Mystery Ship Adventures

Motor Home Travels of South Austalia - Final Chapter (Finally?)

2012-02-11T03:30:00.001-08:00

21 We are getting a bit tired of "holidaying". So, today is Sunday - after Mass (we managed to find another church - google is a great thing), we head off down the road, backward (meaning we have been here before), to Coogee Bay. There is a new housing development going in and we spend the afternoon browsing through Show Homes. Today is the first day of calm weather along the south part of Australia and it is absolutely gorgeous. This is a marina community and this is the time to sell houses, but it only lasts until mid afternoon when the winds pick up and the water is crazy again. Things are really getting boring now…. When we get back to the camp ground, we wash the exterior of the camper van. Three weeks and 4000 plus kilometers of sun baked bugs - we have quite a job to get it clean (part of the rental contract - sucks. Don't they have employees? Why do we pay rental fees?)

22 Final day. We spend the morning cleaning up the interior of the unit. That done, we head off to see a bit of the country side in the Swan Valley, north east of Perth. This is their wine area, but we've done that kind of thing already, so our efforts are pretty half hearted. We stop at two cellar doors and visit more than anything. Bought some great chilli cheese! We turned the camper van in and taxied to our hotel. It is a dump! There is a great business opportunity for hoteliers in Perth. There are no vacancies in any hotel within 10 k of the airport! Anyway, it is only 2:00pm and the room sucks, so we catch a bus into downtown Perth. The big deal about today is that we have found the best Thai food restaurant "Ever", Hahm (or Red Orchid on the cc receipt). This is now our number ONE rated eating experience in Australia.

23 Fly back to Brisbane and rent a car back to the boat. The holiday within a holiday is done. It has been great. Glen and I have received many blessings.

Still South Australia - Part 10

2012-02-11T03:28:00.001-08:00

17 Today we are making a bee line for Perth, 425 km. But by 11:00 we are getting bored with the interior driving (all really nice farm land, but miles and miles of it) and head back out to the coast which brings us to a place called Mandurah and it seems to be interesting enough that we will stay here for tonight and we'll check it out tomorrow.

18 Although Mandurah is a larger center, the down town is still only a 1/2 hour drive through and we buzz of to Clifton Lake for a walk to see the thrombolites - oxygen creating organisms that make little rock like humps in the water. These are throw backs to the evolutionary times when our atmosphere was being created. With that done, we head up the coast to Freemantle and Perth. A stop in Freemantle for a pizza and a brief look at the Ship Wreck Museum has us planning how the next few days will unfold. Freemantle is said to be best on the weekend, so we carry on to Perth - basically the same city - as we will do Perth tomorrow and come back to Freemantle when it is a happening place.

19 We are back to taking the public transit again, because the motor home is too big to maneuver on city streets. Actually, it is nice to be able to just stare out the window and (for me) not worry about determining where we are on the GPS and the map so that we arrive where we plan - we know where this thing goes! All things considered, Perth is just another city. We explore the streets well and our priority is to find a great place for dinner. Just talking to people is how it all happens - Glen decided that he needed to have a personal care kit (nail clipper, scissors etc in a travel case) and just by chance in one of the arcades (malls) that we are there is a shop for such things. So we get chatting with the owners and long story short we are directed to an Italian restaurant for dinner (The BEST!). "Perugino" is all that they said it would be, this is a good thing as we have not had great food experiences so far, except for "Appellations" in the Barossa wine region.

20 Back to Freemantle, it is an easy drive from where we are stationed. We spend the day doing "tourist" things, buying souvenirs, lunching in sidewalk cafes, doing tours. We are now the proud owners of an authentic didgeridoo, Glen will entertain guests (kidding). The Freemantle Prison tour is fascinating; I never want to go to jail! This place started, to house the prisoners sent from England and operated until 1991 as a high security prison. They only ever had a "bucket" for a toilet! (no such thing as plumbing in 1850, so no room was allowed for flush toilets) Oh, for a short period they tried chemical toilets, but the inmates figured out how to make the chemicals "palatable" for drinking by filtering it through a loaf of bread and they got all disorderly, so that idea was disbanded. With the chemicalized bread, they used to leave it on their window sills so the resident birds could eat it, then they (the inmates) would laugh themselves silly (remember they were stoned on toilet chemical) as the birds - now drunk - would fly into the walls! Small things amuse small minds - right?

Motor Home Travels of South Australia - Part 9

2012-02-11T03:27:00.001-08:00

15 On to Albany today, a mere 525 k further along the coast. We get in early enough to explore the down town before we park up at our "deluxe" (really) camp ground. We have our own private bathroom/shower facility. Even though the caravan unit we have rented has it's own bathroom and shower, it is far easier to use the amenities provided by the parks we camp in, so you can imagine that having a private bathroom is pretty "posh" (or maybe you don't care!). We are mere footsteps from the crashing surf which is bashing onto the powder white sandy beach that stretches the whole length of the bay - several kilometers. Of course we have to get out there and feel the sand between our toes and get sprayed with the vaporized sea water. There are couple of guys kite surfing along the breaking waves - the wind is howling at about 40 knots - so when they catch air….they fly about 30 feet up and most times they aren't in control enough to land right side up, thus bombing back into the water. It is quite exhilarating to watch.

16 Albany's National Park has sealed road access so we have the privilege of getting up close and personal with the local wilderness. We are set for a day of walking and hit all of the natural wonders and do a trek across one of the home bay's sheltering headlands. Great views, beautiful scenery, lots of exercise and the high light was catching a flock of Black Cockatoos feeding. What a gang of characters! They squawk like crazy as they fly from bush to bush and then talk to each other in "mum, mum, mum" little voices while they eat. These are very large birds and this is their only area of habitat according to the new bird book that we have of Australia's Birds. Oh and we have about 100 pictures of three different types of lizards. We have some serious picture editing to do when we finally get down to it, one of each will be fine.

Motor Homes Travels of South Australia Part 8

2012-01-31T15:15:00.000-08:00

13 We stayed the night camped at the Caiguna roadhouse. We awoke to rumbling bellies (kidding) and made an early start; grocery stores in Esperance were singing a syren's song to us. Just as a side note, diesel along the Nullarbor is $1.97 per litre and this rattle trap that we are driving is guzzling like crazy. Esperance is on the coast and our camp ground is across from the beach. We have restocked our fridge and are giddy with anticipation for a real meal. The beach walk is a reminder of how insignificant we are. The sand is powdery fine, the wind is howling at about 40 knots and to say the surf is pounding…. is an understatement. We are small potatoes on this planet. It is fantastic!

14 Today, we were going to do a 30 minute helicopter ride and see all of the good things about Esperance from the air. I am (was) so excited, I've never been in a helicopter before. But the day dawns overcast, misting rain and the wind is stronger still than yesterday (if you can imagine!) so the heli guy says he's not going to fly. Fine by me, I can't imagine being buffeted around in an eggbeater over wild oceans and rocky cliffs and wondering what to grab, my lifejacket or parachute. So we drive. First the scenic Ocean drive and it takes us along breath taking beaches and monumental granite headlands, one two, three, four. These pristine beaches are empty. Yes the weather is blustery, but even in calm, hot days; these places are un-crowded, the Aussies are very lucky to have this luxury at their doorsteps. Next we head out of town to the Cape le Grand National Park, more beautiful beaches and diverse plant systems and granite mountains (hills), yada, yada. But we are blown away with how incredibly beautiful. Today, with the windy conditions, everything is wild and rugged but we stop to imagine what a calm day would bring and we see pure tropical paradise. The sand is like cornstarch, both in color and in texture, so fine, it scrunches under you foot step like snow. Amazing! We are fortunate to be able to see this because the roads to get here are black top (or bitumen in their language) and every other park that we have come across has been 4x4 access only. So our advice to future road travelers of Australia - make sure you are in a 4x4 so you can see the best She has to offer. Oh, and we came across two "wild" kangaroos nibbling leaves while doing a walk in the park. This has been a great day.

Motor Home Travels of South Australia Part 7

2012-01-31T15:14:00.001-08:00

12 Guide books are somewhat creations of fiction, not that what they tell you is in a certain location isn't there, but they make everything sound so "you have to see this!" that we find that we pull off to see things that really aren't that impressive, including whole towns. So I guess guide books are really great elaborations of the truth. Reader, read between the lines. Today we head out across the Nullarbor Plains. (null - "no", arbor - "trees") This takes up all of the middle portion of the south of Australia; similar to our prairies, but way different. Super dry, the vegetation ranges from scrubby bush, to scrubby trees, to scrubby grass….. you get the picture, almost 2000 km of a constantly changing vista. The scenery is lovely in it's own wild and natural way. The area is a wild life preserve too, but we only saw two pair of emus and too many road killed kangaroos to count. I guess the roos come out at night and are similar to our deer in that they run toward your lights as you drive down the highway. The semi trucks out here have great big bush bumpers on them (roo bumpers) and protective screens across the windshield, so it is obviously a problem. This area also has camels. No, you are right, not naturally, but turned wild from the camels brought in to haul freight from east to west Australia in the early years. The story is that now the Aussies are rounding the camels up (instead of shooting them) as they consume precious grass lands and are shipping them back to the Middle East because the Aussie camel blood lines are more pure and diverse than what they are back in the lands of their origin. Regardless, we didn't see any, which sucks. So the highlights of today, we stopped at the Head of the Bight, (the dipped in portion of Australia that looks like somebody took a bite out of it) which is a part of the coastline that has impressive 90 meter limestone cliffs, perpendicular to the crashing ocean below, very awe inspiring. For all of the days that we have been traveling beside this South Ocean, it has been rough and windy, not an inviting piece of water at all. Next is not a highlight, but a low light, crossing the border from South Australia state into Western Australia state. They have quarantine! This station is in the middle of the Nullarbor and is 525 miles east of the next grocery store (we are heading west) and they take ALL of our fruit and vegitables! The roadhouses (rudimentary truck stops) that are sparsely scattered between this point and Norseman (next town) do serve food, buuutt… refer to the mention of "truck stop"! I'm still, typing, so you can tell we didn't starve.

Motor Home travels South Austalia Part 6

2012-01-31T15:12:00.001-08:00

10 Exploring Port Lincoln; well the population is 13,600 so it is not a big place and it only takes a short bit of time to see the foreshore or down town area. We have our lunch of lovely fresh oysters and head off to the Lincoln Park Nature Reserve; but something is not sitting well with Glen and we head back to the camp ground while he is still feeling well enough to driving. We'd both be dead if I suddenly had to drive this big bus on the wrong side of the road. No it wasn't the oysters, as he says he was feeling a bit off prior to lunch. Happily though an afternoon of sleeping and resting was all he needed to be feeling better. I had even dug out our travel insurance, just in case.

11 It is January 26 and more significantly - Australia Day! Our brief poll of Australians didn't really answer our question as to what they were celebrating, eg. Confederation, first settlement or what? Just a celebration of being Australia, I guess. Again, we are covering a lot of ground, but take time out to drive through the Coffin Bay Nature Reserve and are rewarded with some stunning beaches, crashing ocean surf, enormous sand dunes (basically the whole coast!) and rugged cliffs. We spotted and photographed an emu in the wild. They are funny creatures. The terrain they live in is scrubby brush about 5 feet tall and their heads are just tall enough to see over the tops, so we played a game of hide an seek to get our pics. Back on the main road, about mid day, we pull off to look at Murray's Hay Stacks. Big freaking granite pillars and knobs, not rocks, because they attached to the huge rock plate below them. The rock is dated at 1500 million years old and the formations as they stand today are about 100,000 years old. A whole village of them clustered on a farmer's sheep field. Weird things are on this earth. Our final destination today is Ceduna, the gateway to the west. A quick drive around this town and we have seen it all. No worries (Aussie lingo) we're here to rest for tomorrow's marathon drive.

Motor Home South Australia Part 5

2012-01-28T03:18:00.001-08:00

8 Our day starts off gently; cellar doors do not open until 10:00am, so we have a leisurely breakfast and conduct all of our internet business before heading out. We love the fact that we have good and reliable internet coverage for 99.9% of Australia, we have a cellular wireless device that we can run both of our computers off of. The toughest part of being away from home has been the lack of contact that we can have when we are in the Island Countries. Anyway, off we go. We have asked for advise on what some of the local people's favorite winerys are and Tanunda is the home of Jacob's Creek and Penfolds (both common in Canadian stores). The area of the Barossa Valley includes about 6 towns and several smaller hamlets, with no more than 6 km from one to the next. This makes easy traveling through wonderful lush vineyards on quiet paved roads. Whistler Estates is the consumer's choice so we head there first. I don't know if it is the fact that we have nothing else to compare to yet or if our "palates" are un-tainted by other tastes yet, but the wines presented to us for tasting were Fantastic. Another case gets shipped to Mystery Ships stores. The Sauvignon Blanc's are crystal clear and refreshing, the Cab Sav's are clean and bold and the Shiraz is spicy and fragrant. Does this not make you want to go out and grab a glass? Plus, they have a kangaroo petting zoo right out their front door. What more can a person ask? Roos are pretty cool little animals and we obligingly petted them and took many pictures. Now we have to see them in the wild. We have now been directed to Artisan Wines (because her daughter runs it) and we travel across two townships to get there - remember very close. From here we travel to Angaston (on the daughter's recommendation) for lunch via the Mengler Hill Lookout road. Beautiful views of the surrounding valleys. Penfolds in Nuriootpa is next. Although it is a very large cellar door, we are a lot disappointed in their tasting experience and the wines presented. Sometimes it is the people behind the counter that make the experience. By now we have just about had enough wine to last a life time (maybe not, maybe only until tomorrow) but I want to go the Seppeltsfield cellar door because it is listed as the oldest wine maker in the area and they have tours of their facility and fortified wines from each year since they began producing - 1858. Fortified wine is similar to port only it is aged in the barrel. Great tour, great guy, Nigel, behind the counter and we were privileged to taste 100 year old Fortified wine - Absolutely Delicious! We round our day by having dinner at Appellations a restaurant with a fixed menu, matched with appropriate wine tastings. Superb!

9 Gotta cover some ground today. We're headed for Port Lincoln a mere 8 hour drive from Tanunda. We pass through the balance of the wine growing country and into grain lands - all harvesting is long completed - and along the coast again which is blown sand dunes and scrubby bush. What a day of contrasts. Port Lincoln is on the Eyre Peninsula and is a major shipping port for South Australia. The whole area is noted for their tuna fish harvest (they farm tuna here too) and their oyster production. The peninsula is also reported to produce 30% of Australia's grain crops. Viterra grain terminals are everywhere. Can't wait for fresh oysters for lunch tomorrow!

Motor Home South Australia Part 4

2012-01-28T03:16:00.001-08:00

6 Wine Tour Day! Woo Hoo! Darn, they only open at 10:00 am, what will we do with ourselves until then? This is actually a really great way to see the country side. We set off with map in hand and a handheld GPS unit to back it up to find our first Cellar Door, Bird in Hand. We are pretty anxious to see this place as we have experienced some pretty good Cab Sav's by them in Canada. Sadly, we are a bit disappointed, but buy one of their tasting selections anyway maybe it will taste better when we drink it by ourselves. Our day is spent criss crossing around the area seeing the sites and tasting the wines. This part of Australia was settled by Germans and it is reflected in the style of the buildings. Petaluma Cellar Door, a beautifully refurbished, original mill building, located in a wonderous garden setting, is our choice for a delectable lunch with a pre-requisite wine tasting. After a day of 5 Cellars doors though, Bird in Hand, Nepenthe, Petaluma, The Lane and Shaw and Smith, we are wined out and even though it is early in the afternoon, we head back to the camp ground via the grocery store, to just hang out. As I have mentioned time and time again, Aussie Land has a huge variety of weird and wonderful birds so bird watching is always on our list, our new bird it the Galah. According to the Aussie couple who provided us with it's name, it is a very stupid bird and will fly right into your car - hmmmm? Anyway, it is very pretty with it's grey/green top feathers, rose colored breast and white head crest.

Because we have had such a hectic day (whew, wine testing is tough!) we support the local economy and eat out at BBQ Hill Chinese, no wine with dinner tonight, Thank you.

7 Sunday morning has us walking off to church, it is much easier to find churches here than in New Zealand, as there really is a church at the address that we find by google-ing. This community (church community anyway) is all elderly people, the Priest greeted us directly in his opening, as we really stood out in the crowd.

We're moving on to Tanunda today, but first we stop in the small town of Hahndorf. Hahndorf was settled by German immigrants in the 1850's and is very quaint and touristy with lots of old buildings still in use. We walk up and down the main street checking out all of the shops. Remember, we are still in wine country and at the end of our walking, there is a cellar door for Somerled wines. Somerled, was the name of the owner's, Grandfather's horse, who won the local steeple chase in 1908. I love horses! We had a great chat with the owner Rob, while he showcased his wines and we came away with a new favorite - Sparkling Pinot Noir - very refreshing (it is 35 degrees out today) and light, lovely clear color and great taste. We ordered some to be shipped to the boat.

It is still early afternoon when we arrive in Tanunda. This is the heart of the Barossa Valley wine making region. Hey, somebody has to do this job! On entering our camp site, Glen nearly jumps out of his seat… there are still some collector cars and rods (and their owners) hanging about the grounds. Our camp set up is swift, park, plug the unit in, roll out the awning, flip out the chairs and walk over to admire the cars. Car guys are car guys no matter what part of the world you are in. We spent the rest of the evening swapping car tales and travel stories with our 7 new friends.

Motor Home South Austalia Part 3

2012-01-24T01:59:00.001-08:00

4 The trip today will see us cover quite a few miles, so we are up early and off. Within 1 hour we are pulled over for our first site of the day, the limestone cliffs of "ship wreck coast". Absolutely stunning! The next 10 km are spent stopping and starting as another bend in the coastal highway brings more of nature's architecture. They have a famous site here called the Twelve Apostles (only six are still standing) and it is the etching of the limestone coast by the ocean that separates these 100 foot pillars out of the main land cliffs and then slowly over centuries pulverizes them into the sea. Further along is the town of Mt. Gambier and they have the distinction of having numerous limestone caves formed right inside the town. One is an amazing sink hole that looks like an old rock quarry, but is not man made. They have planted a tropical botanical garden in the bottom creating a lovely "secret garden" effect. The town's water source is from "the Blue Lake", another limestone crater, formed with volcanic help. The carter is blocked off from any entrance (it IS their drinking source) but they do have a viewing platform. It is the most amazing shade of blue, indescribable. We haven't downloaded our pictures yet so hopefully the color comes through in the photos. The town of Robe is our final stop and our camp ground here is based on a beautiful beach. Another cute sea side town, lots of tourists, restaurants, pubs. When we ask for a Tooey's New (beer) in the pub, we are advised that w are in the "wrong State". It seems that Australians are very loyal to their own State produced beers. This doesn't bother us of course, so we have South Australia's Cooper Ale and Sparkling Ale. Good stuff. Dinner is out at one of Robe's very fine sea food restaurants, Sails. We talk to everybody (our kids would be appalled) and strike up conversation over dinner with the Australian couple next to us. This is a great way to discover what is good to see and what is tourist hype, not to mention that we meet a lot of really interesting people too.

5 Next along our route is Kingston, lobster capital of Australia. So "when in Rome…" we detour off the road to find a vendor of "live" lobster. After much choosing and weighing and wrapping up, we have our two x 1.5k live lobsters (cray fish) ready to go. Well, we should Maybe have asked what the price Might be before we went to all of that trouble. $225.00 later, we have to console ourselves with how good these guys are going to taste when we finally sit down to eat them. (sheesh!) It is a driving day again today and we are driving beside a large, long, ocean estuary. It is very dry here. We are headed into wine country, the Adelaide Hills, and Mount Barker is the location of our caravan park. Tonight we "PIG OUT" on fantastic lobster and we have enough left over for another meal, so we feel much better about our "investment".

Motor Home South Australia Part 2

2012-01-24T01:57:00.001-08:00

3 We navigate our way out of town and head off on the Great Ocean road. Lots of cute little sea side towns and gorgeous sweeping ocean views, shining sandy beaches and rugged cliffs. We stop to walk on the beach to see if there are shells for our collection on the boat, but it is very windy and cold today and there are no shells, so our beach walk is rather short. We have a sandwich in the camper (how exotic!) and stop for a beer in Apollo Bay. We wanted to try their locally brewed stuff, but a taste test convinced us to go for a brand we know. Next stop is to take a walk at Kennett River to see koala bears, they look so cute and cuddly. One fellow tells us a story of an Asian tourist who throws his camera at his buddy, saying, "take my picture with the bear" and scoops a sleeping koala out of a low branch. The buddy is too stunned by what his friend is doing to take the picture and in the mean time the cuddly little koala has woken up and is now scratching his holder's face off. Lesson - Do not let cute and cuddly fool you. Those claws that they hang in the trees with are very pointy and strong! Oh, but they are soooo cute! We came across one on the ground and he just ambles over to a tree - no big rush to get out of our way or reach. Glen has 100 photos, at least. Now as we drive along, we find that they are very prolific here in this region. Our next stop is Mait's Rest a rain forest walk in the Great Otway National Park. It is a light 30 minute hike and has lots of beautiful rainforest vegetation, Jurassic Park ferns and trees, cool moist fragrant air. Today is getting pretty packed with "doing stuff", just because it is all very close. We are on the Otway Peninsula now and the site of an old majestic light house, which of course instigates a walk around the grounds and a trip up the light house stairs. There are information people spotted about and we get a low down on the history. Our camp ground tonight is Bimbi Park and we find that we didn't have to make a special trip to see koala's as they live right in the camp ground. This is more what a camp ground should be like, with towering trees and spacious sites. The city caravan parks are basically parking lots with toilet/shower facilities, no ambiance at all.

Motor Home Adventures in South Australia Part 1

2012-01-24T01:52:00.001-08:00

1 Our motor home adventure begins by flying from Gold Coast airport to Melbourne.

Tiger Air is the carrier, I booked them because they were cheap. Then I had all kinds of second thought as some locals we have met were telling us horror stories about them, kind like our Canadian national air line (no names mentioned) but all turned out ok.

Arrive Melbourne 1:15 and grabbed a cab to Britz (company name) to pick up our unit - it is junk so we express our disappointment and are fortunate to be able to upgrade to a Maui (better unit) as this is the height of their rental season. Our 1st night is at the Ashley Street caravan park after getting groceries at Coles. Dinner is spaghetti a la camper. The Australian open is on in Melbourne right now, sight seeing here might be crazy.

2 The first real day of exploring sees us take a city bus to downtown Melbourne and walk around, it is 41 degrees today (that is hot!) We tour an 1858 church and gauk at all of the old architecture, they really like to preserve their heritage buildings. There is a free bus that takes tourists around to see the general downtown sites, so we save our feet and ride it for the full 90 minute circuit. A hidden little alley, that goes for about three blocks, is like a large food court, any kind of food type you can imagine, each vendor has a couple of tables out front and this is where we choose to have lunch. At the day's end we take the bus back to our camper, there is no way we would have been able to negotiate city centre with "the beast". Our steak dinner is fried as the camper grill does not work. Camping can be so challenging.

Mooloolaba to Gold Coast

2012-01-10T13:19:00.001-08:00

Well it is finally time to finish off 2011, since we've been home to Calgary and are now back and it is 2012. Man! Where does the time go?

O.K. so it's Nov/11 and we were heading into Mooloolaba Marina, this is an in between spot after exiting the Great Sandy Strait and making the run to Brisbane. It is a nice marina and everybody is extremely friendly. We met Peter there, who is one of the Nordhavn sales persons for Australia. He is quite excited to have two 64 ft Nordies so close. This is going to be our last night together with Eric, Anne and Bear so we have dinner out planned. Peter agrees to show us a really good place to eat and joins us for the evening, which is a good thing as he gives us a lovely walking tour of the waterfront/town area and finds us a great place to dine. Eric and Glen of course pepper him with questions about boats. We are quite pleased to learn that our sturdy little ships are holding their resale value well as they are of a very sought after model. Do we want to sell them???

The next day, Glen and I say our goodbyes to Oso Blanco at 2:00 pm as we are heading out on an overnight jaunt that will take us out and around the protective Islands by Brisbane so that we may enter the coast line further south for the Gold Coast and they will continue down to Brisbane where they will stay for the next 3 to 4 months. Gold Coast is more of an area than a separate city, and it is a very upscale area with multitudes of estate homes crowding the cannel waterways that go for miles and miles, manmade and natural rivers. After crossing the bar safely from the open ocean into the Gold Coast Seaway, we meander our way over very shallow waterways up to the Coomera River and after about two hours we are at our destination of Gold Coast Marina. This was recommended to us as there are lots of boat trades people and services here. But we find after a few days that it is a little too remote and too busy with work so we meander back along the Coomera to Sanctuary Cove Marina. This is a great place with great shopping and lots of restaurants and bars. The beautiful Hyatt Sanctuary Cove is located here. This marina will be our home base while we go home. There is a Horizon boat dealership here and because we like all kinds of boats, we tour some 80 footers just for fun. The salesman, Colin, turns out to be a "decent chap" and long story short, he agrees to step into our boat a couple of times a week to make sure that all is going well. The marina guys are supposed to be checking, but Colin will be our second line of defense.

We rented a car for a couple of days, mainly to get us to the Brisbane airport to go home, but also to explore a bit. So we head inland about an hour to a place called Tambourine Mountain, reported to be a quaint little community with rain forests and boutique shopping. The rain forest isn't quite like those of Fiji or Vanuatu, but nice just the same. We see some really strange birds. I can see where a bird book is going to be a must. We stop at a winery and wander through the shops and of course have a lovely lunch. The afternoon is spent driving through Surfers Paradise and Southport, towns, to view Marina Mirage, where we had planned to stay initially, but price and location got the better of us in Sanctuary Cove, less than half price of Mirage, quieter and all of the same amenities.

Great Sandy Straights and Wide Bay Bar

2011-11-10T17:40:00.000-08:00

In order to continue our southward journey onthe Great Sandy Straight, we had to be up very early to be at an extremely shallow "dog leg" in the channel, for high tide. We are back in a part of the world where tide changes are big and currents can help or hinder your progress while underway. This particular spot is only 3 feet deep at low tide and 13 feet deep at high tide; we need a total of 7 feet to float the boat across. It was a game of follow the leader, as there were a gaggle of boats lined up to make the passage through. Slow going, but not a big challenge. We have to anchor up again at the end of the channel beside another sandy strip, as we need to cross the bar the next morning on high tide. Tonight's high tide would get us out into the open, but then we would have to travel overnight to get to our next marina stop. Hey, we're on holiday, no schedule -Yet! It's not really so tough to hang on the hook and watch what the Aussies do and we have a dinner date on Oso to look forward too. It is amazing how shinny you can make boat stainless with a couple of spare hours, rubbing away and enjoying the sunshine. The Aussies on shore are all busy bouncing around in their 4x4's staking out the prime beach fishing spot for the day/afternoon/night. We are at a place called Tin Can Inlet inside of Inskip Point. As far as I can see, the whole of the eastern side of Australia is one great big sand pile and the locals love to play in it, fishing, surfing, camping, sunbathing and 4x4ing, Oh, and boating too.

