‘Bye ‘bye Auckland – see you in a few months!
Welcome back - it’s been a while and now I’m looking forward to sharing my next adventure with you – back to the true royourboat blogging ….another sailing adventure on Salanjo!
We are circumnavigating New Zealand! Auckland to Northland, around the top of New Zealand, down the West Coast as far down as Stewart Island, located 30 miles south of the South Island – and then up the East Coast and back into Auckland, with plenty of amazingly beautiful places to stop, discover and explore in between, and we plan to be away for about three months.
Sunday 29 December
1350 hours and we’re off and sailing out of Auckland’s glorious harbour! One day late. We had intended to depart yesterday morning but although it was beautifully sunny it was also blowing a gale! So it gave us another day to sort out all the last minute bits and pieces on the boat and in our respective homes, (after all we’re leaving them for about 3 months!). Geoff and I decided to stay the night on the boat so we could have one more last test of everything to make sure it was all tickety- boo; and it was.
After dropping our cars back home, we reconvened on the boat along with our fellow sailors, Nick, Kelly and Tricia and then we let the ropes go and we were off! 2pm and its goodbye to Auckland - we’re heading to Mangonui, up in Northland. A lovely sunny afternoon, we watched Kawau, the Hens and Chickens, the Poor Knights, Cape Brett and the Cavalli Islands pass us by with a bit of a bumpy night (ever tried sleeping in bed in a lifejacket? ) for about 5 hours before we pulled in to Mangonui 22 hours later, and anchored in its beautiful bay in the sunshine.
After a welcome catch up on sleep, we all got into the dinghy and headed out to stretch our legs on a lovely walk up to Rangikapiti hilltop which gave us a panoramic view of Mangonui Harbour, Coopers Beach and across to Doubtless bay to the Karikari Peninsula – and Salanjo looking delightful anchored in the bay below us. A walk through the historic town - its Maori name meaning Great Shark - it was famous for the whaling industry in the late 1790’s and also a place for whalers from America, England and France to call in for supplies and refitting. From 1880 to 1915 the Kauri Timber Co operated a mill here turning out 300,000 ft of sawn timber a month. As roads to Northland have improved, the port has lost its importance and industries have declined, and it now remains just a fishing and farming support centre – and a delightful tourist destination.
It wouldn’t have been a proper visit without dinner at the iconic Mangonui Fish & Chip shop – and by the time we got there we were starving and ready to tuck into baskets of hoki fish and chips, battered oysters and mussels, followed by a delicious homemade ice cream from the Village Creamery. The quintessential Kiwi summer’s dining experience! Back into the dinghy and onto the boat, we collapsed, knackered after a broken night’s sleep the night before and into bed before the sun went down!
Tuesday 31 December
The last day of the year and we’re getting ready to head further up North to Tom Bowling Bay, east of Spirits Bay, and out near the northeastern tip of the North Cape. We’re expecting it to be on the rough side, so we’ve battened down the hatches, secured anything moveable (especially the bar contents!) and brought in all the outside squabs. Geoff is in full rain gear, I’ve got my life jacket on, and we’re off – 11.45am to be exact! Yep, it’s rough, we’ve hardly left the bay and we’re rocking and rolling! We sailed until about 1.30pm when Geoff decided to pull into Matai Bay, so we could have a calmer hour to have lunch before continuing on. Duly fortified we upped anchor and were off again. Wow, it turned rough out there, we sailed for about 1 ½ hours and it just got worse, so Geoff made the decision to turn back and return to Matai Bay and us ladies were very happy to hear it! Back we went and once again moored in the Bay, not without a problem with the anchor though, which, unfortunately when down, jammed in the winch as we were putting out the bridle. This meant Geoff holding the boat steady while Nick took the winch apart to sort out the chain, no mean feat, I was helping him with the tools, and it was blowing like crazy up on the bow and we had to make sure we didn’t lose any of those precious screws! Just before we finished a squall came up making it even more delightful up there, job completed we were happy to get back into the cockpit and dry off. The wind died down a fair bit which enabled us to have a lovely, very early, New Year’s Eve celebratory dinner and a glass of champagne each. Geoff and I were in bed by 9.45pm - yep, we’re getting old – but we also needed to be up at 4.00am, probably around the time most Auckland revellers were leaving the bars! Unfortunately for me, a bad sleeper at the best of times, with the noise of fireworks and a party on the beach, I only got 1 ½ sleep before our early morning wakeup.
