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.