The trip to the Bay of Islands was harder than it ought to have been. We stopped at Tutukaka Harbour to le
t ex-Cyclone Bune pass. Unfortunately, Bune left a 4.5m swell, which entered the "swell free" harbour and gave us 2.5m waves on anchor. Just after midnight when we had 2 feet of water under the keels, we had to re-anchor - THREE times! No damage was done and a couple of days later we were enjoying a beautiful walk to Cape Brett, just behind Jeremy's left shoulder. On our way out of Whangamumu Harbour, just south of Cape Brett, Jeremy caught a kahawai fish, possibly the biggest fish he'd ever caught. We shared it for 2 lovely meals.
We sheltered
from 40knot winds in Opua Marina for a couple of days. Here we met with old friends. I needed to have my eyes examined as I'd been having some trouble for about 6 weeks. The only opthalamists this far north was in Kerikeri. We negotiated 3 or 4 miles of river, the echo sounder giving us 1.6 metres to a huge 6.0 metres all at high tide. (We need 1.0metre to float). We arrived in the pool below the Kerikeri Stone Store (built in 1836 and the oldest stone building in NZ). My eye test was successful and it appears that I now have "floaters" which will remain with me, but not affect my eyesight - the joys of getting older.
Today is our last day in New Zealand. We have had a brilliant time here and thoroughly recommend the people and country to other travellers. We are waiting in Opua Marina to see Customs on Tuesday 19 April. Today we saw our new wind speed indicator hit 50 knots!! But everyone says it will be much quieter tomorrow. We hope so as we have a 1299 nautical mile journey to the coast of Australia (we intend to make landfall between Brisbane and Gladstone, but the wind will decide where. And then we need to learn a whole new language - Oz! The picture is the sun setting from our anchorage in the beautiful Cavalli Islands. Thank you NZ for being so welcoming.
