Visit to Brisbane

As usual it's been a long time between blogs and although the last one was titled "mid winter blues" it's now the middle of October and still feels like mid winter and in fact, the last ten days have probably been worse than anything we had in the middle of winter with gales, heavy rain and even hail.  But I'm getting ahead of myself.  The big event of the last few months was our visit to Brisbane.

We left Tutukaka on 8 September for a long overdue visit to see the rest of the family.  Our flight left at around 6.30am so we left here at 1.00am and drove to Auckland for the early start. The flight was uneventful  with the airline service down at it's usual level of mediocrity although Brisbane airport seemed much friendlier than I remember on previous visits.  We were met at the airport by Rick looking a mere shadow of his former self having lost what looked to be quite a lot of weight. When we arrived at Kerrie and Rick's place we found Kerrie looking very trim as well and as it turned out that was the inspiration I needed to do something about my figure.

Rick and Kerrie

After Tutukaka the weather was great, warm and sunny around 25C although there were a few cooler days when I put jeans and a long sleeved shirt back on but all in all it was a big step up from Northland.

It was at the Mason's that I learned their new bodies had been acquired with a combination of healthy eating and exercise (both of which had been in short supply in my life in recent times) and before I knew it I had got sucked into the regime and was starting to watch the kilos drop off.  So far I've dropped a couple of clothes sizes but still have a long way to go.  Watch this space.

After a week with Kerrie and Rick we moved over to Ange and Zane's new house for a week with them and the boys.  Liam was doing a gardening project at day care and I was employed to help him transfer his gardening skills into his own place.

The week with the Knights went all to quickly and then it was back to the Mason's to look after their house for a week while they were on holiday in Vanuatu.  And a very nice, quiet, relaxing week it was too.  The weather wasn't great with lots of rain but still quite warm.  All very nice.

 Me relaxing on the Mason's patio.

After the Mason's returned from their holiday, Leigh , John and the girls arrived from Sydney for a few days and we moved back to the Knights place for the last week of our holiday.  By now we were getting good at packing and unpacking!  It was great to have the whole family together in one place for the first time in almost three years and as might be expected there were several family BBQ's and lots of photo ops.

A rare family photo of us all.

All six grandchildren.

James had lost interest by this time!

Ange and Zane (and ???)

John & Leigh (courtesy O'Dowd blog).

Chloe, Katie and Granddad.

James (am I cute or not?).

Liam

By now the weather was really nice again and it was back into shorts and T shirts and outdoor dining.

 Lunch at Woody Point Tavern.

And a few days before the end of the holiday Ange and James took us up to Maroochydore for a visit to the Sunshine Plaze.  On the way home we stopped of at Caloundra for a paddle.

James and Granddad at Caloundra.

Caloundra Beach

And all too soon it was all over and back to Tutukaka.  Well, I came back but Doreen stayed on for another ten days to help Ange with the boys as Zane had gone to NZ for a wedding and then on to Sydney on business.

Mid Winter Blues

We're now past the shortest day and well into winter which is not my favourite time on the boat to be perfectly honest. It's not that it's cold on board, in fact most of the time Doreen says I have it too hot, it's more that I can't do the things I really enjoy like fishing as often as I would like. This year hasn't been quite as bad I guess...the weather hasn't really been too bad and I've had plenty to occupy me as Chairman of the marina management board. There are a lot of changes going on like the marina replacement and staff changes and it's involved quite a lot of time and effort (which I am enjoying).

The photo above has absolutely nothing to do with mid winter, it was taken at Doreen's 65th birthday dinner at the Pizzeria but I've only just got the photos off of Nigel's phone.

At the moment I have the boat all to myself again as Doreen is staying with Erin in Whangarei for a few days while Erin does some house / dog sitting for friends.

And next week Doreen will have the boat to herself as I'm flying down to Picton with a friend to help him bring a 60 foot launch up to Auckland for its new owner. If the weather allows I think we will do the trip without any stops which will take about four days so it's not exactly a fun cruise. I'm quite looking forward to it all the same. More birthday pics.

