Sunday morning we awoke to the news of a tropical cyclone bearing down on Fiji. We also heard from Bob, the local weather guru, who confirmed that an imminent departure was definitely not on the cards. Oh well, nothing to do but just carry on with our jobs and sit it out.

Later in the morning we headed over to Serenity of Swanwick to catch up with Sarah and Phil who we had not seen since our Pacific crossing and joint arrival into New Zealand in late 2017. So we had a lovely reunion over a cup of tea. We then headed to the laundry. I returned to the boat with the clean laundry and cooked more passage food and made the bed. Richard, meanwhile, took over from me in the Visitors Lounge downloading satellite images of Fiji.

At 6pm he hadn’t returned so I walked back up and collected him before we went over to the Cruising Club for our Sunday roast. Beef with horseradish this week – very nice. We also chatted to a number of the Tongan rally people who are getting increasingly anxious about their departure, many of whom have never been offshore before, and weather delays were making them a bit jittery. Sarah and Phil joined us later on and we had a nice evening together.

Monday morning we picked up our small rent a dent hire car. We gave Sarah and Phil a lift into Paihia and dropped them off at the supermarket before we headed to the doctors. We saw the doctor together and got our regular prescriptions sorted out and she gave us six months supply but warned us not to try to get the prescriptions filled all on one day. Good advice – so we dropped the first lot off in the pharmacy – picked up Sarah and Phil again and returned them to the marina before we drove to Waipapa as we wanted to revisit the large Warehouse store again.

This time we were after cheap and simple gifts for children in the more remote islands that we plan to visit (and they can’t need batteries). Laden with lots of bubble makers, tennis balls, bouncing balls and boomerangs we were happy with our selection. Job done we then visited Countdown ourselves and got our bread and vegetable supplies for the week. We also got some petrol as we have heard that the Fijian petrol supplies often come pre-mixed, which is fine for our outboard but not good if we need to run the generator.

Richard then dropped me off at a local hairdressers while he returned to the boat and unpacked everything. He came and picked me up in town later and even recognised me with my very short haircut LOL. We then went to the dollar store to look for more girlie things for the kids and came across lots of small pretty hair slides which we thought would go down well.

We then returned via the pharmacy to collect our pills and back to Morphie and continued to organise ourselves.

We then had a quiet movie night on board. Although the tropics are getting battered with wind, waves and rain the weather here is quite settled with little wind although it remains cloudy, overcast, and cold.

Tuesday morning after a bit of a lay in and a leisurely breakfast we got everything out of the cupboards and made lists so that I could complete the Fiji advance notification documentation. Armed with evidence of the ORIGIN of ever item on board (packaged, canned and fresh) we both then went up to the Visitors Lounge to get online. I had fun filling in the forms and Richard continued downloading charts. We also ran the weather gribs again and there doesn’t look like a suitable weather window will be happening any time soon. We were really worried about Chris on Sea Bear as he left New Zealand on Tuesday and his tracker indicated that he was heading straight into the bad weather but he detoured and is now safely anchored in Minerva Reef – phew! Back on board we had a nice lamb dinner followed by another quiet night, this time reading and relaxing.

Wednesday and we continued just getting ready to go to sea. We are virtually at the end of our boat jobs just leaving basic cleaning, tidying, waxing etc to be done. I headed into town on the shuttle bus run by the marina shop to get the remainder of the prescriptions filled and left Richard working hard. One of the final jobs was to reattach the toilet seat which he had spray painted. There was nothing wrong with it except that the lacquer had come off and it looked dirty as a result. Amazing what a coat of special paint can do LOL, looks almost new again now.

By the time I got back from town my legs and back were giving me some grief. The cold and damp has not been helping so I took some time out, reluctantly took some medication, and rested up. Richard headed back to the Lounge again for more downloading. We then had another quiet movie night on board.

Thursday morning and we had a late start, neither of us wanting to get out of bed on these cold and chilly mornings. Richard continued to organise the rear lazarettes ready to go to sea as, with all the work that we had been doing along with Clive’s visit, things were not really in their right places for offshore passages. The time to organise everything is now. In the meantime, I got on with more passage food cooking and form filling. I finally finished the Fiji advance notification form, even with an idea of our plans whilst we are there, so all I need to do now is submit that once we have a confirmed departure and proposed arrival date. Fiji sure looks pretty…can’t wait to get there!

Later on we did a few boat jobs in the morning and then headed back to the lounge. During the afternoon it drizzled with rain so we had a cold and damp walk back to Morphie before having another night down below watching some more episodes of the TV series, 24.

Friday morning we treated ourselves to breakfast in the cafe.

The weather patterns remain unpredictable so our departure next week continues to be in the lap of the gods although next Wednesday is looking like a possibility. We contacted Bob and, again, the fronts are moving through very fast and would put strong headwinds in our path at least twice on the journey (with even stronger gusts) so we’re probably here for a while yet. Frustrating but we’re not going to risk our safety because of impatience. That happened to another cruiser earlier in the season when he got knocked down by a rogue wave, sustained damage and had to divert from his intended destination of Fiji to New Caledonia instead. The actual recommended time to leave New Zealand for the tropics is the end of May and the beginning of June, so hopefully it should settle down soon. Fingers crossed.

In the evening the temperature plummeted so we ended up wrapped in blankets reading and relaxing before having an early night.

It is now Saturday morning and it is a beautiful flat calm day here in the marina.

Richard is doing an oil change on the outboard and then he’ll secure it in the lazarette. We have decided not to secure it on the rail for this passage as we do anticipate some lumpy seas and don’t want to put any strain on our Kato arch as we have decided to leave the dinghy up there as it is significantly lighter than our old Caribe. After I’ve finished this blog I’m going to input the waypoints on our plotter for the forthcoming passage, which is about 1100 miles so will take between 8-10 days. Tonight we are planning to go to the cafe for dinner and then up to the club for a few drinks. We haven’t been out since last Sunday so it will be nice to be sociable again.

So the rest of the weekend will be taken up cooking more passage food (just one last meal to prepare) and cleaning….and, probably, more laundry….. The downside to this unexpected weather delay is that we will probably be at sea and will miss the European Champions League final. COYS.

Bye for now

Jan

Sunday afternoon the weather deteriorated even further with the fetch in the anchorage pushing waves over our dock and then it started to rain. It was absolutely horrible.

However, we had all arranged to meet in the club, so we headed out wearing our foulies and got blown by the gale-force winds up the road. We arrived to find Chris (Sea Bear) but no Frances and Chris who had decided (very sensibly) to stay home and keep warm and dry LOL. And, of course, because of the storm there had been power cuts on and off during the day so we were disappointed to not even get the opportunity of having a roast dinner. But we had a good evening anyway and, thankfully, by the time we headed back to Morphie the rain had stopped and the wind had started to ease.

Monday morning our new battery bank was delivered and the battery monitor was activated. However, because the new Lifeline AGM batteries had a slightly bigger footprint, they didn’t actually physically fit in the space. Damn! But Chris the electrician from Seapower had a solution and they took the ‘spare’ battery back and ordered a new AGM cranking battery for the engine.

So we connected the new battery monitor to the new house bank and were pleased with its functionality. I spent the time in the Cruisers Lounge downloading customs and immigration documents and Google satellite images for Fiji via the Ovitalmap app.

