S/V Malachi

Oh Canada!

2009-07-31T11:46:00.000-07:00

Back in Canada at the Customs dock.

WOW! after two years at sea, almost to the day, Malachi is back in Canada! We cleared customs just after 8pm and tied up in front of the Empress Hotel right in Victoria's inner harbour. There's alot of excitement around here with the upcoming holiday weekend and it's been a fun place to make landfall. Only in Victoria can you see Darth Vador playing the violin on the street corner.

Moored in front of the Empress Hotel, Victoria, BC

Robert and Rose from Tillicum greeted us as we pulled into the customs dock, what a great welcome! The Griggs came by last night and spent a few hours with us reuniting which was just awesome as well. It's so great to see familiar faces that we've missed over the past two years.

In total, thirteen of us walked across town to White Spot for the long anticipated triple 'o' burgers, fries and milkshakes. It was an awesome celebration and a delicious meal.

mmm - love those triple'o burgers

Approaching Victoria

Our first glimpse of Canada.

Well, I'm running out of time as check out is 1pm and there's a big rendezvous and there are heaps of boats chomping at the bit for us to get off the dock. There's so much more to say and so many more pictures to share which I'll do at the next internet opportunity. Thanks everyone for reading our blog and following our adventure. We'll take the next 10 days to make our way back to the Burrard Yacht Club in North Vancouver, stopping to visit friends in Thetis Island and Gabriola Island. We can't wait to see you all very soon!

Two more sleeps!

2009-07-27T11:02:00.000-07:00

It's Monday morning and we've got about 18kn of North wind which has got us moving at a pretty good clip - 7kn or more. At this rate, we'll be arriving in Victoria on Wednesday evening. It feels so good to be nearing our homeland after two years away - almost to the day! We departed Vancouver on July 31, 2007 and we've visited 8 countries since and have a lifetime of stories and experiences as souvenirs of this great adventure. The trip has been amazing but we're all ready to come home and be reunited with our family and friends and to find our place in the workforce once again. Even the girls are ready to find part time jobs.

It seems a little surreal, actually, as we approach the west coast of North America, knowing Canada is just beyond the clouds and our friends and family just beyond there. We can hardly believe how quickly two years passed by but we imagine things have changed quite a bit during our absence. It'll be strange not to have our cruising buddies nearby and stranger still to have to use a telephone to communicate rather than a radio. The radio is very efficient since everyone hears what's going on with just one call! I must say though, that we're all looking forward to sleeping on a non-moving bed! and to having more personal space to stretch out in.

I hope we'll get a chance to see you upon our return. You can leave a comment on the blog or you can even send us an email through the blog by clicking on the little envelope at the end of each post.

Do keep watching the blog as there will be more pictures to come. Thanks to all of you who read this blog and who leave us comments, we love that.

See you soon!

Less than 1000 miles to go !

2009-07-23T10:29:00.001-07:00

It's been so grey the past several days, dark and gloomy, in such contrast to the beautiful tropical weather we've experienced for most of the past two years. I hope the weather back home is great, we're looking forward to a beautiful BC summer.

Malachi has 936 nm to go until we reach the Strait of Juan de Fuca then another 70 or so right into Victoria. There are lots of things we hope to do right away: sleep always tops the list with laundry coming in second, but one of the thoughts we're salivating over is the idea of a White Spot burger and milkshake...mmmm! A small restock at the local grocery store and a visit with friends in Victoria, then we'll be off to the Bluewater rendezvous in Montague Harbour where we hope to meet up with Maryke Violet. It will be wonderful to see friends whom we haven't seen for so long.

And so the coundown continues as Jocelyn crosses off the days on the calendar, we look forward to seeing you all upon our return.

Fourteen more days...

2009-07-20T12:18:00.001-07:00

This is the report we've received from Orca III for the past three consecutive days! It beginning to feel like 'Groundhog' day! Even though we keep sailing, the countdown on the chart plotter remains at 14 days! Frustrating to say the least.

Today's been a very rolly one, a condition we expect for the next several days. We're sailing wing on wing with the light 7kn winds directly behind us and although Malachi sails very well with this sail configuration it's not the most comfortable as we roll side to side up to 20 degrees either direction. It certainly makes life interesting on board. We're having a Settlers of Catan tournament today and occasionally when the boat takes a big roll, the board pieces shift out of place, things fall on the floor and the person sitting on the stool slides across the floor. Like I said, fun...fun...fun!

I know I've written several times about how difficult it can be to move about the boat during wavy or rolly conditions, but it's fun for us to watch Steve experience this anew. Today was particularly funny as he came out of the aft head making his way across the width of the boat only to have the boat roll back to starboard sending him back to where he came from. All we saw was him going forward across the doorway and then backwards the other way....funny!

Last night we invited Orca III along side us once again for a pyrotechnic display. Since the sea was completely calm and there was no wind, we decided to set off more than a dozen firecrackers making up the most exciting show yet. This time, Steve taped two firecrackers to a piece of fishing line which was then tied to the gaff, after they were lit, Jenny extended the gaff out the side of the boat to keep the sparks away - this is a favorite of all. Another favorite display involves poking a pepsi can with about 20 holes and dropping a firecracker inside, this is very cool, but last night, by the time the fourth firecracker was lit, the can gave way, the bottom exploding with the firecracker. We're certainly having fun with this evening activity.

Tack Tack Tack

2009-07-17T13:58:00.001-07:00

Well, this passage, although it started out very nicely, is shaping up to be a bit of a frustration to all on board. For the past 24 hours we've been on a course to Russia! The strange positioning of the high pressure systems across the Pacific is causing us alot of grief in our quest to travel North East. Yesterday, put 108 miles under our keel but only 68 miles in the right direction, today will probably be less successful. Don't get me wrong, the sailing is good and so is the fishing and everyone on board is doing just fine, it's just that our present course is a little discouraging.

We are now entering the a high pressure system to our NW where we'll lose the wind altogether, but will be able to motor due North until we can pick up the West winds that will push us home. The skies are grey and gloomy and tend to make one feel a little down. When it's the only thing you've got to look at, it's nice to have a little variation in colour, some blue is always welcome and we can even enjoy little pockets of black because there's usually a rainbow accompanying the storm clouds.

We've now been at sea for a whole week and have all settled nicely into the rhythm of the passage. We're all very excited about our homecoming and are crossing off the days on the calendar until that time.

All in a day,

2009-07-14T10:40:00.001-07:00

Yesterday we had a really good day, not much wind mind you, but a good day nonetheless.

The boys have been reconfiguring the fishing arrangement and since we've lost so many lures to big marlins and mahi mahi's, they're endeavoring to come up with a solution to prevent that from happening again. They've now rigged two hand lines, each running through a pulley mounted on the arch. We've had a lot of hits, but have only landed three so far. We're really hoping to re-catch the last mahi mahi because he's got our favorite lure stuck in him.

Last night, Orca III was very nearby, so we called them and invited them to come along side us for the fireworks display which consisted of one fire cracker dropped into a Pepsi can which had been punctured with about 20 holes and tied to the end of a fishing line, another firecracker just taped to the end of a fishing line and the grand finale of two firecrackers dropped into a glass bottle, recapped then tossed into the sea. The first time we did that last one it was better, because the bottle exploded, but last nights remained intact. We told Orca III that there was one more after that but they were too far away to see, I guess great minds think alike and as they came closer so that we could bomb them with water balloons, they had some of their own ready for retaliation! What a fun evening. Tonight should be equally fun as both crews are, undoubtedly, scheming about the impending attack. Stay tuned!

The fish are hot!

2009-07-14T10:40:00.000-07:00

Wow, we've sure had a lot of chomps on our fishing lines over the past few days. Yesterday was the best one of the big ones grabbed the hook and ran off with the lure and all of our line! There was no stopping the reel! What a drag, that was a brand new hook and one of our few remaining hoochies. Orca III has had good luck catching fish as well, but we're both in the same predicament, in that our freezers are full having been stocked up for the passage. Oh well, we're working on taking care of that, bbq steak for dinner last night mmm.....not our typical passage meal, what a nice change.

This morning the winds have died off to 5 knots and we are motor sailing with Orca III in sight just a few miles behind us. Accompanying the light winds are very calm seas, a good day for laundry.

We've been reading The Tale of Despereaux as part of the dinner theater aboard Malachi, some, who will remain unmentioned, are not that interested in story time, but I'm reading it anyway and I think that secretly, they like it. In addition to daily story time, we've been lighting off firecrackers as night falls. Steve is quite the pyromaniac and collectively, we come up with some pretty inventive ways to use up the firecrackers that are intended to spin around on the ground. Last night, we popped two into a glass bottle, quickly replaced the lid then threw it overboard. The bottle glowed bright in many different colours before exploding with the final report. I think Steve is dreaming of launching a pop can rocket far into the atmosphere, but we'll just have to wait and see what they come up with next, perhaps a giant sling shot?

The fish are hot!

2009-07-13T11:10:00.001-07:00

This morning the winds have died off to 5 knots and we are motor sailing with Orca III in sight just a few miles behind us. Accompanying the light winds are very calm seas, a good day for laundry.

Underway

2009-07-10T12:40:00.000-07:00

Malachi departed Hanalei Bay, Kauai, HI at 10am yesterday, July 8th after two restful days at anchor. We've got favorable winds from the northeast and the moderate seas have made for a nice start to this leg of the trip home to Vancouver. We continue to travel with Orca III and we anticipate our arrival in Victoria around and about the 25th of July, a landfall we are all quite excited about. We are all looking forward to reuniting with our family and friends and especially Diesel!

Last night, just before dark, we had a strike on our fishing line. We all watched and Steve was up fast enough to see a huge, angry Marlin jumping in annoyance at the hook that was stuck in his mouth! All we desired was to reel the big fish in for a photo opportunity, but, disappointingly that was not meant to be. The reel on the rod broke so Jay donned the heavy duty gloves to pull in the line while Steve manually spooled it onto the handle of a scrub brush. When the fish was within 20 feet of the boat, it panicked and took off, breaking the hook in the process. The marlin was relieved, I'm certain, but the fishermen aboard were sad not to have had a good look.

Morale on board is good so far and no one has been feeling sea sick, thank goodnes! It's still quite warm, but there is significant cloud cover that keeps us comfortable.

Thanks to all of our faithful followers, we sure appreciate all of your love, prayers and support.

More Hawaii

2009-07-05T13:49:00.000-07:00

Welcome to Waikiki!

I can't believe how much travel and activity can be packed into such a short time. While our friends were with us, we visited so many places: Kailua-Kona, Lahaina, Molokai and then finally Honolulu. In fact, we've been too busy to even make a blog posting! OK, well, part of that delay has been due to connectivitiy issues with our computer. But now, we're at the Waikiki Yacht Club and have really been enjoying the pool and the hot showers on shore.

Lyndsay and Jocelyn - Island beauties!

Lahaina was a fun stop where we wandered the shops on the boardwalk adjacent to the water and followed that up with nice lunch at Bubba Gumps in honour of Lyndsay's 18th birthday. It was a fun time and will no doubt be a nice memory for everyone.

Maya, Steve, Steve, Shayna, Jenny, Marg, Lyndsay, Jocelyn, Jay, Alanna and Kyle at the big banyan tree in Lahaina.

Silly Lyndsay, you kept us laughing!

On board, everyone pitches in and Jenny was particularly grateful for the extra help with all of the dishes produced by nine eaters. Even the most mundane chores are fun with friends.

Jenny and Shayna

Steve is always fishing - nice catch, a big wahoo!

Molokai, which was once home to a lepper colony, was a brief stop for us enroute to Oahu. The small sheltered harbour allowed us a more settled sleep, but nothing beats the stillness we've got here in Ala Wai harbour in Waikiki, it's good to be still. Hawaii, although very warm and beautiful, has surprisingly few protected anchorages. We're sure spoiled in BC.

Swimming at Molokai

Shayna, Jenny, Lyndsay, Jocelyn and Alanna enjoying cheesburgers with the tikis in Waikiki

We took a day trip out to Hanauma Bay to go snorkeling. It was quite a long bus ride and there were tons of people there but we got to see Hawaii's own fish the Humuhumunukunukuapuaa and even a green sea turtle.

Waikiki beach was popular with it's white sand beach and surf. Steve, Mary and Shayna went body surfing and had a blast while Jocelyn & Jenny went with Orca III and spent an afternoon boogy boarding...too fun!

Playing in the surf at Waikiki beach

Dinner at the Kobe Steakhouse....mmmmm!

The girls and I joined Orca III for a tour of the USS Arizona at Pearl Harbour. The audio was particularly informative and really enhanced our experience there. The museum was our favorite.

USS Missouri

Man your battle stations!

At the Arizona Memorial

On July 1st, we decorated Malachi with her signal flags in honour of our country's dominion. Orca III hosted a big Canada Day bash and we sang the national anthem for anyone willing to listen. It was just great to celebrate with some American friends, the crew of Galatea and the Heitzman's, Ray & Ramon and their great kids. A fun time was had by all!

Steve, Jocelyn, Kyle and Maya too the bus out to Diamond Head for a hike one morning while Dionne and I did the big Costco shop to provision for the passage. They had a great time and the views were incredible. Kyle especially enjoyed the tunnel.

Waikiki beach - view from Diamond Head

Maya, Kyle, Jocelyn & Steve

Kyle, Maya and Jocelyn in the bunker on Diamond Head

Stairs to the top of the bunker

Steve and Jocelyn at the top of Diamond Head

Yesterday, we had a chance to celebrate Independence Day with the Americans here at the Yacht Club. We had a front row seat for the fireworks display on Magic Island too. We joined Galatea on their aft deck for the amazing show.

Boat chores and repairs have certainly topped the list of things to do during our time in Hawaii and the major things have all been completed and Malachi is once again ready to set sail for the last leg home to Vancouver. It's good to be homeward bound.

Steve takes a look from the top of the mast.

Hilo

2009-06-20T10:53:00.000-07:00

Steaming lava

$5 flower arrangement from the Hilo Market - pretty huh!

We arrived at Radio Bay in Hilo after a relatively pleasant 17 day passage between the Tuamotus and Hawaii. Radio Bay has implemented some new security practices so whenever we wish to venture beyond the 8 feet that make up the pier for transient moorage, we need to call the security company for an escort through the working container yard. At first it was a little annoying, but as we got to know the staff, we looked forward to our chats with them during our escort. It wasn't too bad at all.

Our first week was a blur, as Jay worked on repairs and we cleaned and got the boat ready for our friends who were arriving on the 15th. Busy, busy busy! We rented a car with Orca III so that we'd have wheels for errands and sight seeing and the first order of business was laundry and lunch! Unfortunately the laundry mat that was formerly adjacent to the customs office at Radio Bay has closed down, so we had to go downtown BUT what a great surprise when we visited the laundry mat there. There were probably close to 100 wasers, many which held multiple loads, and around 50 driers. WOW! This was heaven to us cruisers who've tolerated exorbitant rates or non-existent laundry facilities during this trip. Boy...you know you've been cruising too long when a laundry mat causes such excitement!

Alas, the 15^th arrived and with much excitement we greeted Steve, Mary, Alanna, Shayna and Lyndsay at the Hilo airport.