There isn't really much other news, I'm only posting this because I'm bored really! A few of us got together and watched the All Blacks thrash the Springboks last night...great game, bring on the Wallabies!

Till next time - JW

Visit to Sydney

Since John and Leigh returned to Australia from the UK we have been keen to catch up with them and see their new home in French's Forest, Sydney. With Leigh's 40th birthday looming up on the 13th July it seemed to be the best time to go over. John W. rang John O' to check that it would be all right - which it was (hoping that their furniture had arrived on schedule from the UK) so I booked a plane fare. John felt that he could not go at this time because the Trust was in the last stages of interviewing and selecting a new Manager who would be started in the new job almost straight away. From John O' we learnt that Kerrie and Leigh and Sophie would be coming down from Sydney to surprise Leigh as well so we contrived to keep my arrival to ourselves and hopefully surprise everyone. This we managed to do. Chloe and and Katie were speechless to see me wander over to their table with their father - they thought they were only at the airport for something to eat! Then when we arrived at the house it was Leigh's turn - oh, it is great fun making surprises!

The next day (Sat.12th) John had booked us in at the hairdressers in the morning so he could get off on his own to collect Kerrie and Angela and Sophie. When Leigh and I arrived at the hotel to meet John as arranged - there he was with Kerrie and Leigh all booking in. More stunned Leigh! We had a wonderful lunch all together at Darling Harbour then I taxied home leaving the young things to dress up and party that evening. I had a very enjoyable evening with John's sister Kerrie who was the official babysitter. Sunday (Leigh's actual birthday) arrived and when John, Leigh Kerrie and Angela arrived after checking out of the hotel we had the opening of presents time and then we all went to lunch at a favourite pub venue. John had to take Kerrie, Angela and Sophie to the airport from there. It had been wonderful being all together after so long. All the females of three generations were pressent that weekend. During the week Chloe and Katie had to go to school and Leigh and John kept me busy looking around their new patch. They are in a lovely part of Sydney, so close to nice beaches and good shopping and transport. There really is a forest in French's Forest and it looks great. I stayed for another weekend and all too soo it was Monday again and time to go home.
A big thank you to John O' for the what must have been the nerve-racking planning orchestrating all our arrivals and for your wonderful generosity.

May already

I'm all Facebooked, BEBO'ed and Twittered out at the moment and with everybody updating their blogs recently the burden of guilt has become too great and I thought I'd better get on and do ours. I must say I do enjoy reading them all and it is a good way to keep in touch.

Our long, hot summer is finally drawing to a close with everyone saying it's the best summer for
as long as they can remember. We've had a couple of weeks of strong winds and a bit of rain but it's still warm with overnight temperatures not getting below about 17C and around 22C in the daytime. I have moved out of shorts and into jeans but some days feel I could change back.

What have we been doing for the last several months? Well, I've been fishing whenever the weather has been good and we've actually had a couple of quite good hauls with my best for the summer being a 15lb snapper.


Ken ,of course had to go one better with a 22lb snapper.


And an 80lb Hapuka.


Doreen, meantime has been heavily involved with her hobby, genealogy. A friend of hers organised a genealogy day at Matapouri, the next bay along from Tutukaka at Easter and from where a number of her Clements ancestors come from.




She had her own table to display her Clements family research and ended up meeting a number of cousins several times removed and took several orders for copies of the books she has been compiling.


And I guess the big news of the last four months is that we both hit 65 and are now getting some of our taxes back via the Old Age Pension or more politically correctly, the NZ Superannuation Scheme. For Doreen's birthday we met with 20 or so friends and had dinner at the Pizzeria just along from the boat and for mine, Doreen cooked a very nice roast dinner for the same friends which we had on Nigel and Fred's boat. Unfortunately, we don't seem to have any photos of Doreen's party and the only one of mine isn't that flash! We both did very well for presents with Doreen scoring a new laptop and me a very nice (and expensive) new fishing reel.


There haven't been any major projects on the boat lately, just a lot of pottering and tinkering with odd jobs and routine maintenance. We had a bit of drama last week when Doreen pumped the entire contents of the washing machine all over the bed in the aft cabin instead of down the sink but apart from that all has been pretty much plain sailing.