I returned around lunchtime and Chris from Sea Bear came by as promised as he was going to give Richard some hints and tips for climbing the mast using the system he had purchased but not yet mastered. With Chris’ mountaineering experience he made short work of it and Richard was much happier that he could manage to get to the top of the mast without assistance if necessary. The wind was still howling so he didn’t go very far (although at least the rain had stopped) and the southerly direction meant it was freezing cold! We said farewell to Chris as he was leaving in the morning for Fiji and we had a quiet night on board keeping warm snuggled up in our fleeces.

Tuesday morning and I spent time in the laundry again. While Richard continued with his list of boat jobs. Today he was measuring up for spare accelerator and transmission cables; he also measured for a replacement gas pipe; he purchased a new engine ‘stop’ button; he ordered spare spark plugs for the generator and the outboard; he ordered a sight ranger for me (as I drive him nuts with my inability to read distances); and did some general organising.

In the afternoon we helped Chris and Frances on Usquabae go to the fuel dock and get themselves fuelled up for their imminent departure to New Caledonia. They are heading off to Indonesia this year so we will probably not see them again whilst cruising. The amazing freedom and excitement of travelling and visiting new places / cultures sometimes get offset by the sadness in saying farewell to new friends. In the evening I cooked for them and luckily they liked Chinese food – was a really good evening.

Wednesday morning and the refrigeration company visited as planned. They identified that the freezer (which had refused to restart since we had splashed back in the water) had sprung a leak so they took the compressor away to have a better look. Thankfully it was only leaking at the coupling and with a burst of gas both fridge and freezer were operational again. The ‘hunting’ which happens regularly, particularly on the fridge, was caused by the Carel thermostat controller which was having difficulty reading the probe inside the unit. As both units have been drawing quite a lot of power we decided to order two new controllers which would stop this happening and not damage our brand new battery bank.

In the afternoon, as the wind had died down significantly, we pulled out the genoa and stuck some reflective tape to it so that we could see the reefing points easier in the dark. Later on we picked up our dodger with the new ‘clears’. They look great and it was nice to get some shelter from the weather again in the cockpit. The new cables had arrived and so had my present – the sight ranger – so we had some fun pointing the laser at things to see how far away they were. We had another quiet night on board. Oh yes and Richard treated himself to a new fishing rod….

Thursday morning and I returned to the Cruisers Lounge to continue downloaded the Google satellite images….this is a time-consuming and tedious task….but we hadn’t been able to do it previously as this takes a lot of bandwidth and we needed ‘proper’ internet to facilitate the process. I also completed the advance notification of departure for NZ customs (we had to submit this a minimum of four days before our intended leaving date) and confirm the day before whether we are going or not. So we can make a decision day at a time once these had been submitted.

I also did some research about getting my blog to publish onto Facebook via the Iridium Go as the latest Facebook API changes had stopped me doing this directly when at sea. And I know that a lot of people read the passage blogs so wanted to continue to be able to do this. Anyway I found a few potential solutions and asked Paul (my amazing friend and techie support) to look into the available options.

When I got back to the boat Richard had been manically busy. He had installed the new tap in the galley; replaced the shower bilge pump; had removed the sea water intake to the heads; had fitted the new gas pipe; and installed the new ‘stop’ button. The jobs are definitely being whittled away on our ‘get ready to go to sea’ list!

In the evening we headed to the Cruisers Club for a fun evening hosted by the marina to say farewell to the cruising community. Food was free and plentiful and we had a good time catching up with some old friends and making some new ones.

Friday morning and Richard was up the top of the mast to tighten up the wind instrument which had worked its way loose and also to install a new radar reflector on the shrouds. Job done and he was quickly back down. After this we headed to the marina cafe for a late lunch and awaited our meat delivery from Churchills. They turned up exactly on time and we collected our box of NZ meat and official certificate of origin which should enable us to take it all into Fiji.

We headed back to Morphie and filled up the freezer. The guy then turned up to install the new controllers and we had to get our head around new settings in Centigrade when we had been used to Fahrenheit for so many years LOL. They are very smart looking and worked perfectly immediately – so we were happy with our decision. We then had another quiet movie night on board.

This morning, Saturday, and we started the day by heading to the fuel dock and filling up our tank and all our cans. NZ $500 later and we were refuelled – phew! We then returned to our slip where Richard organised the cans again and got them reinstalled on the rail while I cooked tonight’s dinner (making extra so that this can be frozen as a passage meal for our departure). On our return to the dock we were chased down by the Rent a Dent people who said they had been waiting for us since 9 am. Well, actually, the car was booked for this coming Monday not Saturday so we sent them away. Never mind….not our fault!

This afternoon we are spending in the lounge continuing to download charts and looking at the Fiji advance notification documentation. They want to know sooo much information which has to be sent to them prior to leaving here so I need to get this information organised pretty soon so I can complete the documents. And that means writing a complete list of all my stores….sigh…. The hardest bit actually is for the inter-island cruising permit. They want to know where we are going, when we are arriving / departing etc etc and we really don’t know right now! So we need to start planning our time too, all we have fixed is our arrival port at the minute.

Paul has speedily replied to me – thank you so much for all your support! I’m pleased to let you know that we will be publishing imminently a Morpheus of London Facebook page so, when we are on passage, we will be able to publish directly from our Iridium Go! You can follow us using the tracker (on the blog’s Where are we now? page) or subscribing to the blog, or you can now follow the new FB page. Please note, however, that just because I’m publishing updates it doesn’t mean we can see any comments until we get ‘proper’ internet access again.

We are now constantly checking weather and our proposed initial departure date of Tuesday is not looking so good this morning as some strong northerly winds and a low have appeared in the grib files but things change so rapidly and the models (as usual) don’t yet agree on the longer-term forecast so it is just a continued pressing on with our jobs until we can confirm our future departure date. We are both really looking forward to getting back to the higher temperatures in the tropics.

Bye for now

Jan

Paul has set up a new Facebook page for Morphie so that when we blog from the IridiumGo that the WordPress blog will automatically create an update on the new FB page.

You can subscribe to the page to get alerted to new posts.

Sunday evening we headed along to the Cruising Club for Indonesia night. It was absolutely rammed, that’s what happens when you offer free food and a couple of drinks per head to the cruising community. We enjoyed the informative presentation and the traditional dancing but felt personally that the organisers should have restricted attendance in some way to those who are travelling rather than just having a free for all as important questions from people joining the rally this year were drowned out by people asking daft questions like ‘Why don’t American citizens get special immigration treatment like New Zealanders? Really?!? Or how about ‘ Can I take my cat?’ Oh well, never mind. Was a fun evening anyway.

Monday morning we were up early and took off our dodger so that we could drop it into the canvas shop to get our plexiglass panels replaced. As we removed it and folded it on the dock one of the ‘windows’ completely split end to end, so glad we had decided to get this done before we left New Zealand.

Job done we headed into the cafe for breakfast and then met with the people who are responsible for the Sailing Fiji app and had a good Q&A session with them, including finding out which package is best to use for navigation as both electronic charts and paper charts are notoriously poor for Fiji. Well, it was Ovitalmap which is free to download and can be used off-line but heavy on the data, so that’s more time for me in the cruisers lounge next week.

Lunchtime we were ready to go and drove into the haul out area where the ‘beast’ was waiting for us. And of course we couldn’t have timed it better with the arrival of a sharp shower LOL. We were quickly secured in the slings and we climbed off the boat while we nervously awaited Morphie’s safe arrival onto dry land. She was lifted up and then jet washed. We were complimented on her clean bottom so that cold nasty job was worth doing, at least!