With only two days for touring before we planned to leave Radio Bay, we were off before our guests even had a chance to settle in! First we visited Rainbow Falls and the Boiling Pots where the murky fresh water pool failed to entice. Next it was off to see the lava flow and then the hot pool. The hot pool, on the edge of the ocean, is heated by lava flowing beneath, and although it wasn’t hot, not even warm, it made for a nice stop for a refreshing swim.

Boiling pots

Hot pools

Shayna, Alanna, Jocelyn & Jay in hot pool

The surf was huge and we got to watch some crazy surfers waiting for the perfect wave. Hawaii’s Big Island has very few beaches and these brave? Surfers hang ten on waves that meet up with the jagged lava shore – not for me!

Uneven lanes....or lines?

The lava flow proved to be a really interesting stop. We walked across sharp jagged lava and other flow that looked like rippling water ending up at a spectacular black sand beach. I thought the sand in the Tasman Sea was black, but not compared to this! Finely ground lava provides a dramatic backdrop for the crashing white waves.

Jenny, Shayna, Alanna, Jocelyn & Lyndsay on the black beach

Alanna, Jocelyn, Jenny and Lyndsay outrunning the surf

Our second day of touring was spent in the Volcano National Park, where we drove to the summit of Mauna Ulu at over 3000 feet to see the smoking crater – very cool! The drive through the park allowed us to walk on lava and view several craters. One of the favorite stops was at the Thurston Lava tube where we descended a long stairway to walk through the ancient tube where lava formerly flowed. The first section of the tube is lit, then for the more adventurous…that’s us, you could walk the second half of the unlit tube, some 350 meters. We brought torches and a lantern for just this occasion and it was really interesting to walk the cool, drippy tube that was once ablaze with molten lava.

Lava flow

Jocelyn in a lava hole

Steve and Mary on the black beach

Jenny, Jocelyn, Lyndsay and Alanna walking on the lava

Fam on the lava flow - aren't we hot!

Marg on lava

Lava on road

We drove all the way down to the ocean side to see the lava flowing into the ocean, but it was too far away, we could only see the steam. The shore side, however, was awesome as the waves crashed into the steep cliffs formed by the flowing lava. The arch is one of the most photographed sections on the coast.

Near the water and just a short hike in from the road, we got to see some petroglyphs that are about 300 years old, pretty new for this kind of stuff, but it’s a very large and interesting collection of images carved by the early Hawaiians.

Steve on a petroglyph hunt

Petroglyphs

Jay & Marg with steaming crater in the background

Our day was complete after a dinner at Kens Pancake House. Needless to say, we all slept very well that night.

We departed Radio Bay on the seventeenth destined for Kealakekua Bay. Enroute, we passed within ¾ of a mile of the current lava flow from Mauna Ulu and were treated to a remarkable show of lava erupting as it met with the water. Lava flows at temperatures exceeding 2000 degrees F so you can imagine that its union with the cold ocean water is not too friendly. We met a local photographer, who’s been working on the island for 15 years, who told us that it was the most dramatic show in years! Perfect timing for us!

After a lumpy 24 hours we arrived in Kealakekua Bay, where Captain James Cook, who founded the islands in 1778, was killed. A monument, erected by his fellow countrymen, stands on a small patch of British soil gifted by the Hawaiians.

Captains at the Captain Cook monument

A Canadian plaque at the monument

Emma, Shayna, Jenny, Lyndsay, Jocelyn, Alanna and Maya in Kealakekua Bay

Off to snorkel in Kealakekua Bay

As if erupting lava weren’t enough to satisfy our sense of discovery and adventure, we spent an hour or so snorkeling followed by an amazing hour of swimming with over 50 spinner dolphins that were mating in the bay. WOW! What an awesome experience as we watched the babies swimming alongside the frisky adults. We counted 47 but we bet there were more.

Today we're off to Kailua Kona before crossing over to Maui, hopefully we'll solve our problem with our internet antenna so that I can post more regularly, in the meantime, we'll be off exploring the lovely Hawaiian Islands with our good friends.

Tikihau - the lost post

2009-06-13T22:49:00.000-07:00

Malachi and Orca III anchored off the south village

Somewhere in cyberspace is my post on Tikihau, the southwestern most of the Tuamotus.

After our first overnight passage from Tahiti, we decided to stop in Tikihau which proved to be a very peaceful and charming stop. Not many people live here, but for most of those who do, days are spent fishing, processing copra or working in one of the few hotels on this lovely atoll.

Drying coconuts in the yard, getting the copra ready for export

Fishing village at the north pass

We spent our first night anchored off a fishing village just north of the pass into the lagoon, only about thirty people live there. After winding our way through the narrow pass and pass the fish traps, we anchored in about 30 feet of water just beside a little hut on the reef, possibly a pearl farm. It was a very pretty and calm place to rest for the night.

The next day, we decided to travel the short distance to the village at the southern end to see what was there. The village was such a pleasant surprise! very lush and green and an abundance of tropical flowers - which of course I love. We had a very nice walk through the village and visited the store, of course, and the boulangerie where we got to see the bakers making baguettes. We placed our order for four fresh loaves which we picked up an hour later...the last of our French bread for a while.

Making fresh baguettes at the bakery

Emma, Jenny, Maya and Jocelyn on Mainstreet, Tikihau

Tikihau town hall

Tikihau church

Store in Tikihau

Small boat harbour south village, Tikihau

Main street - Tikihau

Island cutie pie

Tropical hut

A Record Day!

2009-06-07T10:45:00.001-07:00

Ever since we emerged from the ITCZ we've had fantastic sailing conditions consistently making between 7 - 8 knots. The past 24 hours, Malachi made a record breaking 181 nautical miles. A day like that is always good for morale on board, especially since we're all bored and tired of being at sea. We've been at sea for 40 of the past 57 days and we're all more than ready to be shore based for a while. Only 293 miles to go!

20 years!

2009-06-03T11:39:00.000-07:00

Today, Jay and I are celebrating our 20th wedding anniversary. We're at 07 degrees, 25 minutes north, 144 degrees, 00 minutes west and there is nothing but sky and sea out here. We'll have a delicious chocolate torte with the last of the ice cream and we'll toast with a nice glass of white wine from Jay's parents 50th anniversary.

It's a lovely sunny day and we're having a beautiful sail after emerging from the ITCZ into 10-15kn of ENE winds, couldn't be better!

This little birdie hitched a ride for the night so that he could rest.

The sailfish we tossed back, beautiful!

Back in the Northern Hemisphere

2009-05-31T11:07:00.001-07:00

Pretty flowers from Tikihau

Malachi crossed the equator this morning at a little past one in the morning, with Orca III just .7 miles off our starboard beam. We watched the latitude count down, as if we were watching the clock at new years, and as we crossed we all gave a hoot and a holler! We made it! Crossing back into the northern hemisphere marks the completion of the southern loop of our adventure. We've got approximately 1400 nm left to go to Hilo, Hawaii and we're really hoping for nice winds and calmer seas. They're a little lumpy at the moment.

More pretty flowers from Tikihau

The previous two days have been very squally and the boat was very stuffy inside as we could not have any ports or hatches open. The captain and genoa have never had such a workout, furling and unfurling with each passing squall. Today, however, the weather is nice and the forecast even better. We should be able to enjoy a few days of clear skies and 10-15kn of east wind before we find ourselves in the ITCZ where things will, no doubt, diminish in quality. But, following that we'll be able to turn and head straight at Hawaii on a nice beam reach. We can't wait to get there.

Today, we'll be celebrating with an Equator party! Starting with crepes for breakfast, roasted brie and champagne for lunch and chocolate/coconut ice cream for dinner. Why not go all out, it's quite an accomplishment!

The first few days out

2009-05-24T13:18:00.000-07:00

Leaving Tahiti

This passage couldn't possibly be any different from the last one! Light breeze, flat clam seas, intense sunshine and clear night skies, what a pleasant change!

We did an overnight trip between Tahiti and Tikehau, the Northwestern most of the Tuamotus where we spent two nights resting and tending to some final passage preparations and repairs.

It's May 24th and we've been out for 24 hours, motor sailing in very light east winds. The gribs show that we can expect the winds to fill in nicely, providing east to east south east winds all the way to the equator, only 137 hours, 15 minutes and 53 seconds until we're in the northern hemisphere again. We'll be sure to feed and toast Neptune as we pass by.

Remember you can watch our progress clicking the link 'track our position' in the right hand column.

Au revoir Tahiti!

2009-05-20T00:09:00.001-07:00

Rambutan - kind of like a lychee

Soursop - I like Chris's (Candine) description best 'tastes like lolly pops!'

It's been so nice to be back in French Polynesia, it really is beautiful here. The only thing we'll
miss are the high prices!

Beautiful sunset over Moorea

Sunset over Moorea

Malachi sailing wing on wing

We've had success with repairs and everything is working and will hopefully be doing so all the way home. We've had fun playing in the water and swimming with the rays. We've had our fill of fresh French baguettes, pineapples and fresh salad and we've eaten at the Roulotte. We even celebrated both Dionne and Emma's birthdays! What more could we want?

Biking in Tubuai

Emma's 9th birthday in Tahiti.

Happy Birthday Dionne! (not her 9th - in Moorea). I made those delicious cinnamon buns for her! mmmmmm! (Thanks Cynthia for the awesome recipe, we're famous for those now)

Every evening the the Tahitians practice in their outriggers, it's major competition here.

Austin (Candine) and emma playing on the beach in Tubuai.

But, alas, the time has come for us to cast off once again and set sail for Hawaii. We will miss the smells of the islands and the 'wahh, wahh' of the sirens as they pass by. We're planning to stop in the Tuamotus for a night or two before the passage to Hawaii, which will be much better than the passage between NZ and Tubuai. It'll be a much shorter passage too, maybe around 16 days if we're lucky.

Here's a pic of Whangarei, out of place, but a cool pic from Graeme. You can see Malachi to the right of the red roofs on the far shore and you can see the yellow sign of pak-n-save, our grocery store, in the background. The store was nice and close, really great, we just borrowed the trolley to transport our groceries back to the boat!

Tubuai to Tahiti

2009-05-12T19:52:00.001-07:00

We decided, after much deliberation, to depart Tubuai ahead of a storm that was expected to arrive on Friday. So a little after one in the afternoon, Malachi and Orca III weighed anchor and set sail once again, this time, bound for Tahiti.

One of the nice things about being at sea is that there are no pesky flies to interrupt your sleep.

This trip was VERY different from the passage between NZ and Tubuai, in fact, we enjoyed a beautiful reach for the first 12 hours and we were making 8 knots over calm seas, lovely! It was sunny most of the time and Jocelyn even decided to take a dip one afternoon.

Malachi caught, seemingly, the only fish between Tubuai and Tahiti, a nice Mahi Mahi. We had hoped to catch another bigger one so we could have a feast in Tahiti, but it didn't happen.

The girls have been working hard on their school work during the passages, as conditions permit and have been making fair progress.

Here's a picture of us girls in our standard passage attire - pj's! This pic was taken as we left NZ.

One thing I forgot to write about as we were underway between NZ and Tubuai, was Jocelyn's BD. On the 26th of April, we celebrated Jocelyn's 17th birthday with fresh cinnamon buns for breakfast and Tex Mex for dinner, we had hoped to have made landfall by this time, but we made the best of it. Orca III sang Jocelyn a song over the VHF - very nice.

Jenny, presenting Jocelyn with her BD gifts

Cheery Jocelyn loved here gifts especially the Twilight shirt from Jenny.

The passage to Tahiti took just shy of three days and we were all tied up at the Quay in Papeete by seven am Sunday morning, just in time to pick up some freshies at the market!

We feasted Sunday night on steak and fries at the Roulotte as we celebrated our arrival and mothers day. It's good to be in Tahiti, but it's oh so hot and humid!

Tubuai

2009-05-08T02:30:00.000-07:00

The kids are happy to be on land!

Kyle, Jenny, Jocelyn, Maya, Graeme and Emma on our first walk in three weeks!

Jay and Steve on our journey into the Gendamarie

Our beautiful girls on a beautiful beach

A pretty church in town, where we listened to the beautiful singing

In Frech Polynesia, as in France, people purchase their baguettes fresh every morning. It would appear that some the islanders on Tubua have their bread delivered with their mail!

Tubuai has been a wonderful place to stop and rest. The island is very beautiful and the islanders are very friendly. While here, we enjoyed a variety of activities from walking and swimming to biking and playing on our own private motu. We even followed the sound of drums one night to watch the musicians and dancers practice for the big dance festival which happens in July in Tahiti.

Jay hanging out with the local men watching the practice of the drummers and dancers.

Alain from the Tubuai Centre loaned us each a bike so we could explore the island. There is pretty well one main road that runs along the shore. I though it was funny that there was a crosswalk!

Ready to roll! Maya, Marg, Dionne, Kyle, Chris and Emma

Traffic control on Tubuai.

Roadside fruit and vegetable stand. The ladies who ran this little shop loaned us some wrenches to repair one of the bicycles.

One afternoon after chores, school and repairs were done, we hopped in our dinghys to play on the little sandy motu between the anchorage and the reef. We had this entire little motu to ourselves and we enjoyed swimming, collecting shells and even a game of bocce!

Sandy motu

Jocelyn & Graeme reconstructed this lobster

Jenny, Maya and Kristie collecting shells

The time has come for us to depart and continue on our voyage to Tahiti, with just under 400 miles to go, we'll be there on Sunday. We look forward to a good passage and some fun times in wntown Papeete, maybe even internet!

It just wouldn't be complete without a picture of a flower!

We made it!

2009-05-04T00:16:00.001-07:00

Land Ho!

After 23 days at sea, most of which was rougher than we like, we arrived in Tubuai. By 8:40 last night, we had the anchor set and were enjoying a relaxing drink before bed. We were particularly tired after hand steering for the last four days. What a relief to not have to steer or stand watch. Orca III, with whom we'd been traveling, and Candine, who left Auckland the same time we left Whangarei, arrived about 30 minutes after us. Now here we sit, three Canadian boats at a remote Polynesian island, it's surreal! It was very exciting to see this little island appear in the distance after not seeing land for so many days, it was an amazing sight.

The three Canadians invade Tubuai, only one other boat has been here this year.

This morning, we tended to some chores such as laundry, general tidying up, inflating the dinghy and moving the life raft, then we headed to shore to explore this beautiful island. The people here are so very friendly, everyone who passed us on the road waved. We must have looked very conspicuous, ten of us white Canadians walking the main road in town. We even garnered a hearty chuckle from a fellow riding his scooter, when all of us stuck our thumbs to hitch a ride. Marie at one of the little stores opened up just for us, so we all indulged in a frosty ice cream bar. Then it was off to the Gendarme, unfortunately they were closed today, but there were workers in the garden who asked us to return tomorrow morning. You should have seen the looks on their faces when we told them that there were three boats and fourteen people checking in! It's even more apparent now that this little island gets few visitors. It's hot and humid here which will take us a few days to adjust to, but at least this is the coolest of the Polynesian islands, so we can acclimatize a little easier.

Thanks to all of our family and friends who have been supporting us through prayer during this passage, we couldn't have done it without you.

Oh what a difference a day makes!

