Christmas in Whangarei

   

After leaving the Bay of Islands we headed south and stopped in several nice places with funny names like Whangaruru and Tutukaka.  We enjoyed calm bays, nice views, blue penguins and several spinner dolphin escorts.

 

     

We arrived in Whangarei over two weeks ago and what a nice place it is.  This town is located about a 2 hour trip up a river with water depths that required we time the trip near high tide.  We chose just before high so that we would get a current push up the river and the rising tide would float us off if we managed to run aground.  We came in with no problems and we wedged in a space on the docks just big enough for us between some very expensive boats.  We will stay here for several weeks.

Our stay has been a blur of arranging for some boat work and cleaning up the boat.  Most businesses shut down from December 24^th to January 10^th, so I spent a lot of time getting people lined up to do jobs when they return from their holiday breaks.  It is amazing to have so many choices for getting things.  We have been used to seeing so little, we would buy something immediately even if it was only close to what we needed.  Now we are back to checking prices from store to store and between several versions of what we need.

Several of our friends that crossed the Pacific with us are here on the dock.  We have enjoyed visiting with them and having easy access to many stores.  There is a nice playground so close that we can see Emily playing right from our boat.  She has made many friends and the people here are very friendly.  The bicycles are down and we are all settled in.

We had a nice dinner with more than 20 cruiser friends on Christmas Eve and spent Christmas day with Dirk and Ann on Sail Away at their daughters’ home in Whangarei.  They were very gracious inviting us into their home and had a piece of ham on the grill that could have fed the entire dock.  We opened our gifts Christmas morning and Santa did pretty well according to Emily.

 

The captain is surfing the internet trying to figure out the best (safest) way between Darwin, Australia and the Mediterranean Sea.  We can’t leave New Zealand much before late April 2011 because of hurricane season.  There are a few rallies but most do not leave us enough time to explore Fiji, Vanuatu and the Great Barrier reef before we need to be in Darwin, Australia.  The best rally we have found only runs every other year and luck would have it that 2011 is an off year.

Cruising Indonesia requires special permits for the boat and crew and we have heard that many officials demand tips and kickbacks just to do their jobs.  Since that is one aspect of cruising that does not appeal to me, joining a rally would leave that duty to the rally officials.  And piracy is still a concern between India and the Red Sea and cruising in company with others gains the attention of the coalition force escorts that patrol that area.

Any advice out there from my readers?

Tom

Russell -The Hell Hole of the Pacific?

The first stop after leaving the marina at Opua was the town of Russell which was the first capital of New Zealand.

As one of the earliest settlements in New Zealand, Russell and the surrounding areas have a rich and colourful history. While Abel Tasman did not set foot in New Zealand during his 1642 visit, Captain Cook's visit in 1769 put the Bay of Islands on the European map. As a harbour it was described as "a most noble anchorage" and it was little wonder that whalers and traders regularly stopped at the port of Kororareka for fresh water and supplies. Missionaries (Anglican and Catholic) followed in the 1820s and 30s and much of this history remains today.

Russell was the first whaling port in NZ and at that time had a reputation as a lawless, rowdy spot and earned its title as the Hell Hole of the Pacific. Now it is a sleepy seaside village with a quaint charm.

We saw the oldest church in New Zealand here and found that Charles Darwin helped fund the building of this church when he passed through.  The inside was very nice and we even found the famous musket balls embedded in the outside walls from a Maori attack.  There was a nice museum here that had more Maori and Captain Cook history and they had a nice 1/5^th scale model of the Endeavour.

We enjoyed a nice lunch in the town and hiked up Flagstaff hill.  This hill is home of the notorious flagstaff that was chopped down by Hone Heke on four occasions as a protest against British Rule and provides a superb lookout for the whole Bay. A mosaic on the hill allows you to get your bearings. From here you can look out to Waitangi where the Treaty was signed as well as across the entire bay and back across Russell.

 

Along the hike, we saw several quail and other birds and it was very enjoyable.  New Zealand has done a nice job with its trails and parks.  Whole islands have been set aside for parkland and the trails are clean and well marked.

 

We anchored in a bay south of Russell and had some nice contact with the locals.  The first was a fisherman returning to the bay in a baby trawler.  He saw me taking pictures and came over for a closer look at Emily Grace.  We got to talking and soon he was throwing over some red snapper for our dinner.  We thanked him with a couple bottles of beer and enjoyed the fish that evening for dinner.

 

We also noticed that oysters were growing everywhere and every cove seems to have an oyster farm with racks of these delicacies.  We motored over to the one in the back of this bay and got 2 dozen for about $8 US.  Kim likes them on the grill for just enough time to steam them open and we eat them poached.  We have asked several times since as we cruise around and most times they don’t ask for any money in return.

We have a couple of weeks more before we need to head south to Whangerei.  That will be only enough time to visit a few of the islands and maybe a few bays a little north of here before we dash further south.

Tom