New Zealand, Port Opua

All in all the trip from Tonga to New Zealand was good. Lumpy and smooth, windy and calm. We arrived at the customs dock in Port Opua at about 1:00pm on Nov 6 and after all of the "whoop-lau" amongst the boating community as to how strict they were with boats entering into their conuntry, a "few packages of chicken taken" later and some pleasant chatter, we were done with customs and pulling into our slip at the marina. Nice! Dinner out was in order as five days at sea left Paule and I very sick of holding pots on the stove. We can't stop from grinning, New Zealand is so very beautiful, but reminds us soooooo much of home, especially Salt Spring Island in the Gulf Islands of B.C., we seriously think we are back on the West Coast of Canada! People are friendly, there are things to buy in the grocery stores, there are clothing stores and restaurants that serve familiar foods and on and on and on. It's just nice to have the option to buy, doesn't mean we have too. Port Opua is in the area of New Zealand called the Bay of Islands. This whole area is on the north east side of N.Z. close to the top of the north island. It is considered the "playground" here. The towns of Paihia and Russel are very close by. We rented a car for two days and toured around. We found a couple of winerys and expect to discover more of these, a choclate factory, a cheese factory, some historical sites - this is where the first Europeans built in 1819 and where the treaty between the Maoris and the Europeans was signed allowing the White guys to live here and we've seen endless square miles of astoundingly beautiful landscape. The bridges in the country side (I mean the real rural areas) are one laned and we had to wait at one of these while a farmer and his dogs herded a bunch of sheep and lambs on to their next paddock. Kind of fun and of course the farmer on his quad stopped to talk to us for a bit. Local insite is always the best. We stopped for lunch at one little place and were tickled to find an antique Rolls Royce club had a ralley with this same spot as their destination. We always have time to admire beautiful old cars. We've checked out the "oldest" and therefore "biggest" kauri tree alive, 2000 plus years and 51 meters high (that's what the sign said!)
 
Tomorrow we will head south to the town of Whangarei, by boat, and will spend a week exploring that area. We think that most of our discoveries here will be done by car on land as opposed to by boat from the water. Many of our sailboat friends have arrived in N.Z. now so we've been busy greeting them and Oso Blanco is already in Auckland, so we'll be catching up with them again soon. A few of our aquaintances are yet to come, but soon all foreign boats will be in N.Z., away from the cyclone season in the South Pacific, enjoying summer in this gorgeous country.