Arrival in the beautiful Bay of Islands, New Zeala

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  Opua, New Zealand
Wednesday, November 15, 2006

Hi all,

We are finally in NZ! We managed to get a window in the weather and left Noumea on Sunday the 5th making a good speed on course to pass just to the east of Norfolk Island, a small island almost dead in between Noumea and the Bay of Islands in terms of distance. All was well for the first four days until we reached the fifth day when the winds picked up to a constant F8 (about 40 kts wind) from the SW. We couldn't stick to our course and short of sailing down-wind and completely off course we didn't have many options so we dropped the remaining sails, tied everything down and let ourselves be taken downwind at about 3kts. After twelve of the most uncomfortable weather I think I've been in we were only 40 miles off course (not bad for that amount of time adrift).

We managed to motor back on course and ended up arriving into Opua Marina, Bay of Islands at 1am on Sunday morning, only having taken six and a half days after leaving New Caledonia, which isn't bad going

During the gale!

. Opua is absolutely stunning and the surrounding towns of Paihia and Russell remind me of cruising off the south coast of Cornwall and Devon back home. The bay is well protected so sailing is superb (although we haven't been out yet as we're savouring being in the marina with easy access to the shore) and we're planning on heading out to some of the islands this weekend with Claire and Tim, good friends from university in Plymouth who are working in the bay.

We've managed to find a lovely house overlooking the bay for ten days during Dad and Sophie's wedding next month and it's going to be great to live on-shore for a change. We've been kept busy ashore organising Christmas and plans for the New Year, I've even started job-hunting, which has come as a bit of a surprise to the system after ten months in the tropics. It's keeping me busy and is something different to get my teeth into so it's not all bad.

In between times I'm taking the time to get off the boat and get my 'tramping' boots on and explore the area, which has many stunning walks and lovely people. I'm itching to get over to the west coast to ninety-mile beach and other straight, wide beaches with a prevailing onshore breeze...perfect for getting on the kite and mountain board.

One thing that struck me whilst walking around Paihia and Russell is that there is very little hype about Christmas, which is really refreshing as I've been told that the Christmas hype is already at least a month strong back in England and that it's enough to ruin the spirit. Here, however, it is the beginning of the summer holiday season and everywhere is warming up and most people seem to be concentrating on that rather than going Christmas crazy. Maybe it's just the difference between the Kiwis and the Pomes.

Missing you all and wish you were here.

Lots of love,

Tom xxx

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