Next morning: our journey through the Wide Bay Bar at 6:30 am is uneventful (just how we planned it). You call into the local Coast Guard office and get the way point coordinates to follow as the sand bar changes with weather conditions and water movement, then just connect the dots with your boat to get to the outside. We are blessed with a gorgeous flat ocean so no big swell to bob over and no wind waves to splash through. We are now headed to Mooloolaba Marina and the water conditions are fantastic. You'd never guess that we are in the middle of one of the biggest "storm factory" pieces of water in the world. Somebody is watching over us and we are Thankful. At this point, we are about 150 miles North of Brisbane. So after Mooloolaba (mouthful!), Oso Blanco will motor on into the Manly Harbour in Brisbane and we will do a night passage around Moreton , North Stradbroke and South Stradbroke Islands to gain the passage into The Gold Coast Marina (slightly south of Brisbane) which is our final destination. The inside passage is just too shallow for us to comfortably navigate. For now, we are basking in a great day of cruising under a clear sky and even clearer waters, the 25 degree C temp. makes it pretty much perfect.

Moving Southward from Bundaberg

2011-11-09T22:44:00.001-08:00

The Great Sandy Straights Marina on Hervey Bay is a pretty decent place to call home for a day or two. It has an extensive network of shops and services at the top of the ramp and some pretty decent restaurants and bars. We wandered over to the Hervey Bay Boat Club one afternoon for a beer and were amused to find that it was a great big open hall with tables, a bar, a bandstand and gambling machines. The place is packed with 70 (plus) year old Gramas and Grampas just kicking up their heels to the 60's duet that was playing. Glen teased the very young bar girl that he felt like a teenager here! Our new favorite beer is Toohey New. From here we wandered down the impossibly long Esplanade that runs along the ocean past four different beach front communities. We only made it as far as the middle of the first downtown before making our way back to the boat. Everything is different in Australia as far as the trees, the birds, the animals, it is amazing. Our attention is riveted to a rainbow of colour in one of the bushes, it is a beautiful Rainbow Lorakete (kind of a parrot type bird). Oh, he was so charming and exquisitely coloured, just like a rainbow!

The next stop on our way south is an anchorage in the Great Sandy Straight, beside the Kingfisher Resort on Frazer Island. Frazer Island is the biggest all sand island in the world and is a complete national park. The thing to do here is hire (rent) a 4x4 and blast through the bush on a single lane sand road - the sand is baby powder fine and about 2 feet deep, it is like driving through snow banks. There are a multitude of destinations, but there are only so many you can see on a one day rental so with our lunch box packed we spin out of the parking lot at 8:00am, Eric, Ann, Bear, Glen (driving) and me (navigating) and bounce our way across to the Eastern Beach. This beach is 75 miles long and is the best highway on the island. You access all of the sights by deeking in from the beach and then back out to travel up to the next one. We saw a dingo! Dingos are not dogs, but they sure look like dogs. On our itinerary are two beautiful inland lakes, one head lands look out - that is stunning, a beached wreck of a very large ship, the beach itself, rainbow sand cliffs and a small resort. It is a great day and we enjoy the rugged beauty that unfolds before us. Glen even got us through all of the rough spots without getting stuck - a big change from when we would 4x4 as youngsters - the goal then was to see how often you could get stuck and then get out! Sometimes it is nice to be older. Our day was finished in fine style at the Kingfisher's pool bar, Bear got to swim and we adults refreshed ourselves with drinks, Pizza was our dinner. What a great day.

Australia - Bundaberg

2011-11-06T14:08:00.001-08:00

Australia

We're here, we're here! Safe and sound and not too badly shook (a word?) up. Actually the passage was great except for a couple of 6 hour stretches.

We arrived at Bundaberg, Queensland, Australia, as planned at 9:00 am on Nov 4/11, both Oso Blanco and ourselves. Because the marina was short of space, due to all of the "yachties" arriving from various South Pacific ports, we had to raft together on the end dock. That means Oso tied to the dock and we tied to Oso. It looked pretty neat to see the two big "Nordies" snuggled together out there. Nordhavns certainly are popular boats in this region, everybody comes down the dock to see them and ask questions. It is a good way to meet the local people and get information on what is entertaining and special in any given area while they are quizzing you about your boat. Customs clearance was a piece of cake compared to many of the other foreign ports we have attended and in no time we were free to step on land and begin our Adventures in Australia.

My first foray into the "outback" (which is technically a wrong statement because we are coastal) was a brisk walk over to the nearest grocery store (IGA) to pick up some fresh produce having surrendered our "stores" to the quarantine fellows. Guess what? We saw a kangaroo lounging in the shade, just off the road! The groceries are much the same as in any store in North America and the prices were pretty decent considering it was just a small outlet. We have been hearing how expensive Australia will be. So far, other than the 4 cents extra we have to pay to compete with their dollar (vs. Canadian) it is pretty much like we are used to at home. Our next day in Bundaberg had us catching the local bus and riding the 18 km into the town. The Mission - get some consistent internet connection. We are now the proud owners of a cellular wifi unit that works beautifully. Yeah!! Bundaberg is a relatively small town, it's claim to fame is the production of Bundaberg Rum. The local economy is sugar cane agriculture which fits with the production of rum perfectly.

We did a meet and greet with the yachting rally group, but didn't know any of these boaters, except Oso Blanco. We did catch up with John and Sheryl from Sea Mist, fellow Canadians that we have seen in various locations all over the South Pacific, and had a good visit with them.

Nov 6 we headed further south to the port at Urangan to see something new, as we wind our way down to the Gold Coast where we will keep the boat for most of our time here.

Day Three - New Cal to Australia

2011-11-03T02:36:00.000-07:00

It is 9:00 pm and of course dark. The water conditions are much nicer tonight than last night. Both boats are chugging along without incident so far. We expect to be in Bundaberg, Queensland, Australia by early morning on November 4th for our Customs and Immigration check-in. Nothing exciting happened today, that is probably a good thing. Our location is lat. 23.39.088 S and long. 157.10.334 E

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Moon Light

2011-11-02T01:25:00.000-07:00

I stare through the forward window into the blackness of a very dark night. Slowly a pale silvery pool grows in the distance as the 1/2 moon breaks through the clouds. Suddenly a clear path shimmers before me on the churning water. Maybe, now, I am not so anxious for the way to be lit when I see how large the waves really are! Sitting in the Captain's Chair is the most stable place to be. I can imagine how well Glen is sleeping below, his body first pressing deep into the mattress then lightly floating above it as the motion of the boat rocks, not so gently, through the large swells before us. Not to mention the noise created when one of the waves "slaps" the hull, broad side. The moon light brightens a bit more and a flash of white catches my eye off to the side of the bow. An albatross teeters back and forth gamely trying to balance on the railing. Crazy bird! We knew to expect these conditions, but we always hope the weather guy is wrong. When he predicts smooth weather he is! Supposedly this "Junk" should only be a duration of 12 hours. Right now that seems like a week away. But I must quit complaining because it can certainly be a whole lot worse. We've had 36 hours of idyllic travel conditions prior to tonight. The moon slips back behind the dark veil of cloud cutting off my vision and I imagine that the motion is much smaller than it was moments before.

Our position is lat. 23.10.430 S and long. 160.24.097 E. We have 19 knots of wind and it is 20.8 degrees C. Our speed is 8.6 knots at 1346 RPM - we've been getting a great push from the current.

Here's to a smoother tomorrow!

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Fianl days in New Caledonia

2011-11-01T08:54:00.002-07:00

We definitely needed a few days in port. One to get some business done and two to restock the galley. We washed all of the salt grime off of the boat. Yes, we know it will get dirty again. Compare this action to washing your car in winter, it just has to be done. Since we are preparing to leave to Australia on Oct 31 and Monday and Tuesday are holidays here, we have to clear customs and get our duty free fuel on Friday the 28th. Oso Blanco and Jackster came in to do the same. The three of us bid farewell to Noumea and headed to Island Maitre to anchor out and enjoy the now calming weather conditions. Our final three days in New Cal are going to be the finest we've had and help us to see why many boaters consider this country "a little slice of Heaven".

It is unbelievable how blue and smooth the water can be and how white and inviting the sandy beaches. We find a good dive site at Maitre, lots of large fish, two turtles, an octopus and more. The island itself is just a strip of sparkling sand with a many star resort perched on top. The boat gathering is on our boat tonight. We are all so excited about being able to get into the water again, we go for the big stretch and opt to head to the Amedee Light house for the next couple of days even though it is not classed as an overnight anchorage.

Amedee, another sand pile, but big enough to support a beautiful old light house from 1867 and a handful of "day use" buildings. It is a daytime destination for people coming by fast boats from Noumea and quite popular. There is a couple of wrecks to dive and an accessible reef wall dive. It's pretty and calm and we finish our final two days in New Cal playing in the water by day and gathering on Oso to eat and visit by night. We even have a Halloween night for Bear where we dress up and he gets treats. His Mom and Dad brought him "trick or treating" to our boat and to Jackster. Goofy, yes, but kids need some kid stuff (adults do too).

On the morning of October 31 we holler our final goodbyes to David and Jacqui on Jackster as we lift our anchor one last time from New Caledonia waters. They will head to New Zealand for cyclone season and Oso Blanco and us are headed for Australia. We have a four day run ahead of us. For the most part, the weather is favorable with a small bit of rough stuff at the mid way point. Here's hoping the weather guys can keep being wrong!

It is now 11:00 pm on the 31 st and I know, that you all know, that we must be on passage as I have finally gotten down to completing my blog entries. Sorry for the deluge. There was a 1/4 moon shining, but it is dark black now, there is a moderate swell so the ride is comfortable and there is only 6 knots of wind. Our position is lat. 22.37.784 S and long. 164.04.602 E.

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Anchoring Practise

2011-11-01T08:54:00.001-07:00

Finally, we imagine that the winds have died down, at least our weather program indicates that they should only be about 12 to 15 knots (normal trade wind speeds). Regardless, we have done all that we can in Prony Bay and need to move on. Our choice destination is Mato Island. Mato is a submerged horseshoe shaped reef with a large rock island (the size of a large barn) on one side. There are three sail boats anchored inside the light blue sandy reef and there are kite surfers racing back and forth over any clear space. The weather guy is wrong again, the wind is still pushing 25 knots and there is a 2 foot chop on the water in the anchorage. Well, why can't we anchor on the lee side of the big rock island? It is sheltered from the wind and the water is nice and calm, but after three attempts to get the anchor hooked, we understand why there is no little anchor symbol on the chart... the bottom is smooth rock with no holding. Mato is another beautiful little white sand, blue water location that needs flat calm weather. Off we go to our next choice, the west side of Ouen Island, to hide from the south easterly winds, in the bay of the Turtle. According to our guide books, this should be a good anchorage and it has some interesting things to see and do on land. We anchor once beside a catamaran. The wind comes up and over the hills in front of us and the swell seems to find us too. The catamaran moves on and we decide to move to where it was anchored, closer to shore and maybe out of the swell. Still no peace. We up anchor again and head north along the island's west coast to Bay Ue, it has to be better there! There are three sail boats all hugging the shore line in a row, so we pull up the end of the line and anchor for a sixth time today. There is still strong gusting wind, but no swell. Whew, we can rest here and well deserved after a full day of anchor practise.

We find a great dive location at the small islet Tioae, off shore of the bay. Between the dive (we found Four octopus here!), climbing a shale covered hill to get a bird's eye view of the bay and long walks on the mile long beach picking shells, we manage to spend a couple of peaceful days.

Its time for some company again. Jackster and Oso Blanco are out of the marina now, so we agree to meet them at Island Mbe Kouen. This is our choice of anchorage and it is strongly recommended for winds such as we are "Still" getting. I don't know what kind of boats these guide writers traveled in, but they certainly had to be tiny craft to consider these "recommended" anchorages any kind of good. Mbe Kouen is literally a pile of sand with a reef around it and another reef at a right angle to it. Oh, no, another gorgeous bit of tropical beach and water that could use a big dose of calm weather. But we three boats are hardy sea boats now, so bring on the wind and waves, we can take it! We have pot luck dinner on board Oso Blanco. David plays taxi service with his dingy as it is too windy at 30 plus knots for us to set ours down safely. He is soaked to the skin after bashing through the waves from boat to boat. The evening is full of laughter and good food while the wind huffs and puffs outside our doors. By morning, Oso has exploded their anchoring bridle and all of the chaffing gear on ours is shredded. Eric's creaky voice (from lack of sleep) comes over the radio at 7:00 am "Anybody else had enough yet?" We all had. Jacqui was charged with picking the next anchorage and off we all trooped, two 64 ft Nordhavns and one 54 ft Amel sail boat, to Tiare on the main island of New Caledonia. This turns out to be a more protected bit of water, but sadly still too rough for us to do anything more than dingy to shore for a long beach walk. The sun is at least shining. We make the gruesome discovery of the body of a large turtle washed up on the beach. No visible causes of death, maybe the ingestion of a plastic bag which turtles mistake as jelly fish - their favorite food. The winds have calmed a bit by evening and our local boat gathering on Oso is as boisterous as ever. Why always on Oso? Because Eric and Ann's young son Bear (9 yrs) has all of his entertainment there and doesn't have to be bored with "adult stuff" by coming to either our boat or Jackster.

The next morning dawns, sunny and wouldn't you know it, dead calm! Great! (said with disgust) Glen and I have to head into the marina to get our visas to Australia applied for and inform the proper authorities of our upcoming arrival. This requires internet. Needless to say we are greatly disappointed to think we are going to be missing out on snorkeling and maybe even diving in these wonderful conditions. Oh, but our sadness is short lived as by the time we reach the marina, the ever present wind is happening again and reports from "the Gang" say the water fun, proved negative. So, O.K., fine, we'll go do some work!

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Isle of Pines

2011-11-01T08:54:00.000-07:00

We wake up to find that we are anchored in what seems like the middle of a huge body of water. We are in the west arm of Rade du Norde an arm of Prony Bay. Who cares? We had a nice calm sleep with no visitors.

Our destination today is Isle of Pines, one of New Caledonia's Gems and as the name would imply, it is covered with their signature, tall, graceful pines. We are meeting Oso Blanco there, they have been anchoring out for the past two weeks with guests on board and are short of some supplies (liquid supplies) which we are bringing for them. The anchorage is Bay Kuto and it is definitely popular as there are about 15 boats all tucked in. It is truly a beautiful place. We do a dingy ride to shore so that we can do a walk around and are treated to the finest, white sand beaches we have yet to encounter. Like baby powder, rich, soft, shimmering. There are sunbathers everywhere as there are a number of resorts and guest houses. We are in search of the elusive internet signal, but the New Cal's have seclusion down to an art. There is internet there, but not for us to access. Rats! It is so hard to keep up with business and communications to home out here. O.K. so when on a beautiful beach….. take a walk and enjoy it. So we did. Eric and Ann have made dinner reservations (us included) for a nice restaurant on the beach. Happy Hour is done on the boat then we all dingy'd in for a very nice dinner and good company. They leave in the morning to slowly make their way back for their guest's departure.

The idyllic conditions of the bay were not to continue. During the night, the winds increased to 25 knots and the swell came into the anchorage making for a very rough night which was made even rougher by the early 5:00 am awakening by the sound of scrapping on the boat's hull. One of the other sail boats had dragged it's anchor and was sitting under our bow scratching up and down on our stainless bow plate and nearby fiberglass. We have finally been scared by our cruising life! Much French exclaiming and waving of hands (whatever that all means!!!) we both pull up and re-set further apart. We hang out for the day, hoping that things will calm down but by the next morning, we've had enough and head out to find calmer waters. The Isle of Pines is beautiful, but only in beautiful weather.

Back to Prony we go, it is a vast protected inlet really, with multiple bays. In this direction of wind, Prony is the only secure anchorage we can see in the South Lagoon. We stop for one night in Baie de la Somme. It isn't all that pretty, the area is rather dry, with red cracked hills covered with scrubby growth, but there is a dive site near here that we want to do, "the Needle". It is an underwater pinnacle formed by a hot mineral spring coming from the ocean floor. The architecture is wonderful and the sea life is varied and interesting with some very large fish as permanent residents. This area, New Caledonia, is colder water diving, average water temp is 73 degrees, where as Fiji was 80 degrees, so we dig out our 5 mil wet suits in order to enjoy the below surface sites. Another day finds us in the Carenage anchorage , there is a nice walk here and a hot pool (luke warm). In all, we hang out for three days hoping for the winds to go away. Not much like a tropical paradise right now!

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Exploring New Cal's South Lagoon

2011-10-31T13:04:00.000-07:00

We've met a very nice couple from Australia, Norbert and Sharon, their boat Cadeau is docked behind ours. They have been a fountain of information for us with regard to Noumea and for our upcoming trip to Australia. They walk everywhere! (We are getting better at that - taxi prices dictate!) We all hoofed off to the Yacht Club at Port Pleasance (a mere 100 miles away) in order to watch the semi final world cup rugby game between France and Wales. Upon entering the building the first people we see are David and Jacqui from Jackster, they have JUST arrived from Vanuatu. They've thrown the anchor out, changed their clothes and dingy'd over to watch the game. Jacqui is a ruby NUT. Glen and I are still trying to sort out the rules, but Norbert/Sharon and David/Jacqui are all happy to coach us through the game, even though the commentary is completely in French (only Jacqui speaks French). We have a great time razzing the fellows across the table who are cheering for France as we have all aligned ourselves with Wales on Jacqui's recommendation. It is a fun evening. On the walk back, Norbert and Glen whinned so much about being hungry that Sharon had us on for some snacks and of course a night cap.

It is Oct 16, 2011. We've walked to and from Mass on this lovely Sunday morning. David and Jacqui are at our boat when we return and the kidnap case of the Costa del Mar sunglasses is concluded. They return Glen's sunglasses. Coffee on the back of the boat is so much nicer when it is shared with friends. At 1:30 pm we cast the dock lines off to head out for 10 days of exploring the Southern Lagoon. The weather has been warm and windy but wind doesn't matter when you are on the dock.

Because it is a short day of cruising, we head for the north side of Ouen Island for a tiny indented bay, Kouo, arriving about 5:00pm. It is a lovely snug little bay surrounded by palm trees, mangroves and their famous towering pine trees. We are the only boat there. The late afternoon is magical as we relax on the back deck and watch Mother Nature get ready for night time. There are several turtles breaking the surface of the flat clam water as they bob up and down feeding. It is such a thrill to see them just doing their thing. The trees are filled with song birds that are trying to outdo each other with their music. Slowly darkness falls and everything becomes still and silent. By now Glen and I have finished our BBQ dinner and are on to our next level of entertainment, the underwater lights off of the back transom. It is very interesting to see what little sea creatures and fishes are attracted to the glowing lights. Tonight though, we attract something very un-desirable!

A small motor boat, overflowing with 9 young men, pulls suddenly up to our back swim grid. They are local Kanak men, all sporting "Bob Marley" hair-do's, and they have clearly been doing some sort of partying. They are all speaking loudly and at one time, each saying something different. These are not the shy respectful locals that we have become accustomed to from Fiji and Vanuatu. They are aggressive and bold. A demand for whiskey or beer! Where is the owner? How many people on board? This is OUR island! ... Glen managed to diffuse the situation like a true diplomat, discouraging them from coming on board and eventually getting an invitation to visit their village the next day. When they finally left to continue their "good times" we were sooo relieved. A snap decision was made to up anchor and head out in the darkness to someplace safer just in case they decided to come back later.

In the blackness of night we venture into Prony Bay, hoping that the charts are accurate so we don't run ourselves up on a rock. The big nickel mine on the shore of the bay is lit up like a small city. We coast into an area where there are several other boats and put down our anchor. Good night!

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New Caledonia - Noumea

2011-10-16T06:07:00.000-07:00

We arrived into the pass on the reef to enter into New Caledonia exactly as planned at 6:30 am. The visibility was good, the currents non existent and we made good way on through to the town of Noumea, Port du Sud marina. The clearing in went seamlessly with Chloe from Noumea Yacht Services doing all of the work. French is definitely the language of choice here and we would still be in customs trying to explain ourselves.

So far, we haven't done anything extraordinary. A walking tour of the down town area, eating out at a few nice restaurants, cleaning up the boat, checking out the market to replenish all of the stuff we had to throw over board because quarantine wouldn't allow it into the country and just hanging out. We could have been gone to the outer reefs a bit sooner, but we really want to go to Mass at the St. Joeseph's Cathedral on Sunday and will head out after that.

A side note - drinking the water from green coconuts and then cracking them open with the machette (without whacking your hand off) to eat the soft pudding like flesh, is truly a delight that we have discovered in the South Pacific. Just wanted to record that for memory's sake.

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On to New Caledonia

2011-10-11T07:16:00.002-07:00

Vanuatu has been great. This is definitely someplace that we will come back too. We have only briefly touched the secrets and treasures that she holds. There is such a rich cultural fabric here and the people are very nice.

So now we are traveling south to New Caledonia. This is the second night shift and we should be arriving at the outer reefs at 6:30 am - planned for daylight entry. Current position lat. 21.58.165 S and 167.15.782 E long. We've only encountered three other vessels so far. Pretty big ocean. The travel conditions have been great, low swell and light winds. It kind of sucks entering some of these countries as they restrict all of the food items that you can import, so I've had to get rid of all of our fresh food. It is a good thing we don't want to eat too much when we travel. Yeah I know it is the same in Canada and the U.S. but it still seems like such a waste.

So New Cal, here we come.

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Tanna Island and Yasur volcano

2011-10-11T07:16:00.001-07:00

The easiest way to explore a town when you are boating is to have to find the immigration and customs offices to check in. No body ever knows where they are and you get a different set of directions from each person you ask. Finally we have the check in detail taken care of and actually browse around the town a bit. It is a nice place with everything you need for shopping, the usual arts and craft stores, Chinese everything stores, several supermarkets and even some upscale clothing stores (French influence). They have a fantastic market. Glen scores his coveted white radishes and a watermelon.

Oct 7 We say goodbye to Abbie, she flys home to Australia today. Now it's just Glen and I on the boat again.

Oct 8 - 5:00 am is an early wakeup call because we have to be on shore for 6:00 to be picked up to start our day tour to Tanna Island and the volcano of Mt Yasur. Yasur is the world's most accessible active volcano. Currently it is in Stage 2 activity with Stage 4 being the highest or most unstable grade. Earlier this year Yasur was in Stage 4 and was closed for viewing. We chose to do the day tour thing because it is a day's time to travel by boat, the anchorage there is rough and unreliable, plus your boat gets all covered with volcanic ash - a cleaning nightmare. So we fly at 7:30, arrive at 8:00 and by the time the guide/driver/tour operator get organized we head out at 8:30. It is a 2 hour drive to the volcano, you should have an hour at the volcano and a 2 hour drive back to check in for the 2:50 flight back to Port Vila. The drive is interesting as we see most of the island, but our driver decides to play "bus" picking up and dropping off anybody who wants a ride along the way thus increasing our drive time and shortening our volcano time to 1/2 hour as now there is concern that we can't make it back to the airport in time. But after rushing us through our volcano visit, they take another road back and wonder of wonders, it turns out to be a much better/faster road and we make it back with about an hour to spare (that could have been volcano time!), plus they hit us up for another $1000 vatu (they felt the tour operator hadn't paid them enough for taking the day off of work to show us around). But the volcano.....! The raw power that the earth holds! The mountain is a pile of volcanic ash looking much like a huge pile of black sand. It is a two minute walk up to the crater from the parking area. That caused me to huff a bit - been on the boat too long - to carry a 30 lb pack and ascend straight up. You would laugh at my whining, it is a poured concrete ramp - looks like wheel chair access, but not - too steep. Yasur greets us with a loud roar of puking lava that we can see over the rim as we walk up. There are three vents, A, B, C. A and B are most active. In the short time that we are on top looking into the bowels of this angry sore on the earth's crust we are treated to regular mini eruptions. The sound effects are much the same as the jet cars staging on the drag strip, loud and vibrating. The molten lava is flung high into the sky, (you probably aren't going to like my analogy but this is what I thought when I saw the first one go off) to me it resembled dead bodies being thrown into the air and flopping gracelessly back to the earth in a crumpled fall (yeah I know - gross). We could have watched for a very long time, it is quite mesmerizing. The belching steam and gas, the red glowing lava that cools to black rock in the time it goes up into the air and tumbles back to the earth. It would have been nice to hike around the rim, which a person could, but we didn't have time. They have several resorts near by that cater to volcano watchers and you can come to see it at night too, that would be wild. Maybe next time.

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Efate Island - Havannah Harbour

2011-10-11T07:16:00.000-07:00

Our 6 hour trip from Maskelynes to Efate is boringly smooth. Glen and Trish were disappointed (Not) that we didn't have huge waves and howling winds. Upon arrival we adjust our chosen anchoring spot several times based on a variety reasons and finally decide on a spot directly in front of the village of Port Havannah. It is a beautiful spot and two other sailing vessels are anchored there as if to confirm the wisdom of our choice. A small river veiled by mangroves sends out a procession of local dugouts from the village. Frank engages us in conversation and we run down a list of fruit and vegis that we could use and are happy when he says he can get us fresh tomatoes and green coconuts. He'll come back in an hour. His spunky young son is paddling beside Frank in his own canoe that he has made and is quite proud to pose for a photo. They'll be back in an hour, so we decide to see what is behind the mangrove curtain and pile into the whaler to check it out. A surreal world of rain forest jungle and quite greets us. The river is only about 2 feet deep and clear as glass so we can see the little critters crawling on the bottom. It is fun creeping along through the overhanging branches and vines, glimpsing houses set back on the bank. One family has built a retaining wall of coral rock thus creating their own private swimming hole, which in today's heat is being used to it's purpose. An Australian woman calls hello to us and our ensuing chat reveals that this is the home of her son and daughter-in-law. We learn lots things just by saying Hi to strangers. The river shallows to the point that we get grounded and have to turn back. Frank is waiting by the boat for us with our shopping. Nice. Happy hour consists of homemade pina colodas using our new fresh coconut water and flesh with the last of our Fiji pineapples. A dash of Malibu Rum - Yummy. The usual evening calm is disrupted by a sudden squall. Rain dumps from the sky and we get our howling winds. Guess what? Yep, the catamaran anchored beside us drags off of it's anchor and comes very close to impact with us before he gets his engine started and moves off to re-set. All kinds of entertainment for us.