Morpheus was then placed in a brand new cradle and secured – ladder up – and we’re set after a quick clean of the hull.

We quickly went around the hull getting rid of any stray barnacles and Richard removed the bow thruster propeller to make life easier for the anti fouling to be applied. He also cleaned the keel cooler plates and the grounding plate, while I did some sorting down below. Once we were all set we had a quiet night on board eating the remaining food from the freezer as we no longer had refrigeration.

Tuesday morning and the guys started work on Morphie’s bottom straight away sanding her down. They said she was lovely and smooth and they seemed to be enjoying their work, singing along to the 70s/80s tunes blaring from their sound system. Loved the fact that they pushed themselves along on chairs underneath…..

I took myself off to the laundry with two loads and tried to get online whilst there. But failed miserably so just stayed there and read my kindle. By the time I got back, the guys had finished sanding and Morphie was taped up ready for the morning. Richard had installed our new battery monitor in preparation for the installation of our new batteries; he’d also re-marked the anchor chain at intervals and made up a new anchor marker buoy; he also rewired the bow washdown system and cleaned the windlass.

I left him to his list of jobs and returned to the cruisers’ lounge where I managed to get started on my list like activating the Pacific Islands Navionics chip; downloaded updated software for our Vesper unit; downloaded all the Go West Rally documentation into .pdfs plus some banking.

Around 5pm the guys had finished rubbing down and we headed to the Cruising Club for a quiet dinner.

Wednesday morning and I was back to the laundry with another couple of loads while Richard continued to get on with his long list of boat jobs. Today the engine got some attention and he created lots of lists of things to do; to buy; to order etc. He had also got rid of some very old flares and made sure we had a set of new ones in the grab bag. By now the EPIRB had been serviced with a new battery so we are getting there in terms of preparation to go to sea. He’d also got our dive tank refilled.

The paint guys, in the meantime, were now spray painting the hull. So much faster and smoother than rolling it on by hand. I did a walk to the Opua Store to get some provisions for dinner and we had a quiet movie night on board.

Thursday morning and the propeller and the rudder stock were rubbed down in preparation for a coating of Propspeed (the local product everyone uses here on metal instead of antifoul) and it sure looked good.

Before they returned, Richard quickly swapped the zincs out so that they were then masked up before the painting started. So apart from a few patches where stands had been and needed a touch up of more antifoul we were pretty much good to go. I spent more time in the laundry….thankfully the last load….and we carried on working until we had pretty much exhausted our list of things to do and we had another quiet night aboard. Final job was to install the new bow thruster propeller which, as it is brand new, doesn’t need anti-fouling as allegedly the barnacles don’t like shiny new plastic surfaces. We’ll find out whether that is true or not later in the season.

Friday morning and we were ready to splash.

The beast came to get us…we climbed down…and Morphie was lifted up while Mike climbed underneath to finish off the antifoul patches. We were then splashed into the water, thankfully at high tide and slack water so there was little current to contend with.

We then moved back into our slip on the working dock. Once secure we headed to the cafe for coffee while the boatyard guys came and washed her down to get rid of all the boatyard dust. So a successful end to a busy week.

In the afternoon we emptied all our food cupboards to make a shopping lift for the morning. Then we took a bit of a breather before heading to the marina cafe for dinner, live music and a celebratory bottle of sauvignon.

Saturday morning we met Chris and collected our rent-a-dent hire car. Chris is leaving on Monday to Fiji so this was his last chance to purchase fresh fruit and veg. We had ordered a mid-sized vehicle online (think RAV4) but actually ended up with a Nissan Note! Oh well, never mind, we’ll manage. First stop was the Packhouse Market in Kerikeri where we loaded up on fresh vegetables.

Next stop was Bunnings for some bits and pieces (but mainly a new tap for the galley as I managed to break the old one) before heading into the New World supermarket for non-perishables, then onto Churchills. They are a high end butcher who are coming to the marina on Friday to deliver orders to the boats leaving with the Tongan rally – they had agreed that, providing I came by on Saturday to make the order, they would deliver to us too (along with a NZ certificate to prove that all meats were local which is required to import meat into Fiji).

So job done, we then went to the Liquor Store for a couple of bottles of wine before our final shop of the day, Warehouse in Waipapa. We headed back in the car towards Paihia fully laden and we topped up the car with petrol. Then we headed to Rayz on the Bay for a late lunch and enjoyed sitting there looking across the water. Was a lovely way to spend the rest of the afternoon. Back on board we didn’t do much apart from unloaded our provisions and stowed it all away. Then we had an early night and awoke to howling winds and torrential rain.

This morning (Sunday) and it is a very miserable windy day with some heavy rain squalls. We’ve doubled up on some of our lines as they are forecasting up to 50 knot winds (we are currently seeing 30+ knots) and have taken refuge down below.

It is also Mother’s Day here in New Zealand, and coincidentally this is also the first anniversary of losing Mum so a pretty poignant day and feeling very emotional. I think of her everyday and miss her so much. RIP Mum, I love you. Here is a picture of us together having fun on one of our girlie trips – this time we were in Tobago.

Later on we are heading to the Cruising Club for a Sunday Roast along with Chris (Sea Bear), Chris and Frances (Usquabe) who are all leaving Opua next week. Mum would approve, she always loved a good natter over a roast dinner…..

This coming week we have loads more boat jobs to complete and then we’ll start looking for a weather window ourselves to leave for Fiji. We expect to be ready to depart in a week or so but we’ll just have to be patient and keep busy while we watch and wait for an appropriate window to open for us to move north.

Bye for now

Jan

Monday morning we were expecting bad weather and it rained cats and dogs with strong winds and we ended up nodding into the fetch again, so had to re-anchor over the other side of the bay to try and get some respite. We stayed on board all day and spent the day getting Morphie ready to go back to sea and had a quiet night once all our tasks were completed (including getting the outboard on the rail and dink onto the arch).

Tuesday morning we were up early and did our final passage planning and I cooked an evening meal to eat underway. We proposed to leave at noon to allow us to arrive into the Bay of Islands in daylight. So we picked up anchor and motored quietly through the bay to turn to starboard to go through the north passage into the ocean, saying a final farewell to the boating club which had been our ‘local’ for quite a while.

As we approached the exit to Bon Accord harbour there was a Securite on the VHF but we couldn’t work out exactly what was said, although it was obviously the large yacht transmitting who was anchored off the entrance to the bay. We were just going to radio to ask him to repeat his message when we realised that a helicopter was coming in to land on the deck. Not something you see every day.

The wind was a bit fickle but obviously being bent by the proximity of the island to the mainland and we were running against an incoming tide so it was slow going to start with. Oh yes, did I mention how cold it was?

Once we had cleared the island we started to run downwind in light airs but the sea was horrible – lumpy and confused. Oh well, better get used to it I guess, sigh. We cleared the headland and decided to run closer inshore to get a better sailing angle and, once we had done this, we had a good run. The wind varied from 10-20 knots with higher gusts and it swung from SW to SE and back so we had to gybe a few times. We were sailing on genoa alone and making good time – by the time we had enjoyed a sunset at sea and it had gotten dark we were approaching Sail Rock and put in a second reef as the gusts were getting stronger. We had a forecast of 25 knots+ so were being cautious.

