since our arrival in New Zealand we've been staying in Opua marina. We visited a couple of other little towns nearby (Paihia, Kerikeri, Russell, Whangarei). Our eyes couldn't believe how supermarkets here are stocked and it took us couple of minutes on our first visit to realise that all that fresh meat and fruit and veg and diary products and the rest is there for us ;) We can buy and have it all!!!
The nature all around is a pure wanderlust! Lush green hills, trees that we never seen before (hopefully will learn all about fauna and flora on our walks). We're looking forward to many tramping trips and the first one, very easy one, is behind us: Paihia to Opua Coastal 2 hour walk. We must confirm what is generally known: Kiwis are great people, fun to be with, very generous and talkative. They all seem to be very happy we are here!?!
So, what else have we done apart from food and marine stuff shopping? Well, our generator's oil cooler has been leaking for a couple of months; we had it checked by Bruce who together with Steve did a great job of removing it from the boat, replacing the part with new one, cleaning and putting it back to its place. We, in the meantime, had a good look at our engine from every angle possible and cleaned/oiled all parts.
Andrea did a wonderful job in constructing and then patiently painting our wooden step (every time the paint dries, he sands it a bit and paints again, the process repeated 6 times in order to have smooth surface and enough paint that the wooden step will withstand the rainy days). As we have quite high freeboard and will be staying in marinas for a while, we need that extra step to make it more comfortable to get on board.
And one rainy day I managed to have all laundry room in this marina to myself and washed in hot water everything that needed to be washed. It does rain frequently here, after all it's still spring here...
We met with other sailors and compared our passages to NZ, some had no winds for 4 days, some had to haul out for 2 days and 2 yachts were knocked out. At the end, we all made it here!
We're going to explore Bay of Island and stay in some of the many anchorages this area has to offer. Andrea is itching to get back to water and bring some fresh lunch and dinner on the table... and then on 15 Dec we should be in Westhaven marina in Auckland.