March 13, 2013
We had some neat moments during our afternoon in Waiti Bay. During our hike we’d noticed one of the America’s Cup boats, Oracle, traveling down the coast with a power boat riding alongside it. We wondered what that was all about and later found out one of our favorite programs, Top Gear (the British version), was in New Zealand filming an episode where they race a car on land against this boat in the water. We knew this would be highly entertaining and were thrilled to have witnessed some of it in person!
Later in the afternoon, we went for a swim. The water here can be cool, but it was late in the summer and the water had warmed to a comfortable level. After the initial shock of diving in, it felt wonderful. As we swam, we had a friend join us, a young gull who adopted us last time we were here in Waiti Bay. He found us again and seemed very attached to us, perhaps thinking Legacy was his mother. Today he sat on our dinghy and watched us swim.
When Rich went aboard to shower, I stayed in the water while the young gull kept me company. The clear blue-green water sparkled in the afternoon sunlight as I glided through it, diving under the boat to check on the set of our anchor, then floating on my back to watch the clouds drifting across the sky. This moment was something I used to visualize back home, and now I was living out this dream, swimming from our boat anchored off one of New Zealand’s beautiful islands. I felt very blessed.
Earlier in the day we met the couple on the power boat sharing our anchorage, and they invited us over for some wine that evening. We headed over to Barry and Sandy’s boat, Pastorale, and after getting the tour of their beautiful boat, sat on the flybridge, drank wine and watched the evening deepen. We became fast friends and had a really nice time trading cruising stories and information. When we told Barry we were heading south to the Hauraki Gulf, he offered us this use of his slip in the Viaduct marina while they were out cruising. We jumped at the chance to spend a some time in the downtown Auckland and gratefully accepted their offer. We weren’t positive we’d end up in the city, but now it became more likely.
After much wine and much fun, we headed back to Legacy under the night sky. It was a lovely end to a special day. Tomorrow we planned to leave early and head to the Bay of Islands. –Cyndi