Wednesday 1 January 2025!
4.00am and very quiet out here in the Bay – and lovely too. We upped anchor and sailed into the darkness to be greeted a little while later by a wonderful New Year’s Day sunrise! We’ve now changed plans as we have to make the most of a weather window getting around Cape Reinga. Our original plan of sailing directly to Fiordland was thrown out some days ago and we were going to be heading straight to Nelson. Now it’s changed again, and we are heading directly to New Plymouth as there is a front coming up the South Island and we won’t get to Nelson in time. The weather is all over the place and Geoff is spending a lot of time listening to the forecasts on the radio and looking at all the weather Apps on his phone. Since we stopped overnight last night, we will now skip Tom Bowling Bay and go straight around the Cape. As I’m typing this, we are about an hour away from it, so fingers crossed it goes smoothly for us!
We made it round, but it wasn’t smooth that’s for sure and as the day has progressed it has got a whole lot worse, 5-metre waves all day with a constant south westerly wind, the boat is like a bucking bronco. We’ve got plenty of sea sickness on board with the other three guests, and it’s been a busy time out in the cockpit with the patients needing to look at the horizon and keep their buckets handy while they try to sleep through it. Fun and games around the boat, we’re going to need a huge clean up when we get back onto terra firma. Although we thought we’d done a great job of securing everything before we left, there were plenty of things to challenge us, including 3 dozen eggs which occupied our usual safe egg spot, but didn’t work today. Amazingly, we only lost a few of them when they landed on the floor still in their boxes. Now safely secured in the oven! It’s a mission opening the fridges and galley cupboards as everything has come forward and some shelves have collapsed. As I’m typing this everything is rattling and crashing around. We are hoping to arrive in New Plymouth in the early hours of tomorrow morning and expect this weather to continue until then. Geoff and I have had a long day. Not much sleep last night and up at 4.00am, we each managed a little doze during the day, but with the sickness on board we’ve been a bit short of crew. I managed to cobble together lunch and dinner in the Galley, a bit of a juggle with the dishes and saucepans but got there in the end. Then we both grabbed 3 hours sleep before we got up again at 1.00am to do the night shift. We looked like Ma and Pa Kettle sitting outside in the cockpit with a blanket over our knees keeping watch with the noise of the waves thundering around us, and occasionally a large one or two flooding the cockpit. Not quite like when we were cruising around the Caribbean that’s for sure!
Thursday 2 January
No change in the weather, no change in the rocking and rolling, no change in the plates clattering around, no change in the sea sickness, but no more broken eggs! Unfortunately, having sent all our family and friends the link to Starlink where they can follow our track and Geoff can be in touch for all the weather updates, it stopped working yesterday. It is working on the boat but seems to have lost its ability to engage with the satellite. I think there will be a lot of people wondering (and possibly worrying) about what is going on. The little red dot on the map will have us still in the same place we were in about 20 hours ago! Also means we can’t whatsapp or text or read the newspaper! Very frustrating, Geoff has at least managed to be in touch by radio for a bit of a weather update.
2.00pm and its good news, the winds are finally dying down and the sun has come out, the sea is blue and it’s a heck of a lot smoother. I won’t lie, I have said more than a few Hail Mary’s over the last 24 hours so I must have been listened to. We’re still on track to be in New Plymouth, ETA is now around midnight tonight! There’s also been a bit of hot bedding going on around here, but in a very innocent way, trying to either grab a snooze outside the cockpit for fresh air, inside the saloon for proximity to monitor all the dials, or in the cabins. Ours is in the bow so a little rough to sleep in, Geoff managed a snooze in there this afternoon, but all he had for company was the soda stream machine (in the absence of a safe place to put it with the boat all over the place), I opted for a snooze in the starboard stern, with the cockpit squabs next to me for company. Hooray, land is in sight, and we are nearing New Plymouth Marina! 1145pm and we motored in, no mean feat for Geoff, it was very, very dark and the basin is protected from the sea by the Main and Lee Breakwaters, but it was so hard to see them and also confusing with the lights around the dock area where they were loading a cargo ship, plus odd rocks, mooring buoys and a few other boats around the place too. Nick and I were up on the bow, Nick with a high beam torch, and we were shouting instructions back to Geoff. Finally got the anchor down and tidied the boat and the three of us retired to bed about 2.45am. Geoff and I were absolutely shattered, but I was determined to shower before I lay my head down - three days in the same clothes only accessorised by a lifejacket – yuk!