2009-04-30T21:48:00.001-07:00

This passage as most certainly been the toughest one with three gales and winds as strong as 45 knots and seas as big as 7 meters. For the most part, Malachi has done very well as has the crew, the only problems we've experienced have been, once again, the generator and the auto pilot. We've spent the past 30 hours hand steering with two of us on watch at a time for a four hour shift, switching off as each hand steers for one hour. We have never had so much sea water on deck before, with all of those huge waves sometimes breaking on the bow and other times breaking on our side. Many of those waves splashed right into and over our canvas enclosure soaking everything in its path including the inside of the enclosure. We were even wearing our rain gear when we were steering and had to keep the companionway closed to keep the sea water from going down below. This past storm lasted 72 hours and was punctuated by a spectacular lightening show last night that lasted almost 12 hours!

Some big 7 meter seas.

Malachi just slices through those huge waves.

BUT, today, we awoke to sunshine, light winds and calming seas YAY! and if that weren't enough to lift the gloomy moods of the crew, it was calm enough to shower! It's amazing how much you come to appreciate the small and simple things in life so much more when you're on an ocean passage.

Orca III, the pot of gold!

We've got about 280 miles left on this trip to Tubuai in the Australs and we can't wait to be there. We're dreaming of steak and french fries, ice cream, swimming and snorkeling, not to mention a still anchorage.

This little chickadee hitched a ride with us for a few days.

Calm Waters

2009-04-26T21:59:00.001-07:00

Thank you so much to Glady Martin for this beautiful and encouraging poem. And to all of our family and friends who are praying for us during our passage, we appreciate you all so much!

Calm Waters

On this Easter morn you sail

on waters calm and blue

God stretched His mighty hand toward

your homeward trip that's due..

On days the wind is wild at sea

He'll hold you safe to Him

And when the stillness teases sail

He'll blow gently with a hymn.

Fear not of waves or dangers near

for He has guards for you.

His warrior angels stand swords drawn

as you sail the mighty blue..

Soon you will be again at home,

your hearts have changed so clear,

Our God has shown you many things

while on your sojourn years.

So, on this day that He arose

and opened up a way,

that we can live in paradise

and begin a brand new day.

Face the east and smile your love

and know that He's with you.

Close your eyes and listen close...

He is saying..."I love you."

dedicated to

"The Crandell Family"

Glady Martin

April 12, 2009

The 9th day out...

2009-04-18T22:04:00.000-07:00

Malachi sailing in the 'Roaring 40's'

We're so glad we had such a nice start to this passage, it allowed the crew to get used to the motion again after sitting still for several months. Unfortunately, those first few days were not repeated on the next four. We have encountered winds as strong as 42 knots and seas as large as five meters, but the good ship Malachi and her crew are still going strong!

We have found ourselves sailing SSE and even due south at times to avoid a nasty low pressure system that was passing by to the north of us. The night before last, we even hove to for 18 hours to 'supposedly' get some rest, but that proved to be almost as uncomfortable as pounding into the waves. Around midnight last night, the winds and seas started to ease up giving us a nice reprieve and the outlook for the next several days looks very favorable.

Here's a pic of Orca III in the swell, you may have to enlarge the picture to see them, this will give you a good idea of how big the seas are.

One of the nicest things about this passage has been being in VHF range with Orca III, it's amazing what that little lifeline of contact will do for your spirits. While we were hove to, we drifted farther apart and could only make contact at the pre-arranged times via the SSB radio - still good but not quite the same as being able to pick up the VHF and chatting whenever you feel like it. We are now back in VHF range with Orca III just over a mile away. We are still sailing in relatively close proximity to both Orca III and Candine and we talk at least once a day on the SSB to exchange position reports and discuss weather and routing. It's very nice to have the support of cruising buddies when something goes wrong. Candine is experiencing an overheating problem and was able to discuss a solution with Orca III over the radio.

We're really looking forward to making some great progress over the next several days while the winds are favorable to travel east, that way when the winds shift, we'll be far enough over to alter course to the north and still make it to the Australs.

*NOTE* You can see our track and current position by clicking on 'current position' near the bottom of the right hand column. We update our position daily.

The first few days out...

2009-04-13T22:09:00.000-07:00

Our departure from NZ was easy as...

Will will miss all of our cruising buddies who are continuing their sailing adventures. Thanks everyone for making this the trip of a lifetime for us!

After leaving the town basin marina and an emotional farewell to our fellow cruising buddies we motored to Marsden Cove at the mouth of the river. It was very nice to spend the night in a very quiet atmosphere prior to our departure. NZ customs arrived at 8:30 am on Saturday and as soon as Malachi and Orca III were cleared, we set sail for the east. We are traveling in very close proximity to Orca III and Candine (from Victoria) is not too far away.

Beautiful Whangarei heads at the mouth of the river.

Our first day was pleasant, partly cloudy, with very light winds so we motored for about 7 hours before there were sufficient winds to sail through the night. Day two, we spent motoring on calm seas but sailed through the night. we've had a mix of wavy and calm seas, sailing and motoring, but so far, this trip has favored sailing. The high pressure systems are still quite far south, so, while our destination is north east, we are sailing south east into the highs with the more favorable south west winds. Everyone is feeling well, aside from a cold that seems to be making its rounds.

We've had some excellent wildlife encounters, starting with penguins just as we left the river....yes, that's right, penguins! We've had dolphins join us on a couple of occasions too - bringing all of their friends over to play in our bow wave. One of the more excellent surprises was the escort Malachi was given by a flock of Albatross! These birds are huge! We had a little sparrow land on us a couple of times to rest, but 'Hitch' didn't stay long.

Our last view of New Zealand, a memorable sunset.

We've been fishing, but with no success. Poor Albert (Ross) didn't realize the squid that was following us was a fishing lure and when he tried to get it for lunch, it tangled in his beak. This upsetting episode, both for Albert and the crew of Malachi, was resolved after reeling the bird in and Jay hanging over the edge with a pair of pliers to free the hook from his mouth. I'm sure his beak and wings were very sore, but he'll be just fine. We haven't tried fishing since.

Poor Albert! but he was so cooperative as Jay removed the hook from his beak. The wingspan is between six and eight feet! a huge bird!

On Monday morning, Orca III and Malachi's courses converged just around sunrise. Orca III caught four albacore tuna and since we were so close to one another, they maneuvered along side us to give us some fish. This is a very unusual thing to do but the seas were calm and they had done it once before. They tied a line with a weight at one end and tied two tuna fish to the other end. As they came beside us, they tossed the weighted end of the line then once I had caught it, they placed the other end, with the fish on, into the water and I pulled the fish aboard Malachi. Then with the omission of the fish on the line, we reversed the process to return their line so that we're good to go for the next time!

At 5:40pm yesterday, we crossed the dateline and are now back in the western hemisphere so we celebrated with a cheer and a call on the radio to Orca III to brag. Steve said it's the first time ever that he's been ahead of someone and behind someone at the same time!

Go!

2009-04-08T01:24:00.000-07:00

And we're off!

Malachi has spent the past three months in Whangarei where we've enjoyed being with lots of friends and where we've done lots of fun things. But, alas, the time has come to bid farewell, to the land of the long white cloud. We will miss all of our cruising buddies who will be continuing on to Fiji, New Caledonia, Vanuatu and beyond. We hope you'll look us up next time you're in Vancouver, we would love to see you all again.

We've had the great pleasure of having Meridian rafted to us for the past couple of days. Meridian is Malachi's twin and we've been trying to catch up since Mazatlan! Here we are side by side in the town basin marina. We've totally enjoyed meeting up with John and Nancy and family and are sorry not to have had more time together sooner. Don't the boats look awesome together!

Eitan from Mintaka flew home with his mom on Tuesday. His dad is sailing the boat back to the US with crew. The girls really enjoyed meeting Eitan and will miss him and all of the other great kids here in Whangarei.

Eitan, Kyle Maya, Jenny, Jocelyn, Jaryd

We will be sailing north east to French Polynesia where we'll visit Tubai, in the Australs and Tahiti in the Societies. We should be there in time to celebrate Jocelyn's 17th birthday on the 26th.

So as we throw off the bowlines and sail away from the safe harbour, we'll leave you with a few slang kiwi words and phrases - g'day mates!

Cheers - a friendly way to say good-bye or can also mean thank-you
Boot – car trunk
Chilly Bin – a cooler, also called an esky as in “Eskimo” brand coolers
Chips – french fries
Cinema - movie theatre
Crisps – potato chips
Dairy - any convenience store, like 7-11
Dear - expensive
Dearer - more expensive
Diddle yourself - cheat yourself
Dun and dusted - all done, complete
Flash - very fancy and posh
Fringe – those are bangs, like hair over your forehead
Good as gold - means 'perfect!'
Handle - a mug. Otherwise it’s a glass which is smaller with no handle.
Hire - In NZ one doesn’t “rent” a car or canoe. You “hire” them.
How ya’ going?- is used instead of “How are you doing?”
Jandals - flip-flops
Judder Bars – speed bumps
Mixer - a faucet with both hot and cold water, highly uncommon here. Almost always a sink has the dreaded individual spout at each end of the sink. When washing your hands you freeze your left hand while scalding your right. The spouts barely hang over the lip of the sink making it almost impossible to wash dishes.
Nappies - diapers
Owl-Lou-Mini-Um - this how they pronounce aluminum
Scroggin - Trail mix
Serviette - table napkins. A “napkin” in NZ is a feminine product.
Sweet As… - means emphatically I agree or very cool, also used as a fragment not a sentence
Tea – Dinner
Tramping – hiking
Whitewear – these are appliances like washer, dryer, refrigerator, dishwasher, etc.

On your mark, get set........(almost ready to go!)

2009-03-31T16:07:00.000-07:00

Malachi front and center in the Town Basin, Whangarei

Busy-Busy-Busy that best describes the past week here in Whangarei. While I've been busy provisioning, packaging and preparing food for the passage, Jay's been busy crossing a number of little jobs off the 'to do' list. Getting ready to go to sea is alot of work!

Yesterday, I cleaned the lifelines and the stainless stanchions while Jay bleached the teak toe rails and scrubbed the deck! Malachi has never looked better.

I think we're all feeling ready to go and are getting a little antsy waiting for the weather to cooperate. The high pressures are slowly moving north which is perfect for us, but they're still down around 38 degrees south so our initial route as we depart New Zealand will be SE even though our destination is NE, ahh such is sailing. Jay has been brushing up on his celestial navigation math and is making great progress. Hopefully we will not have to depend on the stars to bring us home safely, but it's always good to have a back up plan. Each of the three legs of our passage home to Vancouver is approximately 2,400 miles and will take between 2-3 weeks. This means, that we'll be at sea for most of the next three months! Our plan is to stop in the Australs at the beautiful island of Tubuai, part of French Polynesia, to rest and relax before stopping at Tahiti to pick up some fresh supplies. Then we'll be off to Hawaii!

BUT...it's not ALL work. We have had our share of fun times as well. Last weekend, there was a special event as part of Whangarei's 'Endless Summer' celebration, an open air cinema! We went both nights to watch a movie in the park. Friday we saw the Kiwi flick 'Show of Hands' and on Saturday it was 'The Tale of Despereaux', the park was packed!

The kids have been looking for boredom busters and spent one whole afternoon creating, editing, producing and showing their own movie 'Daily Park News'. They all worked together and did a great job on this funny look at the local park. Be sure to check it out at:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4126750671671256407

DPN Cast and Crew: Maya, Jenny, Jocelyn, Eitan, Kyle, Grant, Jared

While hanging out at this most excellent playground, the girls met up with a group of local kids. They've really enjoyed spending time with them and learning some of the unique Kiwi phrases like 'keen as...'. The girls stayed for dinner on Saturday night then they all went to the open air cinema together, fun fun fun!

Jessica, Jenny, Liz, Jocelyn - spaghetti dinner on Malachi

And our friends from Austria are back in town and Dionne and I went over to Ahu for 'coffee' one morning, all I can say is WOW! Those Europeans sure know how to do coffee! Fresh apple pie, coffee, champagne, oj, chicken, sundried tomatoes etc. Jacqueline, you're amazing!

Me, Jacqueline & Dionne on Ahu

Peter and Jacqueline from Ahu

We've sure been feeling the chill lately as Autumn has arrived. At the cinema, we were all wrapped up in blankets and wearing our New Zealand beanies. One morning, Jenny was so cold she bundled up in like form to do her school work!

The days always start with school

Well, I've sure talked alot about Whangarei and thought I'd include a couple of new pictures for you all to see. The marina is located near the head of the Whangarei River, where a bridge crosses at the narrow to link to the opposite shore. We are on the south side of the river, where boats tie alongside the esplanade while the north shore boasts docks and pile moorings.

Malachi in front of the Marina office, restaurants and gazebo

Looking east from the bridge - Malachi is on the right

As you can see, we're tied to the dock right in front of a big gazebo on the esplanade, this has resulted in many wonderful conversations with visitors to the marina. This morning, the first rainy day in a very long time, we were visited by a group of local primary students. We could hear them outside trying to pronounce 'Malachi' and talking about our boat, so I went out to visit with them. The kids loved my accent and were thrilled to meet Jocelyn and Jenny and had all kinds of questions for them about our travels. I gave them some Canadian pencils, which they were very excited to receive, and they sang us a thank you song! It was a lovely experience. Instead of 'Miss' they called me 'Fire' which is the Maori equivalent, it was wonderful to hear them all say 'thank you Fire' as they continued on their way.

Fresh Figs and Fancy Frocks

2009-03-21T15:01:00.000-07:00

We had a couple of firsts today aboard Malachi.

Since Autumn is upon us, there are wonderful new fruits and vegetables to try, so we started our morning with a packet of fresh figs...mmm!

While I was driving to the market, the 'for sale' sign in our car was spotted and with some luck and persistence, the people following me managed to put together the right combination of numbers to reach us. Happy, they liked our car and bought it! It's a good deal for them as it really is a great car and it's great timing for us to have the car sold. Everything is so close to the boat in Whangarei that we can easily manage on foot.

We've gotten used to the wheel on the right, but I imagine you'll all find it odd. Jocelyn will really miss driving but will have fond memories of her first car and learning to drive on the the left side of the road and the right side of the car.

As dinner time drew near, we were taken in by a bride and groom and their wedding party, who had come down to the harbour to have their photos taken. Since Malachi was the backdrop for many of their photos, I invited them to have some photos taken aboard. It was fun to see all the beautiful people having such a nice time at the end of a special day.

Congratulations Tracy and Jai!

Just couldn't resist the Titanic pose!

Work, work, work!

2009-03-19T23:28:00.000-07:00

After a nice Australian vacation, it was time to get down to the nitty gritty and get some big boat chores done. The biggest job was to clean and paint the bottom of the boat.

Now, I know all you fellow boaties know how this is done, but for the benefit of our landlubbing friends, I'll attempt to explain a little. In order to get Malachi out of the water, we need to drive her into a man made, rectangular, boat sized bay. There is a huge lift that straddles the bay. Heavy straps are submerged before the boat drives over them, then they are cinched up against the hull just in front of and behind the keel. The 70 ton lift then hoists us out of the water then drives over to a wash bay where a pressure wash can be done to remove excess slime and growth. FYI, Malachi weighs 23 tons, about the same as 5 1/2 full grown African elephants!