The morning breaks bright and sunny. We move out back down the harbour about 2 hours to a location called Paul's Rock. This is noted to be a great dive site. We anchor the big boat away from the reef and ferry to the site in the whaler. It really is a nice dive with lots of fish, some new ones that we have only seen in books before, so that is a bonus. Our dive takes about an hour, we rinse off the gear, haul anchor and head for Port Vila - about an hour away. Port Vila is the capital city and is located on the south east corner of Efate Island. It has a large deep harbour. Our initial parking spot has a slight roll to it, but is manageable for comfort. The guys are ecstatic, they finally have internet. Wow, the stress it causes to be disconnected for 2 weeks. About 5:00 pm a rain storm rolls in challenging our holding position and filling the whaler with rain water. Thankfully it passes in an hour and we can bail the whaler out (self bailing pump is broken - new one still in package!). We are wanting a bit of urban pampering (dinner out) so break out the flash light to find the dingy dock as we motor slowly through the sleeping boats (boats are sleeping - people aren't it's only 6:30 pm, but dark). In Port Vila, they have these buses (mini vans) that charge $150 vatu per person (approx $1.50) and take you pretty much door to door, but they do pick up and drop off others along the way. This is much less expensive than taxi rides if you have the leisure time to ride around a bit. So we grab a bus and head for Kanpai - Japanese Restaurant. It is a lovely evening out and no more rain. Unfortunately though, the storm has raised the swell level into the bay and we spend the night rocking. Trish figured it could be patented as "fitness in bed" as you have to brace your body from one side to the next to keep from rolling out.

Needless to say, but the first thing we do in the morning is up anchor and go searching for a calmer spot.

Today is Oct 5 and Glen and Trish fly out of Vanuatu for Australia. We finish our day off doing boat stuff, it is "Constitution Day Holiday" here.

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Maskelynes

2011-10-10T07:07:00.000-07:00

From Ambrym Island it is a three hour hop over to the Maskelyne Islands. This is a group of small islands off of the south tip of the very large island of Malekula. We choose to anchor in a calm bay beside the island of Awai. It is picture perfect calm and before very long there are several dugout canoes full of people, mostly older children - it is Saturday today, silently gliding around the boat so that they can get a better look. One man stops to chat and ask if we would like any vegis or fruit. You can trade or pay for produce, it just depends on what you have to offer and what they are needing. Everybody in Vanuatu speaks pretty good English and the main mode of travel on water is by outrigger dugout canoes. There aren't a lot of fuel stations around for motor boats. We have some great pictures of the people in their canoes. To throw a little contrast into the scene, we drop our whaler down so that we can travel in relative speed and comfort to visit the large village of Peskarus on the island of Uliveo. It is Saturday and everybody is just hanging out. We pull in as close as possible to shore and hop out into knee deep water to wade in, toss the sand anchor out and let the boat float free. We meet Gren (sounds like Glen) the Chief, who is conveniently sitting in the shade of a huge tree along with several of other village men. After our chat, we have asked permission to anchor in their water and to tour their village, Josaiah is elected to be our guide. The village is large and picturesque. The house yards are set in a grid pattern with well packed walking paths as dividers. Everything is so clean - the Chief strictly enforces village rules and no littering is one of them. The same thatched houses with raked dirt yards, stake enclosures for the coveted pigs, the odd dog - in god shape, not many cats, some chickens and loads of children (again I have forgotten my candy bag - must be boatzymers). We travel down a wide packed dirt road to the school where we meet the headmaster, Benson and a young teacher, Bill. Bill is the son of the Chief on Avok Island and he agrees to ask permission for us to dive on the reef tomorrow. With our tour now finished, we discover that the whaler has floated away from the beach on it's anchor line. A quick word from an elder on the beach has a gaggle of small boys bobbing out to guide the boat back to shore. It is so cute, they are like a flock of little ducklings and make as much noise too with their chatter. They happily pose for a picture with the stray boat. Our afternoon is spent lazing on the boat. It is sunny with a light breeze, things just don't get much better. We won't get into any cultural activities here, though the area is rich in history, as we don't have the time to spend. We have to have Glen and Trish to Port Vila for a flight to Australia by Oct 5.

Our dive the next day is good. Especially for Glen G. this is his third open water dive and we get to spend a long time underwater oogling the fishes and checking out the crevices and caves. It is not nearly as packed with life as we are used too from our Fiji experience, but still good. Again we loll around all afternoon like we are guests on a cruise ship. Not too many canoes out, it is Sunday. One fellow does stop in to ask if we would like some lobster. Of course! So he promises to get some for us tonight (same promise was made yesterday). About 1:00 am I am awakened by.... what? Then I notice a light reflecting off of the boat. A quick inspection out of the port hole confirms that somebody with a flashlight is outside of the boat. Glen and I go out to meet them - four fellows in a large dugout - they have eight beautiful lobsters for us. For a mere $7000 vatu ($70.00 cdn) we have the makings of a feast. Our lobster dealer tells us that he went hunting for the lobster last night too, but he took his wife with him and she is not very good help, so tonight he has proper hunters with him. The guys catch the lobster at low tide at night when the lobsters come out on top of the reef. They shine a flashlight into their eyes and sneak a hand in sideways to grab them. One guy asks if we have cigarettes, but Glen tells him "No. Anyway smoking is not good for you." To which one of the other men responds to the first, "Yeah, It is not good for you!" They all got a laugh out of that. Nice guys.

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Ambrym Island

2011-10-10T00:33:00.000-07:00

By now, heading out for the 6 hour passage from Santo to Ambrym Island doesn't phase Glen and Trish at all. They can even walk up and down the stairs while we are underway and carry things in their hands to boot! We anchor in front of the village Ronon. This is our first village visit in Vanuatu and we are not sure what the protocol is for greetings and permission. It turns out that the Ni-Vanuatu (what the people are called - Ni-Vans for short) have it figured out that it is better to charge a nominal fee for everything rather than accept a gift of kava like the Fijians do. You still need to ask for a chief. We are met by a fellow named Ruben and he gives us the low down. Glen and I arrange for a village tour for tomorrow as well as a performance of their traditional Rom Dance. The Rom Dance is one of many traditional dances, each island of Vanuatu seems to have their own special dance. Back at the boat we all kick back and enjoy a beautiful still evening, no wind and flat calm water. We are dining on the top deck, soaking up the perfect weather and in the fading shimmer of the day on the water a dugon lazily feeding is our entertainment. Dugons are similar to manatees.

Abbie decides to forego the village tour so Trish and I and the two Glens pile into the rubber dingy and head to black volcanic sand beach. The gentle swell breaking on the shore is going to be a challenge for us to land and not end up capsized sideways. Good timing on Captain Glen's part sends us in between waves and everybody climbs safely and gracefully out of the dingy and onto the beach. Ruben and Barry meet us. Barry is going to be our guide for the $850 Vatu per person tour (roughly $8.50 Canadian). He is a professional guide for their village. What a lovely clean and organized village. The houses are mostly made of traditional building materials - pole frames covered with palm leaf thatching on the roof and woven panels for the walls. Barry indicates that the houses are quite durable and very easy to replace if they get cyclone damaged. There are a gaxillion children and I have forgotten to bring my big bag of candies for them. The people of Ambrym are well know as being some of the best wood carvers in the South Pacific, so part of our tour is spent shopping at each "carver's" home. Both Glens are lucky to find the perfect souvenirs for themselves. Before we head back to the boat for lunch, Barry wonders if we would be interested in having a feast on the beach in the evening. Great, this will be a great cultural experience for Glen and Trish - we accept.

Our Rom Dance is scheduled for 3:00 pm. The truck to taxi us up to the village of Fanla to see it is late (no problem, Barry calls this "Black Man's time", in reality, just some repair work needed to be done. Trish gets the cab seat of the little Toyota 4 X 4 truck and Glen, Glen, Abbie, Barry and I get to sit in the box. Just like being back on the farm! It turns out, that the trip in the truck through the rain forest, 4 wheeling through ravines and up a very steep path (can't really call it a road) is a very good part of the outing. If all we had gotten to do was drive through the forest, that would have been fantastic, getting to see Fanla village and the Rom Dance is a bonus. There are two volcanos on Ambrym and it is the center for traditional magic and sorcery, there is a lot of meaning to this dance and it would take pages for me to do a history lesson here. There are only male dancers half of them are completely covered in a cloak of dried banana leaves and have large carved masks with flowing beads and hair attached - they look like scary little huts stomping around - they carry a woven thing that looks like a club, but has rattles on it. The other half of the men are nearly naked - they have a wide belt of bark around their waist, a banana leaf wrapper on their penis and a tail made out of leaves. These are men of rank as they wear curled boar tusk necklaces. They also stomp their feet, but they are the singers. One man beats a rythym on a hand held wooden tube. It was quite different to any of the South Pacific dancing we have seen thus far. I am imagining that google should have some pictures of Rom dancing. I remembered to take a bag of candy and Glen gave sweets to all of the children and smiling older women. He gets the kids to pose for pictures then delights them by showing them the results.

We have time to head back to the boat for "Happy Hour" before our feast on the beach. It is dark now and all 5 of us are in the dingy using a flashlight (that doesn't shine more than 10 feet out) to find our way to Barry on the beach. There are five different versions as to where we should head. Finally a flash light from the beach gives us a point to aim at and we arrive in fine form. Barry and his wife (he calls her his girlfriend) have prepared roast suckling pig, taro with coconut cream drizzle, cooking banana with pumpkin topping and kasava with green cabbage/coconut milk topping. Everything is displayed like a big plate of cakes on several huge banana leaves layered over some packing quilts on the sandy beach. Desert is big wedges of papaya and fat ripe bananas. You don;t need plates and cutlery just pick it up and eat it. I know you won't know what most of this stuff is or have any idea of how it tastes, but let me assure you that it was fabulous. We supplied the beverages. Barry's Uncle brought some kava. We ate and peppered Barry and his family with questions. The conversation was good. The funny thing about being invited for dinner though is that they don't eat until after you have gone, even though we pleaded with them to eat, they waited until we left. Very gracious hosts. We slid seamlessly back to the big boat and re-hashed our very full, very fun day.

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Rendevous of Friends

2011-10-07T09:09:00.000-07:00

Today, after a leisurely breakfast, all of us (5) pile into the rubber tender to go to the Aores restaurant where we catch the water taxi across the channel to Luganville. We are going to explore it's great expanse.... one main street. Half way across, I am reminded that we are leaving port the next morning very early so we have to clear out of Luganville Customs today. So while everybody else gets to enjoy a lovely lunch and some sight seeing, I head back on the water taxi. Now I wish I could say that I am an accomplished dingy driver, but sadly that is not the case. I am equiped with last minute instructions from Glen on starting. I pleased myself greatly by being able to get the engine swung down into the water and started! So far so good. Some helpful soul cast my lines off and now I am at the mercy of "The Dingy"! It stalls. I restart it. It stalls. I restart it and without releasing the choke put it into gear (luckily forward).....Whoa! the gears clunk and the little rubber pony bucks back in the water before jumping forward like a race horse. I shut the choke, the dingy stalls. *&%$@! I'm floating aimlessly out in the channel. O.K. once more.... same technique aaanndd we go. OMG steering is not nearly so easy as Glen makes it look. As I am now doing donuts one way and then the next, not even being cool enough to look like that is what I am planning to do, issuing all kinds of surprised "oops" and "aak" sounds (and God knows what else - my "remember this moment" recorder was not ON). I did not even look back to give a sheepish grin to the people on the dock. I was now trying to feather the throttle between flying and dying. I finally arrive at the boat and the decision of "head on collision" (at low speed) with the swim grid is how I choose to transfer myself from one vessel to the next. Hummmm? Glen didn't tell me how to shut it off once the stupid thing doesn't stall when you release the throttle. I assume that the "kill" switch will do the trick until I find out if there is a better way. I boost my energy level for the return ordeal by having a tasty lunch of leftovers (it was good). Going back was not quite so traumatic and thankfully there was nobody around to witness my crash into the dock (why change what works?) to get tied back up. Finally I am back on the Luganville side of the water and we get ourselves cleared for departure. A trip to the market was in order and we stocked up with beautiful local produce - I love these markets.

Whilest the Glens and Trish were out for lunch they met up with David and Jacqui of Jackster fame (their boat name) so invited them out for a drink on board then dinner out at Aores resort. We had already made arrangements with Eric and Ann on Oso Blanco to do the same as they are planning on leaving for New Caledonia in the morning. As well, we had Scott and Annya from Beach House over as well. Big crowd for the old Mystery Ship, but she handled it. The staff of the Resort sent their water taxi out to get us (big numbers and money talks) which was way easier than taking three dingys (drunk dingy drivers are even worse than me on the water). The evening was too short, the conversation never stopped. Suddenly we are saying goodbye to everyone. We borrowed Eric's whaler (way faster than our rubber dingy - our whaler is still up on big boat) to drive David and Jacqui back to Luganville, they still had a taxi ride to another bay and a dingy ride back out to their boat. This was a really good day.

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Luganville - Vanuatu

2011-09-30T11:34:00.000-07:00

We slid into Luganville on Espiritu Santo, Vanuatu at about 1:30 pm and anchored in front of the town, hopped into the dingy to go see the Customs, Immigration and Quarantine people. This is not hard, just time consuming as it entails visiting three different offices and a trip to the bank then a trip to the Govenment Cashier, all at different ends of the town. Each place has it's own set of forms to fill in and the cashier closes at 3:30 pm. There was a very long line in the bank, so yes, we were not completely sure that we would have the process done in one afternoon. Oh we stress so much. We did get the formalities done and even had a bit of time to pick up phone SIM cards - must be connected you know. Back to the boat - we had to sweet talk the fellow, whose house dock we used without permission (how were we to know) to unlock the yard gate so we could get our dingy - then get to the boat. We upped anchor and moved across the channel to a slightly more protected area in front of the Aore Resort. This is a bonus as we are tired of boat food and are very happy to all pile into the dingy to go out for dinner. Glen and Trish are quite sporting and thought nothing of trusting our wobbly little boat to deliver them to shore and back. Even though we have had a wonderful crossing from Fiji to Vanuatu, we are all very happy to be sitting calmly in still water.

Well we waste no time - the next morning we are up early, getting our dive gear all in order so we can go dive the President Coolidge with Aqua Marine Divers. This will be Glen Gurr's first ocean dive! The dive master whisks us down to a numbing 100 ft below the surface to see the ghostly remains of the once proud vessel. Her hull is still mostly intact and she lays on her port side. Wreck diving is not really my thing, I don't like to go into small dark places under so much water, but this was more an exploratory dive around the exterior, so O.K. There are divers who come from all over the world to dive this old ship numerous times to penetrate every nook and cranny. All but two of the 5000 plus personnel escaped with their lives when the ship was intentionally run aground in an attempt to save her after she had run into some of her own country's mines. But the holds are still filled with her cargo, weaponry, etc. An underwater treasure box. Our second dive of the day is equally interesting and pertains to WWII also, Million Dollar point. This is where the US general ran every piece of equipment that the US army had in Vanuatu off of a long jetty into the deep water, when the presiding French/English governments of the day refused to pay for what they perceived was equipment that was going to be left behind anyway upon the US withdrawal after the war. Trucks, tanks, bulldozers, jeeps, cranes - you name it - is all in a mountainous heap of tangled wheels and metal just off shore in about 100 ft of water. This dive I liked, the sea life has made it's home amongst the litter which is nice, but it is just such a shocking waste when you think of all the good this equipment could have been used for, in this developing country, in it's after war life. We replayed all of our adventures for Trish when we got back to the boat. She had spent a leisurely day on the upper deck reading and watching the activity of the surrounding bay.

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Final Stretch to Vanuatu

2011-09-26T05:45:00.000-07:00

It has been a great day on the water today. We spent the majority of the day enjoying ourselves on the upper fly bridge. First land encountering should happen at 7:00 am Sept 26/11 when we pass between Pentecost and Ambrym Islands. We'll angle north toward Luganville on Espiritu Santos from there. I am imagining that I can smell land even as I sit here typing. In truth it is possible, it's just I don't believe my senses are that acute, so it must be wishful thinking. Current position - 16.10.353 lat and 168.44.554 long - 2:51 am Sept 26/11. (I believe we have a time change here, so it is probably only 1:51 am - it is dark! O.K.?)

A speck on the radar (another vessel) ran parallel to us for the better part of the day before the boat hailed us on the VHF radio. It is the catamaran "Beach House" whose owner and crew we met in Viani Bay. It was entertaining to hear of their travels in the midst of our now "old" crossing experience. Small things are greatly amusing right now.

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In the Middle

2011-09-25T07:51:00.000-07:00

We've reached our mid way point on our trip from Fiji to Vanuatu. Strangely it looks exactly like every other point along the way since we lost sight of land - Go figure! Also a bit of a surprise is the number of fishing vessels (four so far) that are exactly on the same route as us, but in reverse, so with all of this ocean around us, the possibility of a head on collision is rather high. Glen and Trish are holding up well with the water conditions being very nice, just an easy swell and not much wind, so the boat doesn't move around too much. It is a pleasant 23 degrees right now at 4:20 am as I write (type) this and it was up to 25 during the day. For the google earth people, we are at 16.50.171 lat and 171.48.978 long. A very tiny speck in a very large ocean.

It seems that the Coolidge dive site in Luganville is very popular and that there are a lot of tourists in Vanuatu. Our friend boats, Jackster and Oso Blanco have emailed us to say book now so we can get a spot to dive this week. You can only dive the sites with local dive companies and they are fully booked. Who'da thunk? So we have. The Coolidge is a WWII ship that sunk after hitting friendly mines (that sounds so strange!) Also in the same vicinity is what they call "Million Dollar Point", this is where the US army bulldozed all of their equipment into the ocean when the French decided not to pay for it, opting instead to take what they wanted when the US went home. So no money, no equipment! We are looking forward to seeing both of these underwater steel graveyards.

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Leaving Fiji for Vanuatu

2011-09-24T08:42:00.002-07:00

So I guess you can tell that we're back on the boat, based on the flurry of blog entries, I finally have time to write. We had such a frantic month at home trying to fit all of our work in that all of my good intentions for uploading lots of pictures and writing adventures never happened. Even out here on the boat, my freest time for writing is when I am on late night watch and everyone is asleep. Yes, I can multi task - watch so I don't run over anybody out here and write at the same time.

We arrived back in Fiji Sept 20 along with our friends Glen and Trish Gurr. We have a few days before we can head out as we await baby calm ocean waters and winds. We really want this to be a good experience for Glen and Trish, having them be sea sick for the first part of their holiday just wouldn't be good. A market experience fills one day with a stop at an Italian deli - yes, really - with wine tasting and food sampling, thus toping up the ship's stores for travel. Glen and Glen finished the AC glycol top up without any further excitement (we had to import a proper pump in our suitcase). Now we are one day out on our way to the island country of Vanuatu. Supposedly a little bit less developed than Fiji with lots of wilderness and equally friendly people.

I need to tell everybody about packing our suitcases. We have all of our clothes on the boat but each time we travel from home to the boat we have two full suitcases. Full of boat parts, coffee beans, cheese whiz, Miracle Whip, Lindt Milk Chocolate bars, magazines, books and whatever else we need that we can only get at home. Quite funny at screening times in the airports. So far so good with not having anything taken away from us.

The current conditions on the water are - 2 meter swell, short period intervals, light wind and dawn is happening. All is pretty good. Lat 17.31.093 S. Long 174.58.777 E.

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Fiji Highlights

2011-09-24T08:42:00.001-07:00

Fiji has been everything and so much more than we had expected. The people stand out with their friendly welcoming attitude. They all holler "Bula!" and smile widely when they meet you. The landscape is beautiful, though no more so than any of the other island countries that we have been to. The weather really has been pleasant. Hot, but not too hot, sunny and the occasional rainy day. The diving has been nothing less than superb. My number one spot has to be the "chimneys" by Namena Reef. The visual excitement of seeing such voluminous clouds of brilliantly colored little fishes that move with the unison of a single thought will stay in my memory forever. I don't need photography for me to recall the awesome beauty of the clustered soft corals with their kaleidoscope colors or the thrill of finding two miniscule red and yellow cleaner shrimp in a crevice. My number two favorite diving spot is shared by Nananu i Ra and Jack's Viani Bay - Rainbow Reef. Both fantastic beyond description. Basically, you can fall into the water anywhere is Fiji and have a good dive

A tumble of feelings occur when you shower on the swim grid of the boat for all of the world to see. (Don't worry, I'm wearing my swim suit so I don't freak anybody out.) The bay is calm and secluded (almost) and the sun is gently shining, warming the cool fresh water that rinses the salt away. Feelings - giddy, because it feels like a guilty pleasure - vertigo, as I lean my head back over the ocean behind me, eyes closed - tingly toes, my heels are hanging over the edge of the swim platform and my toes are my only solid contact (will I fall backward?) - happiness, for the freedom of it all. Showering off the back has become something I look forward to after a day of saltwater activity. Fiji is the perfect environment.

We will definitely return to this country, sevu sevu and all.

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Nananu i Ra back to Port Denarau

2011-09-24T08:42:00.000-07:00

Our next day diving with Papoo off of Nananu i Ra is a change up. We head out into extreme current and claw our way along a rocky outcropping to a spot where sharks are known to feed. Just reef sharks, so we are not afraid of being the main course. There are quite a number of sharks there and lots of other kinds of fishes who are attracted to the extra food that the swift current brings. Luckily - in my mind anyway - we didn't have to watch the sharks chewing their way through the other fish. I guess they were already full before we happened on the scene. Our second dive was a lovely maze of rock tunnels, passages and outcroppings, lavishly covered with plump soft corals in every color and magnificent fan corals. I have not yet found a sea horse here and no frog fish. All of the local divers tell me they are here in Fiji, but maybe it is just their habit of saying "yes" to everything

Papoo and his shop sponsors, Jane and Charles, held an impromptu party/feast in the evening. Glen, I and Abbie picked up the couple we dove with the first day from their resort in our whaler and made our way to Papoo's shop. Another boater, Philip, and his friend were there too. We brought the beer, Jane and Charles brought the food and Papoo brought the kava. It was a fun night of good food and good conversation. This is our final exploration destination in Fiji as tomorrow we will make our way back across the north side of Viti Levu Island to Port Denarau and that was our starting point two months ago.

It takes us the better part of 8 hours to make the trip from Nananu i Ra to Denarau. The day on the water is one of the finest we have ever had. It is dead calm, the water is so flat that the boat barely causes a wake as we make our way. The reefs are completely visible, such that we could make our way through all of the narrow channels without our charts (a real rarity). Obviously we are on the upper deck soaking all of this finery up. If you appreciate and enjoy the wonderful days, I think they last longer and become more memorable. Glen, not one to spend over long romancing on the splendid surroundings broke the calm by catching a little skip jack ( a type of tuna). A short time later we were all savoring fresh sashimi for lunch and we'll have seared tuna on the BBQ tonight. Yum!

Back at the dock in Port Denarau it is the usual wash the boat and get everything stocked back up and any little repairs taken care of for our next foray into the ocean when we return after our month at home. So it is a couple of busy days before we fly. One of the tasks we need to have done is increasing the percentage of glycol in our air conditioning system so that the compressors don't freeze up should we ever decide to turn on the AC. Two Indian/Fijians from a local refrigeration company come to the boat to do the work along with Glen. So they have to pump the glycol into an already pressurized system. Glen's little on board pump turns out to not be strong enough so the fellows go and get one of their own. They get it all hooked up dockside where the container of glycol is and Glen is monitoring the input down in the lazarette. On goes the pump, BOOM! There is sticky glycol everywhere, all over the back cockpit,floor, walls and dripping from the cockpit ceiling, the hatch to the upper deck was open and the glycol erupted through it to spray the whaler and half of the upper deck. Glen sprang out of the lazarette hatch with a loud "WHAT THE ____!", thus shocking several passersby and causing all of the adjoining boat crews to pause in their work and catch the excitement. Standing on the dock, the two technicians are drowned and dripping with glycol, their stunned expressions convey complete confusion and befuddlement. The one guy is slowly shaking his head as he stares at the blown seals in his pump. Glen is ranting about the mess and this poor fellow still can't believe what has happened to his pump. Remember that these guys are supposed to be the experts!!! Well that particular job did not get done and luckily glycol is easy to clean up. We had quite a giggle afterward, mostly about the tech's stupified reactions.

Our time at home was Aug 18 to Sept 18. Fantastic weather at home too.

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Musket Cove, Yasawa children and Kava

2011-09-21T20:52:00.000-07:00

Bad Fun – Good Fun

2011-08-14T13:47:00.001-07:00

I awoke at about 5:00 am to what I thought was lightening. I registered that the wind was indeed blowing and it was raining. I was about to roll over and continue my sleep when the lightening happened again (no thunder). Hummmm, better look out the window and see how bad this storm is! The good news is that the storm is not so bad, the bad news is that one of the sail boats is dragging anchor and is headed right toward us. "All Hands on Deck!" We rush around making preparations for impact which luckily doesn't happen – all the shouting and flashing of lights woke the fellow and he managed to get hooked in solid again. Now there are three of us all huddled in very close anchorage vicinity. When day finally breaks, the sail boat moves back to his earlier location and because the swing of the other fellow beside us is a little too close for comfort we decide to move also. Two moves later, we have secured ourselves where we are comfortable and NOBODY is going to bother us. This was the bad fun.

We have a taxi booked on the main island of Viti Levu for 10:00 am so off we head for the boat basin at the Wananuka Resort – a short five minute boat ride. Our taxi ride to Rakiraki (the town) was 15 minutes through sugar cane fields and farms on a very, very bumpy road. We only really needed to go to the bank for some cash to feed our diving habit, so once that was done we toured the town – all four streets – it is actually a big square. It is always mandatory to see the local market and there we found Glen's coveted radishes and his necessary watermelon. He has such fun chatting up the selling ladies. After only an hour we have the place covered so we ask at a furniture store (we were getting "top up" cards for our airstick – go figure) where the best place in town was for lunch. The helpful young man directed us to Raj's Wine and Dine. Wine and Dine turns out to be a clean, if spare place on the second floor above the trucking terminal office, we are the only patrons. In normal "safe" tourist mode, we order beer for our drinks and are slightly surprised when they show up in quart bottles – liquid lunch? As we are waiting for our lunches to arrive, the maitre 'd asks if we would like a lesson in making roti – our lunch roti. He traipsed us all back to the kitchen where a smiling young Indian woman (it is an Indian restaurant) showed us the finer points of making roti. We laughed and giggled and took pictures and we think we know how to make roti now. Lunch was very delicious. One final stop was made before we called our taxi for home – I am now the proud owner of a roti board and rolling pin - $6.00 Fijian. This was good fun.

We whizzed all of our goodies back to the big boat, hung out for a bit, cleaned our grubby little boat person selves up and sped back to the Wananuka Resort for a night out and a fantastic "lovo" (traditional dinner). We stopped to talk to their dive shop guys and were shocked to hear that they were going to be putting 44 divers in the water the next day. Boy, are we ever glad we didn't call them for our dive experience – what a gong show that will be. Our way back to the big boat in the dark (3/4 moon – so not too dark) the water is like smooth like oil and the air is a warm caress as we glide almost noiselessly along. Beautiful. This was also good fun.

