A few more photos from our car camping trip in New Zealand. The first few are from an area called Craters of the Moon, which is full of steam vents and mud pools caused by geothermal activity. The remainder were shot in Napier, famous for its Art Deco buildings. Napier was flattened by an earthquake and rebuilt beginning in 1931.

Chris and Mike (from 'Chapter 2') being naughty

This whole area is active - especially since the geothermal plant down the road began to siphon off water, increasing the steam produced in this location.

Rani enjoys a steam bath

Napier store front

Classic cars and dress are part of Art Deco Days, which were slated to begin in a few days.

Another Art Deco commercial frontage

The Anglican cathedral. Built, like most of Napier, after an earthquake flattened the old town.

Lilies in the fountain at a park in Napier

Even the cathedral stained glass exhibits Art Deco motifs

Climbing Mount Doom re-post with better pics

We hiked the open half of the Tongariro crossing a few days ago and put in a side trip up Mount Ngauruhoe, which was used as Mount Doom in some scenes from Lord of the Rings. It was Rani's dream to do this hike since her last backpacking trip to New Zealand in 1997. We were fortunate with the weather as the sunshine and blue sky added to the enjoyment.

Near the start of the Tongariro crossing hike.

Starting up the scree field of Mount Ngauruhoe (aka Mount Doom)

View across the scree field back towards the red crater

Rani and Chris at the crater summit

Rani climbing up beside the scree field

Rani and David (an Irish hiker we met on this climb) at the plateau below the crater 

Crater view

Another crater view

Chris and David head back down

I think this is the actual summit - above the crater.

Rani screes downhill

Back down again - the scree field is the area to the right with the light 'scree runs'

Continuing to the Emerald Lakes lookoff

Lunch break over-looking Emerald Lakes

Heading down for a better view of the lakes

Red Crater with Mount Doom behind

Mount Ngauruhoe is always present on this hike

We climbed that!

Crossing a 1975 lava flow on the way back

Did I mention that we climbed that?!

Pictures from Whangarei area

We have access to wifi today at the library, so I am posting a few pics from the last couple of weeks:

We found some time to hike near Whangerei Heads. This is a view from Mount Manaia.

Rob and Chris working on the deck at McLeods Bay

Jo and Rob - our friends off 'Blue Moon' enjoy a break on what will be the first floor of their new house

I am not actually allowed to start the new mower at Homeport because I was instrumental  in ending the old mower's life.

Avocados at an avacado farm

Roz and Holger at their off-the-grid home

My favourite window at Homeport -all the windows were hand made by Holger, including the stained glass work

Holger helps me replace the gutter after I pulled it down - I have been  very helpful around the house...

Rani talks to Roz from the patio at Homeport. The kitchen is built almost entirely from  native macrocarpa.

Holger in the 'music room'

Peter and Jan are excellent folk musicians and organizers of a New Zealand folk festival.

Pleasant days in Whangarei

We have been spending the last couple of weeks preparing for a car camping trip around New Zealand and arranging our spring flights home. Our cruising friend's from 'Blue Moon', Rob & Jo, have graciously allowed us to use their home and internet connection for this. Jo has a busy work schedule teaching yoga and doing personal training and Rob has been flat out building their new house/health retreat, so unfortunately, we have had only a few evenings together during this time.

Rob has been working on a large wrap-around deck on the new house. He is very experienced and manages to do virtually all of the building on his own, using cunning rather than brute strength, for example, to move into place the heavy beams that are required by the local building code. On a few occasions I have lent him an extra pair of hands and enjoyed working with someone who is so competent. Rob also helped me bring our rusty anchor chain into Whangarei to be re-galvanized. New chain is very expensive and most of it now comes from China and is of doubtful quality (several boats have had chain failures with the Chinese chain links parting). Galvanizing costs about $3 NZ per kilo and re-galvanizing our 200 feet of chain will probably set us back between 300 and 400 NZ dollars.

