It was a stunning success. Kind of strange to have Thanksgiving in the southern hemisphere since that means its almost summer here right now, but we had rain squalls and a thunderstorm today, so that kinda worked.

Thanksgiving in Whangarei (Riverside Marina)

...and the other side of the dinner.

Anyway, the brined turkeys turned out brilliantly with the help of our chef friend “Rand” (of Leluvia, Aitutaki and Rarotonga fame) who happened to drop by right as we were putting the birds on the grill. Rand offered moral support and some good tips on grilling. The birds turned out perfect. Juicy, not dry and with a slight smokey flavor. I’m always going to do them this way in the future. We also had mashed potatoes, gravy, sweet potatoes, stuffing, string beans in chopped garlic, bread rolls, pumpkin pie and chocolate chip cookie/brownie things.

24 hours in brine and grilled on the BBQ. Yum!

Everyone brought something and we had full plates of great food.

Gary came through with possibly the first ever pumpkin pie make by a Kiwi.

All the dishes were fantastic as was the company. You could hardly ask for more. Although all of us missed our families, we all agreed we also are a family. The family that comes from shared experience (sometimes terror) and we know that each of us would do anything to help the other. That’s what it’s all about.

Happy a Thanksgiving to all our other family and friends and we’ll look forward to seeing you soon.

So, here we are in New Zealand, missing Thanksgiving with family and friends. What do we do? Make our own!

Can't do Thanksgiving without cranberries!

Tomorrow (we’re a day ahead of the US) will be our Thanksgiving. It will be Thursday, November 28 in New Zealand. Perhaps the experience will be a little different than when we’re in the US. We’ll be thankful for all the things we usually are. For being from the country that we are from (Congress, the Senate, etc notwithstanding) but also thankful for surviving our 1200 mile each way voyage to and from Fiji and deliverance from coral reefs, vicious squalls and other natural disasters during the sailing season. There is a wonderful relaxation being back here in our “home away from home” in Riverside Marina, Whangarei, New Zealand.

So, what do we do for our home away from home Thanksgiving?! Ann has organized (who else!?) a Thanksgiving feast among the local American cruisers here. Well, sort of. We also will have a couple from Zimbabwe (formerly Rhodesia) who were at our wedding and a local Kiwi who seems without immediate family and who we all adore, but who’s counting? It’s sort of a last minute deal when one of our dockmates said: “What are you doing for Tnaksgiving?”

Actually, I’m counting. I’m in charge of cooking the turkey. That’s probably the first mistake. Hopefully the only one for the day. You see, I’ve never cooked a turkey in my life. On the other hand until a mere six months ago I’d never overhauled a fuel injection pump either, so, whatever…

Anyway, Ann and I went to the “Aussie Butcher” to procure said turkey. Well, first off, they only have 7 pound turkeys here and 30 hours before we need to cook those suckers, they are frozen harder than a bowling ball! Ann not to be deterred: “Would you cut them in half?”. (We bought two, plus four extra legs – I don’t even want to think about the math of how they do that!)

So now we have a bunch of half turkeys so they will thaw faster. They are being brined as we speak in a large cooler full of salted, spiced water (sorry John and Lisa, we promise to clean the cooler out really well). But, having never cooked a whole turkey in my life, how the hell am I going to figure out how to cook a bunch of half turkeys!!?

Go ahead and Google a half turkey and see what YOU get! This might not be too pretty. Did I say, I’m doing it on the gas BBQ? At least I had the foresight to ask the marina manager to put out an extra tank of propane.

So, stay tuned to find out how this part goes. OK, so beyond that Linda from Bright Angel is bringing the mashed potatoes and gravy, Beth from Eagle’s Wings is bringing chocolate dessert, the Kiwi (his name is Gary) is bringing kumara, which is Kiwi for sweet potato, Dave and Mary are bringing (not sure yet) and we’ve assigned the Rhodesians to bring…(drum roll) pumpkin pie!

I’m pretty sure it will be a feast to be remembered. We’ll see what that means once we’re on the other side. At the very least, it will be a great time among friends even if the turkey goes up in flames, the pumpkin pie looks like fried wildebeast and we have to order pizza “to go” to complement all the wine we’ve bought.

Because at the end of the day, Thanksgiving is about being thankful for what you have and what we realize we are fortunate enough to have is lots of great family and friends! Both here in our travels and back at home. And we’re looking forward to seeing all our stateside friends as well very soon.

How lucky are we to have friends in so many places.

Thank You!

It is unusual to feel like you’ve come home when we are half a world away from our families, but today felt like that. We made the trip upriver with the rising tide from Marsden Cove to return to Whangarei, specifically to Riverside Marina where we hauled out last year. We spent a few hours in Marsden getting the bottom scrubbed by a local diver, cleaning the anchor chain and storing it, washing and packing away the kayak, flushing the watermaker, rinsing and storing the snubber line, doing a load of laundry and cleaning the oven and ice box. We were almost exhausted before we left Marsden!

