11.35am on a beautiful morning and I pulled up the anchor for the last time on this journey, and we cruised out of Bon Accord Harbour for our final destination – home! 

A lovely leisurely cruise up the coast of the Coromandel, passing all the well-known summer beauty spots our friends and family visit, awe-inspiring rocky outcrops, including two that are known as the Twins, all sitting in beautiful shades of the blue and turquoise Pacific.

It was certainly worth the bus trip back to Auckland on Thursday.  The Britomart 20th Anniversary party was rather fabulous and accomplished with their usual panache, an open marquee in Takutai Square with delicious food, wines from Peter Cooper’s own Landing Vineyards and an awesome 10-piece band who played all the cover hits and got everybody up on the floor dancing.

It was a loooonnnnng day!  We left Napier at 7.00am and planned to stop in Gisborne as the weather was such that stopping at Mahia, our original plan, was not possible

During my unexpected visit back to Auckland, there was an excellent weather window for the Nelson departure and Geoff decided to take advantage of it and get the boat over Cook Strait. 

At 2pm I was having a leisurely time enjoying the sunshine and scenery and by 3.30pm Brownie turned up in his water taxi to whisk me back to Havelock! 

Geoff, Nick, Ralph and I hopped into the car for a drive down to the beach and a swim, then it was a quick lunch at the Boat Shed, before we dropped Geoff off at the Marina

I’ve had some wonderful family time with my kids and delicious granddaughters and grandsons in both Auckland and Havelock North, and now it’s back to Salanjo in Nelson.

An early start to get the good weather at Cook Strait and the right tide at French Pass – we were up at 6.15am and off. 

We made it!  Finally in the Marlborough Sounds.  A long, but very pleasant cruise north, we came into the Tory Channel about 7.15pm

We had an easy, cruise up to Lyttelton – how beautiful Banks Peninsula looks from the boat, with its endless green hills, bush, bays and cave.

It was a big day today – we had hoped to get into Akaroa before dark, but it took a lot longer than we anticipated.  Having said that, as we came up to Banks Peninsula we were rewarded with the most stunning sunset

We cruised out of sunny Port Chalmers around 7.45am and by 2.30pm we had arrived in Oamaru.

We made good time over Foveaux Strait, which I’m pleased to say, continued to be pretty smooth, so it was also a chance to get the dusters out and give Salanjo a bit of a spruce up after a busy few weeks on the boat. 

It’s been a busy few days since my last blog.  On Monday I made my way home back to Auckland….dinghy into Golden Bay Wharf, a walk over the hill into Oban and I checked in for my flight on Stewart Island Air.

A much needed, quieter day today after the frantic laundry/shopping/cleaning day yesterday.

Off we motored, past Shelter Point, Rukawahakura Island, the Muttonbird Islands and now we’re heading into Tikotahai Bay where it looks like we can get off the boat and have a walk.

An easy day today, we’re just cruising around we left Glory Cove and went around the corner to Big Glory Bay and found a nice place to anchor opposite Bravo Island

Once the Shit Show was over and we were showered and all polished up, we up anchored and set off for Oban around the other side of the island. 

What a lovely surprise when we woke up after such a great sleep.