We have also enjoyed visiting Homeport - the off the grid farm where our friends Holger and Roz live. They have gone back to work now out of Russell, about 2 hours drive north of here. They live on their boat on a mooring near Russell and go to work as painters on various jobs in the area. We spent the weekend with them and they kindly allowed us to spend a couple of days here on our own getting ready for our trip. The weekend was packed with music and good food. Holger is an excellent electric guitarist and played several original compositions for us. Holger and Roz's friends, Jan and Peter, dropped by bringing their guitar and mandolin. They are accomplished folk musicians and we had fun jamming with them and listening to their beautifully harmonized singing. As I mentioned in an earlier post, this is a truly lovely place and being here makes us yearn for a more settled life. Maybe we will build our own Homeport some day in Canada.

Rani bus'd her way into Auckland a couple of days ago and returned with a Nissan 'Sunny' - a nice little sedan that will be our magic carpet for the next 6 weeks. We plan to spend about 10 days on the North Island and will then take the ferry across Cook Strait to the South Island where we will travel for 3-4 weeks. We are basing the trip mainly around hikes as well as a few days in Napier (famous for Art Deco architecture) and Christchurch. More on this when we are on the road.

Tentative Cruising Plans

We have been grappling with the tension between travelling, time with our families, and re-establishing a home/work base back in Canada. After much debate and working through a dozen different scenarios, we have decided to continue our travels for about another 18 months. We will start a 6 week car camping trip through New Zealand in a couple of days. In April we will return to Canada and the UK to visit our families and in May I will haul out  Ladybug and repaint her bottom.

From New Zealand we plan to sail in May to Fiji and on through New Caledonia, Vanuatu, Kiribati, to the Marshall Islands , which we should reach near the end of 2013. We will spend a few months in the Marshalls, which are relatively safe from Hurricanes and then sail north via Midway Island to Prince Rupert in BC. From there we plan to return to Duncan via the Queen Charlottes and the outside of Vancouver Island. We should arrive in Duncan in late summer/early fall.

All of this is open to change, but at least we have a rough idea of what the next couple of years hold! 

Photos from our first 2 months in New Zealand

Following are some pictures from our visit to Auckland and the Hauraki Gulf plus a couple from the Whangarei area (McLeod Bay)

View from our friends Jo and Rob's window in McLeod Bay. Ladybug is anchored in the bay  in the centre of the image.

Boat sailing into Auckland, off Devonport

Mount Manaia from Jo and Rob' s home - a wonderful hike

Auckland waterfront

Sky city tower from the anchorage south of the Bay Bridge  in Auckland

In the lava tubes on Rangitoto volcanic island

Lava tubes on Rangitoto Island

Lava flow - Rangitoto Island

Pohutukawa  (Christmas) tree in flower

Hiking on Kawau Island

Weka - flightless bird on Kawau Island

Old glass at the remains of a dairy on Kawau Island (replaced as found, of course!)

Mansion House Bay, Kawau Island

View from the mansion window 

Tree ferns  towering over Chris - Kawau Island

Old  Pohutukawa Tree on Kawau Island - note the gnarly aerial roots

Blustery Days

We set off to Great Barrier Island on Friday early in the morning (6.30am) to avoid the heavy winds expected later that afternoon. It took us a couple of hours' beating to sail away from Kawau Island and we set a GPS waypoint off Horn Rock. The wind varied from 10-15 Knots from the east with short choppy seas. Chris was busy reefing and un-reefing the main every 15 to 30 minutes until around 10.30am when it freshened up to over 20 knots. The seas were building and the rail was awash shortly thereafter. The sky was darkening to the east and we could see dense rain following. The Hauraki Gulf forecast was for 25-30K SE winds but it was definitely from the east and in our face. So we hummed and hawed for a few minutes and made a prudent decision to head for Whangarei instead. The wind was consistent and we were making 6-7 knots plus until we double reefed the main to take some pressure off the wind vane.On a beam reach with some of the jib furled we were still managing to average 5 Knots. Occasionally the sea would wash over the hood of the main hatch so we tried to stay inside the cabin with Chris timing his forays into the cockpit with care to adjust the steering vane or jib. We only saw one other sailboat during the passage, also heading up north and much faster than us. It was bigger than Ladybug, of course.

