It took a few days to get our internet connection going…there always seems to be some catch everytime we come into a port and try to get online…however this stopover we have a wifi connection transmitting through the marina where we are presently berthed, so we can sit in the cockpit and surf the web with ease.  Very nice for a change!

The most recent photos start off with a few stragglers from our Poor Knights voyage with Amy Bankoff aboard, and include a photo of Amy for those of you who know her. After we dropped Amy back off in Tutukaka, we starting cruising north towards the Bay of Islands at the very northeast tip of New Zealand. The weather is warmer and more settled here and the wind and waves have been more moderate. Good conditions for Mike and I to practice boat handling without too much stress. Navigation is intereesting, due to all the islands and shoals, but we have a really cool computer program called MaxSea that runs on the computer and shows our live position via GPS and current course overlaid on accurate charts of the area.  Really simplifies steering!

Every anchorage we stop over at is located in some beautiful little bay with a pleasant swim or snorkel or dinghy ride to shore and some kind of adventuresome hike around the island.  Since all hikes start at sea level, they all strike off directly uphill – no switchbacks in New Zealand – the path goes straight up!  When you arrive at the top, the path then heads straight down again in order to give you the privilege of going straight up again on the next ridge!

A storm with lots of rain was forecast but never materialized, so we have been having truly wonderful weather day after day with the exception of a five minute downpour on our shopping day in Paihia.

Anticipating the above bad weather, we headed to civilization this past Thursday and anchored near a town named Russell.  It was once quite notorious as a wild and wooly hangout for whalers, etc., but now is peaceful and charming. Russel was also once the site of the so-called War of the Girls – two Maori girls got to fighting over the favors of a visiting whaling captain.  Their argument deteriorated to insults and slapping, and their families joined in to avenge the insults to each side.  The result was an actual war in which hundreds were killed before the local missionaries negotiated a peace settlement!

The local church is the oldest in New Zealand, scarred by musketfire and cannonball.  Some of the funds to build it were donated by Charles Darwin on his way through aboard the HMS Beagle.  We joined in on $10 steak night at the local Boat Club and shopped every store in the town which wasn’t that many.

The next day Anouk and I left the guys on the boat and we took the ferry across the bay to the slightly larger town of Paihia, where we had a good time browsing through the shops.  I came home with boating shorts, a sarong, and Maori pants, all of which are quite different from my usual wardrobe at home but are eminently suitable for the sailing lifestyle, especially when the weather is warmer in Fiji and Tonga this summer.

Saturday we sailed out of Russell to another idyllic island where we rather overdid the exercise routine. Saturday afternoon Mike and I went on another vigorous up and down hike around the island…this track touted as an archaeological tramp as it pointed out a lot of remnants of early Maori habitation and fortifications on the island. We passed close by a fishing camp that was established by Zane Grey (famous Western author to me, but in New Zealand apparently a famous fisherman) in the 1920s.

Being suitably hot after the hike, a swim looked good so I donned mask, snorkel and fins and swam from the boat to the beach and back, which probably came close to half a mile. MIke worried about me so he came to my rescue with the dinghy but was sent back with an empty boat as I wanted to swim both ways! I seem to have a lot of built-in natural flotation and the swim fins make it easy.

This morning Anouk and I went for an early morning hike (short version) around the same island, did gym exercises at the top of a knoll, went back to the boat and swam boat-beach-boat again, and then decided it was a perfect day to train for SCUBA – so out came the tanks and gear. Anouk gave me a good introductory briefing and then we dove down to the sandy bottom where she ran me through a practice session of several diving techniques that were important to understand, and then we paddled around underwater for a bit.

Needless to say, that was a pretty vigorous morning. I’ve decided the very best feature of this boat is the hot freshwater shower on the stern where we have the swim step, so as we come out of the water after a swim or dive, we can immediately rinse off with nice warm water and even shampoo our hair if desired.

Tonight we are back in a big marina called Opua Marina. This is the departure and return port for ocean-going yachts headed to or from New Zealand for distant shores. Raven will be back here in late May looking for a weather window to make the 1,000 mile trip to Tonga. In the meantime we plan to rent a car tomorrow and travel to the slightly bigger town of Kerikeri for some sightseeing, shopping and hopefully we will pick up our own dive gear there and stop borrowing Rod’s and Anouk’s stuff.

That’s the travelog for now – miss you all but definitely getting into this lifestyle:-)