Happy Easter

Well, we did not celebrate easter, but we had a wonderful easter weekend here in Kawau with our lovely sailing friends Pete and Rae. They sailed out on their sailing yacht just to have a final good-bye weekend with us. Love them! While Marcus and I sailed over to here (Kawau) from Rangitoto yesterday they sailed from their marina and we met for sundowner and dinner on their boat Saliander, a beautiful Tajana 54. I hadn't seen Saliander in 3,5 years- I last saw her in Raiatea. Pete and Rae sailed up to Alaska and kept Saliander up there for 2 seasons while they came back to NZ over christmas for the Alaskan winter. They have given us lots of information about Alaska and the islands on the way so we're well prepares now for our trip up there. We're hoping to see them again in Alaska one way or the other. For now we had to say good-bye for god knows how long. That's cruising live. You meet many people, become friends very few and then you separate and don't know if / when you're ever gonna see each other again. At least thanks to all the modern means of communication you can stay in touch. And yes, we do. All of us that spent so much time together travelling west through french polynesia in 2013. I can't believe that that's already 4 years ago⛵️⛵️!

Here are some pix of our last week: Rotoroa island, Rangitoto (volcano island) and sunset today at Kawau.

Tomorrow we're using the wind to head up to Opua over night to get our sail problem sorted out. The good part about that: we'll finally see our friends Fran and Richard on their sailing yacht Red before we also have to say good bye because our paths are separating. Tough life.

Auckland

Here are some pictures of Auckland taken from our short trip to Rangitoto Island - an old volcano - and from the Rangitoto lookout, which is probably the best view of Auckland that you can find. Of the weather is with you, that is. Auckland to me is the world's most beautiful harbour. Nowhere else can you be at a beautiful island anchorage in an hour and have water you can actually swim in. Love it here!

Bye Auckland

Happy Alien Easter!

Cook passed by

Nothing happened here, thank god. Hardly any rain or wind. Cook hit further south and moved over tue country. Don't know the damages there yet. But cook had weakened significantly before...So, all good here

Cyclone Cook

Let's hope no one gets hurt in the weakened cyclone Cook- winds up to 150km/h (95mph) and heavy rain causing landslides are expected....

We're tied up in Halfmoon Bay - Buckland Beach Yacht Club (Auckland area). It will be a nerve wrecking day tomorrow.

http://m.metservice.com/warnings/swx

Will keep you posted afterwards

Coromandel Peninsula

Hiked up the mountain. Quite a walk through rainforest, quite a hike, quite some rain...

Coromandel Preninsula

It has taken me only 3 years to finally get to "Hot water beach", a place on the east coast of the Coromandel Peninsula south of Whitianga where the beach comes with a natural floor heating. Yes, thermal heating. The closer you dig your relaxing pool - hole to the center of the heat the hotter your "pool" water. And then you lay there overlooking the beautiful ocean. For a cool down you just jump into the rolling waves. This was truly my paradise. Just too many people on that small spot. The rest of the beach is empty. We were lucky to be able to get there at all because usually the waves are to rolly to be able to anchor near the beach. Marcus took us close with the Dinghy but then Michael and I swam ashore through the waves. I enjoyed it very much.

Next stop yesterday was Cathedral Cove, the pix speek for themselves. After all the ocean water the shower under the waterfall felt so incredibly refreshing, ahhhhh.

Now we're anchored on the west side of Coromandel Peninsula. We will visit Coromandel town tomorrow. The day after that we will continue to Waiheke Island which will be last stop for Michael.
So long....

Pix of Last week

Ok, we're busy sailing and hiking. And playing games while sitting out rainy days.
In Whangarei I rented a car and Marcus and I drove to Auckland to buy new batteries.
A day and 1300 NZD later we left Whangarei and sailed to Kawau where we spent a beautiful day with a hike, a visit in a cafe where we saw peacocks eating at the table and swimming at an island that looks more like it belongs to French Polynesia.
We continued on to Great Barrier Island where we did two beautiful rainforest hikes (mostly in the rain :-)) and had a day off in the rain yesterday where all of us did something on our own while sitting on the boat. So I finally pulled out my piano and played and tried to advance my latest composition but nothing resulted from that attempt. Oh well, next time then.

Here some pix. I have to admit I don't take many pix at the moment, maybe more once we arrive at Coromandel Peninsula / Whitianga later today as this is new to me. Tomorrow we want to go to hot water beach, dig a hole and sit in our own hot pool. I've been wanting to do that in so long, so I am excited. Hope the water (swell) will allow us to do so.
Pix:
View from Orewa(near Auckland) towards Kawau island
Next picture: view from Kawau over towards Orewa
Funny tree
Peacocks at Mansion House on Kawau
Two more views towards Orewa and this tropical island
Spirit of New Zealand, sailing school ship, with lots of people in the mast