The river mouth at Whangarei was stirred up like a cauldron with mist flying everywhere, making it very hard to see the entrance buoys. We had to resort to manual steering as the ferocious wind gusts screamed down Busby Head. I yelled out the distance to the buoys as Chris wrestled with the tiller to take us safely into the harbour. We had been thinking of anchoring at Urquhart Bay near the entrance but when we saw the whitecaps in there we carried on up the channel to McLeod Bay. We located a swing mooring belonging to friends of friends using our GPS.  Chris nearly had his arms pulled out of their sockets on our first attempt to secure the mooring line as I put the gear in neutral and the wind blew Ladybug backwards. I went to lend him a hand but tumbled backwards with his weight on top. Getting up quickly I sprinted back to the cockpit and put the boat into gear. Our second attempt was successful as I kept the boat going forward to counteract the force of the wind. It was such a relief to go down below for a nice of tea and know that we were safe!

This is the fourth day of swinging around our mooring, the wind sounding like a super jet coming down on a runway during the 35 knot gusts. Our rows ashore to visit our friends Rob and Jo on the hill overlooking our boats have been challenging but great fun. Maybe it will be down to 25 knots when we return tonight! Chris is helping Rob with his building project while I catch up with emails and other internet tasks at their trailer.

Hiking Again!

My six weeks in England were mostly restful, visiting my parents and sister. The typically wet and cold winter weather was hardly conducive to outings except for one Sunday when my niece drove us to a National Trust historic house. There we enjoyed a lovely ramble in the beautiful gardens and deer park.

So, back to the wilderness of New Zealand. I was overjoyed when we landed on Rangitoto Island for a hike up to the volcanic peak with a few diversions into the lava tubes. Our head lamps allowed us a closer look at the brilliant crystals embedded in the tunnel walls and prevented us from stumbling on loose rocks and roots underfoot. Surprisingly enough part of the trail wound its way through a fairly dense forest of ferns and trees, pohutukawa being the major one. Panoramic views from atop the volcano were somewhat dulled by the thick grey clouds over Auckland and the Hauraki Gulf.

The following day was sunnier and we trekked across Motutapu Island to Home Bay. This trail hugged the fences between undulating fields of golden grasses. The hilltops afforded spectacular views over the pastoral landscape of the island with cows grazing along the trail and under copses of trees. At the campground in Home Bay, the feisty north wind was whipping up the sea into surfy conditions. Most of the campers were sunbathing on the grass around the campsites but some were brave enough to venture into the water. I am gaining a new respect for New Zealanders - they obviously love the water and are not afraid of the cold. We sat a while gazing at the sea and enjoyed a picnic of crackers, aged cheddar, fresh vegetables and Cadbury's Roses.

I must confess that both hikes left my legs aching a little and I slept deeply at night.

On Kawau Island yesterday we ventured out shortly after supper and strolled along Schoolhouse Bay Road to a lookout over Dispute Cove. The trail reminded me of Vancouver Island as we trod on a springy forest floor covered in pine needles. However, the tall tree ferns and exotic bird calls were not in keeping with memories of home. A flightless bird called the weka crossed our paths many times and did not scare easily. It looks a lot like a small hen with chocolate and rust coloured feathers but it's jerky head movements are quite distinct. Our return at dusk was rewarded by sightings of half a dozen wallabies. Most were too fast and we just glimpsed a furry animal hopping into the bush. But a couple of them froze for a few moments as if we were playing statues and we made eye contact. They are about 3 feet in height, have small mouse-like faces, big eyes and ears. They are certainly not native to New Zealand and are survivors from a collection of exotic animals brought to the island by Sir George Grey in the 1860's. Sir Grey bought the island for $3,700 in 1862 and sold it in 1888 for $12,000. During his ownership he created a stately home which is currently under restoration.

This morning we hiked to the historic Georgian style Mansion House. I was most impressed by the variety of trees on the property, especially the giant Moreton Bay Fig, Bunya-Bunyas, Hoop Pine, Chilean Wine Palms, Queens Palms and Norfolk Pines. The house has period furniture and some beautiful engravings of royal paintings from the Victorian era. There were many visitors to the site today from Auckland, enjoying a picnic in the gardens or a cooked lunch from the tea house/kiosk. We treated ourselves to an ice-cream cone with Flake chocolate bits which I had brought from England - yummy!

Tomorrow morning we shall set sail to Great Barrier Island.