Tag: adventure

  • Day 2: Passage from NZ to Fiji

    Woke up to no sight of land, still some seabirds about. We can visually see one sailboat in the distance and are in a “lump” of about 8 boats on our radar and AIS system with many other boats pouring out of NZ behind us. Continuing on with beam seas and winds, which gets a…

  • Day 1: Passage NZ to Fiji

    Enjoyed our cozy night in our quiet, warm boat. Watching boats leave about every 30-60 minutes, as they check out with Opua Customs. The weather window is looking better and better; we have our normal pre-departure anticipation, excited and a bit nervous to go. 1pm appointment with Customs – the Customs Agent who checked us…

  • 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…

  • Boat Sweet Boat: Back to Terikah

    Back to boat late after helping a friend on SV Linnaea with a haul-out in Whangarei. Home sweet boat – the distinct smell of our boat greeting us, the comfort of the warm wood interior, and a cozy cabin in which to sleep. We all slept great. Next day, busy with work for me and…

  • Wellington, Volcanoes, & Geothermal Wonders

    After a lovely morning drive along the coast, we caught the Interisland Ferry from Picton to Wellington. Staying at the Agnes House Farm, a 1906 restored farm house full of character, we enjoyed the chooks who were hiding their eggs, aloof alpacas, native brush, and so much birdsong – happy to have the morepork (ruru)…

  • Physical Education Class: Making up for Time on the Water

    Heading north to the Dunedin area, we parked for the night at a beachside Freedom Camp near the end of the Otago Peninsula, where we spotted a male sea lion resting in the sand during our evening walk. One of the highlights of our trip was a nighttime little blue penguin tour—there’s nothing cuter than…

  • The Healing Power of Nature: Milford Sound and the Catlins

    Back to our caravan in Queenstown after our drive from Dunedin, we tucked into 12 Mile Delta Campground outside of Queenstown (featured as Ithilien in LOTR). I took time with my cup of coffee and had an excellent meditative morning. It can be an interesting gift to talk with one’s mortality, reflecting on the best…

  • Boatwork in Exotic Locations

    One oft repeated phrases is “cruising is boat work in exotic locations.”  Cruising also involves play and exploration in exotic locations, but there is a constant background of boat maintenance with intermittent large projects.  I am taking a break from our regularly scheduled program of boat fun to bring you…boat work! We pulled into Opua…

  • Northland New Zealand: New Year 2025

    Matai Bay on the Kerikeri Peninsula, the furthest north we would venture in the Northland, turned out to be the perfect location for a New Year’s gathering for 8 kid boats, as well as a secure sandy anchorage for winds that hit 42 knots. Calder was stoked to wing foil daily. The beach was perfect…

  • Camping & Anchoring in Northland, New Zealand

    We kicked off December by a “shake-down” camping overnight to nearby Whananaki.  We walked the “Longest Footbridge in the Southern Hemisphere” at 395 metres, which was constructed in 1947, enabling the children living in Whananki South to attend school in Whananaki North.  Previously the schoolteacher rowed a boat across the estuary twice a day to…