Sailing in New Zealand – Sailing with Saphir

19 days after our arrival we are leaving Whangarei to sail up to Tutukaka. At 8.30 in the morning together with three more boats we leave the town basin to be at the bridge at nine when the morning traffic is calmer so the bridge can open for us.

As we only have one sail up we make a quick stop, or more a few hours stop to get our sail up. Very happy to get help with that. We would not have managed that by our self. Thanks to our rigger Charles, his worker and the sailmaker the sails gets up. And of course the wind comes to make it more tricky.

The sails are in place and we head out and hoist the sails and steers to Tutukaka. We are in a bit hurry to get there before it is dark.

It was a rough sailing, with waves up to 3-4 meter. We even got one wave in from the side that soaked pore Edgar. This was a bit too much for a first day in the sea. We made it just when the sun was going down and it was really dark when we moored.

The entering was very narrow lots of waves and a small island to avoid, but there was good light marks on the way in.

We stayed in Tutukakas for a few days and waited for better weather again. It is not a big place but still they have four different good restaurants which we of course had to try. We had our best pizza here since ever.

In one place they had similar swordfish on the wall as we have on our wall back home in Sweden. This one had a much nicer fin so now we have to find someone that can make a new fin on our swordfish.

Saturday morning we have nice weather but still very cold so it’s time to put on our sailing trousers and warm jumpers before we leave. Not as warm as we had wished for yet. Yes it is winter here but 11 degrees brrr.

We have a great sailing up to Bay of Island which is the northeast we can get to be able to check out from New Zealand. It is a very cool Island with hole/tunnel that we pass when we enter the Bay of Island. It is a popular tourist attraction we notice. The Bay of Island is lovely with lots of great anchorage places. We stay at two different and enjoy the calm bays. The water looks so tempting to swim in but it is only 19 degrees in the water.

On a rainy day why not deal with the toilet… Changing the pump and now the front toilet is so much easier to flush. Well done darling!

After rain comes the sun and we head in to Opua and Bay of Island Marina. It looks very nice and we recognise Pahia on the way in. We were there in October with our friends when we travelled around for 10 days.

Moored and have grounds under our feet’s. This is really a Marina with all different businesses for things you need to the boat. A great laundromat place, new showers , recycling , a smaller grocery shop, one nice restaurant a fast-food place and the yacht club have also a restaurant. All in all okay for a day or two but quite boring after five days.

There is a walking trail along the coastline all the way in to Pahia which I walked on. I didn’t go all the way since once again I took a detour up to a lovely look out point. This time it was only 200 steps. There was a sign that I was told by some locals that I didn’t have to follow. It was no risk anymore… I was not the only not following the signs which feelt more comforting . The trail was a very nice but narrow and at some spots hard to meet anyone.

Since it is a bit far to Pahia from Opua which is the closest town and definitely more restaurants to choose from, we took a cab to have a change of scenery and food. We hade a great night with lovely food and ended it with a Guinness for Edgar and a yummy drink at Bad Habits.

Last days we prepared last things for the crossing like cleaning, fixing our toilet, baking, cooking and so on. You can guess how did what can’t you? And our bed for the crossing is also done!

Wednesday morning 22 of May is here and we check out at the custom to leave New Zealand and sail to Australia and Bundaberg. Unfortunately due to the winds and waves and 3 weeks delayed we are not going to Sydney. We are very sad for that but hope to get to Sydney somehow during our time in Australia.

We are sailing out of Bay of Island and enjoying the view and see a fantastic rainbow.

So know there will be no contact for at least 10 days but you can se us on our yb tracker where we are. You find it under meny on the top.

