All posts by stewart135

New Year 2017

January 1, 2017 stewart135 Leave a comment

We left Auckland having decided to spend one extra day in the Air BnB house. The delay was probably for the best as we were no way ready to push off on the 26th!

We pushed S towards Martinborough to meet up with Gill and Alastair in one of the top 10 campsites. The location was chosen due to its closeness to Wellington where we would get the ferry across to S island. There was also that small matter of being bang in the middle of an excellent wine region with winery after winery within easy walking distance of the campsite.

There is, however, a good deal of N island between Auckland and Wellington and we managed to make a couple of stops on the way.

First on the list was Lake Tapou. About half way down the N island, this enormous lake is the remnants of one of the largest volcanic eruptions in the last 750,000 years which possibly helped to start off the last Ice Age. The last big eruption was around 180AD and is rated as one of the top 3 or 4 violent eruptions in the last 20000years. Both the Chinese and the Romans recorded a period when the skies went red and it has been linked to this eruption. The volcano is classed as dormant but the lake is constantly measured as the S end rises with the slowly building internal pressures. On the lake’s shore there was a posh chipping range. I sadly didn’t manage to score a hole in one to give us the $10k prize but the girls did have a great time doing summersaults on one of those bouncy machines whilst I (I’m proud to say) peppered the floating green.

The weather stayed fair as we moved down to the Tongariro National Park. Situated with several active volcano (last eruption in the 80’s) the park provides some glorious walks. The one that we did took us a couple of hours and, as we found out later at the information hut, took us on to the foot of Mt Doom of Lord of the Ring fame and around to the lovely Taranaki waterfalls.

Hannah, of course, had to go behind the falls and got a little wet but the walk back down was warm and she soon dried out.

Continuing S, we moved to a locally run campsite called the Ruatiti Domain. You had to travel 10 miles off the main road, on to a dirt track and then further on rough track to get down beside a beautiful river. It is, without doubt, the best campsite we have been at in terms of privacy, quiet, beauty and is the only place we have been allowed to light a fire. The loos were long drop, the river your shower. The night sky was brilliant. I have no idea where the nearest light source was but it was long way away. Our pitch was large, dry and within 50m of the river. We watched numerous fishermen pull brown and rainbow trout out and I wished I had brought a fishing rod. We stayed for an extra night and if we hadn’t had to move on to meet Starcharger, I think we would have been there as long as the food lasted, playing in the swimming pool just above us.

It was a long drive from there down to Martinborough, where we had arranged to meet up with Starcharger to celebrate New Year. We decided to get through the miles as quick as we could. We stopped and admired the view at Stormy Point and were surprised to be able to look back at Mt Doom (otherwise known as Mt Ruapehu) some 60miles away at that point. One thing I have enjoyed about New Zealand is the clarity and quality of air. You can see a long long way and with all the detail there. There is rarely any haze to bother a perfect view.

Martinborough is a fun place. Overshadowed by the Big Brother of NZ wine, the Malborough district of S island, it has a large number of small but quality vineyards. The town is quaint too. We were surprised to read that the town had been planned using the Union Jack as the pattern for the roads and they have managed to hold a late 19C feel to the buildings around the main square, protecting many of the original buildings.

We stayed at the Top 10 campsite, right beside an unheated free swimming pool, which of course the girls saw, screamed and headed off to meet like minded kids. They came back blue but happy. The adults made the most of the local facilities and we visited a number of vineyards for tastings. The kids got helpful at one of them and, whilst the lady presented us with nice wine to taste, they assembled the bike rack she had been struggling with. Eleanor took control and the girls got a free drink out of it. My favourite yard was the smallest yard of all, making a few thousand cases a year, named Cabbage Tree, which is a firm favourite of Sir Ian Botham when he visits to commentate. We bought a couple of bottles to savour.The Cabbage Tree will export. Have a look here. The wine is excellent

New Year was held quite quietly in the campsite kitchen. Bizarrely we were warned at 2230hrs by one of the camp staff that we really should make sure we were being quiet (which we were). We moved back across to our tent. The Kiwi in the tent site opposite us was horrified we had been spoken too . “ Not the Kiwi way, mate!” However, we faired better than the group of Irish that were in. Before the evening had even started they had been informed their party size was too big and that they should either go into town to celebrate New Year or leave the campsite. I rather think the people running this particular campsite are lacking in a bit of personality! In the end, we had a good group first foot us, Kiwis, two Irish and a group from the UK, and we enjoyed a very quiet rowdiness until we retired.

We recovered on New Years Day by heading N to what was promoted as a model railway which had taken Alastair’s fancy. It was a good place to be as the rain poured down. Cwmglyn Farm is an interesting place and is run by a husband and wife team. The rail track has been constructed over 40 years by the husband. Biddy, the wife, started a small farm dairy making live culture cheese with four cows. She has fought a battle with NZ regulations and frankly, government departmental stupidity for years in regard to the amount of testing she is needs to do. Required to use the same testing regime as a large scale commercial producer, 3/4 of her income goes in paying the testing labs meaning very little profit for an awful lot of work. Her cheese is excellent, recognised internationally as being such but unfortunately she is just too small for the bureaucrats to be bothered about. My bet is they will simply be waiting for her to peg out. Not nice to say and short sighted as well. I would have thought that small and cottage industry should be promoted and helped with the current unemployment figures of NZ being as they are.With the farming industry needing help in its survival, they should be assisting any business that helps to re-establish farming and internal food producing industries. Have a look at the farm website to see the cheese making process in photos.

Both Alasdair and Gill and ourselves had ferries to catch to the South Island booked for the 2nd Jan. We had a half a day in Wellington and visited the excellent Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa. Well laid out, it has excellent modern displays and we filled our time up very easily. We could have spend another day there exploring and we have decided that we will do exactly that on our return. Highlights for me must include the SheepCam (only in NZ!) and the Maori displays and artefacts.

Our ferry left late afternoon and after failing miserably to find an open chippy for a snack before we left, we had to rush to get booked in in time.

Update posts

Happy Christmas 2017

December 28, 2016 stewart135 Leave a comment

We decided to splash out for Christmas. On the basis that we had been invited to Vaughn and Sylvia’s for a pre-Xmas drinks party on the 24th and ZigZag were in the nearby Half Moon Marina, we found an Air BnB house for rent near both and moved in for three days.

The do at Vaughn and Sylvia’s was great fun. The kids played in the heated pool, the grown ups (the men at least) looked longingly at Vaughn’s rather glorious speakers that had come all the way from Glasgow and his excellent BBQ. The selection of beer was impressive and the enormous fillet of beef that we were spoilt with tasted fantastic. Added to that the platters of salads, cheese, biscuits, many types of bread meant that the meal was a joyful event. Our thanks again to Sylvia for the organisation and Vaughn for his excellent BBQ skills. Quite an undertaking the day before Christmas.

Irene took over kids’ entertainment after dinner and they all had a great time singing Christmas songs in a variety of languages! It all seemed to work although asking the Dads to judge the costume dressing up competition was a little dangerous.

Christmas Day was spent at the Air BnB house. It was a pretty little three bedroom house with a hot tub in the back garden and most importantly a decent kitchen to cook in. I will say that the general cleanliness of the kitchen left a little to be desired but a couple of hours of scrubbing brought it up to standard. I hope the owner appreciated our efforts when they returned from their Xmas away. The house also had a washing machine! This was run practically non-stop with ZigZag catching up on their loads too – never has laundry been so enjoyable.