At around midnight I was struggling with the fickle wind and then suddenly heard a huge blow alongside the boat….then behind the boat….then alongside again. Richard wasn’t asleep yet so he came up and listened with me. The noise from the blows was getting less frequent and not so noisy but I think it was a whale (it was way too loud for dolphins) just a shame that we couldn’t actually see anything in the black of a moonless night at sea.

Come 3am on Wednesday morning the wind had moderated again so we shook out the reefs and continued to make good time towards the Bay of Islands. At 6am in the dark we turned and left the Hole in the Rock to port and pulled out the main sail as we were now beating into a strengthening wind. We had a great sail and eventually anchored in Pomare Bay, near Russell, at 9 am.

We were both tired so had a few hours sleep before heading ashore. We found the boating club (which was closed) and then walked into Russell itself (which was about 20 minutes away). We found the ATM and a small grocery store so that we could pick up some fresh eggs, bread and vegetables before we stopped and had a late lunch in the Duke of Marlborough.

We then wandered back to the Club (which was now open) and had a cold one then headed back to Morphie before the sun went down. For the first time in a very long time, we had removed everything from the cockpit and locked her down thoroughly when going out as there were some old decrepit cruising boats in the anchorage which can sometimes mean petty theft. We were fine but still took the precaution of locking dink on to the transom before we turned in for the night.

Thursday morning it was quite spooky in the anchorage as the water was shrouded in mist.

We pottered around the boat doing some domestic duties and were joined in the anchorage by Chris and Frances on Usquabe. They invited us over for sundowners so we joined them and had a lovely evening on board their boat catching up.

Friday morning we went through all our lists of things to do and sent emails to people in the Bay of Islands Marina to get ourselves organised. The paint guys are ready for us in the boatyard; the new battery bank and monitor had arrived; the new exhaust flaps were ordered; the EPIRB is booked in for a service and new battery; the dive tank is booked in for a refill; the refrigeration guys are coming to check out our systems (as these are the biggest pull on our battery bank); and Opua Canvas are going to replace the glass screens in our dodger which have just started to perish (but have done us proud with 11 years service). We are also in discussions with a marina in Australia who are going to organise our customs, immigration and biosecurity checks; and a boat yard further south where we hope to haul Morphie when we travel home. Oh yes and we started looking at routes to Fiji too….. As if that wasn’t enough we got in dink and sanded and varnished under the rail. Phew busy day! In the evening we met Chris and Frances in the Russell Boating Club and had another nice time with them.

Saturday morning we were up early on another calm day and, utilising the dinghy, we removed all the masking tape and went around a few times cleaning the stainless and washing the salt off the hull. She looked lovely! But we had been at it for about six hours solid and were feeling pretty shattered. So we had a quiet night in and enjoyed the Hobbit movie having watched a lovely sunset with Usquabe in the foreground.

It was funny to watch Bilbo in his house that we had visited not long ago LOL. During the evening the heavens opened and it rained so Morphie got another wash.

Sunday morning we had managed to secure a berth in the Bay of Islands Marina (Opua) for one night which suited us fine particularly as we could dispose of our rubbish. We had not had access to any trash collections or facilities for almost four weeks, so there was plenty of it!!! We took the outboard off dink, put him up on the arch, and headed the four miles around the corner to the Marina and onto the works dock. Got checked in, headed to Cater Marine and SeaPower (who are going to be making our credit cards nervous again shortly) and had a coffee in the cafe. Was lovely to be welcomed ‘home’.

Here’s Morphie snug in her slip looking very shiny and pretty.

Back on board and I’m blogging while Richard is checking out his new battery monitor as he wants to install it while we are on the hard. Tonight we are going to Indonesian night at the Opua Cruising Club which, as it is on our list of future sailing destinations, we are very interested in. Then tomorrow, Monday, we get hauled out and start living up a ladder again, oh joy!

Bye for now

Jan

Sunday late morning we headed ashore in a break from the rain to have a late breakfast in the Club whilst I moved backwards and forwards to the laundry. There were two big washers but only one small drier so it took ages. To speed things along Richard took some sheets and towels back to the boat to hang them up so I could concentrate on getting the clothes dry. Of course, this meant that I got stranded ashore as the rain came down even heavier and there was a white out in the anchorage! The rain didn’t let up at all so eventually Richard came and collected me, we toughed it out, and got absolutely soaked on the return dinghy ride.

Monday morning we were up early just in time to see Sea Bear depart from the anchorage as Chris started his travels north. We worked hard sanding down and varnishing, pleased that the rain held off despite the threatening clouds around us.

Just before the sun went down the wind shifted significantly and we were nodding into a considerable fetch – so we picked up anchor and moved to the other side of the anchorage to get some respite. Once set we then relaxed for the rest of the evening.

Tuesday morning and the weather had improved significantly. It was a beautiful day.

We were up early, rubbed down, and managed to get another coat of varnish on. Yay! Morphie is definitely looking much smarter.

We then tackled the Spectra watermaker. This had been ‘pickled’ since we left Morpheus in November 2017. We had decided not to unpickle it up until now as, once it is operational, it needs to be flushed every five days and, with our touring holidays arranged, we knew we would not be on board for that to happen. So today was the day and we were both a bit nervous to be honest, concerned about leaks and the possibility of contamination in the hoses. We went through the whole process diligently and were delighted that everything was working absolutely fine and the water quality was good. So we made some water to top up our tanks. Something else to check off our ever increasing list of things to do before we depart for Fiji this season.

Wednesday morning the forecast remained good. So we sanded down early and got another coat of varnish applied. We were sat in the cockpit having a cup of tea and a sandwich not more than an hour later and the rain came down again. Damn that’s not good! We suffered some damage to the new varnish on the port rail where there were some holes and cloudy areas. We let the sun dry out the varnish and, luckily, some of the cloudiness disappeared so we mainly had to deal with the holes. Oh well, what can you do?!? So we visited the Club to drown our sorrows for a couple of hours and ended up sitting in front of the roaring fire chatting to some friendly locals before heading back to Morphie before dark.

Thursday morning and it was fine and sunny. While we were working hard rubbing down we saw everyone converging on the Club’s jetty for Anzac Day. I would have liked to have gone to the remembrance ceremony but, sadly, after the varnishing set back the day before we needed to keep working. We eventually applied the varnish and had all our fingers and toes crossed.

And it stayed fine so we were very happy that we were good to go for a little while -we’ll probably do some more coats in Fiji but at least the wood is now protected from the elements. So we went ashore later in the afternoon and admired the wreaths before attending the retreat when they took down the national flag on the jetty. We had a couple of cold ones and headed back to Morphie before dark.

Friday we decided not to remove the masking tape as we wanted to let the varnish harden up before we did that but we did reinstate the canvas dodgers, the spare fuel cans on the rails, and moved our blocks back into position for the sheets. Later on we headed over for sundowners in the Club and enjoyed a nice meal combined with a great sunset.

Saturday morning we removed the masking tape and reinstated all the sheets. At last, job done!

We had been dreading our next job – to clean Morphie’s hull. The bio-security rules here in New Zealand require you to anti-foul, jet wash or dive your hull before moving between areas. There is a problem in the Auckland area with Mediterranean fan worm which is a foreign invasive species without any predators which could decimate the oyster and green-lipped mussel business in Northland – so when we return to the Bay of Islands we have to have a clean hull. Anyway, we got into the (cold) water in our 3mm wetsuits and stared in horror at the bottom. OMG Morphie had only been in the water for a couple of months and look at the state of it! We had never seen anything like it before in our lives.

