We hauled out today. We originally thought we could skip it this year but as I was hanging off the dock and out of the dinghy polishing the hull I noticed some “growth” underwater. More investigation lead to a bottom covered in barnacles. How could that be? When we were in the Bay of Islands in November the bottom was pretty clean.
Once Charisma was up out of the water hanging from the sling we could see that hauling out was a good call. The yard spent over four hours power washing and scraping the barnacles off. We look much better now but will have another coat of paint put on while we are out.
The good thing about being out of the water is that the varnishing and polishing of the hull will be much easier jobs.
The “hard” thing about being out if the water is the bathrooms are down the 12 foot ladder and around the corner. Good exercise, right?

A bottom covered in barnacles was not what we expected!

We first met Rand in Aitutaki in the Cook Islands.  Little did we know back then we would end up in his home town, Whangarei.  He has recently started a great new business selling artisan bread.  It is the best.  We devour it the minute he shows up and then beg for more.  What fun to have a good friend who is a bread man come down to the dock with fresh (and often still warm bread)!  We do our part by pitching how good it is to the other cruisers and I think he’s developing quite a following.  (Now if he’d only sell us his home-brew)

So here’s Rand!

Our friend Rand the Bread Man.

“Meet at 8:30 if you want to go out and collect some crayfish” says Graeme, our host here in Kaikoura.

OK, we’re game.  It had been raining all night but morning dawned with clearing skies and more important – no wind.  Crayfish gathering it would be!

Bob down at the dock.

Graeme has a 18 foot “aluminium” skiff with a 40 horsepower outboard.  I initially mistook it for a RIB, but it’s actually not inflatable – it’s all aluminum.

Once the sun came up the skies started clearing nicely.

Not a very big boat, but it gets the job done and Graeme is an expert pilot.

Pulling the trap which is set in about 30 meters depth.

Yup, there's crayfish in there (lobsters to the Yanks - the only difference is no claws)

Check the size and the little ones get thrown back.

So there you have it.  A fun way to start the day.  The only unfortunate part is that Graeme does this for fun now that he’s retired from commercial fishing, so he can’t sell them to us.  He can’t even give them to us since we’re paying to stay at his cabin.  Oh well, we’re going to hike across the hill into town to get groceries.  Maybe we’ll find some crays in town!

By Ann:

Planning our trip and making it come true are not always identical. We were fortunate to have had a “South Island Consultation” with our friend Rand. Rand and Robin live in Whangarei currently but previously lived on the South Island. After a three hour download from Rand I was overwhelmed but excited.

Following Rand’s tips and advice we have had an amazing trip so far. Today we hit a location that I had no notes for. We knew we wanted to experience Arthur’s Pass on our way to Wanaka, but what happens in between?

Serendipity…that’s what happens. Or fate or just silliness! Tonight we are in Geraldine. Why? Because I had a very silly aunt named Geraldine and this is in her honor. Aunt Geri, you always were full of fun and today was no exception!

Our drive down from Arthur’s Pass was breathtaking with each vista more lovely than the previous. How is that possible? I don’t really question it, I just enjoy it!

Leaving our lovely cabin at Arthur's Pass behind.

View down the valley from Arthur's Pass

View up valley toward the pass.

View along the way.

We arrived in Geraldine and were pleased to find a delightful town filled with darling shops and welcoming people! We are at my favorite hostel thus far, The Rawhiti. Did I tell you they have free use if bikes here? Yay!

So within a half of an hour of arriving in Geraldine we were suited up and headed for the river path for mountain bikes. Well, we never really found a river that had water in it but we found a cathedral of Aspen trees and acres of farm land that entertained us on our 33 kilometer ride. Follow that up with a dinner with fresh salmon and you have serendipity in it’s perfect form!

Ann's best Geraldine pose.

Mountain biking through the trees...

...through the farms...

...and across the riverbed.

Next? Off to Twizel…stay tuned!

We’re now back in New Zealand and after a whole day to get organized we have hit the road for a month long trip around the South Island.  Last year we toured the North Island and were stunned by the beauty of the country.  Talk to any Kiwi though and all you hear is, “Wait until you see the South Island!”

So, we’re looking forward to some great adventures and now that our US vacation is over, we will get back to blogging for those of you who follow this site.

It’s Wednesday night and we’re one day out of Whangarei in the town of Hamilton.  We have tickets on the Ferry from Wellington to Picton (from the North Island to South Island) day after tomorrow (Friday).

Here’re a few pictures to get warmed up.  I’m testing a new lens I bought.  A 50-300mm telephoto.  It takes some nice pictures but I’m finding I need to be really careful on the long zoom because even with the vibration reduction (VR) system, any shaking results in blurred images.

Getting close to a full moon for our road trip.

A Pukeko posed for us in the town of Hamilton as we make our way south.

