sailing through the sunset

Whangarei (pronounced fang-garei) is a nice little harbourside city on the east coast of the northern island. Here i stayed with Dave, a boat builder from Germany who had moved to NZ about 8 years and hadn't looked back. Dave met me at the bus stop and after a little stop off to see the Whangarei Falls - described by LP as the Paris Hilton of NZ waterfalls, "Not the most impressive but reputedly the most photographed" - we went to the nearby Sandy Beach for a surf competition where one of Dave's friends was competing. Unfortunately the conditions were really bad due to the rain and so we watched the poor surfers battling it out from the comforts of the warm van. Dave had brought along a flask with a concoction called 'grog' a well known sailors drink consisting of rum, hot water, lemon juice and sugar...ideal for wet and windy days! With the rain not showing much signs of easing we decided to call it a day and went home. Dave's place was a little cottage tucked away, with some horses from the surrounding farm making themselves at home around the house! We got the fire going and cooked up a hearty veggie bake and chatted about life in NZ boat building and sailing around the world.

The next day we went to the William Fraser Memorial Park and walked around in awe at the network of massive trees framing a little boardwalk loop. We then took a little drive to the Abbey Caves, which were fun to have a look at, although we thought it best not to venture in too far without proper gear, especially as all the recent rain had made the water level quite high.

With a break in the rain, we decided this was the only opportunity to go sailing and so we arranged to meet Marcus, one of Dave's friends down at the harbour. After pulling on some amazing hi-vis orange wet weather sailing pants (yes, trousers) the 3 of us climbed aboard and set out for Matakohe (Limestone) Island. Marcus explained that they used to do a lot of quarrying on the island but that it was now part of an ecological island restoration plan to enhance the habitat and increase the amount of bird life. This involves getting rid of all the predators on the island, mostly the possums and rats which are a big threat to the birds not just on the island but throughout the whole of NZ.

We stopped hear for some more grog and snacks and after Marcus told us some more stories we returned to our little boat. Marcus also said that no-one was allowed in his boat without doing some sailing and so i sailed us back into the harbour as the sun was setting which was really fun and the perfect way to end a lovely day.