Richard decided that he would dive the bottom while I snorkelled and got on board to organise that when he called me back onboard. He had realised that we had moved around a bit whilst we were in the water and was concerned we may have dragged our anchor….so started the engine….and then put it into reverse to check the set. And, guess what, we had no reverse gear! So we abandoned the hull cleaning and relied on Calder’s bible to troubleshoot the problem. Thankfully we managed to resolve it. Phew what a stressful day! We went ashore for restorative sundowners at the Club before getting back onboard for an early night.

This morning, Sunday, and we got back in the water to continue to clean the bottom. Richard dived and I snorkelled – so he was tackling the deeper growth while I concentrated on the waterline and just below. We spent over two hours in the water and were absolutely exhausted so ended up calling it a day. Oh yes, horrendously the growth has lots of little shrimp-like things in it and they stick to our wetsuits. So we are absolutely crawling when we get out of the water and, although they die off pretty quickly, they give me the creeps! Tomorrow is another day…..so will have to go back in for a third time….

So I’m sitting here blogging down below while Richard is reading – we are in fleeces having had showers and hot chocolate but still feel a bit chilly! Later on we plan to go to the Club for a roast dinner so we’re really looking forward to that (not to mention sitting in front of the fire LOL). Sadly I think we’ll get wet again later as it has just started raining again – you can definitely tell that winter is approaching.

We had planned to leave Kawau on Monday once the varnishing was complete and the hull was clean, but the weather is not conducive, and certainly don’t fancy the forecast. Check out the wind on this grib, think it would definitely be prudent to sit tight for another day.

We had hoped to rock hop back north to the Bay of Islands and visit more anchorages but the wind turns north again soon and we have a deadline of the 6 May when we are booked in to be hauled out and renew our antifoul. So we have decided to make an overnight sail on Tuesday/Wednesday (weather permitting) and return to Russell where we can relax before heading around the corner to Opua. Will be good to get some sailing practice in on another overnight passage anyway.

Bye for now

Jan

Monday afternoon we were still preparing the boat for varnishing when a familiar boat came into the anchorage – it was Chris on Sea Bear! Fantastic, had been such a long time since we had seen him. So we let him get settled and then all headed across to the Kawau Boating Club where we had a few cold ones and a great reunion.

Tuesday morning and we started removing the old varnish….and just to remind you here are the before pictures again.

Well, the varnish was so thick that it took almost three coats of varnish stripper to get anywhere near the bare wood. Richard continued stripping and scraping (and cursing I might add LOL) while I worked hard rubbing down the eyebrows (which go along the top of the coachroof). Once I had finished them, I started sanding down the wood that Richard had managed to get relatively clear. It was really hard and dusty work!

The Club now closes on Tuesdays and Wednesdays so we had to make our own entertainment. So we invited Chris over to join us for dinner and we had a movie night (tonight’s choice was Everest). It was interesting to hear his take on the film as an experienced mountain guide.

Wednesday morning and Richard continued stripping, scraping and cursing the rail while I continued sanding. This continued all day…. In the evening Chris came over again for another movie night (this time it was Jack Reacher).

Thursday morning and we could see the light at the end of the tunnel. So we spent the whole day doing the final sanding and were very pleased with our efforts. But it looked like rain so we decided not to start the varnishing.

Richard, instead, took the outboard apart and changed the plugs, and it worked. Woo hoo! We were very pleased that this was now back in service. While Richard was in the dink he made friends with the female duck who had been visiting with us all day.

Later on we went ashore for dinner and a few drinks. While we were in the Club we were treated to Morphie on anchor in a sunny glow followed by a spectacular sunset and then a great big full orange moon. And the boats starting coming in thick and fast for the Easter weekend. There was all sorts of anchoring methods with some of them just too close and with very little scope (bearing in mind we were anchored in 22 feet at low tide) and it reminded us of the BVIs all over again LOL.

During the night there was a massive bump and judder and I woke with a start thinking that one of the nearby boats must have hit us. But, it was actually Richard! He had popped his head up to check that we remained clear of the other boats (there was one who was way too close and he was not inclined to move despite us telling him we had a lot of scope out) and, when he turned around for a 180 degree look out, he fell from the top step into the saloon. A bit bruised and grazed up but thankfully he wasn’t hurt. Gave us both a bit of a shock though, he is usually so sure footed!

Friday morning we were surrounded by boats and still more came in. Wow it was getting really busy in the anchorage. Happy Easter to all our family and friends. To celebrate we had toasted hot cross buns for breakfast and a couple of pieces of chocolate in lieu of Easter Eggs.

After breakfast, on a chilly but sunny morning, we checked all the wood again and dried everything after a heavy morning dew. We found a few spots here and there that needed further attention so we dealt with them and then did a final clean up to ensure that no dust was around. We also removed the original blue masking tape, cleaned up any residue left behind, and then re-taped the rail.

Then it was time to apply our first coat – which was a sealant. Richard started on the bow and worked his way down the side while I did the eyebrows, the helm seat and the back rail. Eventually we finished and sat back and relaxed for a little while.

Chris joined us for dinner in the cockpit watching all the revelry around us and we had another movie night (this time it was American Sniper). Even when Chris left us people were still partying on their boats and dinghies were flying everywhere. Good night had by all I think.

Saturday morning lots of boats left and loads more arrived….crazy times.

We continued to ignore them although we did have a few shouted compliments as boats went through the anchorage. We lightly sanded everything and then put on our first proper coat of varnish.

We finished around 1.30 pm so by 2.15 pm we were picking Chris up for an afternoon in the Club. It was absolutely rammed with lots of kids running around plus a few very well oiled locals….was fun to watch although a bit loud at times. We came back to Morphie before dark and had a quiet evening on board.

This morning, Sunday and the forecast was for afternoon showers so we got out of bed early and quickly lightly sanded everything again. We were much faster today and we had finished varnishing by 12.30 pm.

After a snack we got cleaned up and Richard serviced the generator.

We are now both down below resting up and that will be it for the day. Morphie is looking quite shiny again now. According to the forecast it looks like Monday / Tuesday will be raining so we’ll probably hold off the next coat until this period of bad weather has moved through. Our weary bones and sore fingers will thank us for the reprieve LOL.

Bye for now

Jan

Thursday afternoon the weather deteriorated even further with gusts up to 40 knots in rain squalls. This caused a chop on the water which then pushed around the corner so our lovely little anchorage was no longer pleasant and we were ‘nodding’ constantly into the waves. So, in a lull between showers, we picked up anchor and moved across the bay to Name Bay, where we joined two other boats. By 6pm we were settled and enjoyed a quiet night on board.

Friday morning and it started much brighter, although the sea state out in the wider Hauraki Gulf was quite rough and marine warnings remained in place. We decided however, in another lull between squalls, we would move around the corner into Coromandel Harbour. This was a tough rolly trip but only for six miles and we had anchor down at noon in East Bay off Waimate Island passing lots of oyster and green lipped mussel farms along the way.

Another lovely spot and again we had a couple of other boats to accompany us. We were also treated to a spectacular rainbow on the other side of the harbour after another squall had gone through. We had a quiet day on board while we waited for the weather to calm down, which it did overnight.

Saturday morning we picked up anchor and moved across to McGregor Bay so that we could dink up the river following the well marked channel into town (which was still over a mile away from our position). It was a beautiful sunny day which perked us up no end. We anchored on a rising tide (there was an eight foot drop that day) and got a good set in sand.

