Cruise of the Ladybug

Tuesday, February 19, 2013

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?!

Friday, February 8, 2013

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.

Wednesday, January 30, 2013

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!