Nananu-i-Ra

2011-08-14T13:44:00.001-07:00

This is an accidental discovery on our part. No tour books or cruiser advice directed us to stop in Nananu-i-Ra, it just looked like a safe place to anchor on our trip back to Denarau. After wending our way through the entrance reefs we pulled into the perfect parking spot between two sail boats who where up against the island. Beautiful scenery of lovely resort homes to our front, the clear blue ocean to our rear – perfect sunset watching location and the main island of Viti Levu off to our right. There are a couple of resorts on the points facing us on Viti Levu and they are open to outside diners which is a plus, so we'll check that out another day. Diving looked like it would be the thing to do with all of the surrounding reefs (and you know we hate diving J) so we rang up Papoo Divers who are located on the island and arranged to go out the next day. Papoo and his fellows did not disappoint us. They arrived on time to pick us up from the boat and we sped off to the first dive site, Golden Dream. There are two other divers with us, so it is a small group which is the excellent (the only way to be better would be if it were only Glen and I). Golden Dream was exactly that – the tall rock pinnacles were densely covered with beautiful golden soft corals, there were enormous fan corals and of course everything else. It was a fabulous dive that only needed a touch of filtering sunshine to make it glow. Our next dive spot was "Canadian Mushroom". We figured that Papoo was pulling our leg(s) with the name, but he said "no, it was named by a couple of Canadian girls who dove with him when it (the site) was un-named". It turns out to also be an awesome dive. O.K., so now we are hooked, instead of picking up and heading out to the Yasawa group, as was our original plan, we make the choice to stay here for the next four days and dive some more.

Ugly Weather Moves Us On

2011-08-04T18:37:00.000-07:00

Today has been...well...just one of those days. First we had to move our boat to a less rough spot for the night which still left us rocking and rolling throughout. Namena Island is a small dot in the middle of an ocean level reef, so when the wind gets up and the waves start rolling there isn't much shelter. The weather forecaster seems to be off by a day with his predictions. So that was last night, the set up for today. We all wake at dawn, probably because we weren't asleep anyway. Before we can even have a cup of coffee to clear our heads, the first problem is discovered, the railing has torn off of the whaler. Usual practise is to tie the whaler lengthwise along the swim grid when it is not resting atop the big boat, kind of like our own little docking system. I guess the poor little Dear was just having a really wild ride last night and something had to give. $$$$$$$$ Well we are out of here! Enough of this. O.K. I'll put fuel into the day tank and the wing tank (so we have stuff for the engines to work on). Remember, I haven't had coffee yet...Is that really an excuse? Somehow, I make the error (yes, me)of not shutting the wing tank valve off as I move on to fill the day tank and overrun the diesel all over the raw teak decks. AAAAAHH!!!!@#$*&%@%**! Now we are scrubbing decks and pulling the anchor and trying to control the whaler off of the back deck..What a ZOO. We were planning to move back to Makogai island today anyway so our route is all in place. As we poke our nose around the edge of Namena, we discover that we have been in the "smooth stuff".
A bumpy three hours later we have our anchor set in the bay a Makogai and I can have my coffee for today as I sit and complain to the world in general about crappy weather.

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Be Amazed!

2011-08-03T20:44:00.000-07:00

These are the words that suddenly pop into my mind as I am 50 feet below the water's surface staring up at a column of rock that is over-adorned with every conceivable hard and soft coral, with a million (yes, I mean a million)fishes in the most dazzling color hues that any human mind can possibly imagine (even those minds with chemical enhancements). There is no greater "high" than the thrill one gets from displays by Mother Nature(God), such as this. Be amazed! So in fewer words, we had a great dive at the "chimneys" on Namena Reef. The anchorage is a bit suspect as we are quite exposed while we cling to the edge of a tiny island on their mooring ball. We had a pretty stiff wind blowing us onto shore and we finally chickened out and dropped our own anchor several 100 yards further out. We were convinced that we were dragging the mooring ball (should have put our dive gear on and checked!) We are the only boat here. There are six guest "bures" (houses) on the island, but they are on the other side, so it is pretty quiet here.

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Be Amazed!

2011-08-03T18:58:00.000-07:00

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Viani Bay and Rabi Island

2011-07-27T13:19:00.000-07:00

Apologies all around, I just re-read my last blog and the spelling and grammar could have been proof read a lot better. Hope you got the drift anyway.

Sooo, we met some boaters on our last night in Savusavu, three couples from New Zealand. Sat with them in the yacht club for a beer before dinner. They have traveled in Fiji for many seasons and provided us with a wealth of information regarding what to do and where to go. Sometimes it is interesting finding out what fellow boaters did for work in their "old life". We've come across many people who have been in the computer business - in one form or another, a financier, a dentist, a freighter captain, construction company owners (we fit in here), a pilot for Swiss Air (he was also an Italian Duke!) and now we've met a past dairy farmer. It is very interesting to discover other cruiser's reasons for being on the blue ocean, discovering new places and people.

From Savusavu we make our way to Viani Bay on the east side of Vanua Levu. We prefer to call it Jack's Bay as Jack Fisher is an old timer here who is re-known for showing off the best dive sites in his Fiji. We spend 5 days here and dive every day, sometimes twice a day. The "white wall" is surreal dive site at a depth of 100 feet. We drop into the clear blue water and swim down through a tunnel in the reef that opens from a sheer rock wall into the deep blue of the wide open ocean. We are suspended in blue. To our left on the face of the deep ocean wall is the most amazing display of perfectly set snow white soft coral. The ocean current gently nudges us along the wall so we can marvel at the breathtaking beauty of it all and then the current deposits us on top of the reef again where the multitudes of colorful fishes and other stunningly beautiful corals are found. This is a rather rough description of a fabulous dive experience. The diving here in Jack's Bay tops everything. I won't bore everyone with details, just let it be known that this spot is World Class Diving. On one of our evenings here, Jack's family puts on a dinner for all of the boats in the bay (oooh another social event) and we met several new groups of people. The dinner was a delicious mixture of Indian and Fijian foods with the best tortillas I have ever tasted - even better than Mexico.

Our next place of discovery is Albert Cove on Rabi Island, which is to the east of Vanua Levu. Rabi Island was purchased for the people of Ocean Island in 1945. They are from Banaba and are of Micronesian descent. So not really Fijians, though they are now citizens of Fiji. Very nice people. The families of the cove were happy to talk to us and arranged to get us some bananas and green coconuts. We keep asking the fishermen for lobster, but as yet none have had any luck finding some for us. We have seen the lobsters on our dives, but we keep their locations secret (we would really rather look at them underwater than eat them). Once again, the winds and weather are going to invade our beautiful anchorage so after only one night we have to move to a different bay on the island. But this is not a problem, as it is a new village and group of people for us to meet. There is a large Methodist church perched on the hill of the village, overlooking the bay. We visit this building during our walk on shore. A cyclone in April 2010 really did a lot of damage to it, but the villagers are slowly putting it back together. While we are walking, an engaging young woman invited us to a fund raiser for the church that they were putting on that evening. The ladies of the church do this - a traditional dance show with coconut refreshments (right out of the shell) - when ever they get a collection of boats in their bay. Today, there are five boats. What fun, they really put a lot of energy into the dancing.

Weather, weather, weather! We have to move again. The weather has been sunny and very warm, so no complaints there, it is just the wind that keeps switching around which makes certain anchorages not so comfortable to be in. We will head back to Jack's Bay. If we have to be stuck someplace, we may as well be stuck with awesome diving.

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Makogai to Savusavu

2011-07-13T18:07:00.000-07:00

Well I guess we have to work sometimes on the boat, so on the morning of our next day at Makogai Glen and I dive the underside of the boat to clean things up a bit and replace zincs (so the salt water doesn't eat our propellers and such). In the afternoon, Cameli has told us that it is a very nice walk from the bay where we are anchored to the village on the other side of the island. He made it sound like a short easy walk. So we head off with our bag full of candies for the children and some scribblers and pencils for the local school, taking a leisurley pace. We walked and walked, spotting ruins in the forest from the days of the leper colony. People from many of the south pacific islands were sent here and they were all housed in segregation from any other countries people. Finally we almost decided that we should turn back as the sun goes down at 5:30 and we don't want to be hiking in the bush in the dark. Only a little way further, we finally break onto the beach on the other side and visit the school teacher and hand candies to all of the children. Glen feels like Santa. They are all so nice and friendly. Our walk back, done at a much brisker pace gets us back to the boat before dark. we'd still be wandering amlessly about otherwise. It is time to say goodbye to Cameli as there is weather coming in the next few days and we want to be in Savusavu before it comes. Such is the never ending story of living on the water - always watching the weather.

The trip to Savusavu is easy - only 6 hours at sea and the water is pretty calm. It is a lovely sunny day - these seems few and far between here. Everybody says this is unusual for this time of year, it should be sunny and dry, not overcast and rainy. well at least it is gloriously warm. Savusavu is a small town on a large bay at the south east corner of Vanua Levu, the second largest island of Fiji's group. It is kind of an ex-pat place so there are lots of restaurants and a few little bars and good provisioning. The marina has mooring balls to tie too and we are enjoying being only a two second dingy ride from the dock. dinner out the last few nights to break the monotony of my own cooking which we will be having to endure for the better part of the next month as we head out into less populated areas. Excellent Indian food here! We're finding the social scene a little quieter this season compared to last. All of the boats that we befriended seem to be making the reverse trip around Fiji to what we are and the boats we've been meeting..... wait, there haven't been any other boats yet. Crazy, but cruising boats are pretty rare in these areas that we are in. Hence another reason we are liking our visit to Savusavu. We did a car trip around the island today, up to the only other major town - Labasa - it is a busy place and no (and I mean NO) tourists. It is the sugar cane hub of commerce. We did a hike in the forest preserve and marveled at all the different types of vegetation. We discovered some very interesting fresh water shrimp/crayfish in a waterfall stream. And finally we checked out some of the exclusive resorts in the area. Jean Michelle Cousteau has a resort here - diving is the draw - nice place. Our boat still suits us fine though.

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Suva to Makogai

2011-07-09T18:02:00.000-07:00

We said good bye to Cassie in Suva. The ninety mile run back to Nadi by boat just wasn't appealing (for any of us). Options were, rent a car (What! Are your crazy? says Romina the Royal Suva Yacht Club assistant manager)- the roads and drivers make that a NO!, hire a taxi from Suva to Nadi - too expensive, take a coach - very good alternative - you can see lots of country side and don't have to do the driving - but the schedule was too close to her flight time to allow for any hiccups, so she caught a flight from Suva to Nadi and we were all happy. She has confirmed her safe arrival to Calgary. I think she had a good time. She got to see Fiji by land and sea, drink kava with the Fijians, eat some great Indian food (Mom's cooking was still the best - that's me!), do some fantastic diving and she even got a few days of sun. It was great to have her here.

Suva is a very un-glamorous port city. The yacht club is very welcoming and a nice "normal" place to hang out for a few days. We did find some awesome Indian restaurants and ate out as much as we could (Mystery Ship cook took a holiday!). We stocked up on our fresh produce at the extensive open market and picked up some "give away gifts" for when we visit more villages from the multitudes of discount "knock-off" stores.

After an 8 hour cruise from Suva to the north east, we arrived at a lovely little island/reef called Makogai ("Makonguy"). We wove our way through the rocks of the reef and anchored off the small village on the west side. This was once the site of a leper colony - upwards of 5000 people, now they have an aqua-culture station for giant clams - very impressive. The "headman" Cameli, is charming and informative and was very happy to explain in English the blessing over the "sevusevu" (a gift of Kava roots from visitors to the village) and the "whys" of some of the village etiquette expected of visitors - skirts for men and women, no sunglasses or hats, no bags or gear slung over your shoulder - funny stuff like that but when explained make sense. The whole deal is much like taking a bottle of wine with you when you go to somebody's house for dinner. Just manners. He told us where we might find some good diving on the reef too. So once we were done with our formalities, off we went to dive and I must say - This the most fantastic diving we have done to date on our travels. I think I've said that before, but this is it, right here. There was so much underwater life - corals/fishes - that your head can't turn fast enough to take it all in. we dove twice in one day and if we get more days here, we'll go again and again. This is why we travel!

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So how IS Fiji???

2011-07-05T20:44:00.001-07:00

Our trip to the outside of the reef for Robinson Crusoe Resort was smooth. The resort was a fun little anchorage with a rustic bar and outdoor restaurant. We arrived to see the guests in the middle of coconut jewelry making - kind of fun. The sun was dazzling. We had a hitch hiker from Musket Cove - a sea snake - quite poisonous. He was all curled up in the leg of the whaler's engine. It certainly surprised Abbie when she noticed it. A brave young Fijian rescued us by taking the snake away. We have a funny picture to prove it all! Dinner was an "order in advance" affair and served in Family style which was interesting as we met all of the resort guests.

Kadavu Group was an 8 hour cruise in slightly turbulent water - at least Cassie thought so - she ate our whole box of saltines. We parked up in Tavuki Bay. One custom that we are having a bit of difficulty with is that of "Sevu Sevu" . This is where you go ashore to the closest village and offer a gift of Kava roots and ask permission to anchor in their water, dive, swim, walk on their beaches and maybe visit their village. Which is a rather polite thing to do, But… somehow they manage to make it a time consuming effort by having to find the Head Man of the village, then rounding up some of the Elders and the Chief, then they want you to sit around and join them for a bowl of Kava. It definitely must be an "acquired" taste. We are so used to conducting business in a timely and efficient manner that we really have a tough time accepting that "Time" has no value for some places of the world. Now if this was something that you did once or twice in your visit to the islands, it would come off as being a very quaint traditional practice. But every anchorage you go into, there is a village and you must do Sevu Sevu each time you come to a new village….. All we want to do is dive. Now! Do you think this will teach us patience? We only have about 20 more anchorages to do in the next few months. That's a lot of Kava drinking!!!

We moved on to Ono Island after three days at Tavuki and we met Ase when we went in to do our sevu sevu. He is a nice young man and offered to take us out to the reef for diving and for a day of hiking on his island. So we take him up on it. He introduced us to many of his village people and people in the adjoining village, took us on a beautiful 2 hour (one way) hike through the island fields. His wife made us tapioca squares and lemon leaf tea - quite a treat. His cousin Seewah showed us the best dive site we have found to date in our travels, we dove it several times. We gave candies to the village children and scribblers and pencils to the local school, traded a gallon of gasoline for four green coconuts and gave another gallon away for free to a fellow giving the village children a ride to their boarding school and we gave Ase's cousin a ride to Suva (6 hour boat ride) so he could attend his brother's funeral. We are involving ourselves.

The weather has been pretty awful - when you consider that it is supposed to be hot, sunny and calm this time of year. It has been cool, rainy and windy - quite the contrast.

Cassie will go home with out too much extra color on her tan and not much sleep as the boat does all kinds moving around in the waves and wind at night. But we have done some awesome diving and we have seen some "inside" views of Fiji with her, so all is good.

Fiji is Marvelous!

2011-06-24T17:20:00.000-07:00

Marvelous weather!!!! We arrived from rainy, rainy, cool Calgary to 30 degrees C, with clear skies and no wind. We have been using all of our outdoor spaces - the flybridge, the back cockpit, the boat deck - you name it. Star gazing in perfectly calm evenings, so calm that the stars reflect clearly in the water below. Cassie is with us for two weeks and she is soaking it all up. We arrived at 5:30 am on June 21 and used this day to provision the boat with fresh fruit and vegis and get our clearance papers from Lautoka (we rented a car to do all of this). The next morning we departed from Denarau and headed for Musket Cove, a boat hang out, this to give Cassie a short distance to get back into the swing of boating again. the day was perfect, we didn't even splash the boat on the way over. We met up with Dietmar and Kurt on Carinthia and got all of the good places to go for diving, as they have been traveling around during our trip back to Canada. We all did a dive on the Pinnacle the next day and a first for us was sighting a Lion Fish swimming! The fish was huge - about basketball size and so beautiful - his lacey fins spread wide, but so dangerous - we don't bug him...he doesn't bug us. It was good to be in the water again. The boat group put on a bon fire on the beach at 6:00 pm, it is a tidal affair - the tide goes out enough to expose a beautiful mound of sand in the bathtub warm, blue water, they build a fire and everybody brings their beverage of choice and visit and party on the sand until the tide comes in again and extinguishes the fire several hours after the start. Very unique indeed. We only have 12 hours of daylight right now, 6:00 am to 6:00 pm. Today we are on our way to a place called Robinson Cruso, we'll see what kind of fun we can have there. Again we have another beautiful day, a bit more breezy than before no big deal.

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SEAson Sickness!

2011-05-30T06:00:00.001-07:00

Wow, I think we are definetly feeling SEAson sick! Fall in New Zealand, Summer in Fiji (yeah I know it is their winter, but it's hotter than any Canadian summer I've ever had) and Spring in Calgary (or more correctly Flood season). Being that we are on the bottom side of the earth right now with the boat, we have the benifits of opposing seasons which is actually really great. Fiji is pretty hot, 30 plus degrees during the days and very humid, but the evenings are a glorious 25 degrees with calm winds. We are finally using the outdoor living spaces on the boat again. We haven't done too much yet in Fiji, only what we mentioned in our previous update, as we had to get everything set up so we could leave the boat and come home to Calgary on May 19. Finding the "best dive sites ever" will be our mission when we return to Fiji on June 19.

Our feelings are mixed about being home this time. Seems the snow just melted a week before our return (in our yard anyway) so the leaves were just starting to come out and the weather was cold and rainy and then severely rainy - yes we spent a couple days fending off the over-swollen Fish Creek. That all sucks. But it is good to see our girls again and all of our friends. Yesterday was bright and sunny, so all is not lost.

We're in Fiji

2011-05-14T15:52:00.001-07:00

We are here in Fiji. I apologize to anyone who was concerned that we were lost at sea….we arrived in Lautoka Harbor on May 9th as planned. A major portion of our arrival day was spent in Customs and Immigration. The rumors of how the process was to work were all wrong. Number 1) Do not give them an itemized list of all of your alcohol, unless you have a wallet full of Fijian money to cover the exorbitant duty (rumor had it that they would charge a bond of $500.00 and then only charge duty on what was consumed during your stay in Fiji - WRONG!). Better yet, don't go fully stocked. All of the paperwork that you present to them 48 hr in advance of arrival is only a formality, once you arrive in the office, you have to fill out the same information on four different sets of carbon paper forms and you have to make a trip to the bank for more money and even at that, you will still have to make arrangements for external cruising permits after everything else is said and done at another location. The "process" is under reform, but so far, it is a whole bunch of checking in and checking out and everybody has a different story to tell. We finally made it to Port Denarau for about 5:00pm. We all quickly cleaned up and headed up to see what good things we could see in the marina shops and offices. Dinner out was welcome indeed - Me - the cook was needing a break. Fiji Bitter Beer was voted the best choice for drinking off the boat, or wine, as the mixed drinks do not contain any alcohol - too expensive! (Wonder why?) So we all had a good time stretching our legs on land and seeing the near sights.

Tuesday was spent washing the boat - of course - and we found out where to get our cruising permits and kava - dried roots that are crushed and mixed with water to form a slightly narcotic drink that the Fijian Chiefs like to be presented with so that we the cruisers may obtain permission to visit their land and oceans - this is called "sevusevu".

Oso Blanco made it in to port 5:00pm and the whole gang of us went out for some very delicious Indian food.

Wednesday we headed out to Waya Island and spent a lovely afternoon anchored in a quiet bay, swimming in the "Oh So Lovely and Warm" water and walking on the white sandy beach. No villages were close, only some deserted resorts (old). The evening was calm and warm (hot) being on the back deck is fun again.

Thursday we motored over to Naviti Island and anchored up in Soso Bay. Abbie and John took the dingy and found themselves some snorkeling grounds while Glen and I donned our dive gear and dove under the boat to check out the zincs (maintenance stuff) and scrap tiny oysters and barnacles off of the heat exchanger panels. Pesky little guys. After we all got de-salted, we dressed in our best skirts (boys too) and packed a package of kava, hopped into the dingy and went to shore where there is a village. We have reservations to tour the village and present kava to the Head man (and drink some too) we got to buy souvenirs from the women (kind of felt obligated) then we had a traditional dinner and were treated to singing by the men who had gathered to drink kava while we ate (a feast) and finally the traditional dance group performed for us. We were included in one dance too. There was just the four of us, so we felt rather like royalty.

Being in a new country, means that for the next little bit we are going to be doing a lot of exploring, so there will tend to be a bit of day to day "what we did" recording. As well, we are trying to cram as much sight seeing as possible into a few days for John's benefit as he flys back to Canada on the 15th.

Friday, we motored back south to Malolo Island and the Musket Cove Resort. It has a bit of a tricky entrance according to the chart, but in real life, the channel is quite wide and has good depth. It is also well marked for day time travel. We met up with a catamaran that we knew from New Zealand - "Carinthia". They had been in the anchorage for a number of weeks so gave us the scoop on the place. We all dingy'd in for a beer at the yacht club and after a few, we had a bit of a wander around before heading back to the boat for a pasta and seafood dinner. This Cove can be quite an action spot once the majority of the cruising boats get into Fiji. We are a little bit early in the season, so it a quiet for now. We will come back here though.

Saturday - John, Glen and I suit up to do a dive called the Pinnacle. It is out side of the reef a bit and is a free standing rock, jutting from the ocean floor. There are tons of little fishes swimming around it and masses of soft corals and anemones. Very colorful. At the base of the rock there is a tunnel to swim through. It is a really nice dive. Once back and after a big breakfast, we put all of the gear away, hoist both of the dingys up top and then we pull anchor and head back to Port Denarau. We have a Jazz and Blues Festival to look forward too at the marina tonight and we have a day planned in the town of Nadi (Nandi) tomorrow. John flys out in the evening (Sun). So lots of fun to "do" yet.

2.5 days from NZ and 3.5 days to Fiji

2011-05-06T01:19:00.000-07:00

The waters have leveled out, we aren't breaking through waves, just gentle up and down movement. A person can actually get a good night's sleep in this. The wind was down to 5 knots for most of the last day, but it is getting up to 19 again now. Find us on google earth 27.34.286 S and 175.34.258 E. The trip is going well. Oh and the temp. is up to 22.8 degrees C at 9:00 pm local time - getting warmer. Pretty soon we will be whining about being too hot!

I have to apologize for going on and on about our broken thruster. It's like when you get older and the biggest news you have to talk about is the new pills that your Dr. gave you or which part of your body aches the most. The thruster story (Epic Event as one of our friends put it) seemed note worthy amongst all of the ooohing and aaaahing I've been doing about New Zealand.

Anyway, I just wanted to let everyone know we are still chugging along.

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Fiji - Here we come!

2011-05-03T23:39:00.000-07:00

Currently, we are 8 hours off New Zealand's shore on our way to Fiji and the conditions are not great, but we knew that before departing. We have real 2.5 to 3 meter waves/swell at 6 to 9 second intervals and 17 or so knots of wind, the boat is rocking around a bit. But...there are two systems squeezing up either side of NZ that are going to chase us all the way to Fiji and we don't want to wait around for them, 'cause it Really won't be pretty then. Conditions should ease for us by mid day tomorrow and stay moderate for the balance of the trip. Our buddy boat, Oso Blanco, got delayed in Auckland, so we are out here on our own.

We went for fuel last week on Thursday and our shopping around led us to the Russell pumps as the best deal. We've had to re-mortgage the boat to buy fuel here as it is sooooo expensive. Anyway, the Russell pumps are on a high wharf that is in 9 feet of water, we draw 7' so have to be there for high tide so we don't "ground" the boat. So there we are bouncing up and down in the swell, rubbing against this big wooden wharf on our oversized (washing machine size) rubber balls (fenders), taking on fuel in 562.23 liter increments because that's how the pumps work. We punch in the card and pump the allotted fuel 9 times when the pump decides to go "off line" (they went off line in Pahia across the bay too). Did I mention that it is raining cats and dogs? Well it is! We aren't done fueling (we need 6 more of those transactions), but the pump isn't cooperating any more so we have to leave. Oh! What's this? Here we are with our nose almost on the beach in very shallow water with a passenger ferry tied up behind us and our stern thruster will not work! Why now? How the heck are we going to get out of here? With Captain Glen at the helm we managed and we didn't even take out the ferry. As we cross the bay to the Opua marina we brain storm as to how we are going to get back into our slip between the pilings and the dock with 6 inches to spare on either side of the boat with the wind now storm force and no rear thruster. Short answer, we can't. We anchor the boat in the bay and Glen dives to see if we have rope wrapped around the propeller blades - that would have been the easy fix. By this time it is dark, raining - no - pouring, the wind is gusting 40 knots and there are white caps on the water, we settle in for the night with dinner and a movie. A windy night at anchor can provide it's own entertainment though as you watch sail boats dragging by on their anchors and sometimes you have to fend them off of your own boat as they scramble in the darkness to get their gear hauled in so they can re-position and re-anchor (hopefully well away from you on the other side of the bay). In the morning we put down the dingy and headed to shore, Abbie and I to drive to pick John up from the airport and Glen to pick up mechanics to fix the boat. Even now, the thruster is not fixed but after much trouble shooting we know what the problem is and the part should be waiting for us in Fiji. Later in the day with John on board and a bunch of people on the dock, we played bumper boat and got back into our slip at the marina with no great mishaps. A very good thing too that we got back on the inside as the storm really got going with winds gusting 60 knots - not very nice at all. Welcome to New Zealand John!

Finally we tracked down a Catholic Church having Mass on Sunday, it was in Russell - across the bay from Opua. No we didn't take our boat. We drove the rental car to the car ferry and 10 minutes later we were in Russell. The Church of St. Peter Chanel, the patron Saint of the Pacific. And as timely as we sometimes are, the past week was his celebration and there are commemorative cookies - the Priest gave us some - quite fitting to have St. Peter Chanel with us on the boat. Anyway, it is a cute little church, key word being little. There are seven of us gathered for Mass. Go figure, they always ask the new people if they can do a reading - Glen volunteered me! (how'd they know we were new people anyway?) Yikes! No choir, we have to help sing the hymns (bet the regulars wish the new people didn't come - they(we) can't sing!) All fun aside it was a great experience.

Now, I'd better get back to my "night shift". Only 5 more days to go!

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Happy Easter 2011 from Mystery Ship

2011-04-25T03:20:00.000-07:00

This should be Happy Anniversary too (a little late). I was checking to see where we were last year for Easter and we were just starting our crossing of the Pacific. We had arrived at the Marquesis island of Hiva Oa the morning of April 17, 2010. Wow, we have covered a lot of the earth over the last 12 months. It's been amazing! So Happy Easter to everybody and thanks for following us.

Here we wait in Opua, tied to the dock (not in our boat budget for this month - eek!) waiting for the perfect weather to return so that we can head off to Fiji. Nobody is going to sympathize with this, but we are getting bored with the wait. Yes, I know our projected leave date was to be May 2 or 3, so why are we getting antsy so early? But guess what…. Mother Nature is planning to throw an Ocean storm on those dates lasting until around May 8th, so now do you get it?