Then it's off to our temporary home in the yard. A steel cradle constructed of heavy I beams and metal arms and pads, supports the boat which rests on the keel while on the hard. Extra supports are put in place since we still live aboard during this time, using a ladder to get on and off. Not so bad, except when you have to use the bathroom!

We came out just before the wind picked up.

Wet sanding all the rough spots

One last rinse before the primer

Jenny cleaning the shaft

Jocelyn on prop detail

We were out of the water for a total of six days during which time, we scrubbed, scraped, sanded and painted the bottom. Jay put alot of effort into polishing the hull too, now Malachi looks better than ever!

Malachi on the cradle, with the bottom all done

Looking good! Jay adds the last bit of paint to the resting points

Off come the slings and we're good to go!

Now we're back in our slip in Whangarei, home-sweet-home, at least for the next three weeks or so. Malachi will be setting sail once again around the beginning of April as we start the long trip home to Vancouver.

Brisbane, Barrier and Beyond

2009-03-10T10:13:00.000-07:00

(ok, it's actually back,but beyond sounds better)

The drive north from Coffs Harbour to Brisbane consists of a good windy highway through mostly forested area, it was so nice to get a glimpse of the farmlands and ocean as we approached the coast just south of Brisbane. As you can see, the vegetation is a little different from that in NZ, but it's very beautiful.

Red police car in Brisbane

Brisbane is a big city, not unlike Vancouver, but everything, it seems, is centered around the harbour where multiple ferries and fast cats take you to various points across the water. The city also boasts many bridges, the most notable is the Story Bridge which, like the others, links the north and south shores.

Jenny, Jay & Jocelyn with Story Bridge in the background

Jenny in Brisbane harbour

There is a huge botanical garden in downtown Brisbane which borders the water and we enjoyed a lovely walk along the boardwalk and through the gardens. As you all know, I love taking pictures of flowers and it was here that I was dubbed an 'old person' by a group of teenagers curious about why I was standing in a flower bed taking a picture of a tree. I was shocked! but it won't stop me from continuing one of my favorite hobbies.

While in Brizzy, we took a drive up Mt. Coot-tha for a panoramic view of the city. It was a beautiful day and we enjoyed a nice 3k mini-hike to see the art trail. We are always on the lookout for koalas and kangaroos, but have yet to see them in the wild. Mt. Coot-tha stands 287 metres above sea level at the eastern end of the Taylor range. It used to be know as One Tree Hill after the bush was cleared leaving a lone eucalyptus tree standing atop the hill. In 1880, when the area became a public recreational reserve, it was renamed and the name comes from the honey 'ku-ta' which the aboriginal people used to collect in the area.

Marg & Jay at the top of Mt. Coot-tha

Aboriginal style art at Mt. Coot-tha

One of Brisbanes latest attractions is the Wheel of Brisbane, a 60 metre ferris wheel with 42 air conditioned cars. The ride offers a comfortable and spectacular view of Brisbane and beyond. Since we had just enjoyed a similar vew from the mountain top, we opted not to fork out the $50 to ride the ferris wheel, and took pictures of it instead.

Wheel of Brisbane

Beautiful walkway on Brizzy's south shore

One of the many public garden areas in downtown Brisbane

Anzac memorial in the center of town

These signs are everywhere, but we didn't see any wild kangaroos on the road.

We were on a mission to drive as far north as possible to facilitate a snorkel trip out to the Great Barrier Reef and after much deliberation, we decided to go as far as the Town of 1770 rather than all the way up to Cairns. It was here that we boarded the Spirit of 1770 for a daytrip to Lady Musgrave island, one of only a few islands located on the Barrier Reef. It was a perfect day, sunny and calm, for a snorkel. We saw lots of coral and some cool fish, but our favorites were the sea turtles!

Lady Musgrave Island, Great Barrier Reef, Australia

The Town of 1770 marked our turning point. On our trip back south, we drove through Bundaberg, where most of Australias sugar is grown, milled and exported. The town is also the birthplace of Bert Hinkler, famous solo aviator, who made his first solo flight from England to Australia in 1928 in 15 days. In 1933, after years of successful flight, he left England once again, bound for Australia, but his plane went missing early in his flight. He and his plane were later found in Itlay and by order of Benito Mussolini, he was burried in Florence with full military honours. Bundaberg has an aviation museum in honour of its hometown hero.

Sugar cane growing in Bundaberg

Since we'd already visited Brisbane, we opted to stop in Mooloolaba, a city about an hour north of Brisbane. We loved it here! We had a beautiful waterfront hotel that looked out over the marina. Mooloolaba is on a narrow peninsula, so there are beaches all around and they've built up a really pretty esplanade with restaurants and boutique shops which made for a nice afternoon stroll.

I had spotted the Peanut Van on the drive north, but since it's claim to fame is 'the worlds best and freshest peanuts' we just had to stop on the drive south. We tasted all different flavors, settling on chill-lime and sweet and salty. MMMM!

The Peanut Van

Next it was back to Coffs Harbour, which we enjoyed so much on the way up. This time, we visited the famous Big Banana!

From Coffs, we detoured off the main highway to the farming community of Booral, where we stayed with Rod and Barbara, parents of Elizabeth from Shambala. They, very generously, hosted us for two days and showed us around their huge property. We loved learning about the various farm chores that are done everyday and we also enjoyed the animals, especially the dogs and cats. Rod and Barbara have a herd of cattle, sheep, goats and chucks (chikens for you Canadians) as well as three huge Maremma dogs and one herding dog. Bundy, the hearder, loved chasing the stick and the girls loved playing with him.

Welcome to the farm!

Rod and Barbara's farmhouse

Bernardo, guard dog or welcoming committee?

Jocelyn & Tabitha, she looks like Zoe

Jenny and Bundy

Jay & Bernardo

Jay, learning from Barbara, how to move the electric fence

These are some hungry cows!

Aussie Chucks!

We drove in to Newcastle and did some sightseeing. Pretty harbour city! It was here that we visited the famous Harry's Cafe de Wheels. Harry's began in the late 1930's when it's founder realized an absence of late night 'good eats'. The location in Newcastle is one of the last tram cars to run in Sydney. Harry's has become a National icon and has been visited by many celebrities (other than us!) such as Frank Sinatra, Robert Mitchum, Marelene Dietrich, Kerry Packer and more recently, Sir Richard Branson, Russell Crowe, Kevin Costner, Brook Shields, Pat Rafter, Olivia Newton-John, Jerry Lewis, Billy Crystal, Pamela Anderson, Sara O’Hare, Lachlan Murdoch, Kerri-Anne Kennerley, Adrian Greiner, Anthony Bourdain and Peter Blakely. All come in search of Harry's famous pies and peas, a mince pie topped with mashed potatoes and peas and covered in gravy - a delicious messy meal.

Harry's Cafe de Wheels, Newcastle

Newcastle Harbour

Newcastle Ocean Baths

Just before tea on our last night on the farm, Rod took us out for a farm tour in one of his many vintage cars. Us girls had a riot riding up top but had to keep our mouths closed to avoid eating too many of the the mozzies that show up at dusk. It was really funny, Bundy was told to stay behind and was closed in behind the gate at the house, but when we reached the Peppercorn Anchorage, 2 km down the way, he was there to greet us! We got to see a couple of kangaroos in behind the garage but they were too far away for a good picture, so you'll have to take my word for it.

Ready to go on the farm tour

Rod and Barbara, we can't thank you enough for your kind hospitality. We really enjoyed meeting you both and visiting your beautiful home.

So now, we had to make our way back to Sydney for our early flight out. We stopped in Manly, on the north shore of the Sydney harbour to get a picture of the city and hopefully the Opera House, but it was cloudy and we couldn't figure out where to go for that Opera House pic. Manly was buzzing with activity even though it was a Sunday. Throughout our stay in Australia, surfers were a common sight, it's not unlikely to see them walking along the streets with their boards or riding their bikes with special board brackets.

Some Manly men

Never seen a sign like this before!

Our last experience in Sydney, was a visit to Hillsong Church. It was so busy, but we were welcomed by several people to their 'live recording' service. It was quite exciting to see all the cameras and lights set up for this special event and, as usual, the music and worship were excellent! We'll look forward to getting the new CD when it comes out.

Getting ready for the start of the service

Extreme worship!

Coffs Harbour, NSW - Australia

2009-02-25T02:21:00.000-08:00

We've loved spending three sunny and relaxing days in Coffs Harbour. The girls have been spending lots of time playing in the pool while Jay has really been loving soaking in the rays and doing his best to make the rest of us look really pale. We have an ocean view room from our hotel, it's really beautiful. You'd think we'd be tired of looking at the ocean!

Swimming in the beautiful pool

The View from our room at Aqualuna

On the drive here, we stopped in at Fredo's Pies, famous for it's award winning pies, and, most notably, their crocodile pies. And, NO, we did not eat one of those, in fact we also passed on the kangaroo pies and opted for chicken. The pies were delicious. Pies are as common in Australia and NZ as hot dogs are in Canada and the US. You can buy a pie at almost every gas station with a little store.

Today we visited the Pet Porpoise Pool, a small scale version of Sea World. We absolutely loved the smaller groups and hands on interaction with the animals.

Jenny & Bucky

Jocelyn and Cindy

Marg feeding the little blue penguins...I love these!

This afternoon, we took a drive out to Nana Glen, where Russell Crowe has a home, but since he was no doubt attending the Academy Awards in America, he was nowhere to be seen. The drive out there was beautiful.

Tomorrow morning, it's off to Brisbane, or Brisvegas or Brizzy as Andrew Swift calls it. A big city and we'll be staying right in the CBD.

Roos, Rocks and Rides

2009-02-22T00:52:00.000-08:00

Our last day in Sydney was spent at the amazing Bondi beach, little did we know that this would be the last hot and sunny day for a while.

Bondi Beach

We stayed our last night at a hotel in Darling Harbour close to the Maritime Museum.

Navy ship and sub at Darling Harbour

We spent the past couple of days in the beautiful Blue Mountains, so named for the blue tinged mist that hangs in the valleys which we're told is actually vapours from the eucalyptus tress that are in abundance in the valley.

Blue Mountains

On the way, we stopped at the Featherdale Wildlife Park where we got to see all kinds of cool wildlife that we've never seen before. One of the highlights for all of us, was a chance to cuddle up close to a koala bear. We also totally loved playing with and feeding the kangaroos and wallabies - awesome!

Here we are with a cute koala seemingly unbothered by all the attention

Jocelyn with a cuddly koala bear

Jenny with a friendly wallaby

Emu

Bearded Dragon

Brown Herons

Tiny Blue Penguin - the smallest in the world

Shag

The blue mountains are a stunning plateau surrounding a breathtaking and dramatic Jamison valley. Waterfalls and wildlife abound in this area that has been declared a World Heritage Site. One of the nicest view points was Echo Point where we got a panoramic view of the entire valley and an almost level look at three sisters, a dramatic sandstone formation standing between 906 and 922 metres above sea level.

Three sisters

The Aboriginal dream-time legend has it that three sisters, 'Meehni', 'Wimlah' and Gunnedoo' lived in the Jamison Valley as members of the Katoomba tribe.
These beautiful young ladies had fallen in love with three brothers from the Nepean tribe, yet tribal law forbade them to marry.

The brothers were not happy to accept this law and so decided to use force to capture the three sisters causing a major tribal battle.

As the lives of the three sisters were seriously in danger, a witchdoctor from the Katoomba tribe took it upon himself to turn the three sisters into stone to protect them from any harm. While he had intended to reverse the spell when the battle was over, the witchdoctor himself was killed. As only he could reverse the spell to return the ladies to their former beauty, the sisters remain in their magnificent rock formation as a reminder of this battle for generations to come. http://www.bluemts.com.au/tourist/thingstodo/threeSisters.asp

It was at Echo Point that we heard the didgeridoo played by this most interesting fellow. The Didgeridoo is a wind instrument made from an irregular shaped eucalyptus branch that has been hollowed by termites. It has been played by Aboriginal people in Northern Australia for the past 1000 years.

Jay with the Didgeridoo Dude

There is a wonderful bronze memorial near Echo Point that honours the countless hours of labour performed by prisoners to construct many of the roads around Australia.

Also found around Echo Point and at other areas in the Blue Mountains Park are little rock caves designed especially for picnicking.

This section of rock, near the top of the plateau, was once submerged under salt water.

We visited several view points on our drive between historical Leura and Katoomba. Scenic World in Katoomba was very interesting. When we arrived we boarded the Sky Way, a large glass bottomed gondola that travels across the valley providing spectacular views of Katoomba falls and out towards the valley. Fortunately we did this ride first as we were blanketed by a rain storm, complete with thunder! 10 minutes later when we did the return trip, we could not even see to the other side!

Katoomba Falls

Skyway gondola

The foggy return

See through floor...ooooo

We took advantage of the rain storm to visit the gift shop (along with all of the other visitors) and after about 25 minutes of browsing, decided that we ought to just continue enjoying the parks other amenities. We hopped on the Cableway, another gondola, for a descent into the valley, there was only one other group of people with us. At the bottom, there is a really nice boardwalk through the lush forest, but it was too rainy and cold to do the entire thing, so we opted for the short walk from the Cableway landing to the base of the Scenic Railway. This railway is the steepest funicular railway in the world! We first rode it up...backwards, then rode it back down again. It was really cool and interesting to know that in days gone by, when the valley was an active mining area, workers rode to and from work in this fashion.

Railway car

Counter ballast for the train

Pretty steep!

Farewell O'vive......Hello Australia

2009-02-18T11:55:00.000-08:00

David & Nathalie

Sydney Opera House

During the past two weeks, we spent as much time as possible with our good friends from O'vive. Dave, Nathalie, Emilie and Alec shipped O'vive home on Dockwise at the end of February and spent their last two weeks hanging out in Whangarei.

Glass beads made my Nathalie, Emilie, Jenny, Jocelyn & Marg

Beadmaking class - 800 degree flame!

Jenny creating a beautiful bead

Jenny & Emilie at the Whangarei library

Good friends and fun times at the park in Whangarei

We had some wonderful times together hiking, beading and (of course) eating. Dave and Nathalie hosted a farewell BBQ at their flat on Sunday and we had a wonderful time with them and with many other cruisers who we've met along the way.

BBQ at O'vive's flat - O'vive, Tin Soldier, Orca III, Candine, Ocealys and Malachi

Nathalie took this picture of me with my potluck contribution.

Dave, Nathalie, Emilie and Alec......we will miss you!

Bright and early Tuesday morning, after a tearful goodbye the night before, we set off for Auckland to catch our Air New Zealand flight to Sydney, Australia!

We had a great flight. The plane and crew were outstanding and, aside from a brief encounter with 120kn headwinds which jostled us around a bit more than we're comfortable with, the flight was smooth.

We're staying in a serviced apartment on the 36th floor but we still can't see the water! Lots of tall buildings in the CBD. We are; however, close to everything and yesterday we joined a bus tour of the city. The day started off rainy but by early afternoon, the clouds were gone and the sun was shining, it was glorious. The fair weather allowed us to take advantage of the open top deck of the bus and to enjoy panoramic views as we drove around the city. Sometimes we had to duck so that we wouldn't get smacked in the face by low branches.

