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A Mauri Farewell

New Zealand is not cheap.  Even though it has only cost us about 73 cents to buy a Kiwi dollar, we have found the cost of most things to be at least as expensive as in the old US of A.  But it remains a value based on the friendliness of th…

Understanding Kiwi

As a public service to all those wayward Americans who may stumble into New Zealand, I offer some assistance in understanding the Kiwi language.  “What?” you say.  Don’t they speak English?  Well… not really.   After …

The Kauri Museum

We had worked pretty hard on the boat and the entire crew felt like we needed a break and to enjoy some of the local area.  We hopped into our trusty rental car and drove an hour or so south to visit a museum all about the massive Kauri trees that…

Whangarei Spa Treatment for Emily Grace

We hauled out in Whangarei for the first time in almost two years.  The last haul was in Trinidad in August 2009.  She was in need of some attention and we decided to try Norsands Shipyard based on some quotes from other yards, talking with…

Tiritiri Matangi Island

We met a few local cruising boats in Kawau and they told us about an island loaded with birds that should not be missed.  Although it meant we had to backtrack a couple of hours south, we had the time and decided to check it out.  We were g…

Kawau Island

Kawau Island is another island in the Hauraki Gulf.  The island is named after the Māori word for the shag (cormorant) bird. Copper was mined on the island after discovery in the 1842, in the first years of European ownership. With importe…

Auckland

We decided to splurge and spend some time at a marina since anchoring options were limited near this major city. We went into Westhaven Marina based on a local recommendation, but were disappointed at the 40 minute walk to downtown. The rain made the…

Waiheke Island

Our next stop after conquering the Coromandel was Waiheke Island. This island is just offshore from Auckland and offered many protected bays from every wind direction. The island has several well known wineries and we hiked among them and stopped eve…

Japan Tsunami- Emily Grace is Safe

We were just finishing up our math lesson 2 hours ago when the captain noticed swirling brown water around the boat. Several of the boats were swinging randomly on their anchors here in Kawau Island and I even had the crew come out and look around at …

Whitianga and the Coromandel Peninsula

We were glad the kind NZ folks aboard Evening Star had offered us their mooring right off the Whitianga Harbour. Whitianga is a nice town and we enjoyed strolling through the shops and sipping over-priced coffee. We did some provisioning in the store…