We then headed off in dink on an adventure up the river through the mangroves. The wind was still blowing about 15 knots but it was behind us so we had a good run in passed some boats sitting on docks and others lying in the mud, with lots of cormorants drying out after fishing and some geese.

When we arrived in town we were a bit disappointed that we had to clamber onto a very soft and muddy shoreline and drag dink up above the high water mark – all it needed was a floating pontoon really. We didn’t think we would be able to manage this on our own so Richard left me with dink and went off to the petrol station where he got our propane tanks filled and some extra petrol.

While he was there a young man (called Willow) offered to help us and promptly came across the road and manhandled dink onto the grass. Really friendly and helpful people here in New Zealand! So we tied dink to a post and went for a walk across the bridge into town. But first things first, coffee and a pie LOL.

Coromandel town is quaint with some old architecture and a nice high street. The town’s history clearly pointed to the gold rush as the Assay Office building still existed. We went into the oldest boozer in town and had a cold drink before heading back via the local supermarket where we picked up some fresh produce.

All sorted we returned to dink, chatted with some Australian tourists for a while, and then pushed him back into the water – it was just after high water so it was slack tide and we didn’t have so far to splash. We then took off back up the river. As we cleared the mouth of the river the outboard died. We had 15+ knots of breeze on the nose and we couldn’t row and make way against the chop. We were being pushed further and further into the shallow areas and towards the mangroves. Eventually we hit a mangrove so I hung on for dear life while Richard attended to the engine but it just wouldn’t work. It would start and conk out immediately again leading us to think it was a fuel issue. We were now a bit worried to say the least. We managed to pull ourselves along the mangroves – aided by the odd bit of rowing and pushing against the mud – until we came to the first dock near another slipway back into the river. Richard left me sitting in dink with all our worldly belongings while he sought some assistance.

He walked to the wharf to try and find someone who would give us a tow out to Morpheus and came back with Lance, a liveaboard guy, who had offered to help. I was quite worried about the tide dropping, especially as this part of the river dries out and, if that happens, we are stranded ashore for the night. We really did not want to leave Morphie in her current position unattended as we never planned to stay there the night, it was just a daytime anchorage for convenience. Anyway, Lance took the outboard apart, and found water in the carburettor – so he cleaned the carb, made sure the drain was working properly, checked and cleaned the spark plugs and tried again. Still the same symptoms. So Richard disposed off the old fuel and went back to the garage for more petrol and two-stroke oil. In the meantime Lance had stripped it all down and cleaned it again….so fingers crossed. And it still wouldn’t work so now we really are worried. We only had a couple of hours before the area dried out. So Lance phoned the harbour master (who had the day off) and told him this ‘elderly couple’ needed assistance. Cheek!!! Anyway, the harbour master Stu came by to check the water levels were OK for him to rescue us and return back up the river himself. Thankfully the answer was positive so he went off and collected his pontoon boat. Lance left us at this point and we offered him some cash for his assistance but he was adamant and wouldn’t take it. What a nice man!

He quickly deployed it and towed us back out to Morphie. Phew! Again, the harbour master told us there was no fee for this service as that was what he was employed by the local council to do. Can’t imagine that would be the case in many other places.

Once back on board we emptied dink of all our belongings and quickly picked up anchor and returned to East Bay for another night on the hook. Was quite an experience – oh the shame of having to be rescued! We had an early night worn out by the excitement of the day.

Sunday morning with dink back up on the arch and the outboard secured on the rail, we scared off all the swifts who were having a rest on our bow, picked up anchor very early as the sun came up and by 7am we were underway heading towards Kawau Island. We had loved the Coromandel Peninsular with its spectacular scenery and quaint town. Just a shame we couldn’t have lingered but without a way of getting ashore there was no point…..

On the passage to Kawau we had extremes of weather, from six knots (motoring in flat calm seas) to 16 knots (all three sails out on a close haul) to 11 knots (on a beam reach) to 30 knots in rain squalls and big seas. It was only 42 miles but felt much longer in the cold southerly wind. We also crossed the main shipping lane into Auckland Harbour so we slowed down for a tanker, the Aotearoa Chief, to cross our bow. Whilst on the radio to them we were obviously overhead by Serenity of Swanwick who radioed us to say hi – we met them on the Pacific Crossing – so it was nice to catch up briefly as they headed over to Great Barrier Island. Having crossed the shipping lane, and enjoying some brisk sailing up to 7 knots, we heard two Mayday Relays – one jet skier whose machine was on fire and one boat who had lost their engine. Neither incident were close enough for us to assist but it is always sobering to hear these incidents and rescues going on. Thankfully everyone was OK.

We eventually arrived in Kawau under a cloudy sky and dropped the hook just outside the Boathouse so it was easy rowing distance ashore. We were surprised to see new mooring balls that had been installed since our last visit almost a month ago. Anyway, chilled to the bone, we had quick hot showers before we headed ashore and were joined by Steve and Jo from SV Tamanu in the bar later. We had a lovely evening together and they very kindly towed us back to Morphie at the end of the evening.

This morning, Monday, we were invited for breakfast onboard their beautiful 420 Island Packet and Steve taxied us back and forth as they are anchored much further into the bay than we are. We had another good time and look forward to catching up with them further down the line as we both head north in due course.

We plan to stay in Kawau for a while now as we are going to get the varnishing done – we are ashamed at the state of the capping rail which needs some loving care. So here are some ‘before’ pictures.

Back onboard after breakfast and Richard is starting the preparation for the varnish job while I’m blogging. It takes a while to prepare as we need to get the canvas off (dodgers); remove lines off the deck; moving the spare fuel cans off the rail; raising the blocks up the stanchions and, when the area is all clear, there is the taping up above and below the capping rail and the eyebrow. So I guess we’ll get that done today and start removing the old varnish tomorrow…. Neither of us are looking forward to it but Morphie deserves some care and attention.

Bye for now

Jan

Friday we did a provisioning run to the large Countdown in Takapuna. We took one of our big roller suitcases with us to help carry it all as we went by bus but, again, too much to carry so we treated ourselves to a taxi back.

We got everything stowed away onboard and then got ready to go into Auckland to meet Paul. We met him at 5.30 pm and enjoyed a beer. However, the DJ was setting up for the night and it was really loud so we decided to move on as it was difficult to hold a conversation. Paul knew this great little Vietnamese restaurant so we walked there and managed to get a table…..the food was interesting and very flavoursome….so much so that Richard and I had three courses! Was a lovely evening and we were very grateful to Paul as he turned up with a brand new 1TB hard drive for us complete with films and TV shows. That’ll keep us entertained, particularly now that Autumn has started to set in here in New Zealand.

After Paul had left we went to Shuckers for a pontoonie while we waited for the ferry to take us across the bay back to Morphie.

Saturday morning we got the early ferry into Auckland in the pouring rain – as I had a hair appointment and Richard needed to visit some chandlers to get some materials. We have decided, in the next few weeks, to take some time out to varnish our capping rail and eyebrows, as the wood deteriorated significantly whilst we were home in the UK for such a long period of time. So I went for my hair cut and Richard went off – rejoining me a few hours later. Whilst I was in the hairdressers the fire alarms went off and we had to evacuate the building, so a bit of excitement watching the firemen turn up, check the little mall was safe, before we could go back in. Sadly the skills of the hairdresser was not as high as her price – never mind.

