What a night’s sleep. Even Rowan didn’t wake up until after 8am. It took us all morning to catch up and get sorted. Viki (her spelling), the lady who organises the rally we are on and who we used last year getting to NZ from Tonga, arrived in on the boat she was crewing early this morning. It was good to finally meet her, she is incredible as she manages a few WhatsApp groups of boats coming from Tonga, Fiji, New Caledonia and any other Pacific islands people may be coming from. She answers endless questions, and helps out on any queries, she has advice for any breakdowns and answers these questions within minutes. Keep in mind how on the ball she has to be, a boat today had to be scuttled half way here, the rudder had broken through the hull and was taking on water, big winds were arriving shortly and a boat was relatively close by to pick the crew up. She had advice for the boat who rescued the crew, as they gave lots of their fuel to a boat that got de-masted and could no longer sail. She keeps tabs on it all and keeps everyone in the loop which is very assuring when you are out there on big seas and don’t see another boat for days! She also had to help the boat at the beginning of the season who wrecked their boat on the reef. A job not for the faint hearted, and she is a single mum. Today is a public holiday in NZ, the cafe is closed so we can’t all congregate there, so Rowan offered PolePole to Viki for a rally get together in the evening.
We were keen to get some exercise and found a coastal path from here, Opua to Paihia. It was a gorgeous walk through dense bush, around magical bays, a path cut into the side of the cliffs. We had walked for over an hour and still had an hour to go to our destination, suddenly time was running out as we had everyone arriving at 6pm. We had just enough signal to order a taxi to pick us up in Paihia, we had thought we might have to turn around and walk back. We were lucky the first 3 taxi numbers we called did not answer, most probably because it is a holiday. It all worked out brilliantly as we walked into Paihia on the dot of 4, as we had arranged with the taxi, and it was there waiting for us. It was so good to stretch our legs.
We had a very jolly rally gathering, all the crew on boats that we had watched on our navigation screen, but had never met. A Dutch guy on his very fancy enormous bespoke monohull just couldn’t get over that we arrived in a day before him and he left a couple of hours after us. There were plenty of stories, about 40 people, of all ages. It was very civilised, Viki asked everyone to bring their own drinks and glasses, and some nibbles. We really did not have to do much. We wished we had looked at our waterline to see if 40 people on board had made a big difference. Everyone was gone by 9pm, loads of people tired from the passage.
We had our frozen aubergine curry for supper, that I had made with all our delicious Fijian aubergines, that were so cheap and abundant in Fiji, and I was not going to throw them overboard. It worked a treat, we thoroughly enjoyed the meal and then our bed!
The coastal path cut into the cliffs
Bays full of oyster covered rocks
140 islands in Bay of Islands
This idyllic old home in their own private little bay, absolutely stunning
Staircase leading to houses high up, we assume
Gorgeous vegetation, no wonder tree ferns are the symbol for NZ
All the tree ferns are unfurling new growth, it must be a Spring thing
The vegetation changes and we are in mangrove forests
More evidence of Spring
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