Aotearoa I have returned

In the Maori language New Zealand is know as Aotearoa. Which translates into “Land of the Long White Cloud.” Though in Whangarei, I renamed it to Land of the Rainbow, because I saw a rainbow everyday. Some of the most spectacular rainbows I’ve ever seen I’ve seen in NZ. And thanks to a guy named Murphy and his Laws I find myself back in Aotearoa, just a short 48 hours after I left. I’m currently sitting in the marina in Opua, Bay of Islands, New Zealand. Opua is the yachties town for Bay of Islands while Paihia is the tourist town. That was just some useless trivia for you, which might prove helpful for me. There is some talk about going to play trivia at the roadhouse on Tuesday night.

But I digress. Why am I here? I should be almost a week into the Fiji passage. We left Whangarei on Tuesday, May 16. The weather was just beautiful for a sail to Fiji. Great southerly winds (downwind) of about 15-20 knots and clear skies. It was forecast to remain a perfect and beautiful sail as well.
We managed to get about 26 hours out from port (about 150 nautical miles) when we found out that the DC drive for the refrigeration was freezing up. Hmmm what to do, what to do. Well then we checked the engine drive and it was broken. What does this mean? It means that while the refrigeration system on board had two systems, they were both in the crapper, and we had a freezer full of meat that would thaw and go bad before Fiji. So we did the next logical thing. We turned around and sailed another 24 hours back to New Zealand. Of course now it’s into the wind.

In the first 48 hours of sailing, I experienced the biggest seas I had ever sailed on. These weren’t big seas, just bigger than I have really seen for any length of time before. I tell you this because I also learned that my stomach was not as strong as I had thought/hoped it was. I felt pretty miserable for most of that time. It’s not any real big deal. Now that we are in port I’m going to get some seasickness medicine (that won’t make me sleepy). I’m also going to assume that after a couple of days I should be fine.

In the last few days in port we’ve managed to fix the DC drive system, and a new compressor for the engine drive is on order. It should be here by Wednesday. Unfortunately the winds are forecast to be out of the north for the foreseeable future. The window of good weather for heading to Fiji is tentatively forecast for the around the 29th. But we shall see. New Zealand weather is extremely fickle this time of year.

What to do in the meantime? Today we hiked the 6KMs from Opua to the tourist center of Paihia for lunch. It was a great hike along the coast. Tomorrow, depending on weather, I hope to go to Waitangi, and see the Treaty Grounds. That is where the historical Waitangi Treaty was signed between the English and the Maori. Most consider that signing the birth of modern New Zealand. And then I have some more time to explore the Bay of Islands. Which so far looks extremely beautiful.

I’ll probably blog again before we leave for Fiji a 2nd time. But in the meantime, I wouldn’t expect much to happen in the next week or so.

Oh yeah, Go Hurricanes (they are in the Super 14 finals)!

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