We motored to Great Barrier Island today for our “shakedown cruise”. Yes, we will get enough shaking on the actual passage toward the Australs and Tahiti in a week or so, so why practice? Because we have not been sailing since we arrived in Whangarei the day before Thanksgiving.
That is a long time to leave major systems, like the engine and the watermaker idyll. Just over five months. Oh, and we needed the time to reacquaint ourselves with the sea and sailing. Hopefully there will be some wind on the return trip to test the sailing portion. Meanwhile we are out here feeling the gentle roll of the ocean and getting some sea-legs back under us. Oh, and getting our rear ends used to sitting still for long periods of time.

The engine ran beautifully and the small diesel leak seems to have been resolved. The watermaker started up and is doing its magic of giving us drinkable water from the sea.

We were escorted out of the Whangarei River by two of the largest dolphins I have seen. They stayed with us for about a half an hour and really enjoyed it when I waved my red hat at them. Apparently they see color. Who knew?
And as we got within two miles of Great Barrier Island we were greeted by another pod of about eight dolphins. It is great to be here and to feel so welcome.

I have kept myself busy today updating THE spreadsheet for all of the tools we stored back under the V-berth. Yep, all of those tools and paint and varnish ar stowed away. Phew. Bob could not wait to get anchored to commune with the snapper. Maybe tomorrow he will catch dinner.

I am sure that after reading about all of the ugly jobs Bob has been doing you are wondering what I have been doing. The answer is lots of little things that are not as horrible to do but necessary. We are 80% provisioned, our hull is sparkly clean and our stainless could blind you.
But today I got to go quilting. There is a new quilt store in Whangarei just across the river from us. For $5 you can bring your machine and sew all day and “talk shop”. So tempting, but my machine is the wrong voltage so how can I do this? Enter Janette, friend from Riddlesden.
Janette offered me the use of her sewing machine. Lovely idea. But I came up with a better idea…what if I just come quilt at your house, Janette, and enjoy your company! And so the plan was set…I spent the day at Ridelesden (one of my favorite places in Whangarei) with the wonderful company of Janette and Margaret and made a quilt for a new baby in Fiji. I am smiling!

Margaret and Janette display the finished product!

So, vacation is definitely over.  We’re back in Whangarei and working on Charisma.

Friday we got the reconditioned fuel injectors back – yes, they found one had a leak and hopefully fixed it this time – and I reinstalled them.  The engine works, so we’re good there.

Ann polished a bunch more of the stainless steel.  A thankless job if there ever was one.

Today, we scrubbed the cockpit teak.  It had turned that silver/grey teak color that some folks like.  We, however, prefer the honey color of freshly oiled teak, which after a good four hours of scrubbing, bleaching and oiling we now have attained once again.  It will take another coat of oil in a day or so, then a coat every month until we’re back at sea in which case entropy will take over and in six months we’ll have a grey/silver look again.  Ahhhh, boat work never ends.

We also put up new artwork on the starboard side of the main cabin.  The port side has three prints that we bought in Fiji a year ago.  In Dunedin a couple weeks ago we found some hand colored woodcuts of New Zealand birds that mirror the Fiji prints quite nicely and the combination has now been properly framed and mounted in the main cabin.  Very nice!

We had our Sunday night BBQ with all the folks around here on the dock.  Very nice.  Tomorrow (Monday) we hope to find out what day this week (hopefully) we’ll haul out to see how the bottom paint is holding up.  Probably a bunch of barnacles to scape off, but it also gives us a chance to set up some scaffolds along the side which make polishing the hull and the final varnishing of the toe-rails easier.  We also had our two anchors and all the chain re-galvanized (look it up) and it will be easier to load back on Charisma when we’re in the yard.

Lots to do – about a month to do it in, then we head east back toward the States.  Our course will be dictated by wind/weather, but generally east to Tahiti then north to Hawaii and finally a great circle route to Washington State.  More detail on why that route later – but your hint is: it’s dependent on trade winds which have a pretty constant direction during the non-cyclonic months of the year.

That’s how we ended the last four days of the trip.  Some days we hiked together and others I fly fished and Ann took her new GPS and went for a 20 kilometer or so hike.  Fun was had by all.  Here are the results:

We spent one morning driving out to Milford Sound since it's considered a "must see" down in Fjordland...

...then in the afternoon hiked Key Summit...

...which was another hike we did last year that was worth a second go. Three hour round trip and you get great views from the top.

On the way back north, we stopped for two nights at a wonderful lodge at Lake Ohau.

I caught and released a bunch of small rainbows here (none were big enough to warrant a photo though).