We did rent a car for two days; we topped up our groceries (again! Man we eat a lot.) and hauled gasoline for the small boats, no gas at the dock here, and we intended to go to church for Easter Sunday. Guess we should have clued in when the priest on the phone sounded confused when we were asking for mass times.. we drove to the google map location provided and even had our handheld GPS unit to back us up, only to find a hospital at the intended address - we weren't lost, the church is! I hope God gives points for "it's the thought that counts". So instead of church, we toured some more of the North Island. It is always nice to see more countryside.

New Zealand Pics

2011-04-25T03:14:00.000-07:00

So Many Great Things to See

2011-04-25T03:09:00.000-07:00

More Visions of New Zealand

2011-04-25T03:05:00.000-07:00

Visions of New Zealand

2011-04-25T02:59:00.000-07:00

April 19/11 More on the Weather

2011-04-20T00:12:00.000-07:00

Oh Boy! The wind howled and then howled some more. Almost 36 knots in the anchorage and the waves built and broke and the water sprayed. Then… Bang! One of the ropes on the anchor bridle popped a strand and we have to make adjustments to keep the whole thing from fraying to bits. I guess 100 tons pulling on one 3/4" three strand rope is too much (anchor bridle is a rope yoke fitted to either side of the bow and then the anchor chain to keep the chain from banging from side to side). Yep! We guessed wrong about where to park. Rather than spend another night wondering if we are going to hit the rock wall behind us (and since we are now technically injured) we decide to haul up and head for Opua Harbour for protected waters. Well… and we thought things were hairy in the anchorage… we faced some 60 knot gusts and short, choppy seas about 3' height and walls of salt mist being blown from the surface water, all of this in the protected area of the Bay of Islands - crazy. But aside from getting the boat completely drenched in salt water we make it to Opua safely and manage to set anchor with only two tries (windy here too - but not so much).

Weather

2011-04-20T00:11:00.000-07:00

Well even in Paradise (Oh sorry, we are still in Opito), you have to have a bit of bad weather and even as it is, it isn't really that bad. Just a day of 35 knot winds and pouring rain. We've got a good anchorage and we needed a day to just "bum" around anyway. Actually, I did some book work, we managed to find some free internet (shocking) and even here we need to do such mundane things.

Sunday arrives and brings the sun with it, so after breakfast we haul anchor and head to our next lovely place to be - Awaawaroa Bay on Moturua Island (see…it's a tough go here trying to say where we are). We've had to consider the direction of this bay's opening as the winds are to be switching direction and could bring uncomfortable conditions, hopefully the weather predictions are correct and we've chosen wisely. Of course there is a lovely walk (hike) here so I pack us a picnic lunch and we head off to "beach" the dingy and explore the hills and dales and beaches that this place has to offer. We are not disappointed. I have a large glass container on our galley (kitchen) counter that we are slowly filling with all of the beautiful shells that we find on our treks. Soon I'll need another container.

We've had some good news today, John - who crossed with us from Mexico to Marquesis last April, is able to join us for our trip to Fiji. The more hands on deck, the better.

More Funny Names - Beautiful Places

2011-04-20T00:07:00.000-07:00

So we are anchored in Paradise Bay (easy enough name) on Urupukapuka Island - Gottcha! Since it is a work day for Abbie, Glen and I head into shore on our own, there is a supposed to be a beautiful walk on this island. Well our fitness level has now spiked to a "9" ("1" being the best) so we huff and puff our way up the steep inclines that lead us to fabulous "look outs" and hang on to branches (I do so I don't fall) on the declines down to the cozy beaches. It proves to be a steady walk of 2 hours to circumnavigate the island. We meet a couple who live in nearby Russell, that are just over to this island especially for the walk, and chat to them for a bit while we catch our breath and admire the panorama surrounding us. Lush green hills, plopped into azure blue water with tiny white dots (sailboats) snuggled into all of the protected bays that are lined by golden sand beaches. It's a "Stunner" as the "Kiwis" would say. We have been told that we can have dinner out at a small resort in the adjacent bay - Otehei Bay - so after our walk we motor over there to make a reservation (as they may not have food otherwise). Woohoo, we get to go out for "Fush 'n Chups" tonight. We love the accents here. So now it is evening and we all pile into the dingy to go out, but take a moment to ask a few simple questions of some folks that have "buddy-buoyed" their two boat together in the bay. Now we have an invitation for drinks when we get back from dinner. Long story short, it was a very nice night talking to some new boating friends.

There are literally 100's of little coves and bays in this single small area that one can set as a destination, so in the spirit of boating, we set off the next day for another "fab" spot with another sandy beach and another lovely walk. This one on Roberton Island (second name - Motuarohia Island), bay un-named, is unique in that it is a thin strip of sand between two hills. On the seaward side of the strip of sand are a few large rocks to break the ocean swell and we are anchored on the sandy side. The evenings are calm and moon lit and with the high tide, the thin strip of sand almost submerges to give the impression of an infinity pool to the ocean. Surreal.

We try our hand (or rod) at fishing for a couple of day, but the little stinkers just eat our bait and we have to let them go - because they are just "little". But our new boat friends make our day by dropping off a massive King Fish that they just snagged on their way to their next anchorage. They've been living on board in this Bay of Islands area since September and they are Kiwis so they should know how to catch fish here and we are thankful that they know how, because now we have fish!

The town of Russell is just a short boat ride from where we are parked, so one day we head in to do a bit of shopping and have lunch. This is also an opportunity to pick up the "sure to catch fish" lures and gadgets that we will need to feed ourselves, by living off of the ocean. Our next day out fishing still nets us a big "Zero".

Fine! We need to move on anyway and make our way over to Opito Bay which is on the main North Island and our mission here is to take the dingy and head into Kerikeri for a day of shopping. It is a long, winding channel with seriously low clearance, but going slow and paying attention to the markers (yes I know that’s what we are supposed to do anyway) it is a fun trip of exploration. We were in Kerikeri last spring - it is fall now - it is a cute little town with a bunch of early history attached to it and some good stores for groceries and other shopping. On our way back to the big boat we get a wave from a Canadian flagged catamaran, Bella Via. We met these people back in Tonga, so we spent the afternoon catching up with them on their New Zealand experiences. Most of the cruising boats from last season will be slowly collecting here in the Bay of Islands in wait for the perfect crossing weather to Fiji, so we will be having many such meeting in the weeks to come.

Hanging on the Anchor

2011-04-13T16:20:00.001-07:00

Tutukaka Harbor…. Funny name! But like most of the place names here in New Zealand, it's origin is Maori. The anchorage is pretty well protected and the winds are blowing strong. We hold well over night and it is well into the morning the next day when we notice the sail boat that was behind us is actually beside us now and it isn't him that is moving. We frantically start all engines and raise the anchor to go forward and set it down again. Boy, this is a first! The 300 lb hunk of stainless steel that we sink off of the bow - our anchor - usually doesn't allow us to drag. Well no harm done.

There are two cruising sail boats in here with us, "Curious", Steven and Trish from England and "Pakeia Mist", Gloria and Michael from British Columbia - fellow Canadians. Anyway the bunch of us have dinner together at The Schnappa Bar and Grill and catch up on what we've all been up to since Nov and arriving here in NZ. Real nice.

The next day Glen and I head in to shore for a walk up to a lighthouse on the Bay's point. It turned out to be a great walk with fantastic views from the final vantage point. You can only do the whole walk during low tide as there is a small channel of water that divides the light house rock from the main shore.

Here is one of the nice things about traveling. We are finishing off the dishes after dinner and there is a banging on the hull. I look out to see two young fellows in a motor boat. "Would you like some crayfish?"

"Absolutely, how much do you want for them?"

"Nothing, we saw your flag earlier on our way out and would like to say Welcome to New Zealand." (boats fly the flag of the country they are visiting and their home country flag too)

"All right! Thank you very much."

The fellows had been out diving to catch the crayfish and had a big basket full, they gave us three good sized ones, bid us goodbye and motored off into the dark. Ooooh goodie, we will eat well tomorrow.

In the morning we head out for a 5 hour run up the coast, (not us, the boat) now we are in the Bay of Islands and it is all that, a huge area filled with multitudes of small islands. This is boater's paradise, an anchorage around every corner. We slide into one that has a beautiful sandy beach and anchor in about 12 feet of turquoise water. The travelling was so smooth today that we don't have any salt clean up, we just drop down the dingy and head into the beach for a bit of exploring. For a change, it is a nice calm evening and we even have a nice sunset. We'll spend the balance of our time in New Zealand in this area.

East Coast New Zealand

2011-04-06T20:50:00.000-07:00

Well we are back in New Zealand. Our first week, which is the last week of March, is spent finalizing all of the provisioning of the boat for our extended cruise to Fiji, on or about May 1. Provisioning is best done here in Auckland as there is of course everything we need right here. Our new boat girl Abbie is with us now so we are all getting used to this change of lifestyle.

Finally we untie from the dock at Viaduct for the last time and head out. We are going to explore the small islands and anchorages along the east coast of the north island of NZ on our way back to Port Opua where we will take on fuel and our final groceries (including more lovely NZ wine) and then wait for our weather window to cross to Fiji. Our first anchorage out is at Kawau Island in Mansion House Bay. Oh it is so nice to be out and about again. We drop (not really, we put it down) the rubber dingy and head into shore where the mansion house is, but it doesn't open until noon so in the two hours that we have to kill, we decide to do one of the islands scenic walks to the old coper mines. An hour later, we are on the beach at our destination, hopping over the rocks and exploring. I don't hop so well anymore it seems, or at least I'm not as agile as I once was - whatever. Long story short, I slide down a short slope and manage to poke a hole in my head. Now we have an hours walk back with me holding my new souvenir of NZ. The general consensus between Glen and Abbie was that stitches were needed. Luckily there is a ferry to the main land from here and off we go. It just reinforced how very important it is to be careful out here on the water, as health care is not all that available. Four stitches later and I'm good to go. We never did get to see the mansion house. The next morning, we up anchor and head out to Great Barrier Island, not to be confused with Great Barrier Reef which is in Australia. We anchor in Port Fitzroy which is beautifully protected. There is a tiny collection of facilities at the small dock and we enjoy a drink at the local pub. This is a rather large island and we do a nice walk to a waterfall one day and rent a car and tour around the next day, having lunch at one of the little cafes in the south. It is pretty quiet now, this being fall here and most of the tourists have moved on. We also try our hand at fishing here. The main fish to go for is snapper, similar only in name to our B.C. snapper. Glen and I fish for a couple of hours, baiting the hook and setting it back down and pulling up a four inch snapper, releasing it and doing the process again. But persistence pays off and finally we land a big guy that will provide dinner for the three of us.

Today, we are traveling back to the main land (north Island) and will end up just north of Whangarei in a small bay. The winds are blowing 25 knots and the water is pretty choppy, the temp is 16 degrees C. New Zealand is on daylight saving time too, so we had to leave early to be able to arrive before dark.

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World Affairs

2011-03-21T16:02:00.001-07:00

Well a lot has occurred since my last up date. We were just finishing off our final few days driving up the west coast of the north island of New Zealand. Our points of interest included the town of Wanganui with their glass blowing studios, New Plymouth - on the west coast with it's unique volcano backdrop and we spent a rousing afternoon at the thoroughbred races, then our final day out was in the area of Raglan with their black sand beaches: all wonderful places in their own ways. New Zealand should be on everybody's "bucket list".

We had just returned our camper van and arrived back at our boat when we were informed of the terrible earth quake that hit Christchurch. Stunning news. The city was still trying to piece itself back together from the large quake that hit it in September 2010. Our friends, who live there, were not so lucky this time as their home and business were severely damaged. Imagine for a moment the feeling of how you are going to find the resources to rebuild your demolished home and then imagine how you will do this when you no longer have a job because the company you work for has been leveled.

We flew home on Mar 2 for three weeks, just to catch up on business and family. While here, the disaster in Japan filled our T.V. with images of the unearthly power of destruction that Mother Nature holds in her heart. What is God trying to tell us? We haven't had any calls from New Zealand to say they have had any problems with high water, so we are guessing that all is well there. We are praying along with the rest of the world for the people of Japan.

We are back to New Zealand on March 21.

South Island NZ Countdown

2011-02-25T21:47:00.001-08:00

Day 16 - Everyone must be getting tired of this step by step holiday. We are just about ready to go home too. Yes there are lots of things that we haven't seen; it's just time to get back to normal again. Sorry for the inundation of blog updates, internet is scarce and what we do get, Glen uses for business - making sure we still have a home to go back too. As you can tell, we did manage to crawl out of bed today and surprisingly we both feel pretty good, at least we can move! All of NZ South Island is beautiful; I would recommend this country as a holiday destination to anybody. Today we road trip it from Marahau through Nelson, along the Queen Charlotte Drive, Picton and finish in Blenheim, the heart of Marlborough Country (Wine, not cigarettes). Today we've seen lots more hills, windy roads, glistening rivers and probably the best ocean bays for anchoring a boat in, that we have seen since Canada. We stopped in Havelock for a lunch of NZ's famous green lipped mussels at the Mussel Pot (yummy!). Havelock is the birth place of this lucrative aquatic culture. Our camp site is Blenheim, under a bridge, by a river - the bridge is highway #1! This will be just like sleeping in the truck stops during our racing days.

Day 17 - When in wine country, do as the winos do! So many wineries, so little time. Taste testing is FREE (every wino's dream). Needless to say, our camper van is now weighted down with 4 more cases of wonderful NZ wine. Typically, Glen and I don't drink white wine, but the taste test ladies are always so disappointed when you say no to it that we finally started to say O.K. to testing some white wine. Wow! Big surprise! This area is world re-known for it's Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Gris - they are truly fantastic. One of the trendy new tourist activities here is to rent bicycles and ride from cellar door to cellar door - easy enough to do. This gets you out of the crush of a tour group in a bus or van and keeps you off of the hook for drinking and driving. Maybe next time!

Day 18 - It's 8:00am and we are sitting in the line up to catch the Inter Islander Ferry from Picton on the South Island to Wellington on the North Island. It is another nice sunny day. Where were all of these kind of days when we on the West Coast? On board the ferry, we take our final photos of the receding South Island. It has truly been grand. One thing we have noticed and liked about the S.I. is that ALL of the towns/cities have a Main Street, and that is "down town", everything that place has to offer is right there. Old fashioned, but endearing. So now we have three hours on the ferry to figure out where we are going to go in the three days we have left, before we have to have the camper delivered in Auckland. We change our minds three times as to whether we will go up the east coast through more wine country or the west coast and more wilderness (semi wilderness - as the North Island holds 3/4 of the NZ population - so there are more people everywhere). Believe it or not, we have had enough wine for now and head up the west coast. It is a little bit of a culture shock having to drive through all of the suburbs just to get out of Wellington and into the country. North Island is a great place too, lots to see and do. We stop in Wanganui for the night and will explore it more fully tomorrow. Four little sheep are our neighbors tonight as the camp site is by an acreage area and backs onto the Wanganui River ($6.00 extra for a river spot).

Happy Valentine's Day

2011-02-18T12:09:00.001-08:00

Day 13 - It poured rain all night, it is still pouring this morning and we are off with our little backpack of snacks to do a guided 1/2 day walk on Fox Glacier. Good old New Zealand is prepared for this type of weather even if we "flat land prairie people" aren't. The guide service outfits us in proper hiking boots, wool socks, rain pants, rain jackets and woolen mitts (optional - I took those). A short bus ride, a nice brisk hike up the face or rubble part of the glacier, tip-toeing through a couple of rivers and there we are standing on the ice with rain falling by the bucket load out of the sky. It could have been stunning if it was a sunny day, but we had to settle for just, awesome. In order for this glacier to be where it is and how it is, only 300 ft above rainforest, there has to be a lot of precipitation, be it rain or snow, it gets upwards of 55 m of snow each season (they didn't give rain stats - my guess is 55 m of rain - kidding!). This is a very fast moving glacier; it flows 1 m per day. It was also advancing until 2005 and is now retracting, but there is no concern over this condition (yet) as over history this is a typical behavior for this glacier - move forward for a few years and back for a few years. There is also another glacier, Franz Josef, only 20 km away, same deal as this one, only bigger. Our time on the ice got cut a little short because of the rain; conditions were becoming a little un-stable. As it was, the rivers we walked on step stones to cross in the beginning were now running about a foot over the rocks, quite strongly and we had to be held on to as we crossed to make sure that we (the stupid tourists) didn't get washed away. We would have ended up in the Tasman Sea in short order if we had. Hiking boots are not waterproof when the water is over the tops! Well we are happy we sucked it up and did the trip, it was worth every drop of rain. We are done by 1:00 pm all dried up and back in the camper, headed north. We have 1/4 of the south island left to discover and only a short time to do it in. Each town we come to we drive through the centre to see what there is, stopping if we find something we can't resist. We are driving alone the coast and it is gorgeous. Our stop for the evening is a tiny town called Rapatoe (5 houses and a camp ground). The camp ground is right on the beach and we pick a site that has our back window hanging over the pounding surf, truly interesting. The beach is covered with the most perfectly rounded rocks, beaten into submission by the relentless rolling and slamming of the waves. Oh, to have a few truck loads of these at home.

Day 14 - Making tracks again. We have to make it right up to the very north of the south island today. No big deal, we've only got 5 hours of windy, twisty, mountainous roads to do it on. Oh, but the views! An historic gold mine tweaks our interest and we pull over for a rest stop and wander through a bit of history - bits of rusty old iron and dingy tunnels through a sandy hill side. It got our imaginations going though. The highlight of today is a stop at Punakaiki, where the "pancake rocks" line the coastal shore. Perfectly layered rocks formed through forces only God can know and looking like they had been placed by a master craftsman (That describes God pretty well) creating walls for a lovely garden. There are caverns and blow holes and layer cakes, all with lush greenery sprouting from every crevice. Meanwhile the sea tries with all of it's might to smash this monument to itty bitty pieces. Our road takes us inland along the mighty Buller River. The highway clings to the edge of its rugged banks. NZ is famous for one laned bridges and the system works pretty well as the traffic volume isn't great. One of these bridges is virtually cut into the bank (rock) as a three sided tunnel. But if that isn't enough, it is an "S" curve, so each side of traffic has to stop at either end and wait a bit to make sure that nobody is in the hidden curve before starting across - scary! There are a lot of places we would love to stop today, but time is no longer on our side. There are just too many good things to explore here. Our stop tonight is in Marahau at the edge of the Able Tasman National Park on the very top of South Island.

Day 15 - It's day's end now and both Glen and I hurt. We did a biathlon today. We wore off a month of chocolate bars and beer in a single day. At 8:30am, we were at Kahu Kayak's office getting a briefing on our day of freedom kayaking (by ourselves) into the Able Tasman Park. Piece of cake, we've kayaked once before! Long story short, we didn't capsize, which would have been a major catastrophe and we did make it to our destination in spite of our screaming shoulders and arms. Oh, yes, I think there was scenery to see, ummm? Really there was. The most beautiful private beaches of golden sand spaced between outcroppings of rock and trees. The only way into the park is by water or walking, so these beaches are private. We managed a couple of landings to enjoy them while we had a rest and a bit of lunch. Now for normal people, who I thought we were, the kayaking would have been enough for one day, just catch the water taxi back to the start like everybody else. Oh, No. We are going to hike out. Again, we are experienced at this, we've done three hikes here (only about an hour each). Off we go, hitting the path and the uphill incline, well one hour later and much more grumbly and did I mention that this is the hottest day we have seen in about the last two weeks? - we are back at the beach asking where the track to get home is. Directions are now clear and we head off again - the sign at the trail entrance says 12.7 km back to Marahau (I think we water logged our brains!). Man, cold beer never tasted so good as when we finally reach our camper. Yes, yes, we were supposed to re-hydrate, but the water was hot, sitting in the camper all day. I hope we'll be able to get out of bed tomorrow.

Gorgeous Wilderness

2011-02-18T12:08:00.001-08:00

Day 10 - We're on the road again early following the scenic route to get from Manapouri to Queenstown. What a contrast! Where Manapouri is quiet and natural, sleeping against it's beautiful lake, Queenstown is robust and packed with entertainment. It is the "activity capital" of New Zealand. Paragliding, jet boating, rock climbing, hiking, bungy jumping (first bungy - ever - was in Queenstown), kayaking, helicopter tours, horseback tours - you get the picture, Everything! There are shops, restaurants and bars and hordes of tourists. It is amazing! No camper food today, we have lunch out and dinner out and check out the night scene. Whew, full day.

Day 11 - Enough "over civilization", we are off to catch more of the back country beauty. First we stop in the little gold mining town of Arrowtown. There is a restored Chinese community from the gold strike days of the late 1800's. The town is purely a tourist attraction now and has fashioned all of it's new buildings along an old streetscape style, with a few "real" oldies tucked in between. Now we are back in the central part of the south island, only 40 km west of Cromwell and since we don't want to travel any road twice, we choose to go up over the Crown Range on our way to Lake Wanaka. What a splendid choice this proved to be. Initially, the road climbs steeply uphill and begins very sharp, steep, switchbacks to gain the rapid ascent required to get onto the top of the range. The views back over our trail are jaw dropping as we can see as far away as Queenstown and Lake Wakatipu that it sits beside. The pass tops out at 1076 m above sea level, which I know is not Rocky Mountain standards, but still very impressive because it is straight up and over. This track used to be a sheep herding trail. Speaking of sheep herding, on our descent, what do we run into but about 4000 sheep being herded along the highway to their next grazing ground. They have the right of way and there don't seem to be any people around, they just keep running up the road, bordered by the guard rail on one side (a sharp drop into the river below) and the rock cliff on the other. The traffic squeezes along the road in between gobs of sheep. Finally bringing up the absolute end is a single guy and a dog! Crazy! We are entering some of NZ's best snow skiing country now - no snow right now of course - they do have some very lovely hills/mountains though. Lake Wanaka and the same named town are our stopping point tonight. After a quick buzz around the town and a beer at a local pub, we head further up the road to a quiet bay on the lake where we find a spot backing onto the lake to park up. Real nice. The sun has come out, the wind has calmed and it feels like a day at the lake should.

Day 12 - Today we are headed right out to the west coast. Our road takes us beside beautiful lakes, over another mountain pass, by blue rivers (glacier fed), more regal mountains and inviting rolling hills, out to the wild wind swept west coast and the Tasman Sea. We stop at a couple of natural sites of interest - blue pools and some view locations. The best stop was a hike through the rain forest out to Monro Beach, about 1.5 km. Just a pebbled beach surrounded by steep rocky cliffs with a creek mouth empting into the ocean. But it is wild and beautiful. The sea is actually very calm (as far as seas go). There is a colony of crested penguins that breed and nest here, but now is not the season, so we don't see any. We imagine that the small moving things we see on the jutting rocks further out to sea are penguins, but its probably just seals. Our rest time is spent picking up round, smooth, stones off of the beach. We are like a couple of crows giving each other the beautiful stones we have picked to admire. New Zealand is a walker's/hiker's/mountain biker's paradise. They have trails for public access, everywhere. I mean everywhere! Short distances (which we like) and long distances - many day treks. They've invested a lot of money into making their beautiful country visible and accessible to everyone by installing gravel paths, board walks and hanging bridges. It really makes us wish we had more time to spend here. So many walks, so little time. Fox Glacier is our stopping town tonight and we choose a Top Ten Motor Park to stay in. It has no scenery, but it does have brand new shower blocks and it's time for a little luxury.

Doubtful Sound and More

2011-02-18T12:05:00.001-08:00

Day 8 - Manapouri is mountainous and there is a big lake here that is prime for fishing, boating and if you are brave - swimming (cold!). It is also the entrance point for tours out to Doubtful Sound. So we are here for three nights. Exploring the town takes all of an hour as it is a couple of streets with predominantly accommodation buildings of all sorts. This is a big tourist area. There are a couple of restaurants and that's it. So we head up the road to Te Anau, which is the entrance point for tours of Milford Sound, and an even bigger tourist area. More accommodation places and lots of restaurants. This is first class New Zealand wilderness. The mountains are great ski areas in the winter and the lakes and rivers and forests are great draws in the summer months. International tourists from everywhere come here by the bus load to soak up NZ's beauty. I think I'm getting visual overload. It is getting pretty hard to describe everything as the same adjectives keep coming to the forefront - stunning, awesome, beautiful, etc. - repeat, repeat, repeat. It is also my opinion that if you squashed all of the good things about Canada into a place 1/2 the size of Alberta you would create New Zealand. Glen disagrees, saying that they don't have prairies here - I say they do… they are only very small! So now we have buzzed around both towns and on our way back to Manapouri we wing off the main road and arrive shortly at a staging area for a portion of the famed "Kepler Track". This is a much traveled, rugged, 5 day hike, over hill and through dale fording rivers and scaling mountains. But since we have started mid way, it turns out to be an easy part and we have a great afternoon tromping through the forest, over a couple of swinging bridges, around a swamp, up to Lake Manapouri and back to the camper again. 8 K in not time flat! Our camp site is probably the nicest to date and we enjoy the evening cooking outdoors and chatting with our neighbor (because we are too "walked out" to walk into town - a couple of blocks - for dinner).

Day 9 - Our first paid tour! We get up early, pack our new backpack with food, bug spray (sand flies are ferocious here), sun screen (incase the sun decides to shine) and umbrellas (because it will most definitely rain). The boat ramp is a short jaunt through the woods from our camp site and we are away. The tour is a full day, first exploring Lake Manapouri by boat, then hoping a bus to the big power station - here we travel 2 km into the mountain, 200 m below the surface - then on to another bigger boat for the trip down Doubtful sound and out into the Tasman Sea (the body of water between NZ and Australia) and then everything in reverse to get back to the start. The scenery is gorgeous, it is windy and very cold though, but luckily the boats are all covered in. The lake is surrounded by mountains covered in an evergreen forest and the sound is banked with even bigger mountains with multitudes of waterfalls cascading down, fed by the continuous rain. This is "Fiordland" and it is truly majestic. One arm of the sound has recorded rainfall of 16 m (55 ft) in a single year, no wonder the place is covered in rainforest and waterfalls. Deer are an introduced species to NZ and particularly this area. Initially for sporting purposes, but there are no natural predators here so of course they multiplied like rabbits (rabbits were introduced here too! Duh!). So there was an open cull on the deer until somebody discovered a market in Europe for the meat, now they are captured and farmed for this. The "cowboys" that did first the hunting and then the capturing overcame the rough terrain by using helicopters and it is a long but interesting story.

Catlins of NZ - Wonderful Suprise!