Santa delivered as expected and by way of Fiona Foura’s parents, we were able to pick up presents kindly sent from the UK from the family too. I’m not sure just how sane it was to buy Eleanor a chemistry set but she is already had fun making smells and bubbles!

The kids had a huge smile on their faces up to the point we made them wait for the arrival of ZigZag for the opening of the presents from us! ZigZag dutifully arrived just as the kids were ready to explode, with Irene’s sister, Mareike, over for the holidays in tow.

We had a lovely meal with a mix of British and German delicacies being added to the table, offering the traditional Henderson starter of cream of turkey and parsley soup. The parsley was courtesy of the Chinese market we found at the racecourse on our way back from picking up ZigZag’s new car on Christmas morning. Good thing the large Chinese community doesn’t celebrate Christmas! The main course was turkey followed by a huge sticky mascarpone wonderfulness made by Irene and Mareike. We had managed to find a good size turkey, the last in the shop, but had failed miserably in our attempt to find decent chipolatas. NZ just doesn’t do decent sausages. We have found a single butcher on our travels that would make what we would class as what is comparable to the standard we would find at our local butcher in the UK. Bread sauce and cranberry sauce were generally enjoyed; I’m afraid the sauerkraut was less so! Each to their own. The one item that Lou was hugely disappointed not to have on her plate was Brussels sprouts. As it is high summer down here, they were, regrettably, out of season.

Whilst our girls are by no way grown up, it is always fun to be around really smalls for Christmas. Noah was very helpful in unwrapping everybody’s presents whether asked for or not! Mia had a lovely time playing and cuddling a new doll.

After the meal, we retired to the hot tub and had a very pleasant afternoon bubbling away with a certain amount of NZ bubbles helping us along. Toasty!

A Happy Christmas to one and all!

Update posts

Exploring the North Island

December 22, 2016 stewart135 Leave a comment

We left Opua in convoy. We were loaded to the gunnels and Starcharger were carrying Lorna and George of Quatsino. Our first stop was at a batch beside the sea at Kaimaumau. As an explanation, many New Zealanders have a family holiday home, handed down through the generations. often by the sea. It is known as a batch. These days they are less popular as international travel becomes cheap enough for most to run up to Fiji, Tonga or Aus for holidays. However, many are available to rent, they don’t cost a great deal and most are built in beautiful and quiet spaces.

We based ourselves there for three days and had a great time.

Day one saw us travel the final 80km to the northern most point of New Zealand – Cape Reinga. This is an important Mouri site as it is said that departing souls from the island travel to the Cape and lower themselves into the underworld, by way of the ancient Pohutukawa tree on the end of the rock outcrop, just to the W of the lighthouse.

Day two took us to the wonderfully named 90 Mile Beach. It isn’t actually that long – it is only 80km – but the over exaggeration is forgiven. If you have a 4×4 veh, then the beach is open to you to drive on. With our poor beastie, we had to walk! We had fun bouncing up and down some of the huge sand dunes and the view along the beach was an endless beauty.

The day before when we were travelling up to the Cape we had been staggered to see hills of sand towering above the rolling grass downs of Northland. These enormous dunes have built up as sand is thrown ashore by the prevailing W wind and are common on the W coast running N from Auckland. We visited a baby one with Amelie when we were staying with the Hoburns. Standing hundreds of feet high, the ones near the North Cape are a different scale altogether. They have spawned another great sport – sand boarding.

The only trouble with said boarding is the effort of climbing up a couple of hundred feet of sand dune. Climbing sand isn’t easy at the best of times. Do it a couple of times and your lungs are bursting and your legs are jelly. We got to the point of using relays to get the all important boards back to the top. The girls loved it. Alastair gave us the funniest descent, scattering the panicking watchers at the bottom of the hill with one of his banzai runs to everyone’s amusement.

We left the company of Starcharger and Quatisino as they headed back towards their boats and we headed down the W coast by ourselves. We found that there was a ferry between Kohukohu and Rawene so rather than drive all the way back on to Highway 1, we took the recently graded W Coast Road which wound its way through the mountains. It was a great drive and the scenery was beautiful. The ferry took about half and hour. It was nice to be back on the water, even on just a stink boat!

We stopped at the entrance to Kiapara Bay, the scene of a recent tragedy in November where a fishing boat was lost with eight deaths. The entrance to the bay is tricky with large sandbanks extending out over a mile. You can see two of them with breakers in the photo below. It is a beautiful harbour once you are in. Sadly the fishing boat touched one of the banks and turned turtle in the 4m breakers. There were only three survivors.

We have been hugely impressed by the land management that we have seen throughout the North island. Where once the UK went down the initially efficient but environmentally damaging hedge removal, NZ farmers have built hedges and whole tree lines to divide land blocks, proving shelter for stock and crops. We spotted this area as we drove to the Kia Iwi Lake campsite. The norm around the vineyards, it is quite common to see them around just normal blocks of land used for livestock, as seen here. These tree lines are 40-50’ high.

The Kia Iwi camp site was well set out and great fun. On a freshwater lake, it means endless splashing around for the kids in the surprisingly warm water and of course there were plenty of other smalls around to play with. Dad got involved too and there was a certain amount of tomfoolery protecting the swimming platform! We also met a great couple, well into their eighties who have invited us to visit them on our return to Auckland. Ex RAF but an émigré more than 50years ago, he still hasn’t lost the accent! We stayed at the site for three days and left with tears.

Heading South, we drove into the area of NZ that is the home of the giant Kauri trees. Once common across NZ, they were cut down in huge numbers in the 18th and 19th century for their hard wood. Now, very few are left, they are protected and NZ has started to replant them. It will take even longer than the UKs New Forest to grow back to glory as the trees grow slow and will last to over 3000years. We visited the largest of them left named Tane Mahuta, The Lord of the Forest, thought to be about 2000years old, said to be a baby in comparison to the monsters that were around a couple of hundred years ago. The other interesting fact around these trees is that they are the source of GUM, which once petrified becomes amber. A major industry of the 19thC was to collect the gum from the trees by scoring them or dredging up all the old amber that was plentiful in the swamps, melting it down and exporting it. Gum was sorted in to different grades and was used for make such stuff as jewellery, the first linoleum (providing the waterproofing) and gumboots. Want to know where that particular word for wellington boots came from? Look no further. Interestingly, the North British Rubber Company (now known as Hunter) based in Edinburgh was taking out adverts in the local papers asking folks not to buy the knockoff “gumboots” made here as far back as the 1870s!

Our final stop before hitting Auckland again was at a campsite in the Tawharanui Peninsula Regional Park. The area is completely wired off to prevent stouts, rabbits and possums from getting in. It is a sanctuary for flightless birds and is one of the few sites with good numbers of kiwi. We didn’t see one although Eleanor says she heard one calling at night. We did see great numbers of Pukeka, another more common flightless bird. The beach was beautiful and and we saw lots of surfers returning to the camp happy after a day playing in the waves.

We stopped in briefly to say hello at the Hoburn’s to pick up the left behind socks and Hannah’s Kindle. Then it was time to head into Auckland to meet up with Aislado and ZigZag for some Christmas celebrations. Northland is beautiful, warm and we have had great fun exploring it. As always, we wish we had more time to do it justice but what secrets we found, we have loved. Our thanks to Sarah and Mo for giving us so many hints and steers for our travels.

Time to turn our sights on the wilder lands of the South Island.

Update posts

Opua, NZ – Two divers in the family

December 14, 2016 stewart135 2 Comments

We moved about three km S from the Bay of Islands Marina to Malcolm and Helen’s house and we stayed with them for about 10 days. It was great place to base ourselves from and we were well looked after, getting some good steers on what to do around the area.