So now with winter approaching, the heavy duvets are on the bed, the fleecy PJ's are on standby, a new heater has been installed in the saloon and we're ready to hunker down until spring. Who knows, we may even find time to post another blog before the swallows come back to Tutukaka.

Getting Back To Normal

Whatever normal is, that is to say.
Here we are past the middle of February already and it feels like we have only just got back to Tutukaka It has taken us quite a long time to settle down and get into projects again. This may have something to do with the weather which has been HOT with awful humidity. It is best to get the walks done early in the morning now. Today it rained - that slow misty drizzly rain. It looks so refreshing but it is only increasing the humidity.
The schoolchildren are back at school but the holiday-makers are still around. the marina is quite full and there are usually campervans in the carpark. The local camping ground seems to be still busy, too.

The anchor winch was hard to get out ( see last posting "Bay of Islands" ) and there is now a hole in the nicely refurbished wood in the forward cabin - but that too is fixable. The winch went to Auckland and there were parts that had to be ordered for it. So, many dollars later, it was put back but failed to work so it had to go back to Auckland. We now have it back and reinstalled and it is working perfectly. The person who fixed said it will be good for another 25 years now - that's good - it will be nice if we are still doing this when we are ninety.

John is being kept busy with his new responsibilty as Chairman of the Tutukaka Marina Trust.

I have been out walking since we have been back in order to do some "damage-control" after all the holiday festivities. I go early before the sun gets much of a chance and I usually walk the ridge above the marina. The views are great and the sea never seems to be the same. I took my new camera (Christmas present from Santa) with me last week and here are a couple of photos near the end of the ridge.


Here are some boats coming through the Tutukaka heads. Yes, it is a fairly narrow passage and there are days when the sea is too rough. Plenty of "bricks!" It is too dangerous to go on the other side.

That's the Hen andChicks out on the horizon.









And this is slightly further along looking across the entrance. The oblong building is part of the "Pacific Rendezvous" holiday motels where Zane and Ange and Liam stayed for part of their time here the year before last.

In the distance that almost conical shape is Bream Head which marks the entrance to Whangarei.








The weekend before last was a busy time for Tutukaka. There was a big game fishing competition on all weekend and on the Sunday night the Village Green in front of the hotel was the venue for the "Wine Tour" concert featuring Dave Dobbyn and Tim Finn on stage together, plus others who seem to be famous but I didn't recognise the names. I was a bit bemused because we are a marina and not a vineyard - but there are a couple of vineyards somewhere in Tutukaka so I suppose that made it all right.
There was no point trying to sleep until the concert was over so we all sat on our boats listening. They had to finish by 10pm. Ticket-holders were admitted into a closed off area which was all set up with stands providing all sorts of meals and bar facilities so it was no small job getting it set up.


Somebody caught a marlin. It did not count because it was Ladies' Day and they didn't even have a female on board. However, it is here to be weighed and photographed with the angler.

These fish usually go away to be smoked which seems to be the preferred way to eat them. We have tried it - it is quite delicious.








Talking about fishing - John and Ken go out as often as possible usually taking other guests on Ken's boat. They have not caught any marlin or anything like that (yet) but now and then they do get a large one.

Here Ken is struggling to hold this Hapuka. It was part fileted and part cut into steaks after the photo was taken


Look at those big chunky steaks.

All this was watched by the other residents of E pier and after all the cleaning up was done Ken very generously offered it to feed everyone for dinner. After a mad flurry by all the women to provide salads etc we all sat out on the pier where the fish was cooked on the back of "Seaforth II" and then enjoyed the communal dinner. The photo is taken from the deck of "Irrepressible."

Bay of Islands

After our time in Whangaroa Harbour we pointed the good ship "Irrepressible" southward intending to go back to Tutukaka but stopped for a night in Whangamumu where we stayed on the way up. We knew that our Tutukaka 'E' Street neighbors and friends were there and that Ken was going back the next day as was our intention. However, came the morning Ken got away and 'Fred and Nigel were all set to go up to the Bay of Islands and were quite persuasive about why we should go too. Every time we had been there in the past the weather was not the best so we had decided that we did not like the Bay of Islands but ended up agreeing to give it another chance. So glad we did because the weather was lovely all the time we were there and it made all the difference. The whole Bay was full of boats but apart from the hoons that sped around everywhere making rough wake for everyone else and endangering people trying to dive or swim or kayak it was all very tranquil and pretty.