2011-02-15T12:19:00.001-08:00

Day 6 - This area is called the Catlins Coast and a good portion of it is scenic reserves. When Europeans first came to NZ, they cut down every tree in site, so all of the forest reserves are replanted and now protected as it seems the bent of even modern day NZers is to clear everything and raise dairy cows or sheep. The Catlins had/now has a lot of rain forest and it is lovely to drive through. Today, we catch every tourist site we can along our road. We start with a walk on the estuary beach to see the sea lions. It is a lovely hard sand beach stretching for a mile between steep rocky cliffs. We are not disappointed, there are two bulls sunning themselves (and not paying any attention to us) and further down the beach we find a female, her pup and a younger female. These guys are playing just at the edge of the surf, the little guy antagonizing his mother. Our next stop is a blow hole, but it is unique in that it is inland from the beach/cliffs by about 200 meters. You walk along a path that meanders along the beach, then up the rugged coastal cliffs to a stunning lookout and then out into the middle of a flat grassy sheep pasture. "Poof" there it is, this great big hole in the ground, roughly 2000 sq.ft. in area and probably 50 feet deep. The ocean surf is pounding in the bottom and the sheer rocky sides warn you to stand back as escape would be impossible. The tide was low when we visited so now big plumes, but when the tide is high and the surge is strong the waters will crash up and out of the hole. That would be an awe inspiring site. It is raining again by mid day, which is fitting for our hike into a "rain forest" to view the MacLean water falls. It is a nice walk and the falls are worth the effort. We also want to see the Cathedral caves, but the tide is too high by the time we get there and they are submerged. Oh well, we will imagine them from our guide book pictures. Our stopping point tonight is Curios Bay. The camp site is on a cliff, jutting out into the ocean, quite exposed to all of the elements. Each camper spot is surrounded by huge spikey leafed plants (6 ft tall) that are call "flax". They look like giant aloe vera plants. This is a neat change in itself. It is 5:30pm now and pouring rain, with a sideways wind, not nice. This is the time of day that the little yellow eyed penguins come home from fishing all day to feed their young that are hidden in the trees and rocks along the shore. So off we go umbrellas in hand and we are rewarded for our touristiness by witnessing these little guys in their wild environment, up close and personal. Trudging in from the open ocean like someone coming home from an exhausting day at work. This is also the site of a Jurassic age petrified forest that you can see at low tide and the specimens are truly well preserved. It makes you feel pretty young to line up against one of those ancient specimens. This has been a great day. The Catlins are a superbly different and unique piece of the world. This is also the southern most part of NZ's South Island. The south winds that blow here are from the Antarctic!

Day 7 - We pass through Niagara (NZ) on our travels today and believe it or not, they even have Niagara Falls there too! Sadly we didn't have time for a photo op. We head for Invercargill, the home of Burt Munro - the world's fastest Indian (motorcycle). Burt (now deceased) still holds the land record for speed, in his motorcycle class, on the salt flats of Utah. We even get to see "the" motorcycle. Invercargill has the widest streets of any city we have ever been in; more cities should pattern themselves after this place. It has managed to maintain a whole downtown of heritage (150 yrs old) buildings. We have lunch here and walk around the city centre then head on our way. We travel the southern scenic route so we are always touching the ocean on our left and grazing lands or forest to our right. A stop along the way at a souvenir shop is always a must as it gives us an excuse to stretch our legs and a chance to yak with somebody local which allows for rapid intake of area history/news. The trees along this coast grow sideways, like they have been blown on for every moment of their growth, but in reality it because of the salt spray that they occasionally get that causes them to grow crooked. Humm…who knew? Again we find our travel distance is shorter than we estimated and we stop for the day at Manapouri, in the heart of Fiordland, a day ahead of ourselves.

South Island NZ continued

2011-02-15T12:17:00.001-08:00

Day 3 - Peel Forest to Cromwell - Today we see rolling hills and valleys with rivers and a canal that joins one lake to another. There are dams on every piece of moving water in this region. In the canal they have salmon farms setup - ingenious! So the feature today was to be Lake Tekapo - very much hyped to us by many people. It is set in the mountains here, fed by the Tasman Glacier. Mt. Cook, the tallest mountain in NZ is near here (3754 m). Well, it was nice, but it wasn't the highlight of the day (maybe because it was overcast and dull out). Cromwell was the surprise! And nobody talks about it. It is a town in a semi mountainous area, desert like and rocky, but with grass, a major river running through it, large valleys with acres and acres of vineyards. This is the Central Otago Region, producer of wines the rest of the world will soon be asking for. It is raining tonight so we fry our steaks on the stove in the camper.

Day 4 - We are exploring Cromwell and area today, most notably the wineries. The doors open at 10:00am and we are not late. The day proves to be a lot of fun. We stop at 5 vintner's doors and accumulate 4 cases of yummy Pinot Noir, Pinot Gris and a shockingly excellent White Port. Lunch is at a boutique winery called Mr. Difficulty and it is the most interesting combination of tastes and textures as they are show casing their wines with the food. The day is sunny and warm; the scenery is unusual and stunning. This would be a place, we both agree, that we could happily live. Kamloops x Okanagan x Phoenix. Our little caravan happily rumbles down the road to Clyde for the night.

Day 5 - Clyde is a cute place, on a hydro lake, but is tiny and only a stop over. Our destination is back to the east coast from the center, to a place called Owaka. We traverse the most remarkable country side today, hills like our foothills covered with massive boulders, strewn about like a herd of grazing elephants, rugged rivers and blue lakes, forest and rolling pasture land. Tiny towns tucked in all the right places with a fruit stand here and a "petrol" station there. Honey is a big item in NZ so I have begun a collection of little pots of honey. My favorite so far is Manuka. When we get to Owaka, the camp grounds are actually out on the coast at a place called Pounawea, which is right on the beach of an estuary. But it is raining again tonight, so we just get a short wander around the resort cottages. It sure rains a lot in this country!

Adventures of the Mystery "Campervan"

2011-02-09T00:19:00.001-08:00

The South Island Exploration Begins

Bright and early on the morning of Feb 1/11, you find Glen and I waiting at the top of the dock for our taxi to take us to the Auckland airport where we will be whisked off, by Jet Star Air, down to Christchurch on the south island of New Zealand, about 1/3 of the way down the east coast. We are met by the Tui Camper Rental people (we rented our camper from them) and after a briefing on the operation of our new mode of transportation/accommodation, we are on our way. Groceries are the first order, then finding our first camp site. Happily the GPS unit Glen received for Christmas works like magic and we don't even get lost a little bit! The camp site is "right on the beach" (20 min walk) and pretty devoid of trees (think open sports field), but the grass is green and we are there early in the day so a walk to the beach is a good use of time. We've rented a four person sleeper, with toilet/shower, kitchen/dinette so it is pretty spacious, but the bathroom is going to be more trouble than good, so we use the public facilities - toilets and showers - and will continue to do so for the balance of our trip. One thing NZ camp grounds have is very nice facilities as camping is "the" thing to do here. We've also splurged and rented a BBQ for our time out and it is quite the contraption - basically a frying pan screwed on to the top of a propane bottle. So "fried" steak is our first meal on the road and it is not too bad!

Now we probably should have taken a spin around down town Christchurch, but the rental gals said it was still quite a mess from the earth quake/s and not being "demolition gawkers" we decided to give it a pass. So that puts us two days ahead of schedule already. As we head out the next day we find that the distances are not really so vast as we were imagining (Canadian Prairies type!) and by days end, we are actually another day ahead of ourselves. But that's O.K. there will probably be somewhere down here that we are going to really appreciate the fact that we have a time buffer as we will want to stay longer. Now the question becomes…..How much info do I bore you all with, the details (that I will need in order to remember our wonderful time) or the summary (so you don't fall off your chairs - asleep - and hurt yourselves)? Compromise!

Day 2 - Christchurch to Peel Forest - Man it is windy along the coast, has to be blowing 40 kts (glad we aren't on the boat), Glen has a fun time keeping the house on the road. Oh yeah, they drive on the left side of the road here and this unit is a standard! Take a moment and imagine having to learn how to shift gears and work the clutch left footed!!!!! Glen is a pro - I need not say more. Anyway, lots of lovely flat farm land filled with either sheep or dairy cows and fenced by these lovely tall rows of trees ('cause it's so flippin' windy the cows would blow off the field if it was barbed wire!). Peel Forest is inland and kind of their foothills. Our camp site is lovely, with nice trees and posh facilities and a couple of nature walks. We chose a walk of 30 min (our kind of exercise) and head off to enjoy the forest. No nasty creatures in NZ, no snakes, bears, poison ivy - nothing scary at all (unless you have a bunny phobia!). We fry chicken on the BBQ - life is good.

Boat Work and People Play

2011-02-09T00:17:00.001-08:00

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.

Happy New Year 2011 - New Zealand

2011-01-17T17:31:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year to Everybody!
We are back in New Zealand again after spending a lovely December visiting family and friends in Calgary and enjoying a "white Christmas" with our daughters. When you are a Canadian child from the prairies, there is no other way to have Christmas, but "white". By Jan 5/2011, the novelty of "snow and cold" wore off and we are now quite happy to be back to this country's summer climate, sunny and a nice 27 degrees C.

For the most part, things weren't overly exciting for the first week or so back as we are living in a marina at the heart of Auckland, which is basically like life in any city around the world. It is very nice, don't get me wrong, it's just.... well.... normal. Our boat came out of the water at Oram's Marine Services on Jan 10 for some maintenance work. We had the bottom cleaned and painted with anti-fouling, the props got the same treatment, we did some teak work, upholstery renewal and other boaty things that nobody but us cares about, but that make the Mystery Ship our happy home away from home. During the time the boat was on the "hard", we had the thrill of living like a "Kiwi" in a cute little apartment in down town Auckland. It was a sweet change, but our boat has more space! So we ate out a lot, which I will never complain about, even if it is bad food, which it wasn't, but you know what I mean - I didn't have to cook or clean up!

With all of that hard work (we did do some ourselves), once the boat was back in a slip at the Viaduct Marina, we decided that we needed a "Holiday", so we pointed our cheeky little car (can't be choosy for $29.00 a day) south and drove 3 hrs to Rotorua for a few days. Rotorua has long been a tourist area because of it's intense thermal activity. The early Maori people fought battles over the possession of the land as because of the underground heat, they could have warm floors in their homes, boiling water in nearby ponds to cook their food and bathing never had to be in cold water. All very handy during a cold New Zealand winter. We learned all of this by doing a 4 km hike through Waimangu Volcanic Valley which was originally the site of the "world famous" White and Pink Mineral Spring Terraces. From historic picture records these were stunningly beautiful, but all of that changed on June 10, 1886 when Mt. Tarawera erupted and left instead a series of hot water lakes, geysers and steaming hills. So we got to oooh and aaah at a modern day Jurassic Park as we marched along. After so much exercise, we were understandably thirsty and hungry. The "Pig and Whistle" in Rotorua solved the thirsty part and we were recommended to the "Indian Star" for food. The "Indian Star" is just that, a STAR, this restaurant serves the best, bar none, Indian food we have ever tasted! Our next day of checking out the sites had us screaming down a river (can't pronounce the name so can't remember it) on a high powered river boat, enjoying the sights along the way to a very hidden hot spring waterfall. This place is called the Squeeze as you literally squeeze your way along a waist high water way, between rock faces that have been worn through over centuries of erosion from this hot water fall. The distance is about 1/2 km away from the main river. Then, poof! there you are, this little private hot water jet tub and natural fall, carved out of the volcanic rock, perfect for about 8 people, which we had in our group. The water temp is about 30 degrees C, so very comfortable and relaxing. Cool stuff. The return trip on the river boat involved lots of "hot dogging" something that is a huge hit out here and that we can relate too as well, only it is usually Glen doing the hot dogging! Our afternoon was spent going through the original "Bath House" in main Rotorua, where all the rich and famous of the early 1900's used to come for "healing waters" and "mineral baths". Pretty fancy stuff! Another good day all around.

Today we are back in Auckland on the boat and there is a cyclone passing over the area tonight, so not so idyllic weather. There will be rain and high winds, hopefully we will be sheltered from the brunt of things by being in the marina. It is still warm though, so not missing winter yet!

New Zealand, Port Opua

2010-11-11T20:18:00.001-08:00

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.

Tonga to New Zealand

2010-11-05T16:12:00.000-07:00

We are into day 4 of our passage. The conditions to begin with were not so great, 2.5 to 3.5 Meter swell, at 8 second intervals, with wind waves and 15 to 20 knots of wind. The four of us went through many packages of crackers in order to keep our stomachs settled (Glen and I just ate crackers because we were hungry). Yesterday and today, today especially, was/is beautiful. Currently we are running at 1502 RPM, getting speeds of 9 knots on the most fantastically smooth ocean water we have ever seen in the wide open. Granted the swell is still about 2 Meters, but the interval is about 12 seconds and the wind speed is 3 knots so the water is smooth, like driving over a gently rolling prairie. Perfect conditions for we power boaters, but not so great for our sail boat friends. We have roughly 36 more hours to go and we hope that this weather stays with us all the way. I've had to dig out my jeans though, as the farther south we go, the lower the temperature gets. Evening temps have been 17 degrees and day time has been 20 degrees. It is still just spring in the southern hemisphere.

We are stuffing ourselves as best we can with meat (and of course other things) as our freezers are still very well stocked and the New Zealand Customs will not allow fresh/frozen meats, vegis and numerous other types of food into the country. We will literally roll off the boat onto the dock for inspection. We also have a fair quantity of alcohol to declare (over personal limits by a lot - even with four of us) so we may have to have a binge drinking session prior to docking and in that case, we won't care if we roll, bounce or slide in, will we.

Our current position is 30.02.627 S and 178.21.308 W and and we have run out of satellite service on both our KVH and Iridium. So no emails and no weather reports. It is rather disconcerting to be so, so, isolated. Hopefully by tomorrow we will have some service again. We're just hoping that the navigation satellites have coverage way down here, or we may have to dust off our charts and manual navigation tools. (Now which compartment did I put those in for safe keeping?)

So a reflection on our season spent in French Polynesia, Cook Islands, Samoa and Tonga. It has been amazing to view these countries and their cultures from the street/sea as it is so different from visiting via resorts. Each country's landscape is different from the next and each is awesome in it's own right. All of the people have been interesting. The Samoans and Tongans are the most friendly and generous people we have met to date, everybody says Hello to everybody. The last time I was home to Calgary, I found myself greeting strangers on the street in the same way, only to be stared at like I had lost my mind! We North Americans could use a friendliness refresher course. We only met Api and James from Suwarrow in the Cook Islands, but if they are representative of their countrymen, then the Cook Islands rate right up there too. Now we are on to our next adventure in New Zealand.

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Weather Window Wait in Tonga

2010-11-02T10:43:00.001-07:00

John, one of the fellows that helped us on our Pacific crossing, was supposed to join us here in Nuku'alofa and do the crossing from Tonga to New Zealand. He was looking forward to a bit of diving, sightseeing, warm weather and so on along with the ocean experience. BUT he got tangled up in a hockey game and somebody ran over his hand with a skate causing enough damage that he couldn't come out. So we recruited Don and Paule (husband and wife) recommended to us by our friend and travel agent Deb (Don is her brother). They are from the Yukon and are avid outdoor sports people well used to the waters of northern B.C. and Alaska. We get them all cleared in and out of the country, but we still have to wait for weather to calm so we all take an island tour.

Tiny will be our guide/driver, he is more expensive than the other taxi guys, but he speaks good English and he is a funny guy. He weighs about 350 lbs so his name is fitting? The island is small, but Tiny has a full 6 hr day planned for us. We see the King's palace from the outside, it is being renovated for his Mother to live in, the royal cemetery, the first church, the local business areas, some more cemeteries and the agricultural areas. As we travel, Tiny provides lively commentary about politics both old and new in Tonga, the people, their customs and current conditions and he answers our many questions and takes a good deal of kidding about everything, especially his rendition of traditional legends. He took us to a magnificent under ground cave with fresh water pools and then to see the famous "flying foxes" of Tonga, huge fruit bats that hang in trees during the day. We were going to do some four wheeling on the beach, but Tiny's truck decided that today was not the day and promptly sunk to the axles in the powdery sand, not 10 feet off of the road. So we all piled out to push and with the help of some passers by managed to get the vehicle back on to the road. We had a good time teasing Tiny about that. He made it up to us by taking us to a nice resort for lunch (we paid, but it was very good) and then we went to the "blow holes" the greatest feature of the day and they were truly amazing. We probably could have spent the day just there. The steep rock cliffs have been battered by the ocean for so long and water has formed tunnels through the porous rock such that when the waves pound against the cliffs, the water shoots high into the air through these holes. Beautiful and awesome to see. When our day of touring is done and we are busy thanking Tiny for our fun he invites us to a Sunday feast at his house. We are all genuinely touched and accept.

Sunday after church, we had to let Don and Paule experience the Tongan choirs, we meet Tiny and head to his house. We have a cooler full of cold drinks and excess meat that will be confiscated upon our entry to New Zealand. Tiny and his family may as well enjoy it. Tiny and his family set before us a true feast, roast suckling pig, sweet potatoe, taro leaves and corned beef (a must try), raw fish salad, sashimi of another type of fish, cucumber salad and papaya desert. Delicious! We are so honored to be invited to these personal gatherings. We are learning so much from our travels about the generosity of others. Our Thank you's seem insignificant in return.

Monday, Nov 1, 2010, we have a window to leave and we haul anchor and head for New Zealand. All things considered and God willing, we will be there in 5 and a half days. We're on the water again.

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Bits and Pieces of Tonga

2010-11-02T10:43:00.000-07:00

While we were in Neiafu on Vava'u, we meet a colorful couple from Banff, Alberta. They are the owners of the "Giggling Whale and the Tipsy Turtle" a happening little restaurant and bar. Sandy and Cathy come to Vava'u every year for six months to run the restaurant and their small guest house while they ultimately enjoy the Tongan winter (30 plus degrees in tropical beauty - tough!). Then they rush back to Alberta, Canada to wallow in our winter months while they put their hands to the ski industry in Banff and Lake Louise. They certainly like extremes! Being the great Canadian advocates that we are, we quickly found them out by noticing the "Ski Louise" sticker on their restaurant door. Great people, fully engaged in their Tonga community, they offer the local school children an evening to perform their traditional dance and music at the restaurant, a very popular event for the traveling yachties and a great way for the kids to generate donations for their education (school is only free until 7th level). Meeting Sandy and Cathy broadened our experience of Vava'u which makes traveling that much more special. They came for a BBQ on the boat and we of course attended their restaurant. Cathy took us shopping, which is an adventure in itself, you go to one little shack with bars on the window/counter to buy hard to find North American products, you go to a store 6 blocks up and one over to get good meat, you back track 3 blocks for the store with best cheezes and yet another store for the best bakery selections. For fresh produce, the local market is the best place for selection of seasonal items and the best price, plus Glen really has a good time teasing all the shop ladies, young and old, as he searches for the ultimate tasting watermelon. Sandy just does everything and anything for anybody that needs help. You need it? Sandy can find it.

Upon arriving at Nuku'alofa on Tongatapu, we anchored the boat with the herd of sail boats off of the beach on a small island across from the commercial wharf. On the island is Big Mama's Resort, a rustic pole building with sand floors and a ceiling filled with flags from every corner of the world, signed by the boaters that presented them. Mama's strives to make everybody's life easy by providing free internet, garbage disposal and of course cold beer and easy pub food. They also have a water taxi service to the main island where the town of Nuku'alofa is. She held a big birthday feast for the resort while we were there complete with the traditional roast suckling pig. Very nice and well attended - the food was free, you paid for your drinks.

The weather is not so nice at this point in Nuku'alofa, the wind is a steady 15 to 20 knots and the water is constantly whipped into steep white caps. A trip by dingy to the main island is maddness and travel in the whaler is a guaranteed salt water bath, but we have to go there so you just do it. We picked up our boat parts and Jeff got the boat all tuned up. We are crossing our fingers, but so far the smoking is greatly reduced. Jeff really was loving life, we went diving and eating and checking out the town. We enjoyed having him on the boat too, he turned out to be good company and a knowledgeable boat hand as well as a talented mechanic (the reason he was sent here for). Arranging a taxi for his trip to the airport on his departure was easy as the drivers hang out at the dingy dock ready to offer their services as soon as you set foot on land.

This is our last port of call before New Zealand, so we have to clear customs, immigration and so on here. There are a lot of boats expected in the next short period of time, all preparing for the 1100 mile crossing. The ideal is to clear in and out of the port at the same time as you have three different stops to make in order to get all of the paperwork done and the offices are at opposite sides of the town. You also get your duty free fuel paper at the clearing out stage. The catch is that when the officials have cleared you out of the country, they want you gone within 24 hrs. But as boaters, we have to wait for weather conditions to be safe and they are a moving target, obsessed over at length by all boaters, we need to have everything done and prepared so that when the conditions are right we can leave on a moments notice. With clearance proceedures taking the better part of a day and fueling appointments the better part of the next day as you have to wait for high tide to access the fuel dock, there is nothing spontainious about the leaving process, thus we all strive to have everything done in advance. As it turned out it took two days for us to clear customs as the officer would not clear us in and out at the same time because we came in the afternoon, if we had come in the morning we could have cleared in and out, so we had to return the next "morning" to clear out and get our fuel paper. Diesel is $2.49/ltr normally and $1.53/ltr duty free, well worth the wait. So with all of the boring stuff done, we settle in to wait for our weather window (we need 5 good days) to begin our journey. As things unfold, we get to wait a whole week. But we won't have any problem filling the time.

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Home and Back and Plans Change

2010-10-23T09:07:00.000-07:00

Our next two days out at anchor provide us with two very, very interesting dives. We decided to dive on the bump in the water that we almost ran into on our way to this anchorage days before. Being only 13 feet deep at the shallowest point, it was easy to secure the whaler as we could target the rock we wanted the anchor to hook on by sight from above. A truly amazing world unfolded before us on this little world of it's own. The fish and coral life was so astonishing that we dove the same location the next day and still came up thrilled with what we had found.

In this anchorage there is a small floating art shop and a small Spanish restaurant. We visited the art shop and came away with a cute little painting, lots of local knowledge and the promise of a banana and coconut delivery for the next day. We were getting tired of my cooking and I guess Glen's cooking too as he is the BBQ king so decided that dinner out at La Paella was in order. So we made our reservation by calling on VHF channel 11 and at the appointed time pulled up at the beach with the whaler, took a few minutes to tie it to a tree forward and stern anchor the rear, then headed up the hill for a flavorful and interesting evening. The Spanish family that owns and runs the restaurant have lived in Tonga for 30 years. They have a quaint little restaurant, rustic and charming that overlooks the bay for added ambiance. They keep life simple by offering a set menu which consists of a series of tasty little morsels served tapa style one after the other followed by a flavorful Paella and a locally inspired desert. You can buy wine or beer there or bring your own. The food was both good and satisfying, Mrs. is the cook. The proprietors are diverse and talented, when it came time for the entertainment (live music is featured nightly) Mr. came on stage, flamboyantly dressed with guitar in hand and serenaded us with a spicy collection of Spanish/Cuban/Latin music with a few old rock songs thrown in for measure (he definitely appeared like he had once been part of the "scene"). To our pleasant surprise, when harmony and added percussion were needed for the music, Mrs. and her cook's helper (a local man) came on stage and added their gifts to the mix. We had to leave early as a big rain storm was threatening and since we didn't have our "wet suits" on we decided to go. This meant that we were going to miss the second set of entertainment which was to feature their dancing nanny goat, but the young fellow serving us didn't think the goat would be performing well as she was hiding because of the impending rain. She did make a hasty appearance, trotting through the restaurant, giving us all a "wild eye" and promptly high tailing it again. What a great evening and we did make it back before the waters broke loose from the heavens yet again.

Next it was back to Neiafu harbor. I was scheduled to fly home for seven days (which I did) and Glen had a long list of little items to fix up (which he did) as well as wait for the diesel mechanic to come in from San Diego. Woo Hoo, we will finally be rid of the smoking and soot problems (we sincerely hope anyway). Upon my return, Glen is almost local now. As we walk down the street to the market all kinds of people call out to him and wave, he has stories and more stories to tell of all the things he has involved himself in. It sounds like he had a lot of fun. The parts for the boat did not arrive with the mechanic, Jeff, so the two of them have done the prep work on the boat and Glen has been showing Jeff around.

Here is the change of plans. The parts for the boat have been located in Nuku'alofa on Tongatapu (main city and capital of Tonga) so instead of risking further delay and loss, we have decided to head to Nuku'alofa, a 20 hour run, and pick them up personally. So with Jeff on board we head out. This decision means that we will totally bypass the Ha'apai group of islands in Tonga, which is sad as some very good diving is reported to be there and we really don't want to miss anything. But along with the parts thing, there is some stronger weather coming in and Ha'apai Group doesn't offer much secure/protected anchorage so it is for the best that we bypass this beautiful little piece of the South Pacific. So we'll compensate by exploring Tongatapu Group more extensively. Right now, I am watching a beautiful dawn transform the horizon from night to day.

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Beer on the Beach

2010-10-08T17:47:00.000-07:00

Our jaunt to the beach for Happy Hour was a sweet change of pace. Once we figured out how to tie the whaler off so it didn't bash up onto the beach and become high and dry as it was a receding tide, all was calm and peaceful. To our pleasant surprise, the beach turned out to be two sided, beach on the side that we tied up and a very short walk (100 steps) up and over a bump and we were on a beach on the other side of the island. So we had a walk on the sunny side and then a quite beer on the shady side. A small herd of goats joined us in our relaxing.

We moved to a new anchorage off of the beaten track of the Moorings Fleet that plies these waters (charter boats) and were rewarded with a very serene and beautiful setting. The Vava'u Group here in Tonga is a collection of small islands joined by reefs and narrow waterways resulting in nearly 100 cozy anchorages. The landscape is high rocky cliffs next to white sandy beaches, a perfect play ground. The weather was calm and sunny and the water below us reflected the sandy bottom for a swimming pool effect. Only us in the whole bay. We snorkeled the nearby reef and spotted quite a few new fishes and coral species that we haven't encountered before. As divers, our greatest thrill is finding the rare, the unexpected and the new. I am convinced that this is the perfect location to find the elusive "frog fish", it looks like a yellow/orange sponge, so this is my mission while underwater.

We've moved again to another lovely spot. This one is a bit more boat populated. We have our most calm and perfect conditions to date. The water is truly "glass" calm, you can see the star fish on the sandy bottom as clear as day, the sun is shining and there is a "breath" of moving air. When it is like this, you can't imagine being anywhere else and because it is so fleeting, you absorb as much of it as you can. The clouds rolled in for the afternoon while we were out trying to find a suitable dive spot, getting lost in the labyrinth of surface crashing reefs, and the skys opened up and water poured forth. Good thing we had our wet suits on as we certainly got wet. Navigating in these parts, even in a small boat, is best done in high light conditions so that you can see the color variations of the water and therefore the depths. With the dark sky and rough water conditions, we definitely could not tell where the shallow spots were (don't want to run aground), we headed back to the big boat. Today it is still overcast, but we aren't complaining, it is still warm and wonderful. We'll use lat/long coordinates to get to our chosen dive site for today.