We got the chance to see a bit more the Bay of Islands by way of an invite out on Tika. We lucked out on the weather and had a great day, exploring Moturua island and playing on the beach. The walk around the island is well worth doing and takes far less time than suggested on the signs. we ripped around it in less than half the time it was supposed to. I’m not sure if we were supposed to take more time on the beach on the W side of the island or we just aren’t fat Americans…..

We ended up staying in the Opua area longer than we planned. When we were in the Tuamotus, Eleanor had snorkelled above me whilst I dived. Having had a taste of the world underwater using Almost There’s hookah diving system and being our walking encyclopaedia of tropical fish, she was continually at me at the end of my dives to use my regulator “to have a go” before I got back in the dinghy. Once in NZ, I saw that the local school I was intending to dive had applied the new PADI rules and would teach children at 10. After a bit of discussion between Lou and myself, we signed Eleanor up for the Open Water course. Eleanor, we thought, would be able to take the discipline required for diving – if given a rule or procedure she follows it. Our real only reservation was the temperature of the water. At 16C, it would be a challenge for someone so small to stay warm.

I shouldn’t have worried. Her instructors were somewhat surprised at how enthusiastically she threw herself in and although she admitted to being a bit cold at times, she just got on with it without whinging. Good girl!

Having smashed her exam the day before, I dived with Eleanor on her last qualifying dives and was impressed with how well she managed her buoyancy. She is still excited enough to be carrying far too much weight but that will come down in time and helped as she moves to lightweight shorties back in waters warmer than she experienced here! She finished her course exhilarated and quickly became even more so after we bought her her own BCD. I will have my own diving partner when we get back up to French Polynesia!. Our thanks to Faye, her instructor and the PaihiaDive owner, Craig for looking after her so well. We also went looking for a first and second stage and dive computer and have organised them to be sent from the UK. Sadly it is less expensive to buy diving kit in the UK (or USA) by about 30-50% for brand names and have it sent here, even when paying the import tax. Stupid pricing rules being applied.

Whilst Eleanor was diving, Lou and Hannah spent many a happy hour in the Op shops around the area. Hannah’s wardrobe is growing at an alarming rate but her taste is pretty good. It is just as well we will be giving all the clothes she has been picking up back to one lucky Op shop before we go. They alone would be over her baggage allowance! They even managed to get some culture in too. A famous artist, Hundertwasser, was given the opportunity to personalise the local toilets in Kawakawa and using recycled material, he did. They are now a major tourist attraction.

I drove Starcharger’s new car down to Whangerie whilst they sailed down. We left the girls with a sleepover with Tika (thanks, folks) and Lou and I got to meet Mia, coming to the end of her tour around NZ with the (officially) new man and all round good bloke, Christian. We had a great night and I am sorry to say that we broke Christian. More practise required, mate! Mia has now headed back to Denmark and the realities of job (boo), clothes (yeah!) and a few weeks holiday a year (definitely boo!). We look forward to seeing us hook up with her and Christian again once we hit the UK next year.

In an attempt to pay back a little of their wonderful hospitality, I had more fun in Malcolm and Helen’s garden, cutting down a lot of gorse, chopping down a couple of trees (proper big ones too) and mowing up and down their hilly garden. I think I left them well pleased with my efforts. They do have an extra couple of hillsides that they can walk up now and perhaps more chance to keep it in check than before.

We said our goodbyes after an excellent final night’s BBQ and clutching a huge jar of active Manuka honey as a leaving present, headed N in the company of Quatsino and Starcharger.

Time to explore N Island!

Update posts

Opua, NZ – Meeting the fleet

December 6, 2016 stewart135 2 Comments

When you are travelling south towards New Zealand from the Pacific islands of Fiji and Tonga, most people will head for Opua. It is the northern booking in port for yachts in New Zealand, where Customs and Immigration are based and it is within the famous Bay of Islands, a gloriously sheltered area with a huge number of anchorages to hide in, no matter what the weather. The traditional route takes you past Minerva reef, one of the most desolate anchorages in the world and then S, potentially through an area of nasty seas to the shelter of NZ. Another route, used by Tika, is to go via Norfolk Island, newly administrated by Australia with a population of 60. It isn’t a popular route as it adds on a couple of days sailing and takes you in to Australian territories but it does have the huge advantage of allowing you to go around the main weather patterns, giving you a beam reach at worst back into NZ waters.

We had been monitoring the transits of Jade, Starcharger, Quatsino II, ZigZag and Tika as they made their way down past the Minerva reef and wanted to meet them at Opua where there was a small festival for the arriving fleet. There was also a calling notice out for the Ocean Cruising Club, who were organising an arrival party at Nina Kiff’s house, the local Port Officer.

The drive up took about three and a half hours, through stretches of beautiful countryside. You got the impression that the land around the road had been tamed but the hills overlooking the road were wild and covered with thick vegetation. And so green. As soon as you are way from Auckland the roads become single lane A roads with the occasional overtaking lane on steep hills. The speed limits are closely adhered to and we have heard that this trend is reinforced by a zero tolerance Police attitude and numerous unidentified van and cars with speed cameras ready to snap the unwary. Saying that, with the state of our van, keeping below the speed limit is not a problem. The roads are steep and full of bends. I am finding that I am keeping our lumbering heap well below the limit to be safe. She doesn’t corner well with the weight we have on board.

We arrived at Opua and immediately ran into Irene and Georg off ZigZag, newly arrived and looking very tired. The sail down had been reasonable but windy towards the end and for the first time in a long time, there had been a head wind and sea for periods of the trip. They soon decided to fire off to bed. We had been invited to stay with Gill and Alasdair on Starcharger with the kids to sleep next door with Lorna and George on Quatsino II. Typically the kids saw small friends for the first time in months, screamed with joy and just disappeared.

We headed up to the OCC gathering at Nina’s house. It was great to meet some truly dedicated sailors and were privileged to be at the prize giving of the 2015 Rose Award a prize presented for the most audacious short handed voyage of the year. Suzanne and Comrey of Whateke travelled 1200 miles upwind on the Patagonian coast, starting at the Beagle Channel, a trip which proves them to be as hard as nails and a bit nuts! It was great to meet them and hear their story. Amazing. Lou also met a wonderful lady called Rose. Lou is hopeful that when she is in her eighties and still sailing, she is as positive, bouncy and fun loving. I’m not sure how many times sailing round the world this group represents but I suspect that it is more than you can count on a set of hands. Inspirational.

For the next few days, we enjoyed the marvellous hospitality of Starcharger, Quatsino and a variety of guests. One could suggest that we partied a little hard but it was great fun. We learnt that Gill plays the sax well, Paul can be understood when he sings (magnificently, by the way) and Lorna should not be left in charge of a didgeridoo. We had fun and the kids had a great time catching up with the Jade and Tika kids and meeting new ones from Enough and Carpe Dium, names we had heard on the net but never met. They joined in with the local sailing club. $3 a head for 3hours sailing on the club Optis, Splash or 420s. The kids loved it and of course got pretty wet. The difference is the water temperature here meant they came out blue!

It was fun.

With the crews of Invictus, Mobi, ZigZag, and two French boats, all with small children, we visited the Otama Vineyard for some wine tasting and to meet St Nickolas. Very much a Germanic tradition, St Nickolas appears on 6th December. He appeared a little early but the kids loved the small goody bags he dropped in to give them. I understand St Nickolas enjoyed the visit too…….

