Rowan had a board meeting from 6am until just after 9am …….. what a way to start the day. We got going promptly as we knew the sea was going to be pretty choppy, and we were heading straight into the wind, we had to motor the whole way. After a couple of hours we were very happy to pass the familiar Whangarei heads with their strange finger like rocks protruding into the skyline. Once around the corner and into the bay the water was lovely and calm. We headed into Marsden Cove Marina which is where we first checked into NZ from Tonga. Rowan is meeting an electrician tomorrow , to discuss more solar panels. We did not want to head all the way down to Town Basin Marina in Whangarei town where PolePole sat for seven months, it is a long way further up the bay and you have to have the road bridge lifted, so a bit of a palaver for a two day stay. This marina is stuck out in the middle of nowhere, so I managed to rent a car for us and miraculously got it delivered to the marina.
We drove to Susan and Nigel’s who live on the exact opposite side of the bay to the marina. It was over an hours drive to their idyllic spot in a tranquil little cove, it is very remote, a gorgeous drive along the wiggly coast road lined with gnarly Pohutukawa trees. These are NZ’s Christmas trees as their red flowers come out for Christmas. They were actually in their son’s house, who is high up in the navy and away on secondment. Susan and Nigel’s house was one of 4 houses affected by a major land slip and has been condemned. They have just got the insurance payout after 2 years and are now waiting for the planning permission to stabilise the land. They can look down from their house onto Taihoa, their catamaran, which is tied onto a mooring ball. Susan’s sister and her husband (Clare and Jonathan – I’m writing names down as reminders for the future!) were there too, they have been over for 6 months, they have shares in the boat and sailed the season together. Sue and Clare are from Liverpool, and have great banter. Jonathan is from the south and has taken over the family funeral business. It was a very jolly evening, we drank a lot of delicious NZ wine. We were pleased to stay over the night, as it would have been a long wiggly way back in the dark and I would have missed out on all the good wine!
The Whangarei Heads
Amazing beach
Choppy water at the heads
Around the corner
The disused oil refinery, markers guiding us through, you can see the shallow light blue water
The well used enormous timber yard, loading onto huge container ships, the air smells of pine
The cove on the opposite side to the marina where Susan and Nigel live
Rowan cleaning out the nest in the boom that the sparrows started building in Opua
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