Out of Twizel, Ann hiked Fraser Creek (a couple miles west of town)...

...while I, yes, went fishing again. But no catching...

...but, oh what a gorgeous day! I felt a little better later in the day when we stopped at the local hunting/fishing shop and they said the fishing had gone dead in March after a good Jan/Feb. It's all about timing, eh?

More fishing - this time out of Clyde on the Clutha River...

...while Ann went upriver for a hike...

...and captured this beautiful view.

And, we'll end the photos of the trip with this shot on the swing backyard of our cabin in Clyde.

What a lovely trip.  Three weeks in the South Island.  I’d go back tomorrow, but we’ve got work to do to get ready of the next leg of the adventure – sailing all the way back across the Pacific to get Charisma back on the west coast.

After four days on mountain bikes we decided to take a train ride. The Taieri River Gorge Train to Dunedin. Bob loves trains and was really hoping to do the ride from Christchurch to Greymouth across Arthur’s Pass but it wasn’t fitting into our schedule. We asked other cyclists about the Taieri train and they all encouraged us to go.

I love watching spectacular scenery going by. Bob does the driving because he worries about other crazy tourists forgetting which side of the road to be on, so he misses out on a lot of the stunning views. He was like a kid in a candy store… he would not give up his choice location on the “back porch” of our coach.

You can see Ann also enjoying standing outside watching the world go by.

No need to say more…just enjoy the pictures! You certainly can see where the word gorge-ous comes from!

The train station is in the middle of nowhere. You drive 20 minutes over a shingle (gravel) road from the nearest pavement to get here.

Our train car.

Here's the gorge. In the far left you can "just" see one of the bridges that we travelled over.

Yow! Some of these bridges spanned some deep ravines and were barely wider than the train.

The tunnels were no wider than the bridges. You had to be careful not to stick your head out the side going into one of these. Inside, there was less than a foot of clearance on either side.

The two hour ride brought us into Dunedin along the coast where we stayed the night at a nice little Bed and Breakfast before heading back the next day. (This is the train station)

The station was beautifully preserved and a real throwback to another time.

Downtown Dunedin. This shot reminded us that for most of our three weeks on the South Island we didn't see any stoplights. Nothing but very small towns. And the only traffic jams were a farmer and his dogs driving their sheep across the road.

Day two promised rain. On top of sore rear ends. Bummer (pun intended). But we were into it now and would persevere and gain character points along the way! Thinking we might beat some of the rain if we passed on the morning coffee stop about 6 km down the road even though it was a nice treat on day one. We wanted to enjoy this trip not just endure it. But we pedaled by the crowd of bikes having coffee and pressed on excited to get to the gorge before the rains came.

You never know what you'll see around the next bend of the trail...

Rain break!

Poolburn Gorge is said to be the highlight of the trail with unsurpassed beauty and two tunnels too! We saw the first tunnel as the rain started sprinkling and made a dash for it. How cool to have to don a headlamp to peddle through a hand carved tunnel and exit into a beautiful gorge. Cycling in dark tunnels can be very disorienting! I let Bob go first. And that way I could whoop and holler as I followed behind. Of course, “eat my dust” became very personal as I followed not only Bob but a group of guys ahead of us.

Our first tunnel (and a convenient place to put on our rain gear).

Old railway bridge, now rail trail bridge.

Gorge panorama (with tunnel on left side)

The rain continued as we exited the tunnels and crossed amazing bridges but fortunately we were able to stop at a small roadside attraction, Hayes Engineering, where they had a small coffee shop with a small fireplace. Aww…warmth and a place to hide from the heavier rain. We did not wander through the “attraction” distracted by hot coffee and warm soup! And we were introduced to a South Island specialty…cheese rolls. We would never have ordered one ourselves but some generous non-cycling Kiwis shared. Yummy. Who knew that cheese rolled up in toast could be so good! Maybe it we were just stalling.

Day two also included the highest point on the track, 618 meters (2,027 feet). Pedaling into a headwind again, but no longer in the rain we reached the highest point and cheered because it’s all downhill now! The sun peeked out through the clouds and lit up the green fields as we sailed down to our day two stop, Wedderburn. This was a stop where a lodge and cabins have been built to house the cyclist but we were not able to get those accommodations. Our hosts from Naseby’s Royal Hotel drove out and picked us up. And we just left out bikes in the bike rack unlocked until the morning. “No worries, mate, everyone does it.” So we unattached the panniers from our bikes and headed to our “hotel” – one of those establishments who have benefited greatly from the Trail Ride.

Highest point. It's downhill (mostly) from here.

Our hotel for the night.

That fireplace realllllly felt good after a day riding in the rain!