Our Hotel - the pointy one in the background

Kids on open top bus

Monorail

The highlight of our day was a tour of the Sydney Opera House. This outstanding piece of architecture has a rich and colourful history and we all really enjoyed the story behind this beautiful building. Perhaps us girls will take in a performance......not Jay though.

The roof of the opera house has over one million small white tiles

Beautiful reception area indoors

Autographed ballet slippers - Janessa, this one's for you!

Another point of interest for us girls was the Australia Opals. We went to one shop that had a museum. The owner, a paleontologist, has an excellent collection of opalized mollusks, wood and even dinosaur bones!

Like Vancouver, Sydneys streets are lined with an eclectic mix of old and new architecture. One of the most prominent and impressive buildings in the city is the Queen Victoria Building (1898), which is an upscale shopping mall. Sydney also boasts an impressive tower standing 305 metres above the city, a baby compared to the CN Tower at 553 metres.

Queen Victora Building - Front

Queen Victoria Shopping Arcade

There are news stands on most corners, just like in New York

This is the view of the city from Darling Harbour where we'll be spending the night today. That's the Sydney Tower in the background and just above the ships smokestack, you can see the big Australian flag that is flown off the Anzac bridge as a memorial to fallen soldiers.

South Island Road Trip - Chapter Four

2009-02-06T19:38:00.000-08:00

The last chapter:

We took the Interislander ferry across Cook Strait once again as we returned to the North island. The girls took advantage of the three hour passage to do some schoolwork (not much of which happened over the course of the two weeks we were away).

The drive between Wellington (where the ferry lands) and Whangarei (where Malachi is) takes about 12 hours, so we decided to come back a different route stopping in Hastings to visit friends from home, Paula and Kevin and their lively boys! Since Kevin was out with Caleb and Jake for an evening cricket match, I went by myself to have a visit with Paula and little Joe who is 2 1/2 years old (not quite at the age of appreciating a good cricket match). We had a great visit. It was really nice to catch up and to see the boys who are much bigger than the last time I saw them (almost three years ago) and to meet little Joe, what a character! He just loved showing off how he could hop on one foot and how he could run and dive into the couch, what a sweetie pie.

Kevin, Caleb, Jacob and Paula

Me, Paula and little Joe

One last little thing, something that made us laugh and hopefully will provide you with the same comic relief.

Public toilets are everywhere in NZ, it's wonderful, and mostly they are well attended and clean wish is extra wonderful. We've had public toilets that have been works of art and other that sing to you while you do your business, both of which we thought were pretty 'super' offerings. So when we were driving near Lake Taupo and came across this public facility, we just had to give it a go!

Now, wouldn't that lure you in? We were so excited to see what they had to offer but were shocked that this was a pay-per-poo facility!

But, of course, since the sign did say it was 'super' we thought it must be worth it. So $1.60 later and feeling very relieved, we were back on the road and on our way home. Our review? Not that super.

Anyway, we are back 'home' in Whangarei after our two week blitz through the South island. We drove almost 4000 km and saw alot and did alot and now we're exhausted! It's good to be back on the boat and into a more relaxed and normal schedule. But I must say, we did have a wonderful time.

South Island Road Trip - Chapter Three

2009-02-01T23:21:00.001-08:00

Possums, Pampas grass and Penguins

Possum

Pampas grass

Penguin - gotta look closely to see this yellow eyed penguin in the grass

What do they have in common? They are all found in New Zealand and we’ve seen them all! OK, well, we’ve yet to see a live possum outside the zoo but we see them squashed on the road all the time, too numerous to count. Possums are a pest here in New Zealand as they steal the eggs of the kiwi bird; therefore, it is always open season on Possums and their fur is used in combination with the, very soft, merino wool to make luxuriously soft garment and scarves.

We only spent one afternoon and night in Dunnedin, New Zealand’s Scottish city, but we sure made the most of it. We went for an afternoon tour of the Cadbury Chocolate factory which was ‘sweet as..’ as they say in NZ. Unfortunately, we were unable to take our cameras inside the factory where Cadbury employs over 900 people, but we took some cute pics outside.

That's a huge pile of Crunchy bars behind the sign.

The girls with Cadbury's Model A Ford

Before we were permitted entry into the factory we were required to don hairnets, very sexy!

The Cadbury factory supplies most of the chocolate for New Zealand as well as some for export to Australia and some Asian countries as well.

In the evening, on the advise of our hotel manager, we took off to Sandfly Bay to see if we would be fortunate enough to catch a glimpse of the rare yellow eyed penguins that inhabit the South island of New Zealand. After a slippery walk down the soft warm sand on the sand dune surrounding the beach, we walked to the opposite end of the shore and climbed the berm to the official ‘hide’, a small shack where we would sit quietly, watch and wait. Jenny spotted a penguin right away who had climbed the hill to rest for the night and about 30 minutes later we saw one swim in from sea, after a day of fishing. In total, we spotted three yellow eyed penguins – awesome! Those of you who have seen Happy Feet will know these as Lovelace.

Beautiful sunset at Sandfly Bay after penguin watching

We had to be careful on our walk down the beach, as there were several sea lions trying to catch some beauty sleep. We almost tripped on this guy because he blended with the sand so well.

We just couldn’t leave Dunnedin without visiting Baldwin Street. According to the Guinness Book of World Records, Baldwin St. in Dunnedin is the steepest in the world! At its maximum, the slope of Baldwin Street is approximately (19° or 35%) - that is, for every 2.86 metres travelled horizontally, the altitude rises by 1 metre. We were too pooped from climbing back up the sand dune the night before, to attempt to walk the hill, we we admired it from the bottom. Ooooh! Ahhhh!

Standing at the bottom of Baldwin Street

Then we were off! Just South of Omarau, we stopped to walk down to the Koekohe beach to see the Moeraki Boulders. These spherical stones are a great mystery. There are several spheres on the beach and some of them have cracked open revealing a hollow interior with a yellowish smooth stone inside. These septarian concretions, grey in colour have been revealed as the black mudstone forming the shoreline has been eroded. They are believed to have been originally formed in ancient sea floor sediments during the early Paleocene around 60 million years ago. Strange indeed! You can read more about them at http://www.newzealandnz.co.nz/destinations/moeraki.html

Us at Moeraki boulders

Alas, after a total of five and a half hours of driving, some of which Jocelyn did, of course, we arrived in Christchurch. Christchurch is a very big city and like Dunnedin has some beautiful architecture.

For the past 2 weeks, Christchurch has hosted the World Buskers Festival and we were lucky enough to take in some of the acts. One of the big venues was located just outside the beautiful Christchurch Cathedral. Our favorite was Cirque No Problem, a husband and wife team who do juggling and trapeze, they were very funny and excellent at what they do. We hope they win the competition!

The tram which you can ride around town

We’re staying in a beautiful beachside apartment while we enjoy this beautiful city. Today we did the Adrenalin Course, a multi level aerial obstacle course made up of rope bridges, Tarzan swings and zip lines built high in the forest. There are 100 challenges divided over six levels which take around four hours to complete. I did the first four levels while Jenny completed five and Jay and Jocelyn did all six. Level Six, the highest and most challenging is 20 meters above the ground. This activity was both physically and mentally challenging and we were exhausted when we were done.

Jenny & Jocelyn on level three

Jocelyn on level six

Jay on level six

Tonight we went out for dinner, for my birthday, to the Tap Room where we had a delicious stone grill dinner. This was kind of like fondue, but instead of a pot of oil, they bring you your meat on a hot stone and you finish cooking it at your table. It was fun and delicious. One of the menu choices was called 'The Wild Grill', which is an ever changing special of wild meat. As I found this quite intriguing, and I was wanting to have lamb for dinner, I enquired. To my astonishment, I was advised that this evenings wild grill was a combination of kangaroo and goat! I settled for the lamb, pork and beef combo.

South Island Road Trip - Chapter Two

2009-01-28T23:19:00.000-08:00

The last shall be first......

I'll start this posting with the most recent event as it is undoubtedly the most exciting! Today, Jocelyn earned bragging rights by bungy jumping off the Kawarau Bridge just outside Queenstown, NZ! As we stood by and watched in awe as she leaped from the platform 143 feet above the river. The graceful swan dive was only slightly interrupted by her screaming. Way to go Jocelyn! (be sure to watch the video on youtube, just click the link on the right)

Waiting for her turn to jump

The final preparations

The Kawarau bridge

The Big Plunge!

Bungy bathrooms!

So, now back to the interesting, but less thrilling of our adventures.

We were very fortunate to reunite with O'vive and Orca III for two nights in Murchison where
got together for a BBQ and crossed the Buller Gorge for a hike to the waterfall. The girls rode the zip line back across the swing bridge.

BBQ in Murchison

All of us on the swing bridge across the Buller Gorge

Jocelyn & Jenny on the zip line swing

The drive along the West coast of the South island is quite remarkable. The mighty Tasman Sea roars to the right while the lush forest and steep rock faces threaten to knock you off the road. This treacherous stretch of highway is, undoubtedly, the most beautiful but the driver must be very alert as the highways often narrow to one lane. Most of the bridges are only one lane and we even crossed one that was shared with a train!

Hawkes Cragg - this one lane stretch of the highway was carved out by hand just high enough to allow a bus to clear.

Jay and Marg at the Tasman Sea

We stopped to visit the amazing Pancake Rocks in Punakaiki. This mysterious rock formation has geologists stumped. They do not know how they came to exist or why they are layered the way they are. This was a really cool stop that we all enjoyed.

Pancake Rocks - Punakaiki, NZ

Here are those beautiful girls again!

Following the Pancake Rocks, we drove on to a little town called Hokatika where we collected black sand from the Tasman Sea and visited a glow worm dell.

Town centre in Hokatika

The following morning it was an early start as we had many stops we wanted to make enroute to Lake Wanaka.

Our first stop was Franz Joseph Glacier, the largest in New Zealand! We walked the 45 minute trail/river bed to come face to face with terminal face. Ok, we were a few hundred metres away, but it was still awesome! Following is the Maori legend of the glacier.

Ka Roimata O Hine Hukatere (The Tears of Hine Hukatere) is the Maori name for Franz Joseph.
Hine Hukatere (meaning 'the avalanche girl') was an adventurous Maori woman who loved mountaineering above all other activities. Her lover, Tawe, was not as fond of climbing as his sweetheart but Hine's powers of persuasion were strong and Tawe often climbed with her in the mountains. On one such adventure Tawe slipped at the head of this valley and plunged to his death. Hine's tears were so many that they flooded the valley and were frozen by the Gods as a memorial to her grief.

A cloudy day, but you can still see the glacier in the background. Notice that we're all wearing shorts!

Feeling the icy water.

Now, just one 1 1/2 hour walk is not nearly enough for one day so we stopped at Lake Matheson to do another one hour walk before continuing our all day drive South.

Along the stretch of highway between Haast and Wanaka, there are many beautiful stops with nice short walks to incredible waterfalls and blue pools. We stopped for about half of them but we were getting very tired.

The skies cleared in the afternoon for this beautiful pic of Mt. Cook, the highest mountain in New Zealand. (I had to run half way back across a one way bridge to get this picture!)

Beautiful Blue Pools - these beautiful pools get their name from the lovely blue colour which is caused by light refracting through the icy water.

At last, we arrived in Wanaka tired and hungry! After a great dinner at the Speights Ale House and good sleep we were ready to go again. Our first afternoon in Wanaka we visited Puzzling World, a very interesting place filled with puzzles and illusions. Our favorite was the hall of faces. When you cover one eye and walk around the room, these concave portraits seem to follow you - eerie!

Hall of Faces - Puzzling World, Wanaka

Ames Forced Perspective Room - this technique was used in the Lord of the Rings to create large and small people.

Such a strong family!

Even the public toilets are interesting here!

When you gotta go, you gotta go!

Gotta post a toilet picture from time to time!

So this brings us back to the beginning which is actually the end. Today we took a little drive to Queenstown. This mountain/lake town is similar to Whistler and we enjoyed our walk around. Next, we made a little stop at charming Arrowtown. It was here that we mustered the courage to try white bait, a local delicacy. Current prices for white bait in town was $100 per kg! We all agree that we're glad we tried it, but we prefer kumara chips.

Cute restaurant in Albert Town

Now, along this driving trip we've encountered delays for many reasons: a wreck, road repairs and cows crossing, but today was the first time we were delayed by a house moving down the highway!

House on the highway just East of Queenstown

So, tomorrow we pack our bags and our little car once again as we begin chapter three of our South Island Road Trip with a drive to Dunedin.

South Island Road Trip - Chapter One

2009-01-23T00:42:00.000-08:00

We started our South Island adventure on Wednesday, January 21st and after about 9 hours on the road, we saw the first snow we've seen in a year and a half! Four hours later we arrived in Wellington, the Capital of New Zealand. Located at the very South end of the North Island - 41 degrees South, it was our last stop before crossing to the South Island. One of the fun things about driving in New Zealand is the wide variety of farm animals you see along the way.

The first time we've ever been stopped for a 'cow crossing'

We packed alot into our one day visit to Wellington, starting with a cable car ride up to the botanical gardens where we got to see some very beautiful flowers. Surprisingly one of our favorite things there was the playground, where the girls enjoyed the slides and zip line and we all had a good go 'round the teeter totter go-round!

Girls with one of the wheels propelling the cable car in Wellington.

Beautiful hydrangeas

These beautiful pink roses are beautifully and naturally arranged.

Jocelyn on the zip line in the botanical gardens

Slip slidin' away!

Super fun teeter totter thing

Next, it was off for a tour of the parliament buildings. Unfortunately, we had to check our cameras at the door so all I can offer is a picture of the outside. Inside we saw some amazing architecture and leared much about New Zealands political practices.

Parliament Buildings

Following the visit to parliament, we just had to stop at Kirkaldie and Staines, New Zealands answer to Harods or Holt Renfrew. This very posh store has a doorman and a pianist and the salespeople are very lovely and gracious.

Kirkaldie and Staines

Downtown Wellington has some very beautiful buildings and fun areas to explore.

Beautiful stained glass at Old St. Pauls church

One of the many shopping arcades

One other notable stop was Te Papa, one of Wellingtons many free museums. This amazing museum has a collosal squid measuring over four metres in length - very cool and unusual.

Friday morning we boarded the Interislander ferry for a three hour trip across cook strait to Picton where we had a quick picnic lunch before driving to Nelson where we'll spend the night.

Picton

Church Hill - Nelson

A very cool VW bug in Nelson

Whangarei Buskers Festival

2009-01-18T22:54:00.001-08:00

WOW, this little town goes all out for their street performers! There were loads of people from every generation contributing to the events of the day.

The festival started at noon and didn't end until 10pm and the audience is very enthusiastic in their support of their local buskers. It was a very interesting atmosphere.

This friendly fellow, a British bricklayer who emigrated here when he was 30, stopped by for a visit. We're tied to a dock right alongside the shore so it allows us many opportunities to visit with all kinds of people.

Do you know the way to Whangarei.....?

2009-01-15T14:06:00.000-08:00

Whangarei (fawn grr ay) rhymes with San Jose, is located 14 miles up the river where it's wide enough to accommodate a marina. Jay and the girls sailed the boat up last Sunday and I drove the car, my 3 1/2 hour trip was much shorter than their 12 1/2 hour one, but they made great time and had a fabulous sail.

