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December 16,
1998
We are in the
Bay of Islands in New Zealand and enjoying it. It felt so good to get here
after our eleven-day passage! We arrived on the third, early in the
morning, but it feels like we have been here much longer; we pack so much
more into days on land than days at sea. Our passage down was very calm
and comfortable, the calmest we have had yet. We had to do quite a bit of
motoring because of it, but we didn't run out of diesel, and better calm
than stormy. We had two days of rough weather, uncomfortable seas, and 30
or so knots of wind. We made it safely though, with no gales and not one
gear failure that I can remember. The only problem was that our propane
(for cooking) ran out when we were about three days out, so we couldn't
cook anything at all! Our meals consisted mainly of crackers, since we
were out of bread (Mom was about to put some in the oven when the propane
ran out). That made us even happier to reach land. Our first day here it
poured with rain all day long, but we checked in and had a hot lunch with
some Swiss cruising friends of ours aboard their boat Max, who had gotten
in a few days ahead of us. We were so happy to not have to worry about
some huge storm coming and giving us horrible weather, and to have that
passage which has been looming over our heads since French Polynesia over
with. Now it's only a matter of leaving here to head north again! We can't
leave because of hurricanes for at least six months.
It's much cooler than Tonga, more like the northwest's climate. Of course,
it's spring, almost summer, here, so the weather is quite good. It changes
all the time, normally the pattern is cloudy, sunny, cloudy, with very
extreme weather, if they say 'rain expected' it pours all day. It's not at
all humid any more, in fact, we are finding the air very dry, and are
constantly having to put on moisturizer. The days are very long, like in
the northwest in spring, and we are really enjoying them. Soon summer and
the busy season here will start!
We
have found the people in smaller towns to be extremely friendly. We were
eating at a restaurant in Paihia, just north of Opua, the tiny town we
checked in at, when the waitress invited the five of us to visit her and
her family at her house out of town because, she said, we seemed so nice.
Then, the three of us kids were watching a movie in Kerikeri, another
town, when the woman behind us who was there with a party of kids, gave us
some of the popcorn and candy she was handing out to the other kids. We
haven't had any trouble hitchhiking, there seems to be no problem getting
a ride.
A
few days ago we took a bus down to Whangarei, the 'biggest town north of
Auckland', to look at buying a car, check out the schools, and see if it
seemed like a good place to stay for a few months of our stay here. The
scenery on the drive down was very pastoral; we saw a few sheep, and
masses of cows! Whangarei is a big, sprawling town with no real character.
We got very tired walking around it, rushing here and there, during our
three days there. We came away with a used, eight-seater van though, which
is good. The restaurants were very nice, but there was nothing about the
town that made us feel that it was the place we wanted to live, aside from
the fact that the harbor is in town, so everything is convenient. Who
knows were we'll be? We are thinking of putting ourselves into school for
two months to see how well we are keeping up and make some friends, but
schools here charge a huge overseas fee, about $1000 US per quarter for
public schools so we really aren't sure. The grades are arranged all
differently here, I am in eighth grade, but here I would be going into the
second year of high school, after they finish their summer break and start
a new school year. All of the schools here have uniforms and strict dress
codes. Because of the overseas fee, and the fact that we have heard
discipline is a real problem in some schools, we are considering starting
the New Zealand Correspondence Course instead, which we have heard nothing
but good about. Another problem with school is that we would be tied down
for two months, we can't just leave school for a week whenever we want, so
we wouldn't be able to do much traveling. Right now, our form of home
school isn't working out, we are just about getting two years of vacation
from school, so if we keep this up we will be way behind.
In
Whangarei, we also met up with some cruising friends of ours whom we met
in Mexico and cruised with in French Polynesia. They were off the boat
Freya, and were forced to abandon ship on the 28th when they were about 90
miles away from New Zealand. A helicopter lifted them off their boat when
water coming in from broken hatches was a few inches above the
floorboards, but they all made it safely with no serious injuries. It was
very good to see them again and see how they were taking it. They didn't
seem so upset about losing their boat and all of their things, they were
just happy to be alive.
The
Bay of Islands is very beautiful, and so green! It's a lot like home. It's
strange how after going through the tropics and the beautiful Pacific we
find a place like home so beautiful! I guess just because it's so
different. Just the other day we were looking through some pictures of the
Pacific with the Maxes, and it was hard to believe that we had been to
those beautiful places, we kept having to remind ourselves that we had
actually been there! This climate is much nicer for doing things in, not
too hot, but we definitely miss jumping overboard to swim in warm water
any time we like. Everything here is so different. We are seeing the
Californian style of palm tree with lots of palm fronds again; normal
stores; a majority of white, English speaking people; lots of produce with
huge heads of lettuce and perfect bananas; everything is unlike the
tropics and more like home, and I don't know whether that is good or bad!
One big problem they have here is sand flies; they are everywhere, biting
us! We weren't bothered by bugs much in the Pacific, but here they are
driving us crazy.
All of the
cruisers we have been sailing with for the last few months have spread
out, lots of them in Whangarei. Soon I bet we will be all by ourselves,
and it's very sad to be splitting up with our friends among the crowd,
especially the Maxes. With the cruising lifestyle we meet up with, and get
really close with some cruisers, and then we have to split up! I hope
everything is going well for you.
Bronwen |