The new bridge at Whangarei. Bright Angel is in the foreground and U.S. yachties will notice that "Red, Right, Returning" does not work here. Waterway navigation is the opposite.

This year’s trip included a passage under the new draw bridge that was under construction last year when we came this way. We buddy-boated upriver with Bright Angel in the lead. Bright Angel Bob called channel 64 to inform the operator that we were both nearing the bridge when we were 1/2 mile away. As we turned the final bend in the river before the bridge the bridge was descending! Yikes! The bridge operator called and told us he was just letting some traffic go and we could be on our way. Fortunately we were able to slow down enough and with relief saw the cross traffic stop and the bridge begin to rise. You have to report your required mast clearance so he will open the bridge far enough. Sure would hate to screw up that conversion! On Charisma we checked with each other before replying. Never can be too sure.

Bright Angel going under with Charisma close behind.

So the bridge opened and we went through and were immediately at Riverside! It is always tough to back into a berth, but with some wind and a current it is even more interesting. Thanks to a near perfect throw of a stern line by Bob to our wonderful friends from Eagle’s Wings on the dock, Charisma was gently backed into her new berth. Nice to be back.

"Whew, that was almost fun". In this pic I'm calling the bridge operator to thank him. His response? A hearty; "My Pleasure!" What nice people around here.

It is wonderful to return to a place with such great memories and especially when it puts us one step closer to “Home for the Holidays!” We will quickly clean up Charisma and head to Aukland to return to the US! Yay!

View across the Hatea River in Whangarei.

We left the Bay of Islands today, a day earlier than planned. The weather made it feasible to get a head start on our trip south, so we took it. After three glorious days, we weighed anchor from aptly named Paradise Bay and headed down the coast to a little bay called Whangamumu. We stopped here last year for the night and have always regretted not going ashore for a hike in this beautiful, rugged country. Well, that’s exactly what we had a chance to do today.

Once securely anchored we dropped the dinghy and rowed ashore. It was about 1600, but it stays light now until past 2000 so we still had plenty of time. Once on the beach, Ann found a trail and I followed. We were looking for the shy, elusive Kiwi and had a reasonable chance to see one since this is a pretty inaccessible area with tons of dense foliage.

Whangamumu's hills beckon...

It didn’t take long while hiking up the trail before we heard one off to our right and down the hill. Hiking a little further we could see a meadow down the hill and through the trees, but it was way too thick to plunge through so we continued on up the hill hoping we might surprise another one further on. Alas, no Kiwi and after reaching the summit (with breathtaking views that we will post later in the week when we have a stronger connection) it was time to turn around. Charisma time was near and we still had an hour of hiking to get back to the boat.

As we neared the spot where we earlier heard the Kiwi, we both were on high alert. Coming out of the trees I realized that we actually had a good view of the meadow below. We slowed down and quietly moved forward-just then I saw a shape move at the fringe of the meadow. We froze, but it saw us and we saw the Kiwi scamper off into the bush. Wow, we actually saw one! But we kept looking and sure enough two more stuck their heads from the tall grass and then they too scampered off. Too quick and too far for photographic proof, but the shape and size were unmistakable. Success!

In case anyone thinks we made up the name of this place!

Whangamumu Cove

Perfect end to a great day.

Tomorrow we have a long day-about 45 miles-to Marsden, which is at the entrance to the river that leads up to Whangarei where we’ll stay for the Kiwi summer. Ideally we stay Monday night, then slide upriver on Tuesday before the big rain on Wednesday. Ahh, the best laid plans…we’ll see.

OK, we have a plan. The weather is due to change soon. We’re going to have to make a mad dash for Whangarei, 60 miles down the coast, before a new low (with associated high winds and rain) comes blasting across the North Island on Wednesday. So…scrap the part about leisurely cruising down the coast. It’s not practical at this point. In the mean time, we’ll just enjoy this magic spot we’re in!

So, today, we had a picnic. We hiked an hour out to a spectacular point with a stunning view (island, trees, green field of grass, cliffs, ocean, etc-kind of like putting Big Sur, Point Reyes, Petaluma and Channel Islands together in one spot) you would be hard pressed to exceed anywhere in the world. And we sat down for a picnic. And enjoyed the view for all it was worth!

You couldn't find a more beautiful spot!

Lush growth with huge ferns...

...and views that just won't quit.

Then back to Charisma for a little boat work. Ann cleaned the hull at the waterline. Up and down both sides in the dinghy scrubbing the gunk that accumulates off both sides. Up 37 feet and down the other 37 feet.

I got to dive on the propeller. There is a zinc there that protects Charisma from corrosion. It’s attached to the propeller shaft about two to three feet under the stern. Zinc corrodes faster then stainless steel, so this is called a “sacrificial” zinc. Stray electrical current (largely from other boats in marinas) tries to corrode metal parts. The zinc corrodes first as long as there is some there. Our zinc that we put on from last April was about two thirds gone. When I started taking it off, most of it fell apart and sunk. It wouldn’t have lasted the six months we’re going to be in a marina in New Zealand, and was important I replaced it. But, it was coooollddd. It’s not yet summer here. Brrrr. But Charisma’s happy now that she has a clean hull and a new zinc, so we are too.

