Commodore
December 1, 2024

29 November to 2 December – wet and rainy Auckland city

Rowan had some work calls Friday morning and then we departed for Auckland. It took us about 2 hours to get to the Viaduct marina where we were booked in right down town. Thankfully the rain stopped for a little while as we got into the marina and we had a very easy berth to get into, the only downside was that they were doing some building works nearby, which was incredibly noisy, they sounded like they were sandblasting a building that was under a plastic wrap. We were grateful to be heading off for the night to Carol and Daryl from the boat Scoots that we met in Fiji. They had 22 Fiji cruisers for supper in their immaculate home not too far from the marina. There were a couple of other cruisers that we had met in Fiji, it was a very jolly affair, interesting people including one of the coaches from the winning NZ Americas Cup team.

Saturday morning Daryl kindly drove us back to the marina as it was pouring with rain. We had Rowan’s Aunt, Ria and his cousin’s daughter Livvy over for brunch on the boat. Ria is in great spirits and turns 90 this week! The afternoon was taken up suit shopping for Phoebe’s wedding, a green linen suit was required. It was an extremely efficient process when we found one after about the 5th shop we tried. Rowan booked us into a great restaurant for supper called Culprit. It was course after course of delicious nibbles with delicious NZ wine, just as well we had to walk back to PolePole, to walk off a little of the excess.

Sunday morning I had to do a bit of boat cleaning and make up the guest cabin as Roy and Libby were coming to stay a couple of nights. In the afternoon some old school friends of Rowan’s visited, we had last seen Mike in Santorini before we were married! Loads of stories to catch up on as Mike has circumnavigated in a motor launch. In the evening I had an old school friend over, who lives just outside of Auckland, I met up with her last year, the first time since I left school at 16! She and I went to the same government junior boarding school from age 7 and then onto the same private girl’s boarding school for high school, further away from home. It was the first time to meet her husband, who is a criminal barrister, having started life farming in Kokstad (which will only mean anything to the South Africans reading this). We all went out for a very good supper with Roy and Libby, after drinks on the boat.

Monday morning we left the marina promptly and Libby had booked us into an Italian winery, called Poderi Crisci, for a long lunch on Waihike island. We found the nearest bay to the winery, it felt pretty remote, we were the only boat anchored. With a lot of guess work as to how to get to the winery, we headed to the shore in JeldiJeldi hoping to find a road to the winery. Luckily that worked out, however we were trespassing and had a 3km very steep climb up and over the headland to the winery. Thankfully the weather had turned and we had our first sunny day in a while. We finally arrived at our destination on the dot of 12 as booked, it is not called a long lunch for nothing and the kitchens close at 3pm. The winery was in a great position, with beautiful vegetable gardens and rows of vineyards. All the wine we had was produced there and most of the food came off the property too. It was great fun, and needless to say we drank and ate way too much! We finally made it back to JeldiJeldi after trying to get a lift with the owner but he did not have the passcode for the electric gate, so we had to do another slog up and over. We found JeldiJeldi beached about 50ms from the water. She is way too heavy to lift that far, so we waited for half an hour as the tide came roaring in, during which time we nicked a few beautiful hydrangea heads from the hedge and Roy found a whole lot of lemons. We finally all got our feet very muddy but got home after a bit of rowing first. After restorative cups of tea and a bit of a rest, we played some card games and finally crashed into bed.