Notes about NZ
We continue to gather reasons for being glad we are here. The other day the weather report said that winds off the coast had reached 70 kts! When we were in Nuku'alofa we met another boat, Wandering Star, and the other day we heard that they had left there for here and had been out for two weeks. We haven't heard of their arrival yet.
The landscape here is very green. There are pines and other evergreens, but there are also tree ferns 20 feet tall with 8 in. trunks as well as clumps of bamboo. The other day we took a bus to Kawakawa to visit a vintage railway operation. After seeing their rolling stock and steam locomotive I walked along the abandoned grade to the south and it felt just like WA west of the mountains. It is late Spring here so there are many flowers.
During the summer of 2001 I circumnavigated Vancouver Island in WR, a trip of 50 days. In a small bay on the west coast of the island I met a couple on a boat similar to WR named Heidi. We parted ways and they proceeded down the west coast to Panama, the Galapagos, and the South Pacific. During the intervening years we have been reading their accounts via e-mails similar to these. So day before yesterday I was looking at boats in the distance, spotted one similar to WR, and with the binocs saw that it was Heidi. We connected and they came to dinner last evening. The world is not as large as we sometimes think.
Today we left our slip for a mooring out in the bay, which will be much cheaper than the slip. A number of boats near us are ones we met many months ago. The boat just within speaking distance is Calliope, the boat that was just ahead of us when Tom and I crossed from Mexico, and a little further away is a junk rigged British boat being single-handed that we met in Hiva Oa.
Tomorrow we are being given a ride to shore where we will catch a bus to Auckland. We will stay there a few days and then fly to San Francisco, where we will arrive on the same day that we departed NZ and at an earlier hour than our departure. This will be the last installment from us until our return here in early Feb.
Kit and Susan
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1 Comments:
I was curious as to the fate of the Wandering Star so I did a little searching and found a post from a Captain Fatty who had this to say:
We were lucky: our friends Russ and Shirley on the Halberg Rassey 35 named Wandering Star left 12 hours after us. They tore their jib, lost their engine, wrecked their self-steering gear... their radar went out... she broke a couple of ribs... and giant waves smashed/stove in their portlights (as I was giving them a crash course, via SSB, on how to heave-to in a gale) and THEY ARE STILL OUT THERE... debating whether or not to be air-lifted off by helicopter.
Here's a link to his page.
-Kris Oye (former EWU student)
http://www.gameworkshop.com/~kriton
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