Richard returned to pick me up and we had a few hours before the next ferry back across to Bayswater. So, in the rain, we headed to The Viaduct….and enjoyed a couple of beers in Headquarters. It was good to see genuine Aucklanders out enjoying their Saturday afternoon which they celebrated with a few drinks. We were having such a good time we decided to go on an afternoon pub crawl. The next hostelry was Dr Rudi’s where we met an English couple from Bristol.

then onto White & Wongs (where we also had a bite to eat)

and ended the afternoon at the Crab Shack. We got the 8.20 pm ferry so we didn’t stay out late but had been a great last fun day in Auckland.

Sunday morning we continued to get the boat ready to go back to sea. I did online stuff like banking, bills and downloading updated charts. Richard ordered some new batteries for Morpheus. We have five house plus one engine Lifeline ATM batteries on board and they were new in 2012, so a seven year lifespan isn’t too bad. They would still be OK if we were rock hopping and could pop into a marina and plug in every now and again or run the generator at anchor, but with long sea passages ahead, this is as good a time to replace them as any. He also ordered a new battery monitor to go with them. There are other spare parts we need too so we are looking through our lists while we have access to internet here in the marina. By ordering them now they should be ready and waiting in Opua for when we return in early May.

Another thing we did, while in organisational mode, was to book ourselves onto a rally into Australia from New Caledonia. We can be as actively involved with other participants as we want and we probably won’t buddy boat, but the cost of joining is largely offset by all the discounts that we get for customs wood inspections, boat yard haul outs etc. And they supply all the information we need for checking into Australia, cruising guides for New Caledonia, welcome events/seminars etc so we thought it was a worthwhile thing to do. Not to mention the party week on arrival in Bundaburg which we quite fancy LOL. We have also been putting feelers out with a couple of boat yards in Australia to haul Morpheus out of the water for when we return back to the UK for a few months. And that was about it for the day.

Monday morning Richard did engine checks whilst I did all the laundry. We then received our final invoices from the marina and, OMG, they were so wrong it was laughable. We had already pointed out discrepancies in February’s and March’s invoices (which had been charged in full to us despite this) so we had some credits in the bank, but it was still far from accurate. So we spent a few happy hours going through everything and recalculating what we thought was the correct amount. We sent this email to the office and said I would be in later to discuss and guess what, the administrator was not going to be there. How convenient!!! Never mind, 8.30 in the morning it is then.

The rest of the day we checked out various anchorages and downloaded weather forecasts. We were surprised to see light south winds coming through on Tuesday which would mean a stop in Oneroa Bay, Waiheke Island, was possible for a night. Yay we really fancied going there.

Tuesday morning early I was at the office while Richard unplugged our power cables etc and got the ropes ready to slip. Well, of course, the woman was in late and wasn’t ready to talk although did say that she thought our list of discrepancies was a bit much. So I explained, tactfully and politely, how I had come to my conclusions and went away for 15 minutes while she tried to get her head around it. When I returned she agreed some, disputed others, but the bottom line was that she thought I owed less than I thought I did (seriously!) so I just accepted her position and got our security bond refunded all in the same transaction. That was seriously hard work.

Glad to finally escape I skipped back to Morphie, we slipped from the dock, and by 9.45 am we were underway. We enjoyed our last glimpse of Auckland on our way through the channel and were impressed by the training ship Spirit of New Zealand sailing under the bridge and eventually passing alongside us.

We sailed all the way to Waiheke in light airs dodging ferries. By 1.30pm we were on anchor in Oneroa Bay having travelled a mere 15.54 miles.

We got a great set in sand and straight away we got busy dropping dink off the davits and getting the outboard on the stern. Once we were happy and settled, we headed over in dink to say hi to fellow Island Packeteers Steve and Jo, on Tamanu, who were anchored nearby. This isn’t something we normally do but it is so unusual to see an Island Packet in these waters we thought we would say hello.

When we got over to them, they already knew we were Richard and Jan from Morpheus as they had checked on the IP Yacht Owners’ Association. We were a little flabbergasted by that LOL. We spent a while chatting with them and realised that our plans may be similar for the coming few months. They were trying to lead us astray by offering us beer and, in the heat of the sun, we were sorely tempted. But we managed to resist as we had to go into town to get some more supplies (things we had missed or used since the last big provisioning run). So we said farewell and headed to the beach. By now the tide had gone out and even though we have OAP wheels installed on our new dinghy, it was still quite a drag.

Eventually we managed it and walked up the very steep hill into town. We got our provisions in the little supermarket and went to a rooftop bar overlooking the bay for a few cold ones. Was lovely.

Before the sun went down we headed back to dink, pushed him back into the water (not so far now as the tide had started to come back in) and returned to Morpheus and had a nice evening in the cockpit. It was pretty warm in the sun but we still needed fleeces once the sun went down.

During the evening we ran the weather again to see if we could stay another day or whether we had to move on. At this point we found that a gale warning had been issued for Thursday. Great….so we looked at the wind direction and found an area over on the Western Coromandel coast which would be a good place to shelter while the blow went through. Squadron Bay (in Te Kouma Harbour) would give us protection from N/NW winds (the first wind direction) and if, indeed it switched (timing was indecisive on this) we could go across the way to Name Bay (also in Te Kouma Harbour) to get protection from S/SW winds. So our decision was made before we went to bed.

Wednesday morning we were up early and ran the weather again. The position had worsened if anything, gale warnings in most places for Thursday, and torrential rain all day too. Never mind….we had a plan.

So at 9.30am we picked up anchor – said goodbye to Steve and Jo – and headed out on a beautiful sunny day with light NW winds. We attempted to sail downwind on genoa alone but the wind completely died on us so we ended up motoring slowly virtually the whole 23 miles.

There was lots of bird life on the water and, at one point, Richard could hear this squeaking and it was a little blue penguin who had surfaced beside us giving us a fleeting glance. Made us very happy. By 3pm we were on anchor in beautiful Squadron Bay surrounded by stunning scenery and the only boat around, but lots of cows on the hill and even one wandering along the scrubby beach. We even had a duck welcoming party so we gave them a cornflake treat.

We had a nice afternoon and evening in the cockpit. Just before the sun went down another boat came and anchored over in Name Bay which has no protection from northerly winds – so we double checked the weather again just to make sure we were in the right position and, yes, no change. The winds were NW up to 40 knot gusts.

This morning, Thursday, and the weather was quite pleasant first thing. The forecast remained the same and was supposed to kick in at 10 am so we had breakfast in the cockpit first. At 10 am the clouds rolled in and the wind picked up, Morpheus moved head to wind (NW as predicted) and we prepared to sit it out.

By 10.40 the heavens had opened and it poured with rain. So I’m sitting down below blogging and Richard is reading. I guess that will be it for the rest of the day.

Friday we had hoped to move around the corner into Coromandel Harbour as there is a town a couple of kilometres up the river, so could be fun to go exploring the river in dink. We have also decided to return to Kawau (which is pretty protected) to do the varnishing as at least there is a yacht club to get off the boat now and again after a hard day’s work, so we will probably be there for Easter. But we are totally weather dependent as we are back on the hook and this front could linger, so we’ll make our decisions on a daily basis.

Bye for now

Jan

Friday (29 March) we got up early for the eight hour drive to Queenstown (yes Google maps say less than seven but they clearly don’t understand the terrain). It was a long way and we had planned to avoid such lengthy drives but the exceptional weather event earlier in the week had made us reorganise our plans.

