I can't believe how quickly time goes by when you are busy (and having fun). Here we are at the end of January and I have only written our adventures down once. Guess I'm just getting lazy, but also, how exciting can it be for anyone else to read about polishing a boat's hull, having the teak re-done and so on? But we have been taking weekends off. We contacted Mike and Karen our "big" boat friends and were invited out to Gulf Harbor where they are tied up for an over-nighter (a chance to live like the rich and famous). This is about an hour away from our marina, so we hopped into our tiny (super tiny) "Marsh" by Nissan (should be Marshmallow, but the name would be too long to fit on the tail gate and for $29.00 NZ a day - who's complaining?) and scooted off. Karen being a certified Chef fed us in fine style and Mike entertained us with his outback stories from South Africa. He also plied us heavily with good wine. We were joined by David and Marian off of Kilkea (a sail boat out of Vancouver). So there was lots of sail boat - power boat rivalry going on. David owns a 48' power boat back in Canada, so the jousting was all symbolic. The next weekend just happened to be the annual Sea Food Festival at the Viaduct Harbor in downtown Auckland (where we are tied up) in honor of Auckland's Anniversary. Being berth holders, we were issued weekend passes which allowed us to enjoy the scores of sea food kiosks - prawns, oysters, green lip muscles, whitebait etc. done any way you can think of and a 100 ways you don't know of yet. We also got to sample (all of this is on a purchase basis of course - this is New Zealand!) wines from a multitude of the fine wineries that they have in NZ and likewise, from a gazillion micro breweries - the finest brews. All of these are scattered about entertainment pavilions with blues, rock, pop, classical, anything you wish - they play it, music. It was a fun (expensive) but very fun weekend. In between all of this, (guess we take more than weekends off) sailboat Jackster, with David and Jackie on board tied up in the slip beside us and we spent a couple of nights carousing with them. So much visiting to do when you only meet up every two months. And No, the boat work still isn't done, but the guys doing it will still have a few more days, before we have to depart, to get it done.
Now for those of you who pay attention to the international news/weather. Yes, New Zealand has been hit by a couple of cyclones. Yes, on the north island where we are. No, we were not impacted. There were high winds and flooding reported in and around Auckland, but we were very sheltered where we are docked, so other than a bit of "rope strain", Mystery Ship suffered no ill effects. The weather down here has been less than great for what is the height of their summer - rainy, cool, overcast and always, always windy. This may be a blessing as the sunshine down here is reportedly the worst thing in the whole world for you as there is "NO" ozone! Anyway, we should all be praying for the people of Queensland in Australia as they just got smacked by Cyclone "Yasi", category 4, as if they didn't have enough mud on their plates already.
Our next adventure is the South Island of New Zealand. I'll send some news soon.
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