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| Downtown Auckland's Viaduct Harbour |
Out of the gray late autumn of Vancouver Island and into the
blustery spring of Northland, New Zealand, we arrived in Auckland November 7, and we had a few hours to wander around downtown before loading onto the bus that would take us four hours north to our floating home on Picara.
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| Sea Shepherd Vessel at the dock in Auckland |
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| Colour and culture in the reclaimed industrial zone in the Viaduct area |
And speaking of culture, I’d like to recommend some great NZ movies we saw on our
flight (way better than Lord of the Rings!!):
1. The classic
“Once were warriors,” from the late '90s, a hard-hitting film about domestic violence in an urban
Maori family.
2.
“Boy”,
a much more lighthearted film set in rural New Zealand.
3.
“Housebound”
a suspenseful and funny haunted house flick in which North Americans may need to
strain to work out the NZ accent at times – the only non-Maori themed
movie in this selection.
4.
“The Dark Horse:” another gritty look at urban poverty and gang culture in Gisborne.
5.
The Pa Boys was an awesome story about an urban-Maori
reggae band on tour of the North Island.
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| On the way north |
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| Pukeko |
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| Picara (the blue one) waiting on her mooring near Tapu Point in Opua |
Picara was a bit musty from being
closed up all winter, and slightly battered on her starboard quarter from when
the dinghy flew off the foredeck during a July storm that saw 30 boats in Opua
either drag or snap their moorings. Luckily damage was limited scuffed and
scratched paint and a broken-off stanchion where the dinghy had flogged itself
before plunging off the side to whack repeatedly against the hull. The good
news is that our friendly neighbours recovered the dinghy for us and it was
still in one piece!
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| Here are some of our other friendly neighbours. |
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| Re-attaching the busted-off stanchion from the dinghy's flogging episode. |
After a couple of weeks of
cleaning, puttering, repairing, socializing and generally getting back into the
groove, we headed out for a bit of sailing and met up with some friends.
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| Two traditional Polynesian sailing canoes visited the Bay of Islands as part of a Pacific voyage and educational program run by the Polynesian Voyaging Society. Our friends on SY Tranquility served as support boats to these wakas on their trip to Wellington! |
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| Chilling out with "Melody" in Whangaruru. |
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| "Melody" rounding Cape Brett |
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| “Sam,” at anchor in Whangamumu, freshly launched after a top-notch refit by her owners. |
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| Bland Bay, just across a narrow peninsula from Whangaruru Harbour. Northland has so many gorgeous and uncrowded beaches! |