Just before Laura left, our long time friend Dave Gale sailed into Auckland for a visit. Dave joined Laura, Jay Sr., Jay and Cheryl on their South Pacific voyage back in 1982. It was fun to catch up with an old friend.

Dave has a young fellow on board who he is teaching how to sail. Joe has a sweet little border collie pup named Diva from whom we all got our doggie fix. We miss Diesel very much.

We've been really busy lately, what else is new. Laura flew home last Saturday and we spent Sunday moving the boat. The girls and I spent Saturday afternoon at the Auckland Museum which was awesome, glad we didn't miss out on that one, but three hours was not enough time to see everything. The building was constructed as a memorial to New Zealands fallen soldiers and stands prominently atop a hill in the Auckland Domain, one of the city's largest parks.

The Museum is made up of three floors covering everything from Mauri history, including all of the Polynesian islands that we visited, natural history, including everything from dinosaurs and meteors to shorebirds, insects and trees. The crowning glory is the remarkable war memorial on the top floor which includes a moving tribute to the holocaust survivors.

Beautiful stained glass in the war memorial

Hat and shoe collection at the museum

Beautiful Maori carving

The ancient Maori's would bug out their eyes and stick out their tongues to make themselves look fierce in order to frighten their enemies. Here the girls practice this ancient skill in front of a replica of an ancient Maori meeting house.

One of our favorite exhibits was the t-rex, where we got to see a full scale skeleton and test out how this great creature moved its arms and saw through its eyes.

Here in Whangarei, we're tied to the dock right in the centre of town. It's kind of fun to have everything close by and we often have people stopping by to say hello. It's a very friendly town.

The girls and I have visited the Annie Rose gallery http://www.annierose.com/ where they make glass beads and teach classes. We loved to watch Vicky at her craft, she makes it look very easy and we could watch her all day. Here are some samples of the beads she made while we were there.

The other day, we all went on a mini hike to Whangarei Falls, a beautiful 26 metre drop followed by a lovely riverside walk.

We have also visited the Kiwi House and had a chance to watch a live kiwi up close and personal - excellent! They are such funny birds. Near the Kiwi house, we visited the Bird Recovery Centre when staff and volunteers care for injured birds and educate the public. It was here that we got to see the kiwi skeleton with an egg inside. The kiwis don't have a breast bone so their insides are very vulnerable and the egg dominates most of the protected area. We also got to see a couple of Pukeko's - one of my favorite birds, some doves and even a talking Tui bird named Woof Woof. Now this bird is not like any parrot you've ever heard talk, it actually sounds like an old man on a scratchy radio and he says things like "do you like oranges?", "it's cold" and even "Merry Christmas" it was really strange. There is another Tui in a nearby aviary whom Woof Woof is teaching.

Pukeko

Dove

Kiwi Skeleton with egg inside

View from the Bird Recovery Centre

The smallest church in NZ - built in the 1800's

The girls with an old Rugby Mascot. Rugby is the national sport here in NZ and they are very patriotic about their All Blacks.

Jay spent the first three days here in Whangarei taking out the generator and doing a major repair - doesn't he look happy about it?

We used the main halyard to hoist the generator out of the engine room and transformed the starboard settee into a workbench for this task.

The generator is all back in place and ready to fire.

Rotoruaroadtrip

2009-01-07T12:18:00.000-08:00

View from the top of the gondola in Rotorua.

WHEW! that's the first thing that comes to mind following all of the activity we packed into our four day road trip to Rotorua with O'vive and Orca III.

Not the van we travelled in but a funky one that's for sure!

Kiwi fruit growing at the agrodome in Rotorua.

Beautiful lavender fields near Lake Rotoiti.

We rang in the New Year all together with a delicious gourmet dinner of salmon, salad, lamb, kumara (sweet potato) and green beans with Death By Chocolate for dessert...mmm! The kids feasted on Pizza and Ice cream. At midnight, we enjoyed a fireworks display launched from the top of the Sky Tower and we had a fantastic view.

We rented a house near Lake Rotoma that was big enough for all three families, there was even one room with 7 beds/bunk beds that was perfect for all of the kids. Everyone had a fun time as the grand finale of our time together. Orca III is heading out towards Coromandel, O'vive is currently touring the South Island before they ship the boat home at the end of January and we're in Auckland until Laura travels home on the weekend then I think we'll be heading North to Whangarei.

Welcome to our house in Rotoma!

Alec, Emilie and Jenny just after their kayak trip at the lake. That's our car on the right.

Cozy quarters!

Getting the cake ready for Jay's BD.

Happy Birthday Jay! Cheesecake...mmm

Jocelyn with Grandma in the kitchen.

Our first stop on this great adventure was the Agrodome in Rotorua where we toured an organic farm where we saw all kinds of sheep, emu, ostrich, pigs, deer and even a reindeer whose antlers we got to touch - very soft velvet.

Jenny loved feeding the sheep.

Emu

All of the kids loved the sheep

Who knew there were so many different varieties!

Reindeer!

Happy goats...

...and a happy sheep!

We got to see a demonstration of an old fashioned combing machine that takes the raw wool and combs it into a product ready to spin. The store had wide selection of beautiful yarns. The Merino sheep is the big curly horned sheep that lives in the high mountains in the South Island. There are few places in the world where this sheep can live and their wool is fine, silky and soft and is used to make beautiful hats, scarves, gloves and more.

Spinning the wool

Beautiful yarn

Next, we visited Paradise Valley, a gorgeous nature reserve where the kids got to pet the wallabies (mini kangaroo like creatures) and we got to see the trout streams and black eels along with the beautiful New Zealand vegetation.

Wallabies - mama with her nursing baby

Black swan

Deer

Ancient spring water.

Delicious sweet water!

The following morning, it was off to Rotorua to ride the luge! This was such a fun activity where we rode a gondola up the mountain (actually a large hill) then rode small three wheeled plastic toboggans down a paved track then rode the chairlift back to the top to do it all over again! Very fun!

Everyone is ready for some luge fun.

There go Alec and Jocelyn down the intermediate track.

Jenny

Jocelyn

Grandma presented all of the luge participants with a certificate.

And as if that were not enough excitement for one day, we went white water rafting in the afternoon. Jay and I have both done this on the Thompson river, but it was a first for the girls and it was such an exciting ride but it went by much too fast for our liking, we could have done it all day! We rafted the Kaituna river which, has Tutea falls, a 7 meter drop that we're told is the highest commercially rafted falls in the world.

One of the smaller waterfalls we went over.

This was the big drop!

Raft surfing at the end of our trip.

Our crazy rafting guide Lee.

We were all very tired after this long and adventurous day.

While we were rafting (no grandma didn't come with us) Laura went next door to the Hells Gate Spa where she wandered their geothermal reserve and enjoyed a hot mud soak followed by a mineral soak and a massage. She had a wonderful relaxing time, quite the opposite of the rafting experience.

It's funny, Jay, Jenny and I haven't slept in a bed other than on the boat for 18 months and for Jocelyn it's been 9 months. It was strange, you would think it would be a luxurious treat to have more space and to be in a still bed with no boat noises, but actually none of us slept very well. In fact, we all had a fabulous sleep once we returned to the familiar motion and noises of the boat.

Day three of our roadtrip started with us driving to the Wai-0-tapo geothermal area where we wandered about the eerie landscape and bubbling pools of sulphuric water and hot mud. It was a feeling of a cross between otherworldy and post apocolyptic, very strange indeed.

Lady Knox geyser which is encouraged to erupt at 10:30 every day.

Boiling mud

Wierd algae

Marg at the edge of Champagne lake - like a steambath!

Strange crystal formation on the edge of Champagne lake.

Devils bath

Zorbing was the next great adventure! The adults watched as the kids climbed inside a clear plastic sphere to which water and soap was added. The ball was pushed down a hill for the ride of a lifetime, somewhat like a cross between a waterslide and a roller coaster. What a riot for both the kids and the parents.

Zorbs at the gate, ready to roll!

Hard to tell who it is, but one of our kids is in there!

Such sweetie pies!

Jenny & Emilie emerge after their first ride.

Jocelyn

Wow! that was soooo fun!

New Zealand is rich with Maori culture, in fact I'm continually amazed at the knowledge and respect the Kiwi's have of their heritage. Throughout the country you can see examples of Maori carvings, this one was in the visitors centre in Rotorua.

We've had such a fun time cruising with our friends from O'vive and Orca III and this was such a fun time for us all to commemorate our time together. We will miss our cruising buddies as we go our separate ways. We will remember you forever!

Happy New Year!

2008-12-30T18:40:00.000-08:00

Jared, Emma, Jocelyn, Alec, Kyle, Emilie, Jenny and Maya at our marina.

Beautiful gardens at our marina

Well, Auckland is quite the city! In addition to attending to some mundane boat chores, we've had the chance to be out on the town shopping and exploring this excellent city.

Sunset Chrismas Day

Chrismas day was sunny and warm and we concluded our day with a potluck dinner aboard O'vive.

Dionne, Laura and Marg on O'vive, Christmas Day

Cute Christmas Pukekos

Jocelyn, Alec, Jenny, Paige and Emilie on the M/V New Paige from Alberta

The kids from Malachi and O'vive joined New Paige on a trip to the Auckland zoo which they really loved.

The kids have also been taking walks to the park and playing on the cool playgrounds that they have. There is even a public toilet that you enter by pressing a button like an elevator. Once inside, the room plays you music and warns you that the door will unlock in 10 minutes. Paper is dispensed automatically as are the water and hand dryer. Very advanced!

Nathalie, Dionned and I have been out walking several mornings as the weather permits and we love admiring the sweet little homes, some large ones too as well as the wide variety of mailboxes and gardens.

Merry Christmas - Meri Kirihimete!

2008-12-22T13:05:00.000-08:00

From the Crew of Malachi to all of our family and friends.

The pohutukawa tree (Metrosideros excelsa) with its crimson flower has become an established part of the New Zealand Christmas tradition. This iconic Kiwi Christmas tree, which often features on greeting cards and in poems and songs, has become an important symbol for New Zealanders at home and abroad. http://www.nzhistory.net/

We have been busy getting ready for Christmas here in Auckland and are all excited for the holidays. Auckland is very similar to Vancouver, actually and interestingly enough, we are currently in a marina on the North Shore. There is a passenger ferry that runs between the North Shore and Downtown, much like the seabus and once you disembark at the ferry building downtown, Queens, the main street is right there, just like Granville St. And, much like Granville St. Queens St. is filled with the popular chain stores, book stores and souvenir shops, even movie theatres, cafe's and shopping malls.

Unlike Vancouver, the bay is always buzzing with a plethora of sailboats and on any given day, we can watch the America's cup boats sailing by. On that note, the Americas Cup qualifier - the Lous Vitton Cup, takes place at the end of January and the cities marinas will be fully booked for this exciting event.

Jay's mom arrived on the 17th after almost two days of travelling and has returned to the cruising lifestyle as though she'd never been away from it.

The view from our marina.

Yesterday, we went up the Skytower, at 328 meteres, it is the tallest tower in the Southern hemisphere, 12 largest in the world, and we enjoyed a panoramic view 80km in every direction, it was breathtaking! The tower, which took just under 3 years to build, wieghs 21 million kilos, about the same as 6000 elephants!

The lights at many downtown intersections, like this one, stop traffic in all directions so than pedestrians can cross any way the wish.

Although we all really wanted to bungy jump off the top of the tower or walk outside around the perimeter we settled for the indoor view and a picture with Santa.

We've been attending Harbourside Church in Takapuna, just a 10 minute drive from the marina. This is a vibrant and exciting church and we really enjoyed the Christmas Carol service that was presented on Sunday rather than on Christmas eve. The whole production was excellent and the music outstanding.

Maya & Kyle at the pre-carol service activities for kids.

The grand finale of the carol service.

We will be celebrating Christmas morning on board Malachi and will join with O'vive and Orca III for a potluck Christmas Dinner on the 25th.

Mimi Whangata to Auckland

2008-12-11T20:37:00.001-08:00

After leaving Opua we visited several beautiful secluded anchorages and enjoyed many beautiful hikes and even some scuba diving.

Our third anchorage was Mimi Whangata where we met up with O'vive. It was in this very beautiful spot that we enjoyed a really cool hike through rolling pastures with a fabulous view from the top. Fortunately, the farmers released the cows into an adjacent pasture or our hike may have been abbreviated.

On the way back to the boats, the kids in O'vive's dinghy and the adults in ours, the kids stopped to watch dolphins swimming nearby and the adults went to shore to investigate a glider that had landed on a beach after finding itself with no more uplift to make it home.

Our next stop was Tutukaka where we spent a couple of nights at the marina. The day we arrived, the local bar "Schnappa Fish" hosted a summer kick off party with live music all day long. We hiked up to the Tutukaka light house for another panoramic view of the water and headlands.

From Tutukaka, we took a scuba diving trip out to Poor Knights Islands, rumoured to be one of the top five dive sites in the world - we couldn't miss out on that one! Jay, Jocelyn, Dave, Emilie and I planned to dive while Jenny and Alec snorkelled. Unfortunately, during my first descent, my ear drum ruptured so I was unable to dive but I snorkelled at the second site and it was very cold and very colourful and beautiful. On the first dive, the others saw an octopus which was a hilight. The second dive site was a very interesting dive through a cave filled with blue fish that crowd all around and part to let you pass through. Jocelyn, in particular, loved this part. I'll be posting a video on youtube sometime soon.

Great Barrier Island was the next stop. Not much commerce on this island, but it abounds with beautiful tramping trails and gorgeous scenery. We set out to hike up Mount Hobson, no small feat, and reached the summit approximately four hours later. On the way, we stopped for lunch at an ancient Kauri dam which was used to transport Kauri logs to the bottom of the mountain. The logs would be felled into the gully above the dam then the dam would be closed to allow enough water to float the logs. This sometimes took up to two years! When the water was high enough, people would gather to watch as the dam was released and all of the logs and water were set free. This was said to be a terrifying event.

Kids at the Kauri Dam

Some of the over 800 stairs we climbed

One of the creek crossings on our hike

Lunch at the summit

View from the summit - Malachi is in the middle

Jocelyn and Alec in the Geothermal pools on Great Barrier

The Pateke/Brown Teal duck is an endangered species that primarily exists on Great Barrier Island. As you can see they go to great lengths to protect these rare birds that swam beside our boat.

The following day, we rented a van to tour the island. We visited two tiny communities and even got to see the local santa parade in Claris! This was a very Big event for a very small community and it seems that everyone was there!

Face painting at the parade

Our last stop before Auckland was at Mansion House Bay on Kawau Island. This was a very pretty stop and we explored ashore and visited the Mansion House gardens - the Mansion itself was closed when we were there. It was in the garden that we spotted an albino peacock! None of us even knew such a creature existed! We saw another coloured peacock and a wallaby too on our tramp out towards an old copper mine.

Albino peacock, a direct descent of the peacocks imported by George Grey, the first governor of New Zealand, in the 1860's.

The most beautiful Hydrangea - Elsie, this pic's just for you!

