A NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC special experience.

While in Port Villa Carol and I got dive certified in in anticipation of the Great Barrier Reef .

Leaving Port Villa we worked our way north sailing past another volcano (Ambryn island) and had a nice light show reflected off the steam cloud as we passed by at night on our way to Pentecost island.  Sharon on SHALEN had arranged for a group of us to get a tour and see the Land Divers.  Awesome!

Sulphur clouds made the sunset look petty wild. 

A bamboo straw for my coconut water. This would solve that plastic straw problem. 

The land diving tower. It only looks rickety.

The Chief of the village.

Uh, NO!

Pretty sad looking windsock

Out in the middle of Nowhere on Pentecost Island Vanuatu 

This plane landed, disembarked, loaded up and took off, all in about 15 min.

We spent a night in the most idyllic cove with a waterfall and great snorkeling and the headed for Luganville in preparation for the passage to Australia.   On the way e caught and landed a 27+kg (60lb) 5ft yellowfin tuna! That put 15 bags of tuna steak in the freezer, about 35 lbs worth!

Waterfall on Maewo island . 

5+feet, 60+lbs!

ONE of several buckets of tuna steak Carol packaged.

Blue starfish. 

Mon 5/28  We left Vanuatu last Saturday the 19th, Carol’s birthday. This is at least the 4th time in the past 7 years she has spent her birthday at sea moving a boat.  The night before we had surf and turf (tuna and steak) plus a lopsided birthday cake.  We motored out for an hour and then popped the symmetrical spin which stayed up for over 45 hours.  Took it down Monday morning as the wind had gone forward and increased.  Carol and I both were still suffering our colds and even today haven't completely shaken them. We had a great, fast, passage and came through the Great Barrier reef at night and arrived at 0230 local time. 139:25 passage, avg 8 knots!

So we tie up at the Q dock and the next morning clear in.  First the sniffer dog goes on looking for drugs and cash, even finding Don’s bankroll.  Cash is okay but you have to declare any over  $10,000. Then Customs and Immigration come on board for paperwork and to poke around the  boat.  They could not believe how little liquor we carried, nor that we didn't have any heavy duty drugs in the med kit.  So then the Biosecurity guy comes and does his paperwork and looks around for bugs and takes our fresh vegetables, garlic and a few other things.  Fortunately we had eaten all the chicken!

Carol had run into Sharon from SHALEN, another Oyster yacht, while in the gallery and we were invited to go see the wallabys and kangaroos on the beach the next morning.

Carol photobombs the 'roos.

See the Joey peeking out?

So now we're getting ready to head out to the Whitsunday islands for some cruising, snorkeling and relaxing.  We'll be in Oz til the last week in July and hope to do a short land tour.  In the meantime,   G'day mate!
 

First passage and more

This will be short as internet here is pricey and slow.  April 23 we departed Opua for the island of Tanna, Vanuatu. We had a nice sail for a few days, a rough uncomfortable 24-30 hours and then sailed for a day, finished by motoring the last 30. We caught a couple of mahi, one about 4'!

 From 20 miles out we could see the glow of the volcano reflected in the clouds.  Tanna was amazing; very primitive, nice people. The first day we had lunch at Chez Leah; Chicken, veggies, fruit.  The bananas here are delicious; bigger and tastier than in the States.

Typical dugout canie for fishing.

Chez Leah. 

Don at our lunch.

Carol by a large banyan tree.

BANANAS!

Steam vent near our anchorage; the water was noticeably warmer.

The second day we took a very bumpy truck ride on the washed out road to the volcano and went to the rim. Impressive beyond belief!

The Chief came and gave permission to visit the volcano. 

Traditional dance

Your intrepid reporters at the rim!

One decent sized blast.

Looking into the fiery pit.

The locals threw us a party/dinner at the "yacht club" and we left the next day.

The Tanna yacht club.

Went to Aniwa island, did some snorkeling , then sailed overnight to Erramango island.  Don, a local man spent 3 hours showing us around the village and explaining their culture and how they function.  Took us to a Nakamal, which was their version of a guest house. Anyone could go there to rest and be fed.

Resting on a woven grass cot.

They gave us some just caught mackerel that Carol filleted and served as one of the hors d'ouevers that night as we had folks from other boats over for drinks.

Fileting the mackerel.

We also found out that in the late 1800's they had killed and eaten several missionaries in a row, but have since stopped and apologized to the first missionary's descendants! They even renamed Dillon's bay, William's bay after that first missionary.

We left Erramango at 330am so we could sail to Port Villa and arrive before dark. At dawn we put up the big symmetrical spinnaker we bought from Ian and Cindy and put the boat into overdrive!  Sailed the rest of the way making 9 knots or more! Woo-hoo!

