As I type, the rain is beating down, gale force winds are expected later this morning and the temperature is hovering somewhere around the 10C mark. Just another day in Paradise.
Actually there have been a few things happening since I last wrote. As I recall, I mentioned that a number of boats had come into Napier seeking shelter. Well one of them was an Australian boat called "Ray of Sunshine" with an Aussie couple from Tweed Heads on board. They are about our age and have been cruising round Australia for the last 14 years. They had just had an eventful trip across the Tasman where they got knocked down a couple of times in a storm, suffered lots of damage and ended up getting blown back to Tasmania where they repaired the damage and then set out again. Full marks for persistence! They ended up in Napier tied up next to us and we got on really with them and have become good friends. We took them to Taupo one day and did all the touristy things like the Huka Falls (they were awestruck!), Craters of the Moon (amazed) etc then drove back over the Desert Road and the Taihape - Napier Road (which I think is known as the Gentle Annie and which we had never been on before). We did a small detour into Waiouru and tried to find our old house which we did eventually but not without some difficulty. The whole area where we lived has had all the houses removed and is now acres of parkland all except for ONE house which has been left standing in the middle of nowhere for some reason and believe it or not it is the very house that we lived in when we got married. Amazing or what!
Anyway, back to the story. The weather finally improved enough for them to get away and continue their trip up North and a couple of days later we heard from them on the radio that they were holed up in Gisborne waiting for the next wave of weather to pass. Having never been to Gisborne we decided to drive up there and have a look around which we did, meeting up with our new friends for lunch while we were there. Gisborne is a two and a half hour drive from Napier over some pretty spectacular, hilly country. Mainly farmland, both sheep and cattle (and lots of goats) but quite a lot of forest and native bush. Similar in some ways to the Rye Valley area near Dave and Bev.
Other than these little excursions we've been pottering around on the boat, finding places to store everything (not easy), fixing things that need fixing and changing things that need changing.
I guess most of you know that Angus Tait died last week. He had been ill with cancer for the last year and in hospital for the last couple of months. I flew down to Christchurch on Monday for the funeral where about 800 people attended (250 of us in the funeral chapel and the rest in the Aurora Centre where it was televised into). He was 88 and his death had been anticipated so it wasn't a particularly sad funeral and it was good to catch up with so many old friends and acquaintances even if it was only for a few hours. I stayed with our friends the Atkinsons near Mona Vale and flew back to Napier the next day.
Our friends Graeme and Sandra are due to leave Picton on their boat (Nutcase) in the next day or so and when they get to Napier will be working on their boat for a couple of weeks before we all head off north. Hopefully the weather will have improved somewhat by then.