Friday 3 January
A nice, and well-deserved, lie in to start off our day before a boat tidy up and we all hopped into the dinghy, together with a big bag of laundry, to put our feet on terra firma. First stop the laundrette which was a fair walk away which while it was good for us, was slightly arduous carting around a very heavy laundry bag, given some of the contents were sea-soaked fleeces! Just along from the laundry was the Pharmacy where Nick, Kelly and Tricia stocked up on anti- sea sickness supplies and then we stopped in at the Elixir Café. What a find! We all ordered a separate brunch dish, and each one was beautifully presented and absolutely delicious! In between coffee and food, the laundry was put into the dryer and duly collected. Geoff asked the Pharmacy if they would babysit our washing, and we then walked into town.
A lovely walk it was too. Robe Street Gardens where the sculpture of Frederick Alonzo Carrington, regarded as the Father of New Plymouth is proudly displayed, a beautiful work by local sculptor Fridtjof Hansen of the great 19th century NZ politician and surveyor, who was originally born in Chelmsford, Essex England, and was the NZ Company Chief Surveyor to the Plymouth Company. Some great heritage buildings to admire – particularly the White Hart Hotel – the original building dated back to 1844 and was a house with six rooms. During its life it served as a refuge for destitutes, as temporary accommodation for early settlers and as a hospital for soldiers during he First and Second Taranaki Wars. It was transformed into a hotel in 1859. Extended in 1900, it received its white hart iconic statue above the corner parapet. During the 1970’s it was a venue for New Plymouth’s rock and punk music scenes and was also home to the Magog Motorcycle Club. In 2011 another restoration took place resulting in the beautiful building we saw today. Adjacent to this was Robe Street Park, where in 1873 a wooden building housed a Post, Telegraph and Survey Office which was then enlarged to include a brick extension and clock tower, demolished in 1969, the present clock tower was erected in 1985.
Contrast this to the building opposite the White Hart Hotel…the Govett-Brewster Gallery/Len Lye Centre – this state-of-the-art building was designed by Auckland’s Andrew Patterson and is a contemporary interpretation of the essence of Lye. Like one of Lye’s sculptures, its shimmering stainless-steel façade is a striking expression of movement…. with a curtain-like exterior of curved steel reflecting and transmitting light. It was interesting to see the Lalaga exhibition showcasing the collaboration between Pasifika artists and communities in Taranaki and the Interlaced exhibition dedicated to the relationship between the artforms of animation and textiles.
And that was it enough for Geoff and I, the fatigue of the last few days having caught up with us we, headed back to the boat to relax, not forgetting the laundry enroute! A lovely convivial dinner later and then it was off to bed!
Saturday 4 January
An easy day today, we’ve had a problem with the radio, so Geoff had a guy come on board to have a look – took a while and far too technical for me to explain. We finally got away into town to have a very, very late lunch at Bach by the quayside and then gave ourselves a treat with a visit to Mitre 10 and Four Square before returning to Salanjo!! Living the life!!!
Sunday 5 January
Up at 6.00am to prepare for our departure – breakfast done, everything put away. It’s 7.50am and we’re off heading to Fiordland. Miserable old day – grey, wet and cold, I’m sporting my new Hunting & Fishing fleece (heaven forbid, a few years ago when I had my MAC, Jo Malone & Bobbi Brown stores and was gallivanting around Fashion Weeks and fancy cocktail parties, I never thought H&F would be a shop I’d be seen in!) I’ve also got 3 layers underneath including merino – what on earth has happened to our New Zealand summer??? And guess what, the radio isn’t working!