We must say we have been lucky in meeting people. Malcolm and Helen Shaft are OCC members of long standing who settled in NZ after many years sailing. At the OCC party, Malcolm offered us a small flat that had been used by his mother who recently passed on. He followed this up with an email a couple of days later to remind us of the offer and to say it hadn’t been the drink talking. With Starcharger planning to move South a week later, we decided to lighten their burden (and to save our livers) by taking Malcolm up on his offer. However, before we left we had some more cracking nights, taking it in turns around Quatsino II, Starcharger and ZigZag. The kids had a variety of sleepovers but had almost as much fun on Quatsino. I think George found it novel having smalls on board, happy to come in in the morning for a chat (one way traffic at a million miles an hour in Eleanor’s case). Certainly, I found him looking a bit stunned after one of these sessions!

The daytime activities were varied too. We had a great time at the Paihia Xmas parade. Lots of fun, some great costumes and the smalls got lots of sweeties. The free ice-cream at the “Taste of Switzerland” on its opening was good too. I’m not sure how long it will last in the partisan setting of NZ considering the shop opposite is selling NZ’s best ice cream at half the price….. And of course we had to try the fish and chips. Noah bullied his way in to being fed by Gill and Alasdair. Note the fact that the tomato sauce is being held for him. He intonated that this was to happen very loudly.

A short ferry ride away from Paihia is Russell, the original capital of NZ. Known as the Hellhole of the Pacific in the early 19C, a den of iniquity and houses of ill repute abound, it has transitioned into a quaint tourist town of shore side tearooms and shops selling tourist trinkets. The oldest pub in NZ, The Duke of Marlborough it still alive, well and serving excellent beverages. The pier, rebuilt and extended these days is a magnificent structure.

Our sincere thanks to Alasdair, Gill, Lorna and George for giving us berths for the time we stayed with them. It was hugely appreciated and great fun!

We moved up to Malcolm and Helen’s house and unpacked the car into the Granny flat and garage. Hot water, a double bed and a TV! What more could we want!

Update posts

Workaway – NZ Style

November 28, 2016 stewart135 Leave a comment

Sometimes, life treats you to a gem. We found one in the shape of the Hoban Family. It was with a little trepidation that we set out from Auckland to Albany where the Hobans live. Who would want travellers just to rock up at their house, having communicated only by email to check our compatibility, not knowing you from Adam? The Hoban’s, apparently.

New Zealanders are big on showing off their country and even bigger in welcoming visitors. We had been pleased and surprised in Auckland when Lou, in having her eyebrows done at a beauty parlour, had fallen into conversation with a lady and her daughter who were getting their nails done. It turned out she lived up in the direction we were going and “would love for us to camp in her garden” when we reached her area. She handed us her phone number and address and instructions to find the house. We left slightly stunned with the sheer in your face-ness of her friendliness. We have found the same basic characteristic everywhere we have gone.

Both workaway and woofing (working on an organic farm) are a big deal and established practises here. It is a great way for typically poor young backpackers to get around NZ. You live at a farm or a house and work there, earning your bed and board. We, as a travelling family, are a bit of an oddity but the Hobans read our blog and decided they wanted to meet us.

We arrived and the first word out of our mouth was “wow”. The house is a new build that they completed two years ago. Maurice and Sarah designed it themselves to be as energy efficient and economical as possible. They equipped it with very efficient double glazing and a huge array of solar panels which feeds back to the grid and brings their electricity bill down by a large amount. Maurice reckons that they paid for their installation in 18 months. It is, typical of housing in New Zealand, a bungalow. Lots of land space and lots of earthquakes have taught them the value of wooden framed houses close to the ground! The design at the back of the house incorporates massive floor to ceiling windows giving the kitchen and main living area fantastic views all around. Throw in a large decked area and sitting in a couple of acres plot, you have a glorious living space.

Maurice and Sarah had been travellers themselves and having travelled from the UK to NZ, where Maurice was from to settle, they decided to be as accommodating and helpful to folk of the same ilk as they had found themselves treated by strangers on their journey. They have three kids, Finn, Amalie and Theo who are great and didn’t seem to mind being invaded by us. Our two, of course, threw themselves in to the kids action with wild abandonment. They have been missing kids’ company and 3+2 became a very happy feral mix.

I did some little projects for them, rebuilding a door frame, clearing the garage up and putting up wire for their climbing plant frames around the back of the house which cost me a squashed finger when I cocked up and tried to swage my finger in with the wire. I felt a right prat. I also had a great time with a petrol strimmer, clearing one of the slopes too steep for a mower over a couple of days. It was so nice to do land based projects with boys toys tools! Lou did work around the house and the kids helped to walk Frodo. We would normally work in the morning and then head out to explore places suggested by Sarah. And what places, all within an hour of the house, both sides of the country. The weather had been wild and the seas at the beaches were spectacular. Lou and the girls visited a gannet colony and beach at the Muriwai Regional Park, The pathway took you very close to the birds who were not bothered by you at all.

Amalie guided us to the less well known Lake Wainamua, an inland lake on the W coast which, due to the prevailing winds has huge black volcanic sand dunes, drifting up a valley. It was closer to powder than sand and you couldn’t help coming away black. There we were introduced to the delight of sand dune boarding. It all went well until Hannah got on, forgot to brake and hit the bottom going way too fast, wiping out spectacularly in true cartoon cartwheel style. There were tears.

Walking down towards the beach took us past an excellent little mobile cafe. Hot chocolate and a lolly took precedence over another beach view and Lou and I were heartlessly deserted after the wallet had been fleeced.

Talking about fleecing, we finally found a decent number of sheep on one of our walks. Hannah, of course, needed a photo.

The NZ philosophy of life includes a need for being busy outside and I’d suggest is far less sedentary than the typical UK lifestyle. There are bike tracks and walks taking you to endless great views everywhere you go . There is a constant reference to sport, boating, hunting, camping, trail walks or just being out and about. And the facilities are there for you to be able to do so. There are huge national and regional parks, well run and looked after, set aside for people to disappear in to and explore.

And the playparks inside towns? Wonderful places with great toys for the kids to run riot on.

Eleanor and Hannah both got to go to Amalie’s and Theo’s school for a day too. I think they were both secretly glad that they found themselves easily able to deal with the work they were set. They were pleased and surprised to learn that it is still enshrined in law that NZ kids in the summer months are allowed to come to school in bare feet! There was also the schools swimming pool to play in. You buy a family key for access and it is a great meeting place to cool down in the hot afternoon sun. Note the inappropriate sides that no-one injures themselves on. Health and Safety morons haven’t really managed to break in to NZ society yet. Long may it last. On another civilised NZ trait – did you know it is not possible to sue over personal injury? You use a facility on your own assessment of its danger to you. You have to think of the consequences of your actions and there is little sympathy if you are a prat. Your fault if you screw up. However, the state will pick up any medical bills to fix you. Same goes for car accidents. Whoever causes the accident simply gets hammered by the courts and the state pays out a reasonable compensation. Whilst some would argue they are not perfect, laws like this would put half the current legal professions of the USA and UK out of work and might change the disastrous blame culture that seems to be prevalent in both countries. An idea to look at, I’d suggest.

All told, we spent just over a week with the wonderful Hoban family. And we loved it. They are marvellously welcoming and I think they provided us with just about the perfect reintroduction to family living on land. We said our goodbyes and left for the drive up towards Opua and the Bay of Islands where our sailing friends were about to arrive in to after finishing their long Pacific crossing to the safety of NZ waters.

We are hoping we will get the chance to see the Hobans again before we leave. There is a golf game that would be great to get to but may not be possible due to the travel plans to go to but we are hopeful we will see them in the New Year, possibly even down on the S island where they will be camping. Either way, I am hoping that we will be able to reciprocate their hospitality one day.

