Kia Ora from New Zealand

---

For our last two weeks of the trip we have based ourselves in Whangarei (pronounced Fong-gar-ay), which is about 100 miles N of Auckland and is the principal town of the Northland Peninsula. For the first few days we just explored the area around Whangarei harbour - which is about 14 miles long - and is indented with dozens of coves and pristine beaches. The whole of the eastern side of Northland is a paradise for anyone into water-based activities; be it sailing, fishing, kayaking or snorkelling. We spent an afternoon on a dolphin-watching trip from the Bay of Islands town of Paihia: after cruising thro' the islands for a couple of hours the skipper was getting anxious as there were no dolphins to be seen; perhaps they had had enough of tourists for the day. Just as we were about to start back a large pod of 20 or so males decided to come and have a butchers and spent the next 20 minutes or so swimming around the boat and doing their usual stunts. Trying to take pics was not easy: for every half decent one there are 20 shots or so of a tail fin disappearing under water.

How to cap that? After 2 months either in or on the water I was getting withdrawal symptoms so I made my way to the local sailing club to see if I could wangle a berth. Sure enough there was a race scheduled for Saturday morning and the skipper of an Elliott 6.5, also called Mike, was short of a mainsheet trimmer - whatever that is.

Satuday morning was warm with a SE F. 3 forecast. The course was a 20 mile beat down the harbour to the Fairway bouy with a couple of lataral buoys as marks of the course each way. We had a good start and were soon 100 m ahead of another Elliot 6.5. As we were the two fastest boats in an all class handicap fleet it soon developed into a match race between us. After 3 hours or so of continuous tacking our rival gybed aroung the mark about 100 yards ahead. Sadly he wine-glassed his kite and went off on right -hand side of the course, which was a strange choice given the tide was still ebbing. Going to left where the current was weakest we managed to get head by the next gybe mark. It was just then a straight run of about 8 miles to the finish line. "In the bag", we thought; well not quite: they clearly were slightly quicker down wind. By the time we finished they had closed the gap to such an extent that we won by just a quarter of a boat length; another 100 yards or so and they would certainly have caught us. Still a win is a win. By the tme we had sailed back to Parua Bay it was late afternoon and time for "beer o'clock".

Off to the northern-most tip of New Zealand, Cape Reinga, tomorrow.

---