December 2, 1998-New Zealand's Northland

The rolling green countryside, more than anything, typifiies New Zealand's Northland


We've already written about our first impressions of New Zealand, and after three weeks, it hasn't changed a lot. We still like the beautiful scenery, still think it is too damn cold, still think the ocean here is dangerous but exciting, and still plan on staying here for a long time and coming back next year. How's that for consistency?

We cruised for a week in the Bay of Islands, but spent 4 days hanging on for our lives anchored in a small cove with 40-60knots of wind howling outside. The other few days we had there were beautiful. We spent a couple of days at an Island called Urupukapuka, which Fred renamed Urupukapukapukapukapukapukapukapukapuka.....and so on until people start to scream, in memory of the single cylinder Yanmar he had in a KIWI 30 several years ago. This island is government owned and managed as a recreation site, has many nice coves to anchor in, beautiful beaches and rugged cliffs, lots of hiking paths, and many many sheep on it, kept there to keep the grass mowed so people can walk around without getting their pants wet in the wet grass, (seriously, the ranger told us this). It has the typical New Zealand Northland deep green rolling hills and scattered forests of trees. It also has the constant sound of "Baaa" every where, all the time, which actually goes nicely with "Urupukapukapuka..." well, you know.

We traveled south from Bay of Islands to Tutukaka, some 1/3 of the way to Auckland, where we are as we started to write this email. It was an uneventful trip except the entrance into Tutukaka Bay. The entrance is sort of hidden back in between some rugged headlands, you can't really see it until you are well into the bay, and the waves on that day, (left over from all the storms in the previous weeks) made the approach scary. You get where you think the entrance is (hoping you have identified the correct pair of headlands) and you turn to make a direct run straight in, between huge crashing waves. As we did it the wind increased to 20 knots, just to help us speed up I guess, and Bob, who was following a quarter mile back radioed that he was "90% sure" we were going into the wrong place. Gulp! But we thought it was the right place, so we forged onward, watching the depth sounder and wondering if we could turn around in the surf if it got too shallow, and wondering what "too shallow" would be. There were a few, "Oh Man, Oh Man’s” going on. A few moments later the pass in the rocks appeared and we motored in to the marina channel, only to run aground at a kink in the channel which we missed because the marker was missing. But we wheeled around and went back a little ways (still inside the bay, out of the big surf) and waited for the tide to come up a little. By 4:00 PM we had tied up in the Marina and found the bar in the Fishing Club where they serve a nice dark ale, of which we drank several. The next day we bused over to Whangarie and picked up the nice little mini van that Jim and Kathy left for us and started to get introduced to the fun of driving on the wrong side of the road. Ho Ho I'll bet I can scare you. Just imagine, free left turns and most traffic lights have right turn signals. And when you look to your left to see behind you in the left side rear view mirror, instead you see the heater controls. That takes some getting used to. Now we just have to get the thing licensed, checked for fitness, and convince some insurance company that we should be insured. Not to worry mates, we're safe as a box of birds, as they say down under.

Another funny thing, in NZ the Maoris have a "Pffit" sound which they use to start many words, but somehow the Europeans used the letters WH to start off those words. So Whangarie is pronounced,,,"Fonggarai" and funny is spelled whunny. (now that's whunny).

Just so you don't think that the USA has a lock on silly local governments: In the Auckland area, where many marinas have been build and most marina operators, as well as virtually all of the marine related businesses are looking forward to a huge influx of foreign yachts for the America's Cup, the Auckland Regional Council had decided that they don't think it is proper for "liveaboard yachts" to be in the marinas, and they have also decided that all foreign yachts are "liveaboard" since people stay on them for more than two nights in a row. So, while the PR folks are busy advertising all the attractive things for yachties to do and all the services available to them, and the marina operators have been trying to figure out just how high the moorage rates can be pushed up, and everyone is counting on the huge influx of yachts for the America's Cup, the local government has said, "Fine, but they can't stay here in any marinas."

This impacts our immediate plans since we want to stay in Auckland for the next few months. Now we have to hope that the restrictions are eased, soon!

Fred & Judy, SV Wings-New Zealand