We're now in Auckland and we've been very busy buying a car, Christmas shopping and, of course, boat chores. We bought a Toyota Windom (Duane you'd be proud) and are adjusting to the right hand drive and to driving on the left side of the road. NZ has some funky driving rules. Jocelyn has been studying for her learners permit so that she too can drive, this should be interesting for her once we return home.

More from Northern NZ

2008-11-30T15:36:00.000-08:00

Hole in the Rock, just outside Opua, the first land formation we spotted from sea.

Cape Brett, this is the first light we saw from sea as we approached New Zealand.

We've spent two and a half weeks in the Opua area and have done some really interesting excursions. Unfortunately, I'm unable to post pictures of the glow worm caves, but I'll tell you all that it was a very cool experience. The glow worms we saw only exist in Australia and New Zealand and are a close relative to the shrimp - not fireflies as you may suspect. The light from these very tiny organisms is just the size of a pin head and glows kind of a turquoise blue. The glow worms feed on insects that emerge at dusk. The worms spin traps, kind of like spiderwebs, that hang down like icicles to catch their prey. It is actually the worm excrement that emits the glow...talk about toxic waste!

Hundertwasswer Public Toilet Block, Kawakawa, New Zealand.

On the way home from the glow worm caves, stopped in Kawakawa to visit the famous Hundertwasser toilets. Now I know this sounds, perhaps, a little less than appealing but Fredric Hundertwasser, a world renown artist and designer, rebuilt this building back in 1998 just two years prior to his untimely death. It is the only Hundertwasser structure in the Southern hemisphere and attracts hundreds of visitors from far and wide every year. The artist loved New Zealand and made a home in Kawakawa where he enjoyed his anonymity. He redesigned the toilet house as an expression of gratitude to the community. Hundertwasser is best known for his first building, Hundertwasser House, in Vienna, which attracts more than a million visitors each year.

Jenny in the ladies room.

Another nice exploration we took was to the Haruru Falls. Although the falls themselves are not very large, the do offer a peaceful setting and a lovely nature walk through a kiwi bird reserve. Sadly, we did not spot any kiwi birds, but we did get to see the New Zealand variety of cormorant called a shag, nesting in the trees alongside the water.

Jenny & Marg at Haruru Falls

Jocelyn was unable to do much of the walk as she had sprained her ankle and was on crutches for several days. She's doing much better now.

When Orca III arrived and just before Nathalie left for France, we had an informal ladies breakfast up at the Blue Water bistro. This was a really fun time for us all to visit. We talked about Jacquelines new grand babies that she was going to visit over Christmas and about our future plans and past adventures.

Left to Right - Renata (Nuku Alofa - Germany), Maria (Mama Cocha - Holland), Dionne (Orca III - Canada), Nathalie (O'vive - USA), Tanja (Upps - Germany), Jacqueine (Ahu - Holland), Joan (New Paige - Canada) and of course Me!

The girls continue to work diligently on their school assignments and have just recently completed Biology 11. I was working on the computer one day and got up to get a cup of coffee and just about had the liver scared out of me when I came face to face with a frog on the galley table! It looked very alive, but thankfully it was not, the girls were just getting ready for an experiment. Life on board is very interesting sometimes.

We've since left Opua and are making our way South towards Auckland where we'll be spending Christmas. I'm sure I'll have many more adventures to speak of and pictures to share of our trip along the way.

Kia Ora New Zealand

2008-11-15T17:34:00.000-08:00

Nathalie, Dave, Marg & Jay on hike in Russell

It took us seven days of travel to get from Tonga to New Zealand split about equally between motoring and sailing. There were times when the sea was glass calm and times when the swells were three meters high and the winds 38 knots. All in all it was a good passage but as always, land is a welcomed sight. We spotted land at 6:20am November 10th and arrived at the quarantine dock at 11:00am. Customs and quarantine formalities were very quick and efficient and we were snugly secured in a slip at the Opua Marina before 12:30pm.

Cape Reinga Lighthouse - Northernmost tip of New Zealand

Cape Reinga, where the Pacific Ocean meets the Tasman Sea

As you can imagine, after being in smaller countries for months, we were very excited about all of the great grocery stores and products available here.

Our first week has been filled with activities celebrating the “All Points to Opua” rally of the Island Cruising Association. Monday’s event was a free pizza dinner and was particularly appreciated following our passage at sea and since we were celebrating Dave’s birthday, we were treated to cake on board O’vive following the dinner.

Jacqueline (Ahu - Austria), Marg, Tanja (Upps - Germany)

The best show we’ve been to so far has been the Bay of Islands, Culture North Night show at the Waitangi treaty grounds where the country of New Zealand was born back in the 1800’s. The show started with our group being challenged by a group of Maori warriors and was so realistic and frightening that we really felt that we were among the first visitors to this land. Once the ‘chiefs’ of our group assured the warriors that we meant no harm, we were invited into the long house to enjoy an evening of song, dance and drama which told of New Zealand’s history. This was an absolutely amazing show and one we’d highly recommend to anyone visiting this area.

We’ve done quite a lot of driving this past week as Nathalie is flying to France to visit her parents and needed to see as much as possible during her week here. We have had a lot of fun exploring to the Northernmost tip of New Zealand, Cape Reinga, and back. The vegetation here is amazing, while some of the flowers and greenery are similar to what we see at home, some are very different, such as the Ponga tree which is a national symbol. This tree looks like a palm tree but is more like a huge fern growing on top of a tall skinny trunk.

Ponga

Alec & Jocelyn at Cape Reinga

There are some huge sand dunes in the North Island and the kids really loved this part. We rented a couple of boogie boards and they hiked to the top of the hills and surfed down the dunes. Now, you may ask “didn’t they get sand in their eyes?” the answer is “absolutely! as well as everywhere else you can imagine!” but what a fun time they had. Be sure to see the video on youtube!

Board rental lady - what a character!

Jocelyn & Alec

Jenny!

Throughout the countryside there are beautiful rolling pastures filled with sheep and cows.

Another place we visited was the Stone House and Mission House, these were the first buildings constructed in New Zealand in the early 1800's and are now wonderfully preserved as historical monuments. The area surrounding these buildings is absolutely gorgeous, with a lake like inlet and high rolling hills with beautiful homes and gardens.

Yesterday, we took a little ferry across the bay to the town of Russell the site of the first European settlement here. We particularly enjoyed the art galleries, beaches and historical hike to a viewpoint. This is what we thought New Zealand would be like.

Kids at viewpoint

Russell road trip with O'vive & Upps (Tanja not in picture)

Christ Church, first church in New Zealand - 1800's

Orca III arrived yesterday afternoon safe and sound and just in time for the Pig Roast dinner and awards ceremony for the rally. Orca III took the prize for the largest fish caught on the passage, an eight foot marlin! while O'vive won a $500 certificate to Cater Marine and we won a $200 certificate for Northland Spars and Rigging! The Island Cruising Association and the Opua Business Association sure know how to welcome cruisers!

Congratulations! Steve and Kyle - Orca III

Farewell Tonga....hello New Zealand!

2008-11-06T21:11:00.000-08:00

All in all we had a great time in Tonga, enjoying the wonderful diving and snorkeling and swimming in the nice clear water in many beautiful anchorages.

The girls both have their favorite places on board to relax and on one of our traveling days in the Ha'apai group, it was calm enough to 'hang' out and read while underway.

We caught a huge Mahi Mahi while passing through the Ha'apai group and, as usual, shared a big fish feast on O'vive - Dave really is the master when it comes to barbequing fish.

Just prior to our departure, we joined with many other cruisers for a Halloween buffet at Big Mama's Yacht Club at Pangaimoto on Tongatapu. The wind was really blowing +30 knots and it was pouring rain - similar, actually, to a typical BC Halloween! The kids all dressed up, Jenny and Emilie as 80's movie stars, Alec & Jocelyn and gangstas but when it came time to go ashore the costumes were completely covered with rain gear for the very wet dinghy ride in. The effort was well worthwhile as about 75 people showed up for the excellent buffet dinner. After returning to the boats and retiring for the night, we heard a bang and then some cries for help, so Jay and I both leaped out of bed in time to see one of the boats anchored near us, frantically trying to raise their anchor after dragging into another boat. The dragging boat got away just fine and the boat that was hit suffered just a few scrapes. It was a very anxious night for all of the boats in the anchorage as everyone was anchored fairly close to one another.

Jenny & Emilie - '80's beauties!

November first was a day to celebrate with Earl (owner of Big Mama's) and his son as they celebrated Earl's 60th Birthday and the son's 12th. Big Mama's invited all of the 'yachties' to a traditional Tongan dinner in their honour and about 150 people showed up. It was a wonderful evening of fun and fellowship, excellent food, fantastic music (8 person band) and lively dance. The Tongan's at this party were not the reserved Tongan's we've read about and met!

The Tongan people are very spiritual and traditional in nature. Just before we left Nieafu we witnessed a funeral procession. The procession was lead by a 50 piece marching band, followed by a pick up type truck which was covered with a long woven mat that extended back from the truck about 20 feet, women, I presume family members, carried the mat high above their heads and they marched through town and they were followed by several cars. The funeral lasted six hours and we witnessed the same procession returning through town. It is customary for the mourning family to wear black, and everyone wears a Ta'ovala (waist mat) as a sign of respect to "God, King, and Country".

Weaving the Ta'ovala's - waistmats.

A common sight, tongan woman in mourning at the market.

Ta'avola come in many different styles and can be purchased at the market.

All school children wear uniforms and many of the uniforms, especially for the older kids, also include a Ta'ovala. The kids are very friendly and just like the kids at home, love to go to the store for a treat when school lets out.

As usual, weather is the hot topic amongst the cruisers and sometimes an impromptu weather pow wow will take place, like this one at the Friends Café - Jay, David - O'vive, Bernd - Upps, and Isaac - Tulavie, which happened just following our delicious lunch.

The fish market at Nuku Alofa was a sight to see! There is no ice, no enclosed cases, in fact, there is no building, just a roof in a parking lot, under which are several concrete tables. Each of the fishing families arrives at dawn to display their catch and they stay until dusk in hopes of selling their fish. At the market, you can buy fresh octopus, a bag of assorted reef fish, a pop bottle filled with assorted fish guts, a palm sack filled with sea weed and either whole sea urchins or already
shelled sea urchins as well as giant clams.

Giant Clam

Octopus - can you believe we've all tried it and like it!

One of the last tasks prior to departing Tonga was to fill our tanks with Diesel fuel. This was not as easy as in Canada, that's for sure, as we first had to obtain a duty free certificate from the port captain then go right to the fuel company to order the fuel which was transported in 200 litre steel drums. The gas company delivered the drums to the dock, along with a hand pump, and we hand pumped 1000 litres of diesel between us and O'vive, the kids thought this was quite an interesting experience.

Jenny pumping fuel!

We departed Nuku Alofa on Sunday morning with Minerva Reef as our intended destination. Minerva Reef is a submerged reef 250 miles South of Tonga, a perfect place for a rest. We anchored at Minerva for one night in order to rest and to fix a wiggle in our mast and to load our dinghy on deck. While at anchor, we were contacted by New Zealand Air Force Orion which was flying by doing a routine check, Upps took this picture of Malachi & O'vive with the airforce plane in the background - it was very cool.

Just five boats at Minerva Reef.

New Zealand Airforce Orion bids us all farewell!

Minerva Reef looking East out to sea, the closed land in this direction is South America!

Sunset at Minerva Reef

Malachi and O'vive anchored inside Minerva Reef. At high tide the only above water evidence of the reef is the rocks you see in the foreground.

During our passage between Tonga and Minerva Reef, we encountered so nasty weather that seemed to cling to us rather than pass by. For several hours, we were surrounded by heavy rain, wind and lightening and it was so dark we could not even see the bow! We hove to in order to wait it out. Jay and I were in the cockpit with all of the canvas zipped up and we still had to wear rain gear! After several hours we were finally free and able to comfortably continue to the reef. It took us two nights to get to Minerva and we stayed there for approximately 22 hours to rest and load the dinghy as well as a couple of other chores. The trip between Minerva Reef and Opua, New Zealand took five nights and we arrived at the customs dock at 11am Monday morning. Check in was a breeze and the people are very friendly and lighthearted, what a lovely welcome.

Tonga - a post by Mary Grose

2008-10-21T18:56:00.000-07:00

Shayna, Steve and I have been home for almost two weeks and are settled back into life in Maple Ridge. It is hard to believe that we spent a month on board Malachi never mind that we actually went sailing, in the Kingdom of Tonga of all places.

Steve, Shayna and Mary, sharing a yummy dessert.

From the moment we arrived, the Crandell’s welcomed us with open arms, making us feel right at home. Jay and Marg gave us their cabin, Jenny shared her room with Shayna and Jocelyn gave up her room, thank-you again! We really had no idea what we were getting ourselves into having not spent much time on a boat. Well there are so many things about sailing that we truly understand now. There is work to be done and it takes longer to do anything. Things break down and you can’t just run to home depot or the grocery store when needed. I must say we have a new appreciation for what Jay, Marg, Jocelyn and Jenny are doing. They all have different roles, each one an integral part of being successful on the deep blue sea. I hope we helped them out some and gave them a break from some of their ‘chores’ – the famous saying on the boat was “Steve will do it.” Marg cooked us up some magnificent meals, it was amazing what she could whip up in the galley and not just food, she makes a mean iced cappuccino!

The highlight was definitely our swim with the 3 humpback whales. But there were so many other wonderful moments that we shared; like seeing the joy in the Tongan children’s eyes when they held our hands and looked at the pictures we took of them (the beauty of digital cameras), sailing to many different islands and having beaches and sometimes the whole island all to ourselves, the sound of the water as we gracefully sailed along at 8 knots with just the spinnaker sail(Jay sure knows what he is doing), talking with villagers and being invited into their home, snorkeling, enjoying God’s creation on land and sea. But most of all the fun we had in just hanging out with all of them; we shared some good laughs. We also met some wonderful people on different boats who are on a similar adventure to Malachi. It was very special to be so welcomed by them and see how this community of cruisers is so helpful to each other; they are like a neighborhood that is constantly changing its location.

We are very thankful to the Lord for giving us the opportunity to spend a month with the Crandell family. The time we spent with them will forever be treasured. The memories we created will never be forgotten. Thanks again Jay, Marg, Jocelyn and Jenny. Below are just a few of the 2,500 pictures we have.

Steve & Shayna on the bow of Malachi. Steve's favorite spot!

Mary & Marg on the beach

Having dinner at the Aquarium Cafe with our new friends from O'vive and Orca III

Shayna loved sun tanning lying on the Malachi's boom

Enjoying island paradise together

Steve helping Jay put up the Spinnaker sail. Steve loved helping and learning about sailing from Jay.

Mary & Marg in the Tongan jungle.

I will miss my swimming partner

Shayna loved steering Malachi and brought her right into the harbour at Nieafu

I liked this photo because the thought that this family from O'ua will hang this photograph in their home and treasure it brings tears to my eyes. We have such an abundance in our lives and we take for granted so many things, like having a camera to record our memories.

One of the many dingy rides we took to our very own island

It was hard to leave Jenny behind when we went to go exploring and snorkeling

Still enjoying paradise together!!