For anyone thinking about trying workaway or woofing, there are sites that you can find people interested in hosting you. Expect a bit of too and fro as you nail down what each party want out of the arrangement but if you go in to it with an open mind, you will find yourself well rewarded, having the chance to meet some great people and being able to experience true local culture far better than any package holiday.

Look here at the Workaway website

For woofing in New Zealand only, look HERE or

For international woofing, look HERE instead.

Update posts

New Zealand–the first few days

November 19, 2016 stewart135 Leave a comment

We arrived in Auckland tired after the long journey and a very early start in Tahiti. The girls both beat us up and were anxiously awake just before 0500, making sure that we wouldn’t have any difficulty in being on time for our plane.

As it was, they need not have worried. The queue was long and boring and whilst Dad got to stand in it, the girls and Lou went off to find out what the drumming was in the small international terminal. I got to see the local dancers walking out of the airport. Hannah got the end of their performance and of course, managed to get a photo of herself standing beside them.

We got picked up by a German traveller, working for accommodation at the garage we had arranged to buy our car and home for the next three months from. Sid, the owner, met us at the garage, proved to be completely horizontal in attitude, handed us the keys and paperwork that needed to change ownership and then told us to come back once we had done so to get the money organised. We were advised to take it to a separate garage for a $80 check out and I am glad we did. The garage picked up a couple of minor problems which I hadn’t which could have caused hassle later and Sid quickly fixed them. The car, a 7 seat Toyota, has 250,000kkm on the clock but runs fine. Fingers crossed that lasts.

On one of our first wanders on foot to explore, we walked past the Henderson Middle School and had to get a photo!

The Henderson name is a common one here. The Henderson area is named for a Thomas Henderson, a Scottish settler who came here in the early 1840s and bought the valley of 5000 acres then added another 5000acres of scrubland to expand into shortly after. Henderson Valley had a creek, mill and then township. In time the area became known simply as Henderson, a suburb of Auckland.

Lou had booked us in to the Fat Cat Travellers Hostel, an eco farm hostel, for our first two nights to allow us to settle in and organise ourselves. It proved to be a lucky and inspired choice. Fat Cats is, pretty much, a commune of likeminded travellers, a few permanent staff but with “house angels” allowed to work for their bed and board for periods of 3 weeks at a time. The rest of the guests pay and can either stay in tents, old broken down camper vans, caravans or in the main house, depending on how much you want to pay. Dinner and breakfast is thrown in and the atmosphere is relaxed, very friendly and very laid back. Tobacco seems to be allowed but alcohol, drugs and meat are all off the menu. The food is superb.

This morning’s breakfast was pancakes,bread, porridge and a huge fruit salad. Dinner had more greenery in it than I have seen in months. A big plate load of veggie burger with humus topping on a green salad and bun with an avocado side salad and chips. Just glorious. Even though Lou and I had already been out to satisfy the craving for battered fish and chips, we stayed and had a second dinner, surprising ourselves both loving it and being able to finish it all. Vegan food can be, as I was warned, fantastic if there is someone with imagination doing the cooking.

It is amusing to have to introduce yourself after the communal dinner each night, sitting where ever you could on a cushion on the floor, accepting a small task in cleaning up the house, drawn pot luck from a bag that went around. Hannah got the task to “Kiss the Chef” which was enthusiastically completed with free hugs thrown in for pretty much everyone else. Both are loving mixing in with all the big people and made their name one morning by being caught moping the kitchen floor!

Most of the guests are in their late teens and early twenties so Lou and I supply both the oldest faces here and with the girls, the youngest. But everyone wants to chat and I think we will end up coming back here at some point as we move around. It has been amusing as well seeing the looks of amazement when we tell them of our travels. I was even asked by one group for a look at the photos we have taken and a run down of what we had done. I don’t think many of the expect old farts to be doing what they see themselves doing!

The grounds of the house are large and have veg and fruit gardens and lots of space set aside for sitting around with several bonfire pits. There is an outside “fire bath”, the bath being an old cast iron one with a wood fire lit underneath. Not what I was expecting to do within a couple of days of arriving in cold NZ!

There are lots of interesting workshops being done as well. Tonight’s activities was a brief on their Patagonia Earthship project, a Fat Cat eco built house devoted to communal living and helping the locals with renewable energy ideas and organic farming. Yoga and a variety of other spiritual stuff (more Gaia than Christian) figures daily.

Fat Cat was a great place to base ourselves from to explore Auckland. Auckland Museum had been recommended to us and on the basis that the girls really hadn’t done school for a while we decided a day of cultural education would stand all of us in good stead. The museum tells the story of Maori civilisation, has a large section on why living on the rim of fire (which Auckland does) is potentially not a good thing and covers the coming of the white settlers too. It has the NZ Cenotaph outside, a memorial wall inside for the Auckland fallen and an excellent run down of a “colonies” war effort in both WWI and II. We lucked out and were present for the presentation of awards from France to some old and bold for some joint activity a long time ago, listening to an excellent rendition of The Last Post.

We were surprised at the number of Henderson names we saw on the Memorial wall. In the UK we would regularly expect to see the names of Davies, Jones and Macs being differentiated by the addition of their last two or three numbers. Here it was Hendersons.

We have decided that the van we have bought is just not going to work out as a sleep-in-van mode – it just isn’t big enough. Whilst we could copy the kids here and simply pack in, (there are four in a similar van but we think they are having “fun”) we have decided that sleeping in the van will be last resort and we will go back to what we know and live in a tent. The weather is mixed in New Zealand so I dare say we will have periods swearing at the rain and each other hiding in the van but hopefully, not too regularly.

We lucked out with the tent. Priced at $599, it was marked down as it was last years colours to $199 to clear. The lady at the till said the box looked a bit beat up (I’d already check the contents – mint) so gave us 50% off. We paid a grand total of $98 for it. Lou, ever the hunter of a bargain was beside herself! Warehouse, a big discount store was a goldmine. Cheap with with nearly everything we needed, we have visited several stores as well as a host of charity shops and outlet malls. The kids now look as if they fit in to the Fat Cat house lifestyle perfectly but we also have great boots for them to tramp around in whilst in country.

The one thing that has amazed us is the amount of Chinese and Asian people and businesses around the Henderson area. If there is a fish and chip shop, it is most likely to be part of a Chinese restaurant. A lot of businesses use both English and Chinese characters on their signs. Prices are very reasonable, not just against UK prices but European as well. Most items are shipped in from China and NZ is a lot closer than we are in the UK! The NZ Prime Minister is causing a little friction in the press as he has announced that NZ will be granting permanent visas for another 30000 Chinese this year.

The big news in New Zealand this first week has been the 7.8 earthquake in the S island and the damage it has done. Thankfully there have been only a couple of deaths but the damage to property has been extensive. There have been over a hundred aftershocks and what is most worrying is the scientists are predicting a 85% change of an even bigger ‘quake in the next 30days. We will be factoring this in to our travel plans as one of our options to be in South island for Xmas now looks a little suspect.

Auckland is a great town. Very much of the low rise and spread out variety, as a city it covers a huge area. Sized at about 1.5million, it also has about a third of the entire population of NZ living in it. It’s old docks are being developed with new housing and bijou bars and restaurants. I had a lovely time looking at a variety of racing yachts, from the extreme single handed Pogos through Open 50s to old America cup boats. There was a good selection of super yachts to dream about as well.