Hugs Eva

On the 15th of April we started our long flight back to New Zealand and Saphir. In the morning we got an email that the flight was one hour delayed and at the end we were 2 hours delayed due to the air room over Iran was closed we were told. This was our layover time in Doha that disappeared. We missed our connecting flight to Auckland by 10 min and next flight was next morning at 01.50 after 24 hours. Luckily there was one room left so we checked in at the hotel inside the airport and slept most of the time before we took the flight to Auckland. We have flown over lot of water from Doha to New Zealand and lots of it we will be sailing on when we sail to south Africa. Tiered but happy to arrived in Auckland. Only 1 1/2 hour before the car rental opens at 05.00.

You think it should not be any traffic at 5.30 in the morning but New Zealander are early birds. Luckily most traffic was on their way to Auckland so less traffic when we past Auckland. 2 1/2 hours drive ended up in 3 1/2 due to road work. Edgar is in a hurry and even if he tries he can’t drive 100 km/h as it is aloud. Too many curves and they can only be taken in 65 down to 25km/h. There are signs before every curve that tells you what speed to use.

We drive straight to the Marina to have a look on Saphir. She is still in indoors but will be moved out during the day. The painting of the hull looks great and the have put Saphir af Stockholm back, Nordia and the Saphir diamant on the side.

She looks strange without the mast.

The upcomings days we spent doing things on the boat for a few hours and exploring Whangarei area. Although on the longer walks I didn’t get Edgar with me. I had a plan to walk to Whangareis falls but ended up on Mount Pahrihaka. Which was halfway to the falls but also very much up. The walking tracks are very good and well taken care of and parts of them you have steps when it is to straight up I guess. I counted to 800 steps to the top and the totals hight of the mountain is 241m. My legs was a bit sore when I came up and was happy to rest while I enjoyed the view. On the way down I did see a tiny tiny waterfall.

We went to the falls the next day by car. Although Edgar didn’t want to walk down and have a look at the fall. To many steps down for his knees… hmmm

It is a bit frustrating when not much happens on the boat and things get delayed. Meanwhile we continue to drive around along the coast and found a very nice harbour in Tutukaka that we might visit on our sailing up along the coast. The knittings continues as well.

The mast is getting in place and we can go in to the water. Very happy for that since we already moved in to the boat. It is a bit uncomfortable/strange to live on the boat when it is not in the water. Although we can use the toilet and also cook but we have not been shopping so not much to work with. The last thing is to hang up the dinghy before we go in to the water. What a nice feeling we are floating and on our way in to town to do grocery shopping for the crossing. First we have two nights at Nikau Marina next to the boatyard since there was a bit more electricity and other things with the mast to fix. Lucky us there is a nice Greek restaurant in the harbour.

Still not all done but we decided to go in to the town basin so we can start doing some shopping and continue preparing the boat for our sailing. We have to wait for the high tie so we can go in and also get the bridge opened. I really like the shape of the opening part of the bridge. It is a giant fish hook.

The next morning our sails arrives but can’t be hoisted since the hydraulic needs to be fixed. We got the mainsail fixed so we don’t have to have battens in them any more, mended the torn and new UV covers.

Sailing is just a tine part of our journey. We spend a lot of time working on our patience with all this waiting and somehow it is hard starting doing things so I am glad I have my knitting and the blog even if I have hard time writing in it some times and sometimes I can go on writing a lot as this time. (At this moment I am waiting for my wash to be done at Opua Marina so a perfect time to write.)

Our wind indicator is getting changed. Glad it’s not me on the top of the mast. It works and we can finally se on the instruments the strength of the wind and where it comes from. Makes sailing a bit easier

After the rain the sun comes out and so does the rainbow. This time was not fun though…. We have a leak in the ceiling in our kitchen. Grrr more problems! Luckily it is an easy fix that we could do our self. It was leaking from our buttons in the cockpit. Just needed some silicone and we are all good for now, I hope. Talking about leaking we have had problems with our windows and hope know all is fixed after they been put back in with new isolation around them. They didn’t find ours so they use something else which they had to change immediately on a few after we hade used the water hose to see if they were leaking.

In Whangarei they have this eternity machine that shows the time. Very cool with all the metal balls that moves around and the cyclist.