We will miss these Tongan sunsets

....and sunrises!

Thanks to the best host couple ever. They sure look good together. They are doing what God has called them to do. We will miss them!

Still in Vava'u Tonga

2008-10-18T19:35:00.000-07:00

Well, we’re still in Vava’u Tonga where it’s easy to hang out because of all the restaurants and supplies that are readily available.

One of my lastest finds...a store with American cereal!

Best store for bread and cheezie type things.

Watermelons, watermelons, watermelons!

Another look at the market.

We’ve done a few interesting things in the past week. We arranged for Olivia, one of the ladies from the market, to teach us how to weave.

Our weaving class! Emilie, Nathalie, Olivia, Maya, Marg, Jenny & Jocelyn

Jocelyn, Jenny & Nathalie

Kyle and Alec sailed “Peanut” Orca III’s little sailing dinghy, in the Friday night yacht race and they won a pizza! Way to go guys!

We’ve done some more scuba diving at split rock – be sure to see the video that Jocelyn took.

Other than that, I guess everything is pretty well the same. Summer is approaching and the temperature in Tonga is rising, it is currently +30 degrees in the boat and it’s difficult to sleep at times.

I’ve spent all day creating, reducing and posting videos to youtube. Please be sure to check out the link at the top right of our blog to see all our videos.

More Vava'u

2008-10-13T11:02:00.002-07:00

It’s been almost a week since Steve, Mary & Shayna left and we really miss them – Tonga is just not the same.

I spent two days completing my PADI Open Water dive course, the one I started in California. You may remember that Jay and the girls were certified last October but I just couldn’t do the ocean dives at that time. I must say, that Tonga is a much nicer place for ocean diving as the water is warm and clear.

Jay, with the assistance of our good friends Dave from O’vive and Steve from Orca III have been working around the clock, it seems, to resolve the problem with our auto pilot. After numerous diagnostic tests and troubleshooting, they replaced the hydraulic pump which seems to have “Otto” working happily once again. Good thing, because none of us wanted to hand steer all the way to New Zealand. Special thanks go to Tom from Warm Rain and Dave from Baraka for their help as well – you guys are great!

The kids have been thinking up ideas to occupy themselves such as swimming at the Paradise Hotel, doing a photo scavenger hunt and going for hot fudge brownie sundaes at the Aquarium cafe.

Jocelyn & Emma at the Bounty Bar

Jocelyn & Alec at Tonga Bob's

After spending a few more days in Neiafu, we decided to return to a nice, clear secluded anchorage just a couple of miles out. We’ve had a few very nice days and the kids have been swimming and playing on the beach as well as flying kites and sailing Orca III’s little sailing dinghy. It’s been a very nice change from the busy harbour.

Jay, Dave, Nathalie, Jocelyn, Emilie and I have been out scuba diving which has been really fun. I have sure enjoyed pointing out some of the things I saw on my test dives. Going with a guide who has local knowledge is great as they can point out some very cool things that would otherwise be overlooked.

A couple of things I really liked were the sea feathers which open up when you tickle their legs and the sailor’s eyeball – both things I’ve never seen before.

Sailors eyeball

Sea Feather - when you touch the leg the feathers bloom open.

Emilie & Jocelyn

Jay comes face to face with a protective clown fish.

Anenome

Straight up from 75 feet deep!

It’s been kind of tricky for us managing our provisions while here. New Zealand really restricts dry goods such as grains and cereals, crackers and pasta as well as popcorn and spices. As a result, we’ve all been trying to use things up and not buy replacement supplies. In anticipation of our week long crossing from Tonga to New Zealand, we’ve ordered an assortment of meals from a local restaurant so we won’t have to worry about cooking and having supplies on board. We’re looking forward to the yummy lasagna, quiche, chicken pie and sausage rolls from the Crows Nest Bakery. It’s a nice consolation since we’re not particularly looking forward to the passage.

One rainy day, Dionne and I along with Sally from the Dorothy Marie had planned to walk to the “American Store” (don’t get too excited, it just means they have Cadbury Chocolate and a few Costco items but it’s still a very small store) to get some munchies etc. and while on our walk, we decided that we may as well swing by the “German Store” as well. As usual, this small shopping trip which yielded me eight chocolate bars, four bags of chips, a pack of chicken breasts and a piece of salami, took us three hours. Just like Mexico, everything takes longer than it does at home and I’m envious of Steve and Mary who have written about shopping at the Langley Market and Save on Foods…..LUCKY!

On Monday, two crews of kids: Jocelyn, Alec and Maya and Jenny, Kyle and Emilie took shifts sailing Orca III's little sailing dingy on the three hour trip back to Neiafu. They had a great time and did a great job of sailing that little boat without incident right up until the final 100 metres. Just before they arrived at Orca III, the mast snapped! I think that will be today's repair job.

Vava'u

2008-10-06T14:06:00.000-07:00

Steve and his first Mahi Mahi.

Jay & Steve with a yellowfin tuna.

Our final day in Ha’apai was spent at Ha’ano where we visited a tiny little beach with the softest sand I’ve ever felt. We snorkeled in crystal clear water and wondered at the flying foxes (bats) that hung in the tree nearby.

Our passage between Ha’apai and Vava’u was a very nice sail although the seas were a little lumpy. Upon arrival in Neiafu we received a royal welcome from many friends we haven’t seen in a while and for the Grose’s, it was quite a contrast to the solitude of the Ha’apai group. Our friends made reservations at the Aquarium Café for the night we arrived so all the adults enjoyed a nice dinner out while the kids had dinner and a movie on O’vive. Steve, Mary and Shayna are sure getting a taste of many of the different aspects of cruising and sure seem to be enjoying themselves and we’re sure enjoying their company.

In the harbour here, there are vendors who paddle out to the boats selling their wares.

Vava’u has a moderate sized market where you can buy some fruits and vegetables as well as a good selection of handicrafts. The stores; however, have a very poor selection of groceries and the meat supplies are terrible. The Tongans seem to eat mainly tinned corned beef and mutton flaps (sheep – yuck), while us Canadians would really prefer steak and boneless skinless chicken thighs which are difficult to impossible to find, we’ve been eating a lot of rice and pasta.

Here's a picture of the food court, it seems as though this building may have once been a stable.

In the food court you can buy drinks, but they are served in baggies!

Jenny got her cast off here in Vava'u but first we needed to take her to the hospital for an x-ray, then it was off to the Dr.'s office to see if everything was ok then it was back to the boat to soak the plaster in the ocean to soften it. After the cast had been soaking for 1/2 an hour I sawed it off with a steak knife.

Marg in the hospital waiting room.

We spent two nights in a nice anchorage where there was a tiny little gallery called the “Ark Gallery” where I purchased a very sweet painting of two Tongan boys drinking a coconut.

It was here that Jenny celebrated her birthday with her cruising buddies. Thanks to the generosity of our friends, the kids enjoyed a progressive dinner and sleepover in honour of Jenny’s 15th birthday. While the kids dined on spaghetti, the adults had a potluck dinner of yellow fin tuna which Malachi caught and O’vive barbequed, Nathalie’s French bread and veggies and Orca III’s tomato basil salad and chocolate cake. We had a great time as usual!

On thing we had all been looking forward to was a Tongan Feast which we finally enjoyed last Saturday at Ano Beach. The evening started with a browse through the handiwork of many local artisans and was followed by a dance show put on by a local family, followed by the feast. We tasted pig on a stick as well as many other interesting Tongan foods that were cooked in the umu (oven in the ground) such as banana bread pudding, corned beef/chicken/pork wrapped in banana leaves. Many other dishes graced the table: clams, octopus, fish cakes, crab salad, chicken salad and poisson cru. Thankfully, the Tongans broke tradition by serving the food on a table but they did adhere to tradition by not having utensils. It was quite a culinary adventure.

Vendors selling their handicrafts at the feast.

Feast preparations start early in the day.

Roasting the pig for the feast.

Musicians at the feast.

Steve eating octopus!

Alec and Jenny enjoying the feast.

Dancers at the feast.

Shayna drinking a coconut during our whale watching trip.

Sunday night we had a big storm with winds gusting to 38 knots accompanied by wind and rain; this gave Steve and Mary a bit of an idea of what it’s like on a night passage. Our anchor held firm and we woke the next morning to glorious skies of blue and flat calm water, what a contrast. The Vava’u group has many cool caves to explore and O’vive, Orca III and Malachi took two separate excursions to visit the Swallows cave, where we were able to take our dinghies inside and swim.

Next it wass of to the Mariners cave where the underwater opening is the only access. It took some courage to swim into the Mariners cave but, inside we experienced a glow on the walls from the light that filtered in through the water, as well as a fog that came and went with the waves. Since there is no other opening, the air compresses and releases creating a fog – no fog effect and you feel the pressure in your ears, much the same as when you dive or when you go in an airplane – very interesting.

Yesterday was the best day of all as we spent the entire day swimming in the ocean with the humpback whales. It was such an awesome experience that my words will never begin to touch on the all encompassing emotional exhilaration that we shared. It’s so amazing that these huge mammals would tolerate humans in such close proximity allowing us a glimpse into their serene world. We loved watching the mom gently nudge her calf to the surface, teaching it how to breach while the male escort observed from a deep distance.

Jocelyn and David from Melbourne swimming out for a closer look.

NOTE: all of these photos were taken wide angle - no zoom.

After about four hours straight of swimming with this pod of three whales it was time for our day to end. As if on cue, each of the three whales we had been swimming with breached one after the other in an exciting and dramatic finale! It was a very moving experience as the whales seemed to be bidding us adieu after a day of play, everyone on our boat cheered and applauded this rare display. As we were all back on board and preparing to depart we looked out and saw all of ‘our’ whales slapping their pectoral fins on the surface, something they hadn’t done all day, as if to wave goodbye and everyone instinctively waved back. It was an outstanding encounter which will be hard to beat in this lifetime.

Thanks to Moa and Connor from Beluga Diving for a remarkable day.

I think our whale encounter inspired all of us to explore the underwater world more - even Steve gave it a try. We sall all kinds of cool things beneath the surface.

Every trip to the beach involves a dinghy ride, some are more wet than others.

We've had a really great time with Steve, Mary and Shayna and are sad for them to leave, but we've just sent them on their way and they'll have one day back in Tongatapu before flying to Fiji where they have about 10 hours to explore.

O'ua and Lifuka

2008-09-25T12:35:00.000-07:00

O’ua was a really neat little anchorage that we had all to ourselves. I think this may be a seldom visited island as two of the teenage boys who live in the little village rowed out to the boat to welcome us, but were very shy and spoke and understood very little English.

Shayna swinging in the bosuns chair.

We saw that our great country has funded the school in this little village, it makes us very proud to be Canadian.

All of us, excluding Jenny because of her broken ankle, visited the village which was very poor and in ill repair. On O’ua, all of the yards are fenced to keep the pigs out which we thought was very odd but we later learned that it was unlawful to pen the pigs.

We visited the home of Kafoa and Eliki, the two boys who came out to visit, and were amazed at how undeveloped their place was but they were obviously very proud of their home which was kept very clean. The villagers seem to really value photographs and we left them with many.

We have been making balloon animals for the village children who watch in wonder as their little gifts are created. It has been such a joy to bring smiles to the faces of the young ones.

It was at O'ua that I did my first real scuba dive! It was cool and I even let go of Jay's hand for a little while....baby steps!

We sailed on to Lifuka where we spent the weekend and Celebrated Jenny’s 15th birthday with a pizza lunch at Matafanua and a two hour horse back ride (bareback!) through the Tongan jungle and along the beach. You should have seen the HUGE spiders in there!! YUCK! I’m certain it will be a day we’ll remember for a long time. Our rear ends remember, that’s for sure!

In Lifuka, we attended Sunday morning service at the Weselyen Church and were moved by the angelic voices lifted in praise to God, however, we couldn’t understand the message at all as it was delivered in Tongan. I found it very interesting that the image of Christ was caucasion and that the participants in the church were all women. Another unusual thing we noticed was that when the offering was taken, there was an announcement to let everyone know who gave and how much – weird.

Jay & Steve with a big wahoo.......wahoo!!!

We’ve now reunited with O’vive and Orca III in Neiafu in Vava’u and are enjoying the camaraderie of the other cruisers once again.

Welcome Aboard!

2008-09-15T12:24:00.000-07:00

We arrived in Faua Harbour, Tonga on September 7th just in time to get ready for the arrival of Steve, Mary and Shayna. It was very strange, as there was only one other cruising boat in the harbour, everyone else was up North in Vava'u. Tongatapu reminded us a lot of Mexico and was quite different than we expected. We were able to purchase loads of fresh vegetables and watermelon at the Talamahu market and found many wonderful woven and carved crafts there.

The Grose's arrived on the 9th after close to 24 hours of traveling. I met them at the airport and Maka, our driver for the day, took us back to the boat but not before giving us a taste of what it's like to be in the Indy 500! Since we do everything on foot, I asked him to stop off at the market on the way back so we could pick up a big watermelon $8 and a huge stalk of bananas $3.50 - with the Canadian dollar worth close to twice as much as the Tongan pa'anga, I think we did very well.

Marg & Shayna writing a poem for Jenny's birthday.

We spent a few hours on Wednesday exploring Tongatapu, but with Jenny still on crutches, we couldn't go very far so we focused our exploring near the market, where Maka dropped us off. The Friends café is an excellent little restaurant were we enjoyed burgers, paninis and marlin for lunch. Jay stayed behind to do an oil change, something that can't be done while people are on board, but he doesn't like shopping anyway and I'm sure he enjoyed having the boat to himself for a while.

We have since been exploring the Ha'apai group and have visited the remote little island of Kelefesia which is inhabited by only one man and his assortment of inquisitive dogs, nonchalant pigs and finicky cat. This was our first taste of solitude in a long time as we were the only boat in the anchorage.

Next it was off to Nomuka iki which we hoped would be a less rolly anchorage, and it was. We explored the beach and jungle finding a shipwreck, and abandoned jail, papayas and even a coconut crab which Steve cooked up and ate - very brave!

We've since been at a quaint little island called Ha'afeva that is inhabited by approximately 1000 people. When we went ashore and were welcomed by what seemed like all the village children who fought to hold our hands and when I took their picture, I was swarmed when they all wanted to see themselves, a very sweet and memorable experience indeed. Yesterday the rain and wind stopped and the clouds parted so we hopped in the water for a snorkel and were treated to a view of thousands of assorted reef fish and many different varieties of live coral, it was very beautiful.

Here's a pic of us outside the storein Ha'afeva.

The village kids in Ha'afeva.

The Grand sendoff!

Mary snorkeling in Ha'afeva.

This morning we're getting ready to sail to a little island called O'ua where we'll spend a couple of days before moving on to Lifuka to celebrate Jenny's 15th birthday. We're all anxious to reunite with O'vive and Orca III who are currently up in Vava'u but we are enjoying showing our friends a taste of the peacefulness of the more remote anchorages, something we won't really experience further North.

John, Kafoa, Shayna, Jocelyn & Jenny on board Malachi in O'ua.

Steve & Jay checking out the cooking hut at John and Kafoa's house.

Little boys in O'ua village with pandanus drying in the background. Pandanus is used by the village women to create the beautiful baskets that Tonga is known for.