sailed from wellington to Whangarei

the day before we left it was blowing southerly 40-50 knots and felt like winter.

we left on the dieing southerly think I would get some southerly going up the east coast... NOT the wind died out just after making the turn north.

first stop was Napier again. stayed there one day and stocked up on things.

traveling north across hawks bay then up the east coast area. got some wind on the first part of the trip but it was a lot of motoring half the time.

Sailed to Wellington down the east coast. first stop was the great barrier island. very nice place. 3 days to cross the bay of plenty, two days to get from the east cape to Napier. then 2.5 days to get from napier to wellington.

spent about 2 days in Napier waiting for a good weather window.

the more south you go the stronger the winds can get. the last part of the trip ended up be no wind until I got into the wellington harbour then the southerly came up 30 knots. if that came up 10 hours before I would be punching into it on the east coast.

sailed to Toranga and working in Rotorua

In the Grind Doing work on the boat and computer work to pay back some debts

Sailed to Russell and did some more exploring. This time I anchored in Matauwhi bay just south of the main part of town near the Russell boat club. This anchorage is much better because it is more protected and the Russell boat club has a nice dock for the yacht tenders.

Sea of Tranquility traveled up to Kerikeri again. I explored the trails heading north along the river ending at the Rainbow falls. The falls are truly spectacular. The falls must be 50 to 75 feet high with a big cave behind it. It takes about 1 hour to walk from the Stone store to the falls.

Sea of Tranquility traveled up the river to Kerikeri. My Italian friend from Quo vadis came with me. We could never have made it in Quo vadis, his boat is much too big and draws too much water. We did some shopping in town then went and seen the lord of the rings - return of the king.

Sea of tranquility stopped in Russell for 1/2 day. I did several of the short trail walks.

S 35 18.7' E174 07.4'

I arrived in Opua New Zealand in the bay of islands on the north island. A pod of dolphins greeted me at the entrance to the bay of islands. The bay has lots of jagged rocky islands with green grass and trees. The place look a lot like the north west but warmer. See New Zealand, See Opua.