Never mind, we set off in good spirits, armed with snacks and soft drinks. Clive and Richard did two hour shifts each to share the driving, stopping when it was convenient. There was great scenery along the way and we made a couple of comfort stops too….

Around 5pm we arrived at our waterfront apartment and checked in.

We found a good spot in the private car park to leave the car and headed up in the lift to the 5th floor. The apartment was large although a bit dated. As we had the double bedroom last time, Clive and Val took up residence in the main bedroom. They definitely got the better deal as it was a large king-size with ensuite. We ended up in the twin (with two small single beds) at the back with a separate bathroom. Never mind, at least we had two bathrooms….. But, you know what, when the views are this good from the window who cares?!?!

We got ourselves organised and headed along the waterfront for dinner – this time we chose a pub for simple fare of ribs, then returned to the apartment for pontoonies.

Saturday morning we had to meet our coach for a 7.11 am pick up for the trip to Milford Sound. We weren’t sure exactly where the coach was going to be (except outside the Crown Plaza which happened to be the next door hotel) so we went early and waited as numerous coaches passed us in both directions….eventually ours turned up…and we settled down for the long drive.

It was a great trip across the country with some special photo opportunities from mirror lakes to majestic mountains, valleys and ice above us. We even went through a tunnel….. Absolutely stunning. And the commentary was interesting and informative – we didn’t know that possums were such a pest and nuisance and, when he saw one splattered on the road, the driver made sure they were dead by turning them into squishums!!!

We arrived at Milford Sound and boarded our large catamaran. We were very lucky that this was another dry day.

We enjoyed our included lunch and then took up residence on the bow. We were very lucky to see some dolphins, fur seals and, of course, there is the obligatory getting soaked under the waterfalls. Or at least Richard and I did, Clive and Val ran for cover LOL. Another amazing time.

After the boat trip we re-boarded our coach for the long trip back. Some tourists had opted to fly back on a small plane instead (and there were spaces available) so we tried to tempt Clive but it was too rich for him, so we stayed on the coach as well. We dozed for a while until we reached our intermediary stop of Te Anau and had a coffee. Then we got back on and watched a movie The World’s Fastest Indian about a local guy who went to the US to take on the land speed record on a motorcycle. He came from Invercargill (a Scottish town at the bottom of the South Island) and as our driver’s name was Hamish we did wonder – he later confirmed that he actually was a distant relation. It was a great film with some really funny moments.

Arriving back into Queenstown the coach wasn’t stopping at our stop so we got off and walked for about 15 minutes to get back – which we all needed having spent 13 hours on the road. Back at the apartment we had a pasta meal and stayed home with our feet up.

Sunday morning we all headed through town to the Gondola station, once we had been to the ATM for more drinking vouchers. We enjoyed the ride up to the top and the spectacular views – and watched some crazy bungy jumpers and some paragliders. We also watched the luge but thought it looked a bit tame although Clive was tempted….. As we had booked onto a jet boat trip at 1pm we left them up there and, yes, Clive did do a few luge runs once we had left.

We walked down to the main wharf, were briefly entertained by Happy the singing sheepdog, before meeting our driver, kitted up with life jackets, and climbed on board.

The one hour trip was amazing….check out the photos. We have also put a video up of the trip on Richard’s Facebook page. It was really good fun and an adrenaline rush.

On our return to the wharf we enjoyed the underwater observatory into the lake and then wandered down the waterfront, checking out the little black ducks, just enjoying the sun. So we visited the floating bar and watched the ‘sharks’ come and go. They speed along, go under, and then jump out of the water. Looked fantastic! We did enquire about taking one each, but at $154 for 15 minutes seemed a bit steep….maybe next time?!?!

Returning to the apartment we all got together and shared our adventures. We then headed back into town for dinner and, this evening, we fancied a curry so chose a nice-looking Indian restaurant just set back from the main drag. The food was lovely and we really enjoyed it. We chatted to a Scottish guy on the next table who decided to swear and become loud about British politics (despite the fact that he had lived in New Zealand for many years). This was to the annoyance of other diners so we asked him to calm down which he did for a while, then got excited again LOL. So, once we had finished our dinner, we exited left and hit a few hostelries on our way back.

Monday morning and we headed off in the car towards Dunedin. Again there was some spectacular scenery along the way, but different. This is a fruit growing region so we saw lots of farms, including vineyards. There was more of a volcanic look to the rock and lots of pasture lands with kale, sheep, deer, veal calves etc.

Arriving into Dunedin we checked into our hotel and headed out in the car towards the coast.

We admired the spectacular beach at St Clare – with only a few crazy surfers around – and had a nice lunch. The wind was blowing strongly at this point and it had turned very cold.

Back to the hotel we left the car in the secure overnight parking spot reserved for us and walked into town. We went past the Salvation Army monument, numerous churches, Art Deco buildings and then to the train station.

Afterwards we decided to stay out and headed to the main centre of town, the Octogen. We sat on the pavement (wrapped up against the cold) having a beer and watched the world go by but it was very very quiet and we were a bit disappointed to be honest. So we headed back towards the hotel and found a lovely restaurant. The dinner was superb, in fact, probably one of the best we had had on our whole trip.

After dinner we went into the neighbouring casino for a little flutter….I spent a whole $10 on the slot machines and walked away with $20 a little while later. Clive tried the roulette table and, feeling very tired, we said our goodnights and left them there. We watched TV for a little while in our room before having an early night.

Tuesday morning we had breakfast in the hotel, checked out, and picked up the car. We then headed along the coast to Brighton (yes another one) to see if we could see any seals or penguins that reside on this wild coast. Sadly our head count was zero!

We then drove cross country towards the airport, hoping for a final bakery/cafe visit for coffee. But we found nowhere open….. Apart from Dunedin’s suburbs the larger district is very remote and isolated. Eventually we were almost at the airport so we filled up with petrol at the nearest village – still no cafe open – and drove towards the terminal building. At this point Clive didn’t believe me that this was a regional airport as all he could see was small private planes landing!!! Well, Dunedin only has one airport (I checked) so this was definitely right LOL. We returned the car and headed into the terminal, we checked our bags, and finally got that coffee. We were a bit early but, hey ho, nothing wrong with that.

After a couple of hours we went through to the gate and boarded the plane. It was a good flight and we landed in Auckland on time at 5.40 pm. We recovered our luggage and now it was time to say goodbye. Clive and Val were booked into a hotel near the airport for the night, prior to their flight to Bali the following day. We, however, were returning to Morphie. So we said our sad farewells and headed into Auckland on the Sky Bus.

At the main wharf we had to wait for a ferry across to Bayswater so had a glass of wine and some nibbles in Shuckers. We got back on board Morphie around 7.30 pm and were pleased that she was in good order and very happy to be back onboard. We quickly unpacked and had an early night….

Wednesday morning we had a lay in. We had been on holiday for almost six weeks and were both feeling tired….so no schedule! Later on I did the first of the South Island blogs while Richard did all the laundry. We kept ourselves occupied all day and had an early night after dinner in the cockpit, despite the rain.

Today, Thursday (4 April), Richard is reorganising the boat in preparation for going back to sea, ie reinstating the ‘garage’ in the stern cabin. I’m blogging again and thinking about the provisioning we need to do tomorrow…. So no rest for the crew of the good ship Morpheus.

Bye for now

Jan