Around the block

We had foggy, cool conditions for our move up north to Whangaroa Harbor.

The entrance to the harbor is narrow and quite steep

We found a great road bike loop from the clinic along a scenic highway with little traffic.

Mmmmm... bikes! Riding quite similar to the terrain in northern California around Sonoma County. Similar steeps to the Geyser's loop and King Ridge, just not as big. Oh yeah, and stay on the left.

On the move again

We have left Opua after five weeks of socializing, rest, repairs, and upgrades. Pau Hana is in top shape (except for those second tier projects we didn't get to.) We have enjoyed sharing stories with the friends we've made along the way. Many boats arrive at Opua every day as pacific sailors escape the tropical cyclone season. This afternoon we are anchored in the Cavalli Islands at S 35°00.8'  E 173°56.4'  We are headed to Whangaroa where Pau Hana will spend the summer.

cash n' splash

Pau Hana is back in the water. We've moved out of the marina and are having Thanksgiving dinner on our friend's (bigger) boat with some other adrift Americans. Repairs went well. This weekend we're moving the boat up north to Whangaroa Harbor, where we'll spend the summer.

View from the deck at the staff housing we're staying in while I work at the Whangaroa Health Center. It's pretty far north and as you can see, rural. The tile rooftops in the distance are the clinic facilities, the helipad for emergency evacuations is just downhill.

On the hard

Pau Hana got hauled out of the water for the first time in 18 months today. Overall, we're happy with how things look. But after 12,000 miles, we have some repairs and maintenance to do! We're hoping to be on the hard for about a week, depending on how much "project creep" we get. Project creep describes the experience of starting to fix one discreet thing and then realizing that there's about 5 other projects that need to be done in order to address your primary project. Ahhh... the joys of boat ownership.

 Pau Hana gets new standing rigging. It's no fun being in the middle of the ocean thinking, is this rigging (all the stainless line holding up the mast) really 30 years old?

 On the way into the travel lift today. The current was at least 3 kts and pushed us into the downstream post, putting a scratch in the blue shear stripe. Good thing it's not the first one.

 Getting moved into our new slip. We're hoping that our repairs will only take about a week. It's no fun living in a boat yard.

 This lovely announcement is cast into the travel lift. I guess it's a good thing that I'm starting work on Monday.

 Martin uses advanced tools to disassemble the rudder post. 

Road trip

So happy to have the bikes! We're along the west coast of the north island on a small 2 lane road.

Girl loves bike

Martin tries to straighten the curves.

Checking out the surf near Raglan, a cool little surf town on the west coast.

We headed out for a week in a rental car (downgrade from the van, bigtime) with the bikes and had some fun seeing some of the north island, including Wellington. We're back at the boat now, hauling it out of the water in a week to do some repairs and projects. Many of our friends have now arrived in NZ, so we'll be catching up with them and trading stories of our recent passage.

Landfall NZ

I'm happy to have arrived in New Zealand. The Bay of Islands are gorgeous and we're enjoying spring weather, seafood and craft beer. Martin got the bikes put together and we'll be getting some miles in on the impressively steep terrain soon, right after we solve the forgotten helmet and shoes situation.

...and it was done.

Pau Hana has arrived in New Zealand!
12 months, 12,000 miles, 11 countries!
Our last leg from Fiji was our most challenging. We sailed hard upwind for over 700 miles, then burned most of our fuel motoring 300 miles, and then faced strong headwinds and steep waves for the final 100 miles.  We broke more gear on this leg than on our entire trip prior.
We cleared customs last night and slept well. It is spring in NZ, so rather cool. Our road bikes are being delivered to the marina today. Perfect timing!
More later
Martin