Goodbye New Zealand – off to Fiji

We’ve continued to enjoy New Zealand, whilst looking at the weather a couple of times daily, waiting for a passage window to Fiji. We spent a few nights anchored off the Waitangi Bike Park so Calder could get another day of biking in before we leave New Zealand.

We played family baseball in a field by the beach with another cruising family, using an awesome driftwood bat they made. I’ve continued to stretch my legs, going for walks as much as able. New Zealand’s land, tree, and animal control is complex; certain lands cleared for logging, nonnative trees poisoned or burned, new native plants planted and protected, trapping and killing of rodents, moving native birds around on islands to protect them. It’s all a very interesting balance as they strive to get back some of what they lost on these islands over time to humans. NZ is isolated enough and they are determined enough, that it just might work.

Sailed around Moturoa and Black Rocks Wildlife Refuge, realizing we had lost our sea legs on our roadtip and at the dock, as we felt a bit green with the swell. We walked a bit on this private island, a local granting us permission.

Although the island is privately owned, it is considered a Wildlife Refuge. The island was one of the first private ecosystem restoration projects in New Zealand. Since the early 1980s, efforts have been made to restore the island to its former state.

Stock fences were installed to protect the bush, while flax and kauri were planted and pest controls were implemented. Nine bird species that were historically present on the islands have been successfully reintroduced. Off this island, Calder and his friends went tow-foiling in the cold NZ waters.

We found ourselves in a bit of a conundrum. Our 6-month New Zealand Visa expires on May 10, 2025. There were a lot of opinions on what was the next best step – try for an extension (no such thing), let it expire and just explain that we were waiting for weather (made common sense, but not legal), or apply for an entire new Visa (the legal option, but expensive for just a few days). There was definitely no weather window before May 10 to go. We decided to apply for the new Visas, as we wanted to ensure all legalities were tidy and to keep the option open of returning here next cyclone season.

We’re working on getting as much of the school year done before we head north, as we don’t do much school on passage…some light reading once we get our sea legs and foreign language online. Continued small projects on the boat included adding a new courtesy light, mounting our boat hook, installing a fan to cool the inverter, dinghy oil changes, and “general boat puttering” as Chris puts it.

A buddy boat suggested an excursion up the narrow and shallow, tide-dependent Kerikeri Inlet.

We meandered up the narrow channel following our friends on Waterdogs (with less draft), using our charts and Google Earth, seeing 4.9 feet under out boat (we draw 4 feet).

At the end we spent a long time securing our boat, between using anchors and two stern ties; the bottom was rocky and there were many shallow bars.

We found ourselves in a lovely lagoon with the historic Stone Store lit up at night, plenty of hiking trails leading to waterfalls, a brewpub, a coffee shop, and a large field where we grilled out then played Master Tag and Kan Jam.

After much discussion and evaluation (and re-evaluation) of the weather, we decided that this is the weather window for us. It is not perfect, as seas are a bit bigger and winds are a bit forward, but it is safe and well within our boat and our capabilities.

It was hard to pull away from the anchorage at 7am on Mother’s Day, as I was visualizing a “Jane Austen” Mother’s Day in this park like setting with my family spoiling me. Instead, I celebrated the domestic pleasures of motherhood with pre-departure laundry, prepping meals, and cleaning the boat.

En route, we rescued a dinghy that was floating, finding it stripped of the motor and all parts inside; sad to see theft here. It was a cruising family’s dinghy who were about to set sail for Tonga. We pulled up anchor back to Opua Marina for a night where we all worked to get passage ready, ending the night with a lovely Mother’s Day meal at the local Opua Café, where we enjoyed our first meal after arrival to New Zealand. Seemed very fitting.

We’ve loved our time here…the generous and kind people, the native forests, the melodic birds, the weather. Our summary of New Zealand in Kiwi Speak: SWEET AS.

But our 6 months are more than up and…in the words of Bilbo Baggins, “I think I’m quite ready for another adventure.” Fiji, here we come!