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Vava'u, Tonga

2010-10-04T16:50:00.000-07:00

The last part of our crossing from Niuatoputapu to Vava'u was some of the smoothest water we have seen since our Mexico/Nuka Hiva trip. As close as you can come to "glass" in this huge undulating body of water, and three to four knots of wind. So we arrived rather fresh and made our way into Neiafu harbor. Not surprisingly, the charts for this area are NOT accurate (go figure, they were charted in the 1800's) so it is good we had good light to enter the narrow, dog leg passage. If we were to go by charts, we drove well over the land all the way in. The big bay was calm and smooth and packed with boats of all kinds. We anchored by Ammonite, dropped the whaler and made ready to go do our customs clearing process. First, find a dingy dock that is kind enough to let us tie up and walk through the small, but busy town to the customs dock. Customs is closed until 1:30 O.K. so we go have lunch and chat with a few lost buddies and go back to customs again. After two different stops and two different desks in one place, we are done. There is nothing hard about this, it just takes the better part of the day to do and the tedious part is that you have to check in and check out of each of these islands.

There are many small restaurants and pubs along the water front, all seem to be owned by different nationalities, New Zealand, Australia, Canada, Italy and the U.S. It is however refreshing to be able to go out and mix with all of the other boaters. So this town is not culturally interesting or scenic, but very social. There are a couple of grocery stores, but don't expect to buy much more than canned stuff. The local market is not large, but has a very nice selection of good seasonal fruits and vegetables.

After a couple of days of eating and drinking too much, we head out to see what this group of islands is all about. They are a pretty collection, with little sandy beaches dotting all around and many reef systems that create protection from the elements, but are very tricky to navigate. There are also a million boats here, probably because of all the above. A million sailboats and from what we have counted, three power boats. We are a definite minority and that is one of the things that makes this adventure so special, because we CAN do it!. So we find ourselves a cozy anchorage to call base and set about finding some good diving. Wow!! The diving is actually fantastic! Not a lot of fish, but the coral gardens are amazing. Healthy, large, abundant and on and on. A virtual kaleidoscope of color greets your eyes. There is so much to look at, you don't know where to look first. So the next week is going to be spent underwater, filling our senses with color. We heard the whales on two of our dives, but no sightings yet, I think we are getting close to the end of whale season now.

We have found a tiny, private, sandy beach bordered by turquoise water where we are going to have Happy Hour tonight. We are looking forward to sand in our toes.

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Three Villages on Niuatoputapu

2010-09-28T16:33:00.000-07:00

Our walk to the Western Union Bank is entertaining. First we have to power the dingy over to the main wharf (a long dirt embankment extending out into the lagoon) and find a parking spot. This simple task is complicated by the fact that the much awaited supply boat has finally arrived (three weeks late) and most of the island's inhabitants are on the wharf helping to unload the much needed everyday essentials, mail and donated construction materials. There is a baker on the island, but he has been unable to make any bread for the last week as he has not had any flour! This island is isolated! Anyway, we manage to find a rock to tie up to and head out for the bank. We have been told that it is in the last village, we are currently in the first village, then there is the middle village and the bank is in the third village. The villages of course all have names, but they are finger twisters (tongue twisters too) and the locals mostly refer to them as 1,2,3 to "palangi" (white people) like us. The hard packed white sand road is very busy with traffic today, but all vehicles are piled with goods or people. Finally one truck stops and offers us a ride which we gratefully accept as it is beastly hot out. Two seconds later he drops us off at two little white buildings that look like any number of other little white buildings scattered over the island and says the second one is the bank and the first one is customs. Now the bank does have a computer and there is a desk/counter, but they do not do cash advances on credit cards/debit cards, however they will convert U.S. dollars to the local currency. Very luckily for us we happen to have some of that stuff in our wallet (US $). Cash in hand, we pay our entrance fee to customs then wait for the health officer to collect us to go over to the makeshift hospital (old Methodist church) to pay the health fee. She thankfully gives us a ride back to the wharf with a side stop at the "store" (very loose term for small building with not much in it) for some water, which they are just unpacking from the ship. I say all of this in detail, boring as it is, to show that this simple task that we take so for granted in Canada, has taken us the better part of the day. We get back to the boat in time for me to prepare a "dish to share" for the pot luck dinner being held for the boaters at Sia and Nico's place tonight. Not their house, that was washed away in the tsunami, they have two small garden shed like buildings to sleep in. One has been built by the Red Cross and the other Nico has built from the roof of his old shop which he miraculously found intact in the bushes after the tsunami and other bits and pieces that he was able to scrounge from the litter that was once the lives of the people who live on this island. This tsunami happened at 7:30 am on Sept 30, 2009, the anniversary is this week, and just about everybody lost everything. We've seen "before pictures" of a very orderly and picturesque village and stare in disbelief at the shanty town it is today. But Nico and Sia and their three boys are generous to a fault. We all enjoy a lovely evening eating and visiting with them and the people from two other boats, learning of their lives and their ways. The family sings a beautifully harmonized song for us to end the evening.

We do our normal tourist activities here, go diving one day, go for a walk through the coconut plantation to the beaches another (stunning secluded beaches). Our friend Michele arrives in his sail boat from Samoa and we have him over for dinner on the boat. He is Italian and we have fun trying to understand what each other is trying to say, we have no shortage of conversation. Sunday we go to church and are happy when Sia and Nico invite us to go with them. The service is in their language, so we don't really get much out of that, but the singing......, Oh the singing. How I wish that we had a recording device with us. No instrumental accompaniment, only the finest strongest voices in all vocal levels - Perfect! Then we join the family for a traditional Sunday lunch of delicious local dishes under their "breadfruit tree". But the morning was not without a bit of excitement as our dingy decided to free itself as we were halfway through our walk to the church. Nico had to rush back and rescue it with his own boat as it seems all of the "yachties" were still sleeping and not answering their VHF radios.

Sia's boys picked and cleaned some fresh coconuts for us which we wanted to pay for, but they would rather trade for useful items like, flour, sugar, perfume, fishing lure etc. as these items are hard to come by here. WE also traded them a dinner on the boat in return for their generous sharing with us. The boys got the biggest thrill out of watching one of Glen's old racing videos. Things that we take so for granted, they are so in need of.
Our time here has been full and rewarding. We have made some more new friends.

We packed up bright and early today and are headed to Vava'u, the next island group in Tonga. The day is sunny and the water is relatively smooth.

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Niuatoputapu, Tonga

2010-09-27T09:14:00.000-07:00

Our 24 hour, overnight trip from Samoa to the first tiny island in the country of Tonga, Niuatoputapu, went relatively smoothly under the light of a full moon. We arrived in the anchorage at 9:30 am. But the tricky part is that Tonga is the first country of the world to begin a new day, so we left Samoa on Tues and traveled our 24 hours and arrived in Tonga on Thursday. We lost the whole of Wed. Sept 22! But the good thing is that when we come home we will get another day back, so our lives aren't shorter by a day, whew! There is a wonderful "yachtmen's" ambassador on shore, named Sia. She saw us entering the area, contacted us on the VHF radio in perfect English and asked if we would like her to contact the customs officials to come down to our boat. Well that certainly beats the 2 km walk into the village to find the appropriate building for customs, health, etc. (no buildings have signs yet due to fresh re-builds from the tsunami) and then walk back to the dock and dingy back to the boat. We told her "Yes, Thank you." About 12:30 we hear the van honking on the dock and set out to pick up the 5 officials. We are beginning to understand how this part of the world operates and after sandwiches and cold soft drinks and lots of chatter, we have all of our paper work done and have delivered everybody back to the dock, with the promise that when the bank opens tomorrow, we will get the correct amount of "pa'anga" (Tonga dollars, approx $1.00 CDN to $1.80 Tonga). The balance of the day is spent cleaning the boat up and catching an early night to make up for lost sleep in our travels.

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More Samoa

2010-09-21T22:24:00.000-07:00

We have found a beautiful, brand newly completed, high end resort on the tsunami damaged south side of the island. The Sinalea Reef Resort is back in business, better than ever. We were touring the island again in the company of our friends off of the boat "Ammonite" and we stopped there for lunch. So for those of us whose bones creak at the thought of sleeping on a mat in an open air "fale" (beach house), there is an alternative vacation destination.

We have met a delightful Italian couple off of a small sailing boat here in the marina and have spent several evenings being entertained by their animated ways. They met only 8 months ago when she was looking for a job on a boat and he was heading out of Panama single handing his sail boat. What small spaces will bring together!!

We went to church at the Cathedral on Sunday. Believe it or not, this is listed as a "must do" while in Samoa as these people love to sing, especially in church. We were not disappointed, the choir was fantastic. It was also refreshing to have the Mass performed in English. There are many different Christian denominations here so a person could pick any one they wished to attend services with.

Just a short story about our encounter with how Samoan culture can work. Solomon is one of the Port Authorities. He has befriended us after his heroic effort to get our boat into the marina. (remember the beer bride?) Anyway, we are minding our own business on the boat one day when Solomon appears at the side door (which means he has already invited himself onto the boat) and says "Can I come in out of the rain?" (as he is now also letting himself in through the side door), well yes I guess that is O.K. as I call Glen to come and take over. We've just come back from getting some groceries so while I put things away, Glen offers Solomon a Pepsi which is happily accepted. I am now finished my putting away and have shined the galley counters so I head down below to do some other errands while Glen chats with Solomon and waits for the rain to end. Next thing I know Glen is hollering down for me to come and make him a sandwich, ham no less. Now I'm steamed! But I can't go into "B...." mode with Solomon there. So I go mess up my recently cleaned galley and make Glen a ham sandwich and one for Solomon too which is only fair. They eat, the rain finishes, Solomon thanks us very much and leaves. Before I can "go off the deep end" Glen says to me, "I can't believe it, he actually asked if we had anything to eat! Can you (believe it)?" So now I get it and Glen doesn't have to die today. We marveled about this to some of the other boaters and found that many others had had a similar experience. So for the rest of our time at the dock, we kept our side door to the dock closed and the side door to the cabin closed so as not to leave and "open" invitation to anybody else.

This morning, we were up early and out of our dock slip by 7:00 am to take advantage of the high tide as the depth in the marina basin is very shallow. It would be very embarrassing to be stuck in the mud as we try to leave. Before heading out for Tonga, which is our next destination, we need to re-fuel, so we deploy our great big (exercise ball size)fenders (proper name, Scotchmen - not sure of the spelling) and belly up to the commercial wharf to wait for a fuel truck to come and dispense our diesel fix. Amazingly he arrives on time which is a pleasant surprise for us as "Ammonite" had to wait many uncomfortable hours for their fuel to arrive because of a number of "issues". We pleasure boats are tiny little ants compared to the container ships that regularly tie up to the wharf, kind of like a small child trying to peak over the edge of a table. We learned a new bit of nautical etiquette during this whole process. The harbor master radioed down while we were fueling and asked me to put up our "Tango" flag. What flag????? Don't we have "alphabet" flags? No! They must have excused us at this point as they didn't come back to me on the radio. But now my curiosity has been aroused, what the heck were they talking about? A quick reference to our proper seaman's book shows that the flag symbolizing "T" also serves as a one flag message saying "stay clear of me", to be used in times of taking on fuel and I suppose other dangerous situations too. So now, much smarter and full of fuel, we are headed for Tonga. We will be there in 24 hours.

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Apia, Samoa

2010-09-20T08:55:00.000-07:00

We arrived O.K. to the Apia Harbor in Western Samoa at 9:00 am. They didn't have room for us in the marina, so we anchored in the bay. No big deal as we had 4.5 days of soot and smoke to scrape off of the boat (the engines are smoking big - Detroit's deal - and we had a following wind the whole way). So in the only sunny day that we will see for awhile, we get the boat sparkling again. We can't go ashore as this is Sunday and the customs officials do not work on Sunday so we can't get cleared into the country until Monday. Monday, it is raining heavily on and off and we begin the frustrating process of trying to get into the marina and to have our boat and us cleared into Samoa. Finally after a bribe of 6 Canadian beer, we get a spot in the marina (we reserved a spot 1 week earlier - God knows with who!). Then even though we have an agent hired to expedite the clearing process, we have 5 - very friendly - customs officials parade through our boat, each lounging while the other asks us to fill out the same pieces of paper that the person before him did. So by 2:00 pm we are now legally admitted to the country. Our friend boat Ammonite is still parked in the bay and their nose is a bit out of joint. But most of the sail boats that we met in Suwarrow are here. Finally dinner out, and pretty good food too. Tuesday is another rainy day but we have a car rented and head out to tour the island. Well we know why it has rain forests, this is the "dry season" and we've probably had 2 feet of rain in the last two days! And because of the high rainfall, and the temperatures of 30 plus degrees C, the humidity is extremely high - we dry little prairie people are suffering. It is like being in a "hot Yoga class" all day (and night) long. Which leads to the type of houses that the majority of the people in the country side live in - a roof, supported by posts over a raised concrete floor. The fancier ones have a low wooden railing around the pad and some type of chairs, but mostly they are empty with the occupants rolling out sleeping mats and pillows for the night and rolling them up again during the day. Wow, how do they get any privacy? They do have a custom that being "tribal" everything belongs to everybody so I guess that the less you have the less you have to share. That being said, everybody we have met is extremely friendly without a hidden agenda and they all for the most part speak very good English. Things are very inexpensive which is a pleasant change from French Polynesia and the market has plenty of vegetables and fruits and the grocery stores have a very good variety of anything else that you would need. On our tour, we come to the south side of the island, this is where all of the really nice beaches are found. Exactly one year ago, this island was hit with a tsunami that wiped out the south and west sides of the island. All of the little beach "fale" (roofs over platforms) were wiped out. They are slowly being re-built. It is still very pretty, the accommodations are going in exactly the same - a central reception area with a restaurant/bar and clusters of these beach fale. The rest rooms are a block of shared facilities, toilets and showers. For $90.00 tala per person per day (roughly $36.00 Cdn) you get breakfast and dinner, a sleeping mat and mosquitoe net and your fale (open room with roof on stilts) ON THE BEACH. This is extremely popular. Some of the places are putting in private "fale" with ensuite bathroom but all are still under construction. The few 4 and 5 star hotels are all found on the north side of the island in the city of Apia (not too large) and by the airport. But they don't have the beach! So we have seen the beach and we have tromped through the rain forest and seen some massive trees and stunning waterfalls and walked all over the town markets/craft stores/churches. We joined a bunch of the other boaters and went to an historic hotel here for a traditional "fiafia" evening, which is their version of Polynesian dance and some of the local food (tourist friendly) and it was a very nice affair. We've done our usual boat community socializing and all in all are very much enjoying our stay here.

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Suwarrow to Samoa

2010-09-10T08:32:00.000-07:00

We arrived bright and early to the pass at Suwarrow on Sept 7/10 after 4.5 days on the rolling ocean. Suwarrow is a tiny little atoll in the northern Cook Island group. It is basically a narrow perimeter of sand and coral rock around a 5 x 5 mile lagoon. In several places the sand raises high enough out of the ocean to support a few coconut trees. But from all accounts, this is the cruising destination of the whole south Pacific! All of the boats passing through here say that it is by far #1 on their list of the best places that they have been. Many stop for a few days and end up staying a couple of weeks. This place is not unlike many of the other places that we have stopped so far with regard to topography and lagoon, beautiful yes, but what makes this place special is the two fellows that are stationed here as the rangers/customs officers for the Cook Islands, James and Apii. They roll out the red carpet for the boaters coming to visit their corner of the world. Sure they check you in and out of the country with a smile, but they are also great social conveners. They organize coconut crab hunting parties and fishing trips, then host delicious pot luck dinners with crab, lobster or the catch of the day as the feature food items. After so long at sea with just yourself and your mate for company, all boaters jump at the chance for some face time with a bunch of like minded people, good food (even if it is 15 different pasta salads) and of course refreshments of choice. James and Apii also know where all of the good spots are in the lagoon for diving and snorkeling and set up group expeditions for this or private trips if you wish. It really is in their best interests to be such gracious hosts as their government basically drops them off for their 6 month posting with a small boat (no extra fuel) and a fishing rod. So the boaters return all of their good will with food items (not fish) and jerry cans of fuel. After the cold un-friendly attitudes of the French Polynesian islands, the warm fuzzy community that these guys create is truly refreshing. So we lucked out, the day we arrived was a crab pot luck dinner night with 16 other boats in the anchorage. We did our check in and out the next morning and arranged for Apii to man the surface boat for us to do a dive in the afternoon. We attempted to snorkel on the third day, but the winds were pretty stiff so it kept blowing us over the reef. We have been monitoring the weather everyday for the last week and know that there is a big system coming in so we have to leave for Samoa on our third day or stay for at least another week and chance that things will stay calm enough in the lagoon for our anchor to hold. We choose to head on to Samoa. So here we are again rolling along in 2.5 meter seas with 20 knots of wind, thankfully all on the rear. Our current position 13.20.498 lat. and 165.19.446 long. We will be in western Samoa the morning of Sept 12.

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Good-by French Polynesia, Hello Suwarrow

2010-09-04T08:26:00.000-07:00

If only the good-bye/hello could be so quick as speaking it! For the Google Earth followers, we are at 15.52.427 lat and 153.56.858 long. We got back to Tahiti on the evening of Aug 30/10, arriving to a lovely warm 25 degrees C from an un-seasonally cool 14 degrees C in Calgary. Our boat was waiting patiently at the dock for our return. Our agent, Laurent, had done a good job of making sure everything continued working properly in our absence. His attention to this was not without peril though as we had dropped the general information to several of our boating friends along the dock that we would be away and to keep an eye out for suspicious activity on our boat. So it seems that Laurent was called upon several times to prove that his intentions were legitimate - our friend Yasmin threatening him with her mop! Our final days in Tahiti were busy, one day to wash the thick layer of grime off of the boat - life just feels better in a clean boat, one day to fill the pantry and freezers up again and our third day was topping up the fuel (ouch - that hurt) and departing for Suwarrow in the north Cook Islands. You can tell that you are getting to be a "dock potatoe" when you obsess for days about what the weather conditions are going to be over the duration of a passage. How quickly we forget what our little boat can handle. The weather forecasts were calling for 2.3 m waves at 7 second intervals with 17 knots of wind - that sounded pretty intimidating while we were tied up, but now we are happily splashing along in all of that and it really isn't too bad at all. We are actually getting a big push along our route as the waves are coming from behind. This trip's duration is 4.5 days and it is the first for Glen and I to do more than one overnight in a row. It is pretty lonely out here by ourselves as the majority of the other cruising boats did this trip in late July. "Oso Blanco" is already in Tonga and we won't be there until October.

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2010-08-03T08:26:00.000-07:00

2010-08-03T08:22:00.000-07:00

Shinny Boats and Little Goats

2010-08-03T06:55:00.000-07:00

Our parking spot inside Opunohu Bay on Moorea is very interesting in that it is the play ground of the large - and I mean large! - private yachts. In the three days that we are here there are two nearly 200 ft yachts, each with their harem of water toys and two elegant sailing vessels one nearing 200 ft and the other a very graciously styled three mast ship of 300 +ft. We are definitely slumming it here. These vessels are each so beautiful in their own ways, the sailing ships with their lines and style and the power vessels with their utter opulence. It's not really "peeping Tom" activity when you openly stand on your back deck with the binoculars and check them all out - Is it?

So here's the scoop on the "great restaurant" we were directed to for dinner. Chez Vina. Sunday is supposed to be their "Traditional Polynesian Oven" day. So I phoned on Sat. for a reservation.
"Alow?"
"Hello, Do you speak English?"
"A leetle beet."
"Are you open for dinner tomorrow night? Could I make a reservation for two people?"
"Oui." (Yes - in French - good I can understand that much)
"Could you pick us up, we are on a boat and do not have a car?"
"Oui."
So we manage to get that ironed out - we are never really sure that they have understood us or we have understood them, but we have nothing but time here so we are learning patience. 6:00 pm at the Protestant Church by the Papeotai Boat Quay is our pick up time. After I hang up I realize that they don't know our name or description and that we don't know what kind of vehicle to look for. Glen says - Relax, we'll be the only white, non French speaking, out of place looking, people waiting by the church. O.K. so now we are waiting by the church and it is 6:00 pm, we know to phone again as it seems they like to send a pick-up once they know you are there instead of arriving as planned (Go Figure!) The driver will be a bit late - no problem - we are occupied watching the Family day events wind down in the park area. The Polynesian people really do take their weekends seriously. They have organized picnics with sports competitions and music every free day, not just special occasions. Our driver arrives at 6:30 and it is dark now so he drives by us once and we stand in the middle of the road the next time by so he has to stop. He is Serge, the owner of the restaurant and we are riding in his vintage 1980 Volvo. Serge opens and closes the doors for us "Because they are a little temperamental!" Serge is French and has been in Moorea for more than 25 years and he has had this car for all that time. He has a little farm on the mountain side and he has just come from finishing his chores. When we arrive at the restaurant, we are the only people there (typically not a good sign). Serge gives us our menus and goes off to get us a couple of Hinano (Tahitian made beer). According to the menu, we have goofed up, the Traditional Polynesian Oven Feast is at noon, every Sunday - Now what are we going to choose? Serge plops our beers down and asks what we would like to eat and since I get to speak first, I whine that we had really hoped to have the Traditional Oven meal, but we see unfortunately that we have missed it. "Pas de problem, Madam" (No problem, Madam - whew, my high school French is paying off) Serge goes on to explain that the Traditional Oven is a great thing because the people cook the food in the covered pit and eat what they need then recover the pit and the food can be eaten like this for two days. So we indeed can have the Traditional meal and the feast begins. Six courses of wonderful flavors and accompaniments. We have special entertainment tonight - Serge has a little 15 day old goat kid that he is bottle feeding and the little guy has the run of the restaurant (only in French Polynesia!) The little goat follows Serge around like a little dog, because he thinks Serge is his Mama. He comes bounding sideways out of the kitchen, his little hooves spinning on the smooth tiles, then he bleats in complaint when his tether rope (which isn't tethered) gets tangled around some chair legs and holds him in one spot. He is hilarious. The food was great, the entertainment special and we have another good memory from our travels.

We are on the down stokes of our time here, getting ready to go home again. We spend our last lazy days in Moorea polishing the stainless and diving. We are going to need a holiday from our holiday (Not). Lucky for us we choose to head back to Papeete, Tahiti and Marina Taina very early in the morning on July 28 and get into the Tahiti lagoon just as the wind rises to 25 knots, thus missing the impending bad weather that is about to blow out in the open. We are happy to find that we get a standard side dock tie instead of the med moor we had last time. Back at the marina, our social calander quickly fills our remaining days - dinner with our South African friends, a BBQ with our neighboring sail boat and pizza with our Australian/Italian friends. We give the boat a good bath and ready everything to be closed down for the time period we will be gone. Things have been great out here, but we are actually looking forward to going home to Calgary for a while. We fly out on July 31 and will be back to Tahiti on Aug 30. When we return, we will be heading to Suwarrow in the Cook Islands and then on to Samoa. Our time at home will be spent researching where to go and what to see when we get there. Can't wait.

Moorea

2010-07-24T16:50:00.000-07:00

Moorea still gets our vote for the prettiest of the Society Islands. Since we had traveled here 5 years ago on a holiday, we were not going to stop here with the boat, happily, we changed our minds. When we arrived, we anchored on the top, port side of Opunohu Bay in about 26 feet of turquoise water with a sandy bottom. This is noted as the prettiest anchorage in Moorea by all of the guide books, so as you might imagine, every other boat visiting Moorea is also anchored here. These sail boat guys are really teaching us about how to get cozy in an anchorage, we are like sardines here. Anchoring here is definitely not like the Canadian Northwest where if there is one other boat in the bay, you consider it crowded and move on, here there are so few other bays to move on too. But the weather is calm for three glorious days and this anchorage is picture perfect with the beautiful water, sandy beach, the crashing surf on the reef, the palm trees and the towering volcanic mountains covered in robes of lush green. This is what the tropics is all about, getting up in the morning and having your coffee on the back deck, no wind, water like a bathtub, air temp. 26 degrees, sun shining and then in the evening, having a glass of wine on the fly bridge, not a whisper of wind, under a full moon that lights the world around you. This is what we have been talking about! The diving has been quiet good, we did two dives with Top Dive and it was fun to find Nicholas is still a dive master here - we dove with him 5 years ago. Our first evening here we met a very nice South African couple on a 76 Nordhavn and had Happy Hour with them and a good visit. They of course have a very nice boat. The small village of Papetoai has a nice boat quay and we tied up there and walked around a bit. Our exploring netted us the locations of three small grocery stores and a good local restaurant for lunch - Snack Mahana. Today we rented what they call a "Bugster" - a go cart with signal lights - and toured the island a bit. Found a happy pizza place - Chez Luciano - for lunch, good pizza and very fast. We bought some local pineapples from a road side stand for pinacoladas later (maybe, I'm hoping!!!) and found yet some more little crafty things that we just had to have. We got the scoop on a good restaurant for tomorrow. When we got back to the big boat, the wind was really up, about 25 knots, and it seemed that we were dragging a bit. So because of the tight quarters, we pulled anchor and just went around the corner into the bottom end of Opunohu Bay where we found the protection we needed from the wind and surprisingly the elbow room we so crave. This move also exposes us to a whole new panorama of beauty, sometimes, you just have to be here!

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Weather Reports and Weather Reports!

2010-07-20T13:38:00.000-07:00

It is July 19 and we have been in Bora Bora for 11 days now. This is a first for long term anchorages for us, but the weather will not ease up and let us out. We are going to be heading back toward Tahiti, to Moorea and this is part of the problem as we will be going against the waves/swell and currently also the wind. A rough ride to put it in layman's terms. So we pull weather reports off of the satellite at least twice a day to see any changes and hopefully spot a calming trend. Today is supposed to be the day. We have filled our time since Georgia left with boat chores, doing nothing and maybe an occasional dive. We hate to even take the whaler out to go to the main island of Bora Bora (only a short distance from the motu we are anchored by) as the wind howls through the open channel giving us massive salt water showers. I've had to dig my lovely "pink" plastic rain coat out to wear when we go someplace so that I can at least have some part of me dry. The little whaler has never had so many sponge baths in it's life. We went to dinner last night at Fare Manuai, a very nice restaurant. The eating establishments here will pick you up free of charge for a meal, which is nice as it saves a $30.00 taxi ride return. The dinner was pretty good. We had a farewell drink with the Oso Blanco group as on the 19 they head north west to the northern Cook's, a path we will take in Sept when we return from our trip home. So our paths will probably not cross again until the bottom end of Tonga when we both head into New Zealand in November to avoid cyclone season in the South Pacific.

So at 2:00 pm on July 19 (yesterday now) we made the break from Bora Bora. The going was pretty decent in the lee of Tahaa and Raiatea, but definitely lived up to all of the weather reports from that point on to Moorea. As always, the wind is steepest when you start out on a trip, thus assuring that when you reach your destination you will have to wash the boat as it has been completely and totally sprayed. The waves were predicted to be 7 ft at 7 second intervals and in the darkness they were all of that (and I think more - it always seems bigger when you take it on the nose). But here we are now, an hour out of Moorea at 7:30 am on the 20th and everything is pretty calm as the sun breaks brightly over the horizon. Not a rain cloud in site - just when we would wish for one the most (really helps in boat washing). Can't wait to explore this next new island of the Society Group.