And would you know it - lots of boats from E-Street there so it was sort of home away from home.
We gathered most nights on Nigel and Fred's boat "Seaforth II" because it is the biggest (see photo). One evening there were about 15 of us gathered and we ended up having a communal BBQ dinner (mostly sausages and bread with tomato sauce!) and then nobody wanted to go back to their own boats. A BeeJees video went on and so the evening turned into a dance party. I felt a bit sorry for 'Fred and Nigel but on reflection I think they love to be the hosts of a successful gathering.
We got together again on another night because somebody
had a birthday and the spouse had cooked a cake and wanted everyone to be there.

We went into Russell a couple of times. In colonial days it was dubbed "The Hell-hole of the Pacific" and was not a safe place to be in but now it is a very charming and picturesque seaside village. There are a couple of 4-Square supermarkets there so we were able to keep up supplies of fresh goods. There is also a very good museum and lots of arty sort of shops, lovely old colonial buildings and good eating venues - not to mention the coffee.

The annual Tall Ships Race took place while we were there which is rather fun. It is a sail boat race and it attracts really old boats and interesting boats. This event is always followed at the end of the day with a "Hangi" in the next cove. Sandra and Graham usually go to that.

Erin and Ivan sailed down from Whangaroa for a couple of nights before we left and we cooked a roast on our boat one night for them and Sandra and Graham.

Out anchor winch developed odd noises which caused us to make the decision to head off home. We were afraid that using it any more than we had to might make whatever was wrong worse and we did not fancy hauling up the anchor by hand if it failed altogether. 'Fred and Nigel decided to head homeward too and we risked using the anchor again in Whangamumu (hoping the winch would get it up one more time) for another night.
The offending winch did get the anchor up all right the next morning ( but the noise was a worry!) and we got back to Tutukaka at a good time to tidy up the boat a bit and do some washing.
The electric appliances came out and the whistleing kettle and camp toast maker went away until next time. We collected our mail and plugged in the TV and now we are caught up with the rest of world.

CHRISTMAS / NEW YEAR 2009 - 2010

Cooling off on the public wharf after the shopping trip in Kaeo.

We went north again this Christmas in the boat in order to spend Christmas with Erin and Ivan who are on their boat in Whangaroa - including Tom who was staying with them.
We took the trip over 2 days dropping the anchor in a lovely little bay called Whangamumu which is just south of Cape Brett and is a favourite with boaties who want to break their journeys. Next day we went round Cape Brett and passed the entrance to the Bay of Islands and headed straight for Whangaroa via the Cavalli Islands. The wind came up from a perfect direction and we had a great sail and arrived ahead of schedule.
We had a great time with Erin and Ivan - didn't do much except eat and drink interspersed with fishing , sailing and wandering around ashore. Erin and Ivan have got Dad's old flounder net and a lot flounder were caught and frozen for Tom to take back with him when he left and we were able to freeze some to take home as well. Yum.

We took a few trips into the township ( a pub, a motel, a small marina, a game-fishing club, and a small store where emergemcy stuff MIGHT be available) . One time we left Ivan & Erin's boat on the public wharf and we went into Kaeo in their car to do some more serious shopping at the 4-Square store there. Normally Ivan and Erin like to go into Kerikeri once a month to stock up at the bigger supermarkets

When there is a dog on board these shore trips need to happen reasonably often. This is Maisie - Tom's mates bought her for him after his lovely big black cat died.

Terry and Cathie drove up from
Auckland and stayed with Erin and Ivan. We rafted both the boats together on New Year's Eve so we could move back and forwards easily
without having to worry about using the dingy.

Here we all are inside "Masada" with
the camera set to take us all. Tom had left by this time.

We all parted company after New Year. Terry and Cathie drove back to Auckland and we headed off south towards Tutukaka.