We moved out of Fat Cats and moved up towards the N end of the city where there was a campsite called Remuera Lodge. It wasn’t that swish, had lot of permanent campers but we got the chance to put the tent up for the first time and we met some good people. We didn’t get the chance to cook as Lou, eagle eyed as always, spotted an Indian restaurant, 300m from the front gate. One check of Trip Advisor later and I was informed that we would be eating out. Lou got her first decent curry since she left the UK!

We took the chance to climb Mt Eden, the highest of 48 volcanoes that Auckland sits on! The views it gave over the city were wonderful. Note the number of other volcano heads present in the family snap with Auckland in the background! The big one in the bay appeared about 600 years ago. Bit scary knowing that many of these are classed as active. The museum has a great room and presentation showing what even a minor eruption would mean to Auckland. Wipe out……..

We have now tested out the tent, staying in a campsite in the middle of Auckland and have come through unscathed although a little damp. We will be heading out to our first adventure, a stay with our workaway family, The Hobans.

Update posts

Apataki – Skylark on the Hard

November 18, 2016 stewart135 Leave a comment

We chose to leave Skylark at Apataki on the suggestion of our friends John and Trish on Lumiel who had heard that the yard was friendly and well run, if a little basic. They lifted out in August and Lumiel will be parked there until their return next year. Being well to the N of the Society Islands, Apataki is out of the Cyclone belt, a massively important consideration if you are intending to leave your boat in storage over the summer period. Our options in this part of the world are limited as many yards don’t store catamarans leaving Hiva Oa, Apataki and Tahiti the only places you can haul out and store in French Polynesia. Our preferred site of Raiatea don’t do cats, Hiva Oa is way too East for us to think about and Tahiti is way too expensive and it can get hit by weather. Whilst I trust John of Mary Ann II’s analysis of the very small likelihood of a cyclone within the Societies the year after an El Nino event (see article written by him and published on Noonsite), the added advantage of Apataki being cheaper by half than the big Tahiti yards was another key factor.

The SW pass at Apataki has a little dog leg at its end which turns straight in to the prevailing E-SE wind. The good books say only go in at slack and expect falls on an incoming tide on the inside of the bay. We arrived just before slack and punched through about two knots outgoing current with no drama at all. It got bit bouncy on the inside of the pass as a 9 mile fetch with the Trades blowing had set up a nasty Solent like chop, typically coming from exactly the bearing we wanted to go. We pulled the jib back out and motor sailed, tacking back and forth with just enough angle to avoid slamming.

We arrived at the yard late afternoon and anchored in 25’. We were pleased to see Sanuk, who we first met at Isabella in the Galapagos, then again in Hiva Oa and Cheeky Monkey, last seen in the Marquesas. It was good to catch up and talk shutting down techniques. Whilst we did that, the girls played and petted the “tame” 6ft Nurse Shark that lives by the yard. The yard also has three dogs. H says her favourite is a small puppy called Viron.

We started to clean and strip Skylark of the external deck paraphernalia and sails. The mainsail and foresail are to be sent to Tahiti for some TLC but we are also looking at renewing them for our last year and we are waiting a quote from Lee Sails. However, the rest of Skylark is in good condition with just a few bits and pieces needed before we start again next year. We do have a few knocks that could do with the touch of an expert in gelcoat repair but I don’t think we will find anyone like that until we hit the Societies next year. Our shopping list, considering how far we have come, is a surprisingly short list. Most we will get in NZ; some in Tahiti to be sent up by ship.

The watermaker got one last blast to provide us with a big fresh water load to clean the boat with and then was pickled, an easy process when clutching the instruction manual in one hand. We have noticed a little bio contamination in the water quality of late and we will return with an acid and alkali wash which we will do on recommissioning next Spring. It may damage the membrane with the quality of water not to be quite as it was before but it will kill anything left after pickling. We will do a little bleaching of the tanks on our arrival back as well.

Engines and generator had their oil and filters changed as did the fuel lines. Fuel tanks (diesel and petrol) got biocide treatment. I’ll need to remember to change out the impellors on all engines before we kick off next Spring.

The day of lifting out arrived. It was a near calm with an offshore breeze. We couldn’t have wished for better weather.

The lift went well and Skylark came out looking pretty clean but primer shining through in several places. The jet clean was excellent. The worker who did it was a dedicated soul who ripped in and saved me a huge amount of effort by stripping away a lot of paint that was left on the bottom. We will probably stick with ABC3, the paint we got last year and Lou and I have already decided to paint her ourselves. It is a bit more expensive than the paint the yard sells but Tony, the youngest member of the family that runs the yard, likes it better than the stuff they are contracted to use.

Dinghy – scrubbed, cleaned and dropped to sit under Skylark on tyres to protect her from the sun. Tied off at four points to ensure she doesn’t try to take off if there is any wind. Engine – 18HP – washed, oil changed, greased and internals wiped down.

Skylark has been scrubbed within an inch of her life with vinegar to minimise mould and bleached. All the external holes have been plugged up as we have heard that infestations of ants are common here. The water line was well scrubbed by the girls (a very wet affair) and is now gleaming. All the scuff marks have all been polished out, using the excellent 3M marine restorer and wax product I have. We wrapped anything delicate (EPIRB, hand mikes etc) in towels and placed them down in the hulls, out of the cabin area. Our last action was to put tin foil over all the windows to minimise the sun getting into the boat. Neil, an Aussie who has left his boat in the yard three years running recommended this as the yard in summer can get to roasting point and this reflects away a lot of heat.

It unexpectedly rained the night before we left which left us with a clean boat but with wet canvas that we didn’t want to put away. We have to give a huge thank you to Sanuk and Mary Ann II who put away our bimini and screens once they had dried off and covered off a couple of items that we forgot about before we left. Mary Ann II also very kindly finished off a few tasks that we had not managed to complete and that only occured to us once we were sat on the plane to Tahiti! It was massively appreciated.

After a presentation of flower necklaces, we had a dry but bouncy ride across the lagoon to the airport for our flight to Tahiti. As we were a little early, we were taken to Tony’s family house in the village for coffee and a shower. They really have looked after us very well. Our plane was a small one with 12 seats and it was great to be able to see into the cockpit as there wasn’t room for a separating door. Belts were worn throughout the flight and just as well. We hit one bit of turbulence that Eleanor likened to the Tower of Terror she remembers from Euro Disney. A big lurch!

One note on your luggage allowance if you are leaving your boat in FP. If you are joining an international flight out of French Polynesia (and you will need to show them proof you are – a copy of your e-ticket is fine), your allowance is 23kg hold and 5kg carry on. Interestingly enough they measured the total weight of all our bags to ensure our family weight was less than the 92kg allowed. If you don’t show proof, then your allowance is limited to 10kg and 5kg respectively.

Our 2016 itinerary has seen us visit visited Puerto Rico, Cuba, Jamaica, Panama, Ecuador (Galapagos Islands) and in French Polynesia, the Marquesas and Tuamotus island groups. We have added just over 6600 miles to the log, had to say our goodbyes to some old friends but have met and made some great new ones too. It has been a wonderful year and even taking in a few lonesome moments when we have felt very far from friends and family, we have all loved it.

We now look forward to life on dry land for a little while. New Zealand is exciting us and our list of to dos is growing every day. The one thing we are wary about is the temperature that we will have to deal with. I haven’t been in less than 75F since I left the UK over two years ago. I haven’t been in less than 80F since we left the Marquesas. The last few weeks have been 90+F!

Auckland today was 65F.

Bugger….

The girls have the advantage of woolly hats, sent to us oh so long ago by the lovely Elspeth Logan. Hannah’s hat was the first thing on her packing list. Expect to see it in a few photos over the coming months as we get used to the temperature down in the 40S latitudes.

