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