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Bastille Day and Birthday Parties

2010-07-16T12:01:00.000-07:00

The boating people are really a little floating community. They just travel from one island to the next, just socializing in a different setting all the time. So Bastille Day is a big thing here in French Polynesia, and the boat people are all excited about heading in to the parade (big event) and seeing all of the goings on. But there is a bit of a delema as to what time the parade should be as the President is supposed to attend the parade and he also has to attend the parade in Papeete, Tahiti. So will it be 8:00 am or 2:00 pm and this does not get ironed out until the morning of the parade. We heard the VHF radio sounding off at 6:30 am, but just rolled over and covered our ears (oops this was the general announcement of the parade time - 8:00 am),so we missed the parade! But from one of our friends, whose opinion we trust, we just missed standing in the sun, hearing one speech and then another speech. (so in other words - not much!) That's O.K. because we wanted more time for snorkeling and diving anyway. That evening there was a big pot luck deal at the yacht club (small lean-too on the beach with a dingy dock. Cyclone in Feb. nearly wiped it off the island.) and another general announcement over the VHF that it was Eric's birthday (Oso Blanco) and we already knew this, so were there for the whole thing. Georgia had a lot of fun as this event brought all of the people in from the surrounding boats and she was happy to find that there was a lot of young people her age to hang out with. It is lucky for us that she only discovered this on her last night here as we may have had to be party chauffers in her efforts to keep herself occupied on the boat. We did do a spa day at the Hilton - Georgia and I, it is not Glen's idea of a good time - and it was very nice to be pampered for a little while. Mind you the ride back to the big boat on the whaler and being splashed by the waves and sprayed by the wind pretty much negated all of the benifits. Our favorite sail boat - Dream Catcher is in the anchorage here at Bora Bora now so we had refreshments on their deck one night and took them diving another day. It is a lovely 82 foot "Swan", pure sailing elegance. The owners and crew are equally nice and very interesting people. Georgia flew home from Bora Bora yesterday and should be arriving in Calgary as I type this. The weather surrounding the island is going to keep us here at least until Monday or Tuesday so we have 4 or so days left to entertain ourselves here. It is time to move on though and Moorea will be our next stop on our way back to Tahiti.

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Bora Bora

2010-07-12T17:19:00.000-07:00

Having Georgia on board insures that we don't just idle our time away looking at scenery. We have explored each island of the Society group that we have landed on - thoroughly, and Bora bora is no exception. We have done a couple of dives, one on a very healthy coral reef inside the lagoon and one with the "sharks" on the outside of the reef - the visibility was crystal clear and the fishes were large and numerous. The fish are also very used to being feed so gather as soon as a diver enters the water - this includes the sharks - which can be a bit un-nerving. What if they get upset because you didn't bring them a snack? Snack on you????? We tag along after the Lagoon cruise boats and get in on such easy thrills as feeding and swimming with the rays. T(hey feed them with their tourists (meaning they feed the rays with squid, not the tourists) and move on and we slide in and swim with the still expectant rays. Needless to say, this was one of Georgia's trip highlights. Bora Bora is a small island, the circling road is only 32 km. so our day rental of the car turned out to be only a half day (lunch time included) Most of the posh resorts are on the Motus surrounding the main island, which is O.K. as we can reach anything with our small boats. We have the Hilton Bora Bora just up the coast from our anchorage and they allow outside reservations for all of their facilities - nice. Of special note here in the Tahiti area was the total solar eclipse that happened at 7:13 am July 11 and lasted for roughly two hours. We bought our special solar viewing glasses, available at any store on any of the islands and were perched on top of the boat, waiting in giddy anticipation for this astrological event to occur. .....And the rain clouds rolled in! Then the mountain in the centre of the island seemed to be in the way, were we even going to get a glimpse? Yes, we saw the whole thing very clearly. In Bora Bora, it was only 90% coverage, but still very impressive. We are all shopped out, don't want to see any more pearl stores or paero stores (the universal wrap around dress/skirt/whatever) but we are still very happy to swim and dive in the beautiful blue water (good, because that part is free and shopping is getting pricey). The weather here has been pretty windy, but the rains come during the night or early morning and the days are sunny and hot. So no complaints on that.

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Oh My God!

2010-07-09T13:04:00.001-07:00

We have done the ultimate Polynesian picture perfect thing today! We followed Oso Blanco over to the west side of Tahaa to the motu (small island) Tautau. The channel is 100 plus feet and the reef is about 8 to 12 feet of pure white sand. Oso Blanco bravely pokes his nose onto the sandy reef and reports that he still has 2.5 feet under his keel, so come on in. Wow - 2.5 feet under the keel!! This is picture perfect, these two, 100 ton boats, suspended on the turquoise water over the pure white sand, their shadows perfectly reflected on the bottom and mere feet away, the dark blue depths of the channel. We immediately don our snorkel gear and plunge into the water, yep, only 2.5 feet under the keel. It gives Glen goose bumps to see the boat's bottom so close to the ground (me too actually) big problems if we drag anchor. But it is too pretty to even contemplate this kind of problem. We find a ray gliding around on the sand, some large white puffer fish and a couple of huge cow fish. Our own swimming pool.
We spend the balance of the day snorkeling. We head over to the motu as there is supposed to be wonderful snorkeling there, but we must have missed the spot as mediocre is the best description for it. We try to get a reservation for dinner at the resort on the island (the best in all of Polynesia - supposedly) but they can't get us in so we have the Oso bunch over for snacks and drinks and a good visit.

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Sunshine At Last!

2010-07-09T13:04:00.000-07:00

Whining works after all, we have some sunshine. In fact we have beautiful calm And sunshine. We awake in our precarious anchorage on the west side of Raiatea in "glass" calm water and a beautiful sunny day breaking. We lift anchor and head to the north of the island by going out one pass into open water and then in another pass to enter back into the lagoon and anchor by Marina Apoitit by Uturoa. being Sunday (hence the sun!) nothing is open in town, but we do manage to catch the dive shop guy and sset up a dive for tomorrow with them. When we say nothing is open, that means nothing, so no restaurants either, we have a quiet evening on the boat. Georgia seems to be going stir crazy?????? Our dive is on a three master sail boat sunk on the reef in early 1900. It is very well preserved and we see some new creatures living in it's shell. Georgia's first wreck dive. I have to admit, it was a good one. We stock with groceries in the afternoon and ready to head to Tahaa the next day. Tahaa is in the same lagoon as Raiatea, but is a separate island. Tahaa is a very beautiful little place. It is pretty windy the day we head up but we find a good anchorage in Haamene Bay, which is good as all of the touristy things we want to do here are located here. The first two numbers that we call for the sites we want to see don't speak English. Oooh, not a good sign. I muster as much French as I know for the next call - "Ahlo?" and it works as the lovely lady on the other end responds in English (as my French is obviously going to be bad). She was a good contact too as she set us up on a tour to see a Vanilla Plantation, a pearl farm (for Georgia) and the Hibiscus turtle foundation, everything we wanted on one phone call. As we were waiting at the dock for our ride, we see Oso Blanco anchoring up next to us in the bay and call on the VHF to see if they want to join in the tour - Yes, of course. So a little trucks comes for us with seats in the box and a canopy overhead and away we all go. the vanilla farm was very interesting. Tahiti produces the best tasting vanilla in the world, but not the most expensive and not the most available. It takes a very long time and a lot of hand work to get this exotic spice/flavor perfect. We of course buy a bunch of vanilla flavor products which are very yummy. The pearl farm turned out to be informative for everybody. When we were in the Tuamotus, we got to see the nets in the water and how the oysters are managed there, but at this farm, the fellow explained in classroom style the types of oysters, how the colors (black,green,purple) are achieved and how the pearls are created. Very interesting. The Hibiscus foundation rescues turtles from the fishermen (the turtles get caught in the fishing nets) rests them up and feeds them for a bit then releases them back into the wild. We had dinner at the Hibiscus restaurant (thankfully - no turtle on the menu) it was good not to have to cook ourselves for a change.

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Raiatea

2010-07-04T12:27:00.000-07:00

The day we left Huahine for Raiatea was not the "best" weather day. It was rainy and windy and there were very large waves/swells in the small 20 mile channel that separates the two islands. It is comforting to know that this boat thinks nothing of this type of conditions and that weather watching is just a formality. Georgia is feeling the effects of not being on the boat regularly so spends the trip down below trying not to be too sick. It is not one of my better days either as through what I have done or what I have failed to do I leave a path of loss and destruction. I didn't put every thing away for the trip so there was a gouge in the teak floor from a falling object and "my" dive suit blew overboard because they weren't properly stowed and I burnt the bottom out of my frying pan making lunch. That's three bad things right? Well, no. I was able to scrub the burnt stuff off of the pan. Once we reached Raiatea our search for a quite place to anchor near the town of Uturoa resulted in our dropping and retrieving the anchor no less than four times (once was by the airport runway and the officials made a personal boat trip out to ask us "MOVE" in the polite way that only the French can do) and during one of these times, I managed to whack the anchor onto the boat and that big chip in the gel coat was number three for bad things. We did find a reasonably quiet spot though and we even had internet so we could all catch up on our business. Day two - we rented a car to tour the island, we were going to rent scooters again, but it looks like rain and it did rain. The island is lovely of course, not very commercialized, there are a couple of small resorts. We did stop for lunch in a quaint little resort on the south of the island, Opoa Beach Resort, very nice lunch and very nice little resort. We did some roadside shopping - gathered some papaya from trees that we are positive were growing wild???? and an avocado and some pommelos. Stopped at one of the little "magasins" and bought some bread (baquettes - really hard to make toast from these). It is still blowing at the boat when we get back and raining. Day three - we head south in the lagoon in search of a quiet anchorage and we do find a perfect spot and wonder of wonders, when we head out for a snorkel adventure, we actually find a beautiful coral garden with multitudes of colorful small fish and live coral! Day four - we suit up and go diving in our coral garden, there is a drop off to 60+ feet and we have a really good dive. There is even an eagle ray here, though very shy, we only catch glimpses of him. I do have a second dive suit, so am lucky to not have to dive without. The diving in the Society Islands has not been very good at all so this spot warrants a second dive the next day and it is just as interesting the second time around. Day five - we moved the big boat around the west side of the island and had to scramble to find a shallow enough anchorage before the daylight left. The bays look lovely, but they are very deep and have very shallow reefs extending into them, so you need the light to be able to see the variances in the water depths as deep to shallow is immediate and we would run the boat aground using our depth sounder. But despite the rush, we managed, as we always do, to get the job done. It is raining and raining and raining here. We mop up the boat and close the windows/doors then open them all up again, hide the outdoor seating then set it all up again. The rain is getting tedious to say the least. Well we are diving anyway so salty wet or rainy wet, I guess it doesn't matter. When the sun does peak out it is definitely beautiful and today the whole afternoon has been gloriously sunny. We have watched waterfalls be born in the last couple of days. The evenings are quiet dinners on board and sadly a series of really bad movies, but good wine makes up for that fact. Tomorrow, we will head back to the north end to stock up on supplies and do a wreck dive before moving on the Tahaa which is the second island in the same lagoon as Raiatea.

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Market ? What Market?

2010-06-29T21:07:00.000-07:00

So we are all pumped up to go to Fare on Huahine for market day. According to the guide books and the girl in the scooter rental place - Yes, there is a market on Saturday. All day! Down by the cargo dock. Well, long story short, we bought a few supplies at the regular grocery store and were back to the big boat in an hour. Quite disappointing, there were two tail-gate trucks with a few pieces of fruit and the other one had some veal. Our afternoon was spent burning up fuel in the whaler, boogey boarding in the bay where we have the big boat parked. It took a few times for Georgia to get back into the groove and because I'm lucky today, I get up first time. But I'm not a very good boat driver and I couldn't get the throttle right to allow Glen to stabalize the board so that he could get up. So before we ripped his arms out, he promised I could try driving another day and he got back on board and drove for Georgia again. When we finished that craziness, we took a tour in the whaler to the other side of the island in search of a smooth snorkel place as the wind had picked up on the west side making it too rough to snorkel there. we saw some neat things from the water, but curiously, it was rough on the east side too so we headed back to the Mother ship and soothed our soar muscles with papaya smoothies for Happy Hour.

Sunday was a dive day, Eric and Anne came from Oso Blanco and we headed for Avapehi Pass for a spectacular dive (according to the dive books). We anchored our boats by the local dive boat (good sign - there is dive activity here) and descended to the dead coral below. It will get better as we go into the pass - Not!. We found a couple of eels and saw a few more fish than usual, but diving here is not very good to say the least. To top the experience off, we mis-judged the current and almost got ourselves swept out to sea (not a sign of experienced divers as we like to think of ourselves). So we called it a day and headed back to the big boats, chatted for a bit before Eric and Anne took off for their big boat then cleaned our gear. Tomorrow, we will head over to Raiatea, a two hour trip.

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Huahine - Beautiful!

2010-06-25T21:35:00.000-07:00

Our crossing from Tahiti to Huahine was interesting because of the big water and the fact that it was dark. There was a quarter moon on but it didn't show because of the rain clouds. But our first glimpses of Huahine were in bright sunshine. The Avapehi Pass was wide and well marked and Smooth! The lagoon to the south of the village of Fare is also well marked. The water colors are unbelievable, the depths are beautiful dark blue and the sand shallows are the loveliest shade of turquoise. The water visibility is at least 90 feet in most places. We parked up on the reef side of the lagoon and immediately prepared to snorkel the reef beside us. The current runs pretty strong in this part of the lagoon channel as I was swept rapidly away from the boat when I jumped in the water and had a difficult time swimming back to the boat. This method of getting to the reef was not going to work so we lowered the whaler and drove ourselves over, anchored the whaler in a sandy spot then spent the better part of the morning viewing the many little fishes and coral heads. We found two eels. A cyclone swept the area in February and the evidence was in the many huge coral rocks that were broken or upside down in the water. After our snorkel we took an exploratory trip on the whaler back to Fare and south to Aveo Bay. Along the way we found Port Bourayne which is a large sheltered area that resembles a bay but is open to the east side of Huahine. Huahine is really two islands in the same lagoon. Anyway, because Port Bourayne was so nice we hoisted anchor on the big boat and moved in to Port Bourayne. This is bar none the nicest anchorage we have been in yet since leaving Canada's west coast. No swell, no current, no noisy town, no boat traffic, no wind, no waves - only smooth blue water with lovely lush forest lining the sandy beaches. You get the picture - right? We did a shake down dive once we were all set up just to get Georgia acquainted with our equipment, sadly our nice anchorage does not have great diving, but we got all the wrinkles out of our gear. The next day as we were enjoying our morning coffee, Oso Blanco arrived in Huahine from their travels in Moorea and Tahiti. This is the first we have seen them since the Marquesis. We had so many stories to tell each other. They anchored beside us and when they were all settled in we all headed out to do a dive on the outside of the reef. The dive was O.K., but we are still sorry to see so much coral damage. There was one lone black tip shark as we entered the water, we came across two eels and we found two large anemones with the resident clown fishes. Next time we will try the pass to see if we can find more life. To finish our day off, Anne, Eric and Bear came over to our boat for Happy Hour then we all hopped into our whaler for the 10 min. boat ride to the restaurant Mauarii in Aveo Bay. It is a great restaurant and we had a lovely evening. The full moon lit the way home and we were forward thinking enough to put a trail on the GPS as we went to dinner so that we could follow the red line back to the boats in the dark. Today was another sunny day. Oso Blanco moved their anchorage to Aveo Bay to join some of their other boating buddies and we took our whaler into Fare to pick up our rented scooters for 9:00 am. As we were tying up to the quay in Fare, I remembered my driver's license. It wasn't with me! Great, now we will have an issue - it has taken us 10 min to get here. (Georgia had forgotten her license too) Luckily, even though we rented through Eurocar car rentals, they did not ask to see our driver's licenses, they only asked if we were familiar with driving scooters. Well of course we are. I think I drove the scooter at the race track once, that should do it! Thank God there isn't too much traffic on this island, because I'm dangerous on a scooter. It takes four hours to circumnavigate the two islands so off we headed to explore. We stopped at an archeological site, toured several artisan's shops, found the sacred blue eyed eels, marveled at the clever design of the ancient fish traps and enjoyed a sunny day surrounded by magnificent scenery around every turn. We stopped for lunch at the Mauarii and had a great fish sandwich with coconut/vanilla sauce and fries. The fries are stuffed in your sandwich! Weird, but tastey. It was fun to travel around the area on land, we saw Oso Blanco in her new anchorage and admired our boat sitting in her great anchorage and so on, just a nice change of perspective.

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Impressions of Tahiti

2010-06-22T13:58:00.000-07:00

Finally we have dropped our mooring lines at Marina Taina in Papeete, Tahiti and are headed for the island of Huahine. We have been in Tahiti for a week now and are bored stiff. First, there was major concern as to whether we were even going to get to Tahiti from Calgary on June 15 as there was a big general strike here in Tahiti that had everything - literally everything closed down. But as we entered each new phase of our flight schedule, the planes were flying so we made it as initially planned. Georgia is with us, a grad gift to her for finishing one phase of her education - she is an Animal Health Technician now. Because of the strike, we delayed having some repairs done on our whaler because we needed to be here to have it done, so that kept us until Friday and then the weather decided not to play along with our game and heavy rain, winds and seas kept us tied up. We broke out one day and rented a car for a driving tour of the island of Tahiti. It only takes 4 hours to circumnavigate, but we stopped for lunch and to see the botanical gardens and to hike up to some lovely water falls, so we filled the day. There are a few beaches along the way, they have black sand beaches, but it was a rainy day and nobody wanted to get wetter. The vegitation is of course very lush as all we have seen it do is rain, so now we know why it is so green. The grocery store is very nice, things from all over the world, but because this is an island i the middle of the ocean, everything has to be shipped by boat or plane and so everything is very expensive here. The down town Papeete is rather small and after 10 pearl shops, you pretty much have covered it (or rather don't want to see anymore). We have been filling our afternoons/evenings by visiting new boat friends from Italy/Australia and swapping boat and travel stories. But now as evening is closing in, our boat is wobbling along in 11 foot seas with a three foot chop on top (great fun). The boat is handling it very well and we are contemplating having a nice plate of kokori (pearl oyster meat) for dinner with a bottle of wine. We are very excited to set our eyes on a new place when dawn arrives tomorrow.

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Tuamotus Pics

2010-05-19T10:00:00.001-07:00

Marquises Pics

2010-05-19T09:53:00.001-07:00

Tahiti - We're Here!

2010-05-19T08:28:00.000-07:00

Well our first glimpse of the island of Tahiti was through dark cloud and pouring rain and the conditions didn't improve as we began our entrance to the Papeete harbour on our way to the Marina Taina. It was definitely warm enough as wearing a rain coat against the rain was more uncomfortable than being soaked by the rain. I think we are going to throw all of our travel guide books overboard as they all portray boating in these exotic areas as dangerous, unsophisticated, uncivilized and just generally difficult. To which we say, the authors must never have boated in the Canadian Pacific. On the other hand, all of their warnings have left us with the feeling of "Well that wasn't so bad." once we have gone through what they have described as an insurmountable object. This all relates to the entering of Papeete Pass and the joining channel in the lagoon that leads you past the airport and on to Marina Taina. You call the Port Captain on approach, then you call him again when you are 5 min. from the near end of the runway and then again when you are 5 min from the far end of the runway, so he can check with air control to assure that there are no planes taking off or landing, all very good English and very fast response. The channel is very well marked. Our mooreage in the marina is a "Med tie" on the outside wall and even though this is our first official crack at docking this way (other than our fueling experience) Glen and the Mystery Ship handled the challenge like pros. On the other hand, I ran back and forth like a chicken (afraid I'd get electrocuted if I wore the head set radios) from the anchoring at the bow to Glen at the controls in the stern. Lots of help (un-necessary) was on hand. Med mooring involves backing the rear of the boat up to a solid dock using the anchor to hold the front in place then tieing off the rear corners to the dock and securing the front with lines that the marina helpers bring up from underwater mooring blocks. But, since we aren't accustomed to this type of docking, we aren't prepared for the fact that the dock is 10 feet away and 5 feet higher than the swim grid on the boat, now there is a problem of how to get on and off the boat. The marina staff solved this by bringing us a lovely 2 by 12 plank, it looks so elegant stretching between our boat and the dock! Next issue is how to plug our North American boat into European electricity. Again the on site electrician got that all rigged up for us, it isn't perfect, but we can at least run the boat and some air con. It was such a pleasant surprise to have a shinny new flopper plate waiting for us, Justin at P.A.E. was true to his word. Thank you.

Having stuff shipped can be a comedy of errors when dealing with these out of the way places. It's too bad that Russell had to leave early as he would have found this place to his liking, lots of new people, three restaurant/bars at the head of the dock and total civilization mere walking distance from there. The day after our arrival, the "Dream Catcher" an 80+ foot Swan sail boat moored up beside us. We have been meeting up with the crew of this boat in all the places we have been since the Marquises and now we finally got to meet the owners, Barbara and Karsten. As with many of the sail boat people we have been meeting along our way, they were very interested in touring our Nordhavn, which suits us fine as we love trading google sessions so that we can see their boats. Even though their Swan was magnificent, a fine and powerful example of exotic sail boats, we have decided that we will remain power boaters (they don't have a wine chiller on their boat!). For our three days in Papeete, the weather was sunny, then overcast and rainy and back again and since we have been out for so long, there was a bunch of little items that needed to be fixed up/cleaned up, so we took this opportunity to get all of the maintenance stuff done and out of the way for when we return (we have flown home now until June 15). One of these "to do things" was wash the boat - we sure are missing the energetic and inexpensive Mexican boat washers - sucks to have to wash your own boat, but 5 hours later the boat is sparkling and we are rewarding ourselves for a job well done. So really we don't have much of a take on Tahiti just yet, the Polynesian people are very friendly and we are withholding our judgement on the French inhabitants for the time being. When we get back in June, we will explore the Society Islands in greater detail. We have a ton of pictures from Mexico to here, and I won't bore you with a family slide show, but hopefully you will enjoy the few that I have selected. The pics with the numbers and computer screen are our equator crossing evidence. I'll be back in June.

Tahiti - Here We Come!

2010-05-12T08:30:00.000-07:00

Well, we are on the watery road again. We departed from Rangiroa at 10:00 am on the slack tide and by tomorrow at about the same time, we will arrive at Papeete, Tahiti. The weather for travel couldn't be better, blue sky, light wind and smooth blue water. We watched Rangiroa slide into the distance behind, wishing we could have been there a couple of more days. Yesterday we did two fantastic dives with one of the local dive operators. In going with a local dive guide we were able to dive the outside reef where all of the large and prolific sea life lives, this because he has somebody knowledgeable in the boat above the dive site to pick us up after our time is up. It is a little tricky to follow underwater divers from the surface (rough surface) only by the bubble trail and to get to some of the best dives you have to go by boat to the middle of nowhere so that special pickup guy is very important. The weather was crappy all day, alternately raining buckets of water and blowing wind, but when you are under water, it doesn't matter. The first dive was on the outer reef and we have never been with so many large fish, nor so many large schools of fish than we encountered there. Absolutely stunning! We are diving with fish that we have never seen before, which for a diver is always a big deal. The rainbow of colors, myriad of body shapes and the variation of behaviors are all thrilling observations and then conversation for divers. We saw a couple of "Jew Fish" (that's their name) that were about 100 lbs each, BIG FISH! As the dive ended we could hear dolphins, but we didn't see them under water, when we surfaced and were already in the boat, we spotted them playing on the other side of the pass. The dive boat picked us up from our big boat and dropped us back off again. During our break between dives, the weather calmed enough that Glen and I were able to hoist the whaler up onto the boat deck of the big boat. It was still a dicey process as there was enough swell in the water to cause the whaler to swing on the lift harness and it is really difficult for mere mortals to control a pendulum of 1500 pounds. We certainly didn't want to tow the whaler all the way to Tahiti though so we were very happy to have it up and out of the way. The second dive we did was along the opposite side of the reef on the pass entrance with the tidal current flooding into the atoll (so we don't get swept out to sea). The boat dropped us off on the outside and after we dropped down to proper depth, we drifted (more like rushed) along the coral walls, sand valleys and lava caverns googling at the fish, eels, sharks and so forth along the way. It was the most amazing ride. I just wanted to have the boat take us right back out and do it all over again. So another day to stay and dive certainly wouldn't have been hard to talk either Glen or myself into, but we have a schedule to follow. Russell departed early yesterday morning, he had some personal stuff to take care of and just couldn't hang out with us for the last 5 days. So he was able to arrange a flight from Rangiroa to Tahiti and hopefully he is able to change all the rest of his flights from there to home without too many problems. So now it's just Glen and me bobbing along in the blue.

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Rangiroa

2010-05-09T11:55:00.000-07:00

Every night is a photo op for a beautiful sunset. Rangiroa is a huge atoll with most of the population situated on the small motus between the two main entrances. Avatoru/Tiputa is a sleepy collection of homes with several grocery stores, a handful of good restaurants, a fuel station, several jewelry shops, 6 dive operations, two small resorts (one closed for reno) and a whole bunch of family run pensions. We finally have the currents down so we came in on the morning slack tide and anchored north of the Avatoru pass. We have explored the town on foot and rented a car for a half day to explore all the rest of the town area. We did our part to support the economy by buying some souvenirs and groceries. Eating out initially was a challenge as when the sun goes down it is pitch black dark and there is a maze of fish traps, floats and extremely shallow spots that you have to thread the whaler through in order to make it to the boat quay from where we are anchored. The first night was very harry to say the least and we have a few new scratched on the whaler as souvenirs. Then our Captain came up with the ingenious idea of making a trail on our GPS during the day (even though we don't have a chart) that we could follow at night. That and the fortunate find of our spot light in a hidden cabinet (and it works) has made night cruising a more relaxing experience. The main attraction for us here in Rangiroa has to be the diving and snorkeling. The water is crystal clear. We have had three fantastic dives in the Avatoru Pass, there are loads and loads of fish. We saw three small white tip sharks on one dive - they were not interested in us at all (good thing), some barracuda and some large eels. The coral life is very healthy, predominantly hard coral, but I did find a huge anemone with a resident clown fish. We have made arrangements with one of the dive operators here to take us out on the reef on the Tiputa Pass, the current flows up to 8 knots there so it is best to go with somebody experienced in the area. It is reported to have the most marvelous sea life, so we will see. Two nights ago, it just poured rain here, buckets and buckets. Our whaler has a finicky bilge pump and that was one of the times it decided not to work, there was a good 6 inches of water filling it. Nothing that an ice cream bucket can't handle for bailing out. Today is a fix up day, paint the deck, polish some dull spots, make good old Mystery Ship sparkle again. We'll do our diving tomorrow and head for Papeete, Tahiti on Tues.

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