NZ 2018

Off the dock again – had enough of that. Plan was to bunker 16000 liters of fuel at the automated self serve dock next to us. The tank ran dry after 7300 liters. Oh well – the commercial guys at the wharf told us that was pretty typical. Save some of the pain as fuel fill ups are horribly expensive. 16000 liters here comes in around $14000 US. Glad we don’t have to do it often.

Finished bunkering at 1500 and the plan was to head off to the the Hens and Chicks Islands and hide out behind the Hen from southeast winds until morning when it was supposed to die out and go variable.

Plans change – we got the the Hen and there was a large northerly swell and wind waves from the south that wrapped around that made things untenable. Made the call to head further south to Kawou Island (about 3 hours) to escape things. As we headed south, the winds came up to gale strength plus higher gusts (35 to 40 knots) and Metservice changed the forecast from variables to another 30 to 45 knot blow. The low that had been impacting us was projected now to make a return trip north. We made Kawou around 2030 at dusk at dropped the hook at Two House Bay. Turned out to be the right decision as today was windy and rainy all day.

When we dropped the hook, the welcoming committee was already on hand.

The next day, Deb and I got off the boat and went for a 2 hour walk which ended in the rain. It was still warm so great to get off the boat. A few pics of the Gray Mansion – he was governor of NZ during the British colonial times and this was his home.

At the time, he had a managerie of animals including monkeys, African animals and a variety of others. Most were shot and killed as the monkeys were nasty and the others interfered with the natives. A few peacocks remain,

Before we got rained out, we walked the path to the old copper refinery which has some very nice views,

That is the remains in the background.

There are numerous fallen down pines that folks have had some fun with – including Deb.

Have to include a pic of IL sitting in Two House Bay.

A full in rainy afternoon so the emphasis was on boat chores and dinner. Tonight we did a smoked Salmon in a Kiwi style smoker. It uses alcohol burners under the unit with a pan for wood chips and then the fish over that. It only takes 1/2 hour – we marinated the Salmon with salt, brown sugar and whiskey. That was served with a home made potato salad and veggie salad. Really good.

Rainy night so a good sleeping night – hopefully improved weather tomorrow.

Tomorrow I will also try to update the Chartlink tab to show the area we are cruising so you can get a sense of where we are in NZ.

Cheers