Author: Pam
As New Zealand came into sight our excitement was probably as high as the beautiful mountains along the coast. We spent the night on vigilant watches since we were back in boat traffic territory. We were abruptly reminded about the big guys yesterday while we were hove to in the afternoon a cargo ship came across our stern much closer than I am comfortable with, but it became clear they were coming by to check out what on earth the little sailboat was up to. They crossed the stern and kept on their merry way on our port side, but I must say it was quite a surprise when I stuck my head out of the companionway to see this huge ship close enough to see clearly without a monocular, yikes! In the late afternoon yesterday as we were passing the Bay of Islands we heard a boat call our friends Mary and David on Gavia on the VHF. I tried to call them and was able to have a short conversation before we lost contact. It was fun to touch base and made it even more real that we were almost there. During the night was absolutely freezing and I found myself piled under fleece and pillows when I woke up. I laid down wearing a thick fleece under a fleece blanket and while Scott was on watch he had piled his sleeping bag and pillows on top of me and I was still freezing. I could not get my feet warm, I hope I am not going to freeze to death in New Zealand.
Is it possible the sun comes up here at 0430? Well only if you set your watch back an hour when yon really don’t need to. We finally got the local time sorted out and discovered it was the same time as Tonga, the time we had been keeping. Since we made this error we missed checking in on Russell Radio, a net we added mid passage. We did have it together to check in on “The Rag of the Air” and had the opportunity to thank Jim (the Net Controller) for his support to yachts while at sea. At 0700 we were 13 nm from Whangarei Harbor entrance and sailing at an average of 5.5 knots. Life was looking good. At 0900 Scott contacted Whangarei Harbor Radio and alerted the officials we were approaching the harbor. The radio operator contacted the Coast Guard on our behalf and within an hour they made contact with us on Channel 64 to arrange to meet us at the harbor entrance, to provide assistance down the 13 mile and very narrow river into Whangarei. The morning was beautiful, sunny and working on being reasonably warm. It was the best sailing on the entire passage, except for the evening we left Tonga and we were out in the cockpit for the first time in 15 days. With a few miles to go and now sailing at 3.9 knots we were met by the brightest orange inflatable boat I have ever seen. On board were two Coast Guard volunteers who are members of the rescue team and as they zoomed up beside us we thought we had died and gone to heaven with the orange boat of the century to follow. In other words even we could see it. From the beginning they were awesome, they let us continue to enjoy our sail into NZ without feeling like we were keeping them from watching their favorite Rugby team or a mid morning nap. They hovered around and once in awhile made a circle around us or headed off to check the next compass heading. We continued to sail along under blue skies enjoying the breathtaking NZ landscape. We sailed most of the way into the channel and even made it past the sandbar without getting stuck. They were not about to let that happen, but if it had their nifty boat with the twin 35 horse power engines could have pulled us off with less effort than a sneeze. Once the river began to get narrower they attached a tow rope and our speed picked up to between 7 and 8 knots. We were flying down the river with both sails still up. As we were nearing the customs dock where they were to deposit us, we dropped the sails and they side tied and brought us right up to the dock. We found dropping the sails under tow to be a bit challenging. Well actually all went well with the main, but the jib was difficult to furl properly.
At 1430 we couldn’t have been more excited to throw a line to Conrad (another member of the Coast Guard team) and be tied to a dock in what felt like the middle of nowhere. I assumed we were going to a dock in town to meet the customs officials, but instead we found ourselves tied to a pier that cars can drive on. It wasn’t beautiful by any means, but it was solid and we were almost to our temporary New Zealand home. As soon as we were docked a flurry of activity happened all at once. A small fishing boat approached and the next thing we knew Rachel and Frank from Starship were crawling over the Coast Guard boat to welcome us to Whangarei. It was nice to see familiar faces. They were dropped off by Ray the owner of Riverside Drive Marina (our ultimate destination) whom we had met in Papeete, Tahiti. Since we had not been boarded by Customs yet, Rachel and Frank had to wait on the pier while we went through the formal check-in process.