Skylark will be back in the water at the end of February. In the meantime, watch out for posts on our New Zealand travels.

Next year’s agenda – The Society Island, Niue, Tonga, Fiji, Vanuatu, New Caledonia and Australia. Oh yes!

Update posts

Halloween, a windy farewell to Fakarava and a brief visit to Toau

November 5, 2016 stewart135 Leave a comment

After all the fun at the S end of Fakarava, the weather gods decided to spoil things by bringing in the first foul weather of our time in the Pacific. A big low came up out of Southern Ocean and whilst the islands to the S of Tahiti got the majority of the rubbish, we had two and a half days of nastiness too.

The day before it hit, we left Pokokora Yacht club at 0700hrs and ran N the 8 miles to Rotoava, chased hard by two boats who obviously had been thinking about the free buoys at the village too. Not that any of us would admit to any feeling of competiveness in the constant trimming and the occasional suggestion of taking shortcuts across questionable depths as we charged up. We got the last one, much to the disgust of the next boat in, 10 minutes behind us. I will admit to feeling a little smug as we tied on to a well cared for 30 ton buoy, knowing we would be fine on it and not having to worry about wrapping chain around a bombie as the wind twirled around as the Low passed through.

I can’t say it was tremendously comfortable aboard and Lou and the kids generally got ashore to spend time at Fakarava Yacht Services or the Pink Slushy Bar, trying to avoid moving during the frequent periods of torrential rain. However, when the wind went into the S and we had a 30mile fetch, I was very glad not to be one of the boats that had chosen to anchor in the NE corner. We spoke to a few of them and all required an anchor watch as they got severely bounced around, the seas breaking on the reef 100m behind them. Mary Ann II’s dinghy became awash, losing its oars in the process. John and I dived to recover them in 40’ of water. I was a little disappointed about our lack of bottom time as we landed directly on top of them. My dive computer registered a dive time of three minutes.

Once the wind went back to the E, we had a wonderful calm. It took two days for the weather to right itself and reestablish the easterly trades.

In the calm, we cut hair and kept the fish under our keel well fed. Lou hasn’t bought a mirror so I’m still getting away with my rough clippering – Vidal I am not……. We discovered a craft fair that the locals had set up for themselves and we had a great time learning how to weave coconut leaves and make flower headdresses. Lou came away with a small black pearl necklace at a somewhat better price than you would find in the shops. Halvard bought out the entire stand of necklaces for men and then we had a go at making our own from oyster shells, the dremel and a saw. We shaped out a hammerhead shark and a more typical hook type affair that Polynesians would then decorate with a tiki and a single pearl. More practise required but both turned out pretty well.

We took the chance of some last minute shopping and then, joy of joys! Another kid’s boat appeared in time for Halloween which was to be our last night at Fakarava. El Nido with Olivia, David and the girls Kali and Gaya, are a Belgium boat who have been out only 7 months. They decided early to concentrate their time in the Pacific. Since leaving Europe the first place they have really slowed down being French Polynesia. They will sell and return home in 2018, intending to sail no further than Australia – much like ourselves.

The kids had a fantastic time, all dressed up and the locals thought it was great that the we had got involved. This was the first time Fakarava had celebrated Halloween and boy, did they go to town. The kids thought they had died and gone to heaven with the quantity of sweets the wonderfully friendly islanders handed out! The parade started by the school and travelled the length of the village. Hannah and Eleanor were filled up with yet more sweets by Halvard and Ann-Helen on our way home. We will be dealing with sugar rushes for days.

We left on 2 Nov to Toau, in the company of El Nido. It was a quick sail and I enjoyed the view of a new Outremer 45 not going past me quite as quickly as I thought it might!

We had a day at the SE pass which proved to be a very easy entrance about an hour after low slack. Wide and with plenty of water underneath us, we sailed in, sticking to the S side of the pass and anchored at 15 55.973S 145 53.188W in 20’ of water. David, Olivia and I returned to the pass and dived on the edge of the wall, looking down the 2000’ drop-off. We saw some huge tuna, schools of snapper, good reef fish and the odd Grey Shark. The outside wall and sides of the pass had good coral but the centre stretch of the pass was all dead which suggests that it has been swept clear in the past. We tried to drift through and turn S towards the boats but the bottom current had a strong surge which pushed us N. We came up, tired of the effort required just to keep us on the side of the channel and found even with 1+kt current that we had only managed to reach half way through the pass. Sadly my dive computer went wrong too and ceased working at 20m down. I wasn’t happy. I finished the dive latched on to Olivia like a puppy dog. Although I have changed the battery, it seems that the original battery leaked and has damaged the internal components. I tried it against another two wrist computers and it lasted just 15 mins and was under reading depth by about 20%. I’ll be writing to the manufacturer.

El Nido’s recovery to us was short lived as Gaya, their 5yr old, found out to the cost of the nail on her big toe and a lot of blood that the anchor locker is not a place to play hide and seek…….. She was very brave but a bit lucky that that was the extent of the injury. Hannah was mortified. Thankfully, cuddles from Mum and the odd sweet or two from the Halloween collection seemed to help matters and after a calming period, we went back to El Nido for a very pleasant evening.

The next morning, with no time to waste, we moved on up to Anse Amyot, a false pass at the N end of Toau. As we left the SE pass, supposedly at the end of the outgoing tide but probably a little early, the standing waves were the worst we have seen. Breaking and up to 8’ in height, it was very unpleasant and it was obvious why some of the guide books don’t recommend a visit to the inside of this atoll. Thankfully we were able to keep close in to the S edge of the pass, right by the reef, avoiding the really nasty stuff but we had to go 1.5miles offshore to get around the race to head N. Our view is that the slack periods in the pass we observed were fine for transit. As always, you just need to time it correctly. The photo below hopefully gives you a feel of the foulness we managed to claw past.

We raced up the E side of the atoll under parasail with El Nido following up behind us and the 20 mile trip took just over 3hrs. It was a lovely, easy, lazy ride and we needed to touch the Parasail’s sheets once only. Touching 9kts at times, even the speed machine El Nido with her asymmetric flying, gybing back and forth, couldn’t beat us in. I just love that sail!

We picked up one of the moorings, right by the reef and arranged for us to have dinner ashore with Gaston and Valentine, the owners of the pension and the buoys, the next night. Mary Ann II arrived the next morning, quickly followed by Wilhelm who, on finding the doctor would not be at Fakarava for another month to fill any more steroid prescriptions for Halvard’s duff knee, saw no point in staying there. It took 15 minutes of chat between us to arrange one last dive with them, John and El Nido on the wall a mile W of Anse Amyot. It was a good dive but what are called caves in the Toamotus Compendium proved to be interesting depressions instead and my torch was not required. We saw lots of Moray Eels and a few enormous tuna floating in and out of our view, a little off the wall.

After seven months of constant cruisers, Valentine wasn’t keen to set up one of her famous banquets but Gaston provided fish and a BBQ pit, we provided the rest and we had an excellent night. We choose not to eat the Jack and the Parrot fish although Gaston said both would be fine and proved it by munching through both of them. We stuck to the Red Big Eyes which were good too

The girls found a huge bowl of misshapen black pearls from the days Gaston ran a pearl farm and Valentina gave each of the kids three from the bowl the girls are holding up! The kids’ night was rounded off by way of a funeral that was held for the poor departed soul of a Hermit crab that had been stood on. It was buried with full honours.