Bob braves the cold water to change the zinc!

Bob dives under to change the zinc. Brrrr!

Oh, yeah…back to the plan. Instead of cruising down the coast, we’ll spend one more day (mañana) here-do some final hiking and fishing, then Monday morning our time, we’ll leave at “oh dark thirty” and motor sail down the coast. Whatever it takes to maintain six knots. If there’s enough wind, we’ll sail, but nothing less than six knots and we’ll do the sixty miles to Marsden in 10 hours. The plan then is have dinner there with Bright Angel, who are doing the same thing, then move on upriver to Whangarei the next day following the high tide upriver where we’ll tie up and stay until May of next year when the tropical cyclone season is over and we can head north again.

At least that’s today’s plan. 🙂

I just had to add this one.  We both did a double take when we saw it.  No truer words were ever printed.

I’ve updated some of the pictures back three of four posts.  Plus here’s a couple that didn’t fit.

We hiked up the hill to get this picture of our first anchorage at Motuarohia Island (also known as Roberton Island).

Ann kayaking in the lagoon. Captain Cook anchored here.

This post is a little out of sequence.  About a week ago we rented a car and did a “land tour” north of here to the north tip of New Zealand-Cape Reinga.  It’s about a three hour drive through lovely, unspoiled almost uninhabited country.  Here’s a few shots from the trip.

It's like this most of the way.

At the beginning of what's called "90 Mile Beach".

Part of the cape on the Tasman side facing Australia.

At the lighthouse on the tip of the cape.

Stunning view from the tip of New Zealand

This spot is just gorgeous!  We’ve anchored at two islands so far and due to weather (south winds), we’ll stay here until Monday when we’ll start to head down the coast.

We had an amazing 6 mile hike yesterday around Urupukapuka Island (also known as Baker Island) where we are now anchored in aptly named Paradise Bay.  At the end of the day, I went fishing in the dinghy and while I didn’t catch anything, a pod of huge bottlenose dolphins came over to say “hi”.  They jumped and danced and even swam under the dinghy.  Then Ann went out in her kayak and played with them.  Yay!

Looking northeast to the Pacific Ocean.

Someone likes this hike.

A really stunning day.

Ending the day with dolphins.

Our private anchorage, the site of Captain Cook's anchorage.

Today we pulled ourselves away from Opua and have ventured out to the Bay of Islands. It is fun to be at the dock in Opua and watch the new boats arriving but it can be addicting and keep you from cruising New Zealand! That’s what happened last year and by the time we left the dock it was time to head to Whangarei and get Charisma taken care of before returning home for the holidays.

We promised not to do it the same way this year. And we have been keeping that promise by getting out and hiking around Opua. New Zealand does hiking extremely well.

Last weekend we rented a car and drove up to see the northern tip of New Zealand, Cape Reinga. It was a beautiful three hour trip culminating in a spectacular view. The Tasman Sea meeting the Pacific Ocean. You could see where the wave patterns from the two big bodies of water came together. It looks so diffent from a cliff looking down. It looked so peaceful, not as wild as it did when we were on the water getting buffeted by 35 knot winds and 10-12 foot waves while trying to get into the protection of the land mass.

After stopping at “The World’s Best Ice Cream” store for a treat we headed to Whangarei to help get Orcinius back in the water.

Ice Cream break!

Orcinius was hauled out eleven months earlier and structural issues were discovered. It was painful leaving for Fiji without Orcinius. So when John agreed to our offer to help get her back in the water after months of rebuilding we were thrilled! John sums the weekend best in his blog so I will leave it at that and encourage you all to follow the link at the bottom of the page to their blog. The good news is that it was a huge success! (and John, you do not owe us the additional car rental money!).

Orcinius in her parking spot "on the hard".

A trailer gets jacked up underneath her to roll her down to the ramp.

After 11 months, she's happy under sail again and better than new.

And now tonight we are sitting in our first anchorage in the Bay of Islands, Roberton Island (the site of Captain Cook’s anchorage). When we first dropped anchor (yes, we remember how!) there were two other boats here. One was on their private mooring and the other anchored. Inside of two hours there were seven other boats! They ranged from small fishing boats to catamarans to large house boats. The house boat pulled in and dumped eight yellow kayaks of people to go ashore. they looked like a fleet of rubber ducks! Wow, is this what cruising in New Zealand is like? Fortunately this must be a great day spot because as we sit here sipping Charismas in the setting sun only the boat on the private mooring remains. Yay! A private anchorage…this is cruising New Zealand!

Oh, and Bob deployed his hammock for the first time this season while I pumped up my kayak and paddled ashore.

Bob has finally deployed his hammock!

From Bob: Such a nice nap I had in my lovely hammock on such a warm day!