone season, head directly to the South Island. But seeing this harbor gave us the idea that maybe we could check into New Plymouth before continuing to the South Island, which would knock a couple of days off the trip. We decided to visit the local customs office the next morning and see if that would be possible.

As the sun was starting to set we decided to head back to our hotel, checking out other areas of town as we went. At this point we felt pretty taken with this place, and I think part of the appeal came from its sloped angle. We were always looking up at hilly streets and the buildings that stair-stepped alongside them. For me, there is just a special feeling to hillside cities with their hidden spots and cozy nooks.

We stopped for dinner at an Italian restaurant before heading back to our room. Getting a mini bottle of champagne from the fridge, I went to enjoy my “bubbles” (what Kiwis like to call champagne) while sitting in the bubbles of the jacuzzi tub. This was a great end to another special day. –Cyndi