The next night we had one last BBQ on the beach with Halvard cooking an enormous lump of beef that they had picked up at Fakarava. Everybody had some and there was still slices left over. With the crews of El Nido, Mary Ann II, Wilhelm and another UK boat that arrived that evening, Asolare with Peter (78 yrs young) and Charon on board, it was a lovely way to sign off our travels in French Polynesia for this year. The goodbyes were long but cheerful on our last morning and we hope to see Wilhelm, who also will haul out at Apataki, just before we go.

We headed towards our final destination, Apataki, on 5 Nov. It seemed strange to think that it will be our last sail of the year. We decided to make it a good one.

Up went the Parasail!

Update posts

Fakarava – The S End

October 25, 2016 stewart135 Leave a comment

Fakarava is a long atoll, just over 30 miles long with a pass at both the N and S ends. The S pass is smaller and shallower but it is one of the most best diving sites in the world. It is famous for its Wall of Sharks, with Black Tip, Grey, White Tip in large numbers and the occasional Tiger and Silver Tip (both dangerous) sitting in the current. It also has some fantastic coral, described by John from Mary Anne II as the best he has ever seen. He has circumnavigated once so has seen a fair selection to compare to.

After a week or so at Rotoava, we moved S with Taranga, stopping half way down the E side of the atoll at 16 17.566S 145 30.461W, anchoring in 25’ of water. There was a motu just to our S with a old copra hut and we landed in a tiny sheltered bay with coral growing in it to look like Mickey Mouse ears beside it. I left the Taranga crew collecting coconuts and found a little used track through to the reef edge on the outside of the motu. I cleared it a little with the machette as I walked along it. I was very surprised to find a well used 4×4 track running N-S at the outside edge of the vegetation. Tourists obviously get a drive by tour here.

That evening we had an extremely civilised movies night, a couple of rums and enjoyed watched Captain America accompanied by popcorn.

Taranga and ourselves took the opportunity to take photos of each other as we headed towards the S pass and we took Jasper on board to take pro photos with his SLR. He took the chance of having a go steering Skylark. We got lucky and picked up the last two buoys available to the E of the pass.

We settled down to a relaxed and easy lifestyle. Morning exercise for Lou on the foredeck whilst the young ladies generally failed to tidy their rooms, a bit of school, then a snorkel exploring the bombies and reefs around us. I’d generally go for a dive with the Taranga crowd, John or Harvard and Ann-Helen of Wilmheim, a Norwegian boat, with the incoming tide through the S pass, looking at sharks and the extraordinary coral there, with Lou and the girls drifting 25m above us as the current dragged us through past the walls of sharks.

We had a good night at Mahini’s on his privately owned motu, eating pizza and a salad. One of his new guests, a lady called Marie, managed to slip between boat and jetty and chinned herself. She ended up with an inch long cut worth a few stitches and a very sore jaw. Instead of her four days diving, she got a night on the motu with ice on either side of her jaw, a couple of steri strips and some antiseptic cream applied by yours truly and a run back N for a trip to hospital on Tahiti. So unlucky.

We have also been getting on with some school. E has been getting better and better at the speed maths “tests” she has to do. H has a bit to go there but is working hard on it. Competition is good!

We also ran a hairdressing salon. My clippers, a wonderful buy back in the BVI, have had a few outings. Soren, Jesper and Rasmus all came to use them. Hannah volunteered to cut everybody’s hair but in the end, only Jesper, with little hair to damage, let her loose.

Taranga’s engine failed to start after we left the anchorage half way down the atoll and started to spew out oil vapour from the air intake. Soren and I took the head off and found that one of the cast iron rocker bar holders had cracked, one of the valve springs had broken (the probable cause) and the whole rocker bar was bent out of shape. Soren is getting spares sent out from SABB, a Norwegian company that made the engines, originally designed for the Norwegian fishing fleet. I thought this would be less easy for him than I with my Volvos as his engine is 46 years old. However, he knows the owner of the company who is proud of the fact that one of their engines is still going in the S Pacific, who on getting the call, had new parts in the mail within a day. I’d say that was excellent customer service! It might take a couple of weeks or so for the kit to arrive here but the S pass is not a bad place to break down. Fakarava is the best serviced island with scheduled aircraft in French Polynesia after Tahiti and we are parked up beside one of the top 10 dive sites in the Pacific. It’s a hard life, I hear you say………

With diving being so good, there are a couple of small hotels down here, always busy. For 873Euro a week (before travel costs – another 2500Euro return from Europe), you too can stay in one of these beach front cottages with the sharks basking in the shallows below your balcony. It is a very nice setup but has the disadvantage of being reliant on rain for water. Although they have huge underground water tanks, they have a major problem this year as the rains, due now, haven’t come. It looks like another fallout of last year’s El Nino. Salt water showers and a fresh rinse only.

Thankfully with our watermaker, we have a easier life and I have been supplying Taranga water in exchange for scuba bottle refills. On the basis that the dive schools down here are charging $30 a refill (very rude – it is normally about $10), I’ve felt I had a fair deal. However, with lots of showers after snorkelling and the supply of water required to wash 41 pairs of smalls used by the girls in a period of 8 days (no, we don’t understand it either…) it means the watermaker is getting hard use. Even so, with good sun and a reasonable wind, we have had to run the generator only one hour in the last couple of weeks and whilst useful, it was really to ensure the damn thing still worked.

In the end, we spent three weeks at the South pass and we didn’t regret a day. Each dawn was glorious and sunset always seemed to come too soon. It was fantastic catching up with friends, John and Julia from Mary Ann II and Soren and his new crew of Jesper, Rasmus and Niels on Taranga and meeting some new folks that we had only spoken to on the morning HF net before. Ednbal, Ocean Star and Wilhelm from Aus, USA and Norway respectively, all socialised with us – all good people . I dived everyday and we saw the pass in all states of tide but never without a wow moment. Eleanor continues to stagger everyone with her near encyclopaedic knowledge of the fish we see and the list of exotics has grown ever longer. Hannah had a great time helping the Taranga crew carrying water and doing odd jobs as they worked at Mahini’s in return for free pizza and a lot of goodwill. She achieved the title of Janitor of which she was very proud. Lou got ever trimmer.

For our last night, we organised a beach BBQ on one of the motus and the crews of Taranga, Mary Ann II and ourselves cooked mahi, veggie burgers, sweet bread and the pack of marshmallows we found in Kauehi under a moonless crystal clear sky with the Milky Way blazing overhead. Soren, Eleanor and I lay back and watched it for a while. So peaceful. I don’t think anyone really enjoyed the Sangria, found in a long forgotten locker and a left over of a Puerto Rico shop, but it got finished anyway! Murphy particularly enjoyed the ice cubes.

We said our farewells to Taranga with the girls blowing the conch shell mightily, answered by their horn. We have travelled with Soren and his motley crews all the way from Cuba, meeting them at each stop and he has come to be a good friend. He heads N to Marquesas for the cyclone season. We hope we might manage to meet up with him one last time in Rangiroa next March. Fingers crossed.

We left, heading N, to pick up fuel from the ferry which we prebooked a week ahead, necessary if you want to buy it directly from the boat. We broke up the trip N stopping in at Pakokota Yacht Club, a small pension about half way up the atoll, run by a French couple, Agnes and Matthiue, anchoring in 30’ of water. It is a nice wee set up. They are very friendly and can get any shopping you need from Rotoava. They offer meals, drinks and for customers, decent internet. They have, rarely free from the charter boat people, four free buoys.

Our timing to move N is good as an incoming weather low, the first we have seen in the Pacific bringing 25-30kts from the NW, is due to hit the atoll. We will enjoy the shelter of Rotoava and the N end of the atoll when it arrives.