10 knots!

Carol and I just completed our SCUBA class so now we can dive the Great Barrier reef in Australia and also Indonesia!

The open air market here every day has fruit and veggies you have to see to believe.

So now we are leaving Port Villa tomorrow and visiting some of the islands to the north and then it's on to Australia; about a 1200 mile passage.

Hopefully the next post will be a bit more in-depth.

A few thoughts as we depart

Well after 11 weeks (ELEVEN WEEKS!) here in Kiwi land we're finally ready to set sail for Vanuatu.  Weather permitting of course. Here are a couple of last pictures and a few observations of life here in New Zealand.

They have very polite road signs.

The natives are very polite.

They love to "double up" the names of places: Kerikeri,  Kawakawa, Katikati, Urupukapuka,  and the list goes on.

It is a very clean country; no trash lying about, clean air and water.

No graffiti.   Well, a little carved into the wooden handrails in a couple of parks.  But even the public toilets are immaculate.

LOTS if parks and hiking trails, most of which don't have a gazillion warning signs and barriers.

Not many police, and they don't look like storm troopers.

Very few smokers, or at least I didn't see or smell many.

Oldies are very popular on the radio; even the 20somethings know all the lyrics to the songs I grew up with!

The smallest coin they have is 10 cents.  Round purchases to the nearest cent unless paying with debit/credit. So smart!  And 1 and 2 dollar coins!

Keg urinals in a bar

This is just part of the 2 full grocery carts from the FIRST provisioning run!

We took off for 5 days last week to do a shakedown cruise around the Bay of Islands.  First day out we stopped at Black Rocks and picked mussels right off the rocks.  Yummy dinner that night!

Don and Carol in the galley. 

Seagull that felt like hanging out on the outboard motor one morning.

Looks like we will be leaving in a few hours after clearing out.  See you in 8 days in Vanuatu!

Vacation from our "vacation": 10 days on the South Island

Friday the 30th we left for our 10 day vacation...caught a ride to Paihia to catch the bus to Auckland and waited….waited…. and waited.  It was an hour and a half late because of the holiday traffic coming north from Auckland.  Got to Auckland and transferred to the airport and called the van from Best Western.  Had an okay dinner out and a good night's sleep before heading to the airport.

Here's where we had a truly Kiwi experience.  I had bought our tickets online with my credit card.   So I check in at the kiosk and get our boarding passes, bought a coupon to check one bag, went through security and never once had to show ID!  Didn't have to take off our shoes either.  And everyone was nice!

Flight to Queenstown got a little bumpy as we descended into the mountains but the scenery was spectacular.  Carol had scored 4 nights in a little Mom and Pop apartment motel almost downtown (last room available) and we had a terrific view of the town and lake.

Who can tell what kind of plane we were in?

View from our room of downtown Queenstown.

Lake Wakatipu, Queenstown. 

Easter morning was the end of DST so we got a good night's sleep and decided to do a hike up the nearby mountain.  It was almost spiritual between the views and being able to hear the choir singing wafting up from below. Of course just getting to the start of the trail entailed going up some pretty steep streets.   Like so steep the sidewalk had steps!

You know this hill is steep!

Above Queenstown.

Screenshot from our InReach showing our hike.

Mon we went for a walk along the lake and for once it was actually pretty flat, as opposed to “Kiwi flat” which isn't flat at all.

Former America's Cup boat NZ14 NIW a daysail charter boat.

Tuesday we woke to rain which was fortunately forecast to stop as we had a 0550 bus to catch.  We had a 4 hour ride out to Milford Sound and then an hour and a half boat ride taking in the sights.  Graeme, our bus driver was very knowledgeable and we stopped at various points along the way.  The good thing about all the overnight rain was that there were a lot of active waterfalls both on the way to/from Milford Sound and surrounding the Sound.  Because the mountains are solid rock and the water runs off quickly, the waterfalls really only last about a day.
We also passed numerous sites that were used in filming Lord of the Rings.

Milford Sound. 

Wednesday we left, picked up our rental car and did some shopping at The Warehouse and at Countdown grocery store,  then it was off to Arrowtown to see the old Chinese settlement and local shops.  Carol got a nice jade pendant of a carved fishhook.  Supposedly this brings you good fortune and safe passage on water!

Me outside one of the buildings in the Chinese settlement.   They came here in the 1860s/70s to work the gold mines .

Film, really?

Leaving Arrowtown we took the back way to Wanaka, a neat town right on the shores of Lake Wanaka.  After checking in (very nice West Meadows motel!) we stopped to see the WANAKATREE, then went for a moderate (!)  hike up Mt. Iron for 360 degree views. Quite blustery!  We grabbed a burrito and tacos from a food truck (really yummy)and went back to our room and . . .

watched two movies.

