January Update

Gulf Harbour Marina, New Zealand

I will try to update more often, but they days are long and it is hard to sit down at the end and write anything. I have been a busy bee here in New Zealand. Lots of meetings, TONS of e-mails, and a bit of fun too.

On the weekend of the 30th with former cyclone Wilma bearing down on the north island over a 3 day weekend (Monday was a holiday) I headed up to see Ralph & Sharon in Matakana. Original plans were for camping, but I decided I would put off camping until the rains and wind passed. Good thing too. It was quite the storm and after about 24 hours of solid rain, there was much flooding and over 20 slips (landslides) on the road to the Kast house. We got down and back before they closed the road completely saturday afternoon. In Matakana the farmers market was closed due to flooding but Ralph and I walked around, looked at the new river rapids, and of course checked out the toilets! Beautiful aren't they.

It will be several weeks before they road is reopened and Ralph & Sharon don't have an extra 40km to get to town. I left the back way on Sunday morning and headed to Waipu (because everybody poops!) end enjoyed some camping and beachgoing. It was a very nice DOC campground and a great beach (see photo below). Pretty much just relaxed on the beach and in my tent, then headed back to Gulf Harbour Monday afternoon, making sure to stop at the Cheese Shop on the way to stock up.

Last weekend I hung around here, went to Orewa beach, went shopping, got a TV card and antenna set up with my laptop so I could watch some local entertainment, watched the Rugby NZI 7's tournament (good fun) and did some other errands. I saw the best license plate ever. Driven by a dirty old man which would never get by the DMV in the states. The photo came out crappy, as I was driving, but it said "LV3TOF" which I read as "Love To F..." which I can't believe the old man put on his car.

Anyway, this weekend I am heading to Auckland, heading down with Toby and Ayla from Lady K, hanging out with other yachties on Friday night, staying aboard Curious, and sailing classics Saturday & Sunday. Should be a real nice time before getting back to the grind.