We’re been taking a break!  We went home for the holidays.  We had a great, busy, hectic, two months back in Berkeley, California celebrating with family and friends.  Now we need a vacation (OK, just kidding…)

As a bonus, at the end of January as we were ready to make our way back to New Zealand, my sister Sue (and her husband Andy) were kind enough to host us in their timeshare in Maui, Hawaii along with my parents.  So, we had a great final family week together golfing, hiking, whale watching and more.  Here’s a few pics to catch us up on that trip.

My favorite yacht club. Ann and I had a wonderful lunch on the deck overlooking Lahaina harbor.

We got lucky with our whale watch trip. A mother was teaching her calf how to jump (breach).

With all the whales we've seen you'd think we'd get tired of this. NOT!

We finally had a chance to close the loop on our story of the bottle we dropped at the equator that “sailed” over 3000 miles and 15 months across the Pacific and landing in Fiji.  We met Vanni, sister of Boto and Esther who live in Fiji and found the bottle on the beach on their island.

If you have followed this blog since last year you know that Boto lives on an island in Fiji named Nairai and it was he who found our bottle in June, 2013.  He doesn’t have internet on Nairai, but was able to contact his sister Vanni via cell phone-who it turns out lives in San Rafael, California just 45 minutes by car from Berkeley where Ann and I stay with my parents when we’re in town.

It was Vanni who then contacted us via email and told us her brother had found the bottle we launched back in April, 2012 as we crossed the equator on our way from Mexico to New Zealand.  The original posts about finding the bottle and subsequently meeting Boto, their sister Esther and the rest of the family on Nairai, are on this site in the July and September 2013 archive.

So fast forward to this January and we finally got our schedules to mesh and had a chance to meet Vanni (and her husband, his cousin and another friend of the family) in person!  What a delight.  She made a Fijian dinner of curried chicken and cassava root and of course lots of Kava!

It was soooo great to meet her and close the loop on the “bottle” story…for now.  While the “bottle” story is complete, we now have a bunch of new friends with which we’ll no doubt make some new stories with in the years to come (not the least of which is our plan to visit Nairai again this year).

Here's Ann with Vanni

This is Vanni's sister Esther back in Nairai. It was fun to see how much they look and act alike even though Vanni has lived away for 15 years!

No Fijian gathering is complete without Kava and here it is in San Rafael, California.

So, we’re in Auckland for a few days before our flight home for the holidays.

Yesterday, we had a nice time walking down to the waterfront and people watching.

Today we had the very good fortune of being shown around by our friends on Mariposa (the ketch, not the cat), Kerri and Andrew. She the Kiwi, he the Brit/South African and now living in NZ. They picked us up at our hotel and spent the day showing us some great places we would never have found on our own. In particular the extraordinary views from Waitakere Ranges and the Gannet rookery at the Muriwai Beach. Gannets are similar to the Albatross. They are huge and graceful (in flight) birds. Quite a bit less so when landing. The rookery was amazing as was seeing these great birds glide along just a few feet away from us standing on the cliff. Spectacular.

We finished the day at my favorite pub downtown, the Belgian Beer Hall. Great Belgian beer on tap as well as dozens more available in the bottle. Amazing food as well. As a bonus, Ann and I also learned some of the nuances of Cricket. There was a test match between Australia and GB on the TV and Andrew, having grown up in GB, was able to take us through the game. We learned about how to score, defend, bowl (that’s the same as pitching for us yanks-sort of) and how the most vicious players wear masks so they won’t be able to bite anyone. Tough sport, Cricket. There would probably be a lot of blood if it weren’t for those masks. And I thought rugby was rough!

Tomorrow, we tour the Aukland Maritime Museaum, then it’s off to the airport in the afternoon for our evening flight. We’ll be back in the US Monday morning local Calif time.

Packing and getting Charisma ready to “rest” for a couple months.

Doing stuff like getting the sails to the sailmaker for maintenance, emptying the on-deck fuel and water jugs, pickle the watermaker, service the batteries, and more last minute stuff to go on a checklist for when we leave.

One of the folks who live here on the dock is going to watch Charisma, start the engine weekly, check the bilge, etc while we’re gone.

We’ve had a great week transitioning from cruising to touring as we wait out the tropical cyclone season in New Zealand. I can’t think of a better place to be. We’ve hiked up Mt Parahaka twice (Ann did it thrice) and caught up with friends we’ve met here (too many to name).

At the end of the week, we’ll take a bus to Aukland where we have a hotel for two nights before getting on Air New Zealand for the ride back to SFO. A couple months in California, then back to NZ to “land cruise” the south island for a month, followed by boat work (can you say “varnish”?) and we’ll be ready again to set sail. Not sure where yet, but probably back up to Fiji to revisit some of the wonderful people and places we met and found this year.

We’ll keep the blog going because we’re used to doing that and no doubt will have some fun to share, so come back! It just won’t be every day. More like weekly.