#wanakatree  it's over 70 years old and still surviving!

View from atop Mt. Iron.

Thursday was a long day. We had 3+ hours of driving to do and the road was twisty and winding thru the National park.   We stopped several times to do some hikes; some just 15 minute loops on flat ground, a couple that were an hour round trip up and down. The forest area was old growth with moss and green growth everywhere.  Had a Hobbit popped up I doubt I would have been surprised.

One of hundreds of cairns people have built.

Fantail bird, they flit around almost like a bat and come right up to you.

We spent the night in Fox Glacier and got up early to go watch the sunrise and tried to get reflections of Mt. Cook and My. Tasman. After a hearty breakfast we hiked to the viewing spot for Fox Glacier which was okay.  We then drove up to Franz Josef glacier and did the 90 minute RT hike to see the glacier. More impressive, but the constant buzz of multiple helicopters overhead was kind of annoying. We got those hikes in just in time as a drizzly rain soon started as we were driving up the coast to Hokitika.  Being a bit sore from hiking I lucked in to getting a massage while Carol checked out some galleries and the glass blowing studio. Later after a pizza that had us missing home, we drove to the edge of town to see the Glow worm Dell. Yes, glow worms. Was actually really neat.

Those are not Tonka toys playing in a babbling brook!

You have to cross a few places like thus.

Climate change?  This sign is about equidistant from the farthest point you see in the next picture.  AND the glacier is several hundred meters BEHIND where the next picture was taken from!

Fox Glacier 

Franz Josef Glacier

Saturday we spent a fair amount of time wandering around Hokitika and checking out the jade shops and other stores.  Had a great conversation with the owner of Tectonic Jade all about NZ and the U.S. and got some insight into the real NZ, bureaucratic nonsense, and relations with the Maori.  At some point I saw a photo of the Hokitika Gorge and we decided to drive there. It was nice, but the hard rain from the night before had caused a lot of muddy runoff and the water was not its usual blueish turquoise.  Here again we had a nice chat with a family visiting from the states and told them what to see and gave them our maps we didn't need anymore.  We drove on to Arthur’s Pass where we spent the night.  

Driftwood art on the beach.

NZ road signs are So polite, just like everything else here.

After a delightful night in Arthur's Pass and good conversation with Allan from Amherst MA we woke to a chilly 40-couple degrees and a stiff breeze. Took a short hike up to Devil's Punch bowl to see the waterfall (131 meters or 429 feet).

Then it was off to Christchurch for our last night on the South Island.  Scored a fantastic Air Bnb in the Old Government Building which was converted to apartment and suites.  We also stopped at the NZ Air Force Museum so I could get my warbird fix after missing the fly-in at Wanaka.  Very good displays and we were able to catch the tour which went to some things behind the scenes.  Got to fly a Mosquito simulator and got the high score for blowing up ships!

P40 Warhawk. You're probably used to seeing these with the shark's teeth. 

SPITFIRE, star of the Battle of Britain. 

Iroquois heli, otherwise known as the Huey. Think Vietnam. 

For $6NZ I got several minutes in a Mosquito simulator and got the high score for blowing up ships!  Did some aerobatics too w/o crashing.
Went out for Fish and Chips dinner and walked around; the city still is recovering from the Earthquake in 2011.
Next morning we had some time before our flight so we went to see the Chair display;185 chairs painted white to memorialize those killed in the Earthquake in 2011. We also walked through the wall memorial and the Botanical gardens, but the best part was the kids park where we both ziplined!

Of course we had to have one last bit of excitement when the fire alarm went off just as we were waking up!

Christchurch Fire Department to the rescue.

Bridge of Remembrance. Memorial to those who died in WWI and those who participated in both World Wars.

Carol on the zip line seat in the park. (Taking video of me doing the same!)

Temporary memorial exhibit for the 185 victims of the 2011 earthquake.

Flowers in the Botanical garden; a HUGE park.

Old time "punts" that you can hire with a punter dressed in Edwardian clothing.

We flew back to Auckland, spent the night and did another 4 hour bus ride up north.

So, we are back in Opua on the North Island aboard SEA AVENUE, another Oyster 54 and prepping to go for a 4-6 day cruise around the Bay of Islands as a shakedown for our anticipated departure in 2 weeks for Vanuatu.  Lots to do to get ready; paperwork for visas to Australia later this year, briefings from the Oyster World Rally folks, weather briefings, of course a party, currency exchange for Vanuatu money, provisioning for a minimum 2 months. . . and the list goes on.  

I'll try to put together another post before we depart but in any case check back every few weeks.  Thanks again for reading and please email us your thoughts or leave a comment!