We said goodbye to Graeme (also goes by Grumpy) and John, our wonderful guides with hopes to see them again while we are in NZ. We came by our Coast Guard assistance and good fortune thanks to Frank Stead, Nick on the yacht Dolphin’s father. We met him in Tonga and since he lives in Auckland he offered to help arrange for someone to meet us, so while arrival into foreign ports is usually our most stressful element our arrival to NZ was trouble free following in the wake of the big orange low vision friendly blow-up escort.
The Customs and Quarantine Officers boarded Tournesol with their clipboards and big black box and we were ready for them to take away all of the forbidden food and other items we have been hearing you can’t bring into the country. The check-in process lasted about forty five minutes and was a piece of cake. They were really nice and in the end they only took a few onions, garlic and the trash. They were not interested in the shells we have collected, baskets we bought in Tonga, wood carvings (unless they have bark) or the microwave popcorn. After all we had heard from other cruisers, it seems their biggest worry is fresh meat on the bone, veggies, fruit, popcorn kernels and honey. They don’t want to introduce any foreign bugs to the environment in NZ. The Quarantine Officer was appalled to learn I don’t like honey, it is a really big part of most New Zealander’s diet.
As soon as they crawled back on the pier with our trash in hand and the onions in the mysterious black box, a young gal from a local radio station came aboard and interviewed us. After she left Mike from “The Advocate”, the local newspaper came aboard with Rachel and Frank and asked if he could interview us as we made our way to the marina, about a 20 minute drive. Since we had officially reached the port of Whangarei NZ, we could now allow sighted visitors to ride along with us the last few miles to our marina. Before we pulled away from the pier, a photographer took a picture for the newspaper, as I said it was a flurry of activity. Pulling away proved to be slightly challenging as the wind was pushing us up against the pier. Once we were free we headed further down the river to the Marina with Frank’s help as navigator. Starship is docked at the same marina and they had made the trip two days ago. Ok, so here it is, we are finally in New Zealand and all has gone great all day and thanks to the Coast Guard we didn’t have to use the engine. We only have to go a few miles and we can finally get all of Tournesol’s engine woes fixed, but not without one more bit of drama. About half way to the marina the engine started to overheat AGAIN! Just to paint the picture we are only a few miles from our FINAL destination, we have a reporter on the boat who isn’t really all that keen on boats and definitely not experienced and we are in the middle of a very shallow channel with nowhere to go but onto a sandbar if we drift. Our options were pretty slim and we were just about to drop the anchor while we consider them, when a very large fishing boat came close enough for us to ask him for a tow. In a matter of moments we were now side tied for the second time today to Melodeon and the Captain, Greg was the epitome of the Kiwi phrase “no worries”. You would have thought he tied small sailboats to the side of his boat every day, he was so calm cool and collected about it. He even offered to let us stay side tied to him once he docked until we could move the boat, he didn’t think he could drop us off quite where we needed to go. In the end he did figure out how to get us close and we bade our thanks again to another unbelievably nice Kiwi. In the hubbub he had also offered us some fresh fish, but there was no time to make the transfer with lines being thrown and the threat of him getting stuck. At 1700, two and a half hours after arriving at the customs dock we were finally 100 feet from Tournesol’s slip at the marina, we were left with figuring out how to get her around the corner. Scott finished up the interview with the now quite overwhelmed reporter, he definitely got more than he bargained for. We enlisted the help from our friends on Gosi and Windsong and with people strategically placed around the dock and on the boats we had to move around, Scott turned the engine on one last time to crawl around the corner. Phew, we made it!!!
Arriving in New Zealand was one of the biggest adrenaline rushes I have ever experienced, I am not sure when I will come down. I have been trying to imagine and compare the feeling in advance to the feeling when we left San Francisco and I have decided the bottom line is there is no comparison. After the boat was securely tied up Rachel and Frank whisked us aboard Starship for a champagne toast. We had been planning this moment since we were in the middle of the crossing. Frank made a quick trip to Stumpy’s to get Fish & Chips for us since of course in all of our excitement we had not eaten all day. We spent the rest of the evening saying to one another “we are in New Zealand” or “can you believe we are in New Zealand” or just “Wow”! It is a landfall I will never forget and is probably up there with the day we sail under the Golden Gate Bridge.
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