Sailing and Hawke's Bay

I know, I know, we have been slacking on the posting.  This has been a common theme since arriving in New Zealand.  We have been busy but most things are boring life situations (i.e. groceries, the local park, the Auckland Night Market).

On labour weekend (end of October) we took part in the Coastal Classic (http://www.coastalclassic.co.nz/).  This is a sailing race from Auckland to Russel in the Bay of Island.  We were on a Ross 930 which is an amazing 'little' 30' boat.  Our captain was fantastic and safely got us there and back.  I really wanted to take some amazing pictures but I learned a very valuable lesson: When you see amazing pictures of sailing races, they are not taken by other boats in the race.  The people on the other boats are crazy busy the entire time.

We arrived safely in Russell and are sailing the race flag.

The boats in this race were amazing.  Massive racing yachts (one from Hong Kong), tiny little ones, crazy catamarans and trimarans, everything.  You should have seen the start, countless boats with spinnakers flying silently crossing the line.  Bright colours everywhere.  It was a beautiful sight.  Absolutely beautiful.

We had a few unfortunate events which slowed our time down.  The funniest part of the race was when we had been nice and calm for a while so Chris went below deck to use the washroom.  As this was occuring, the Brazilians (the other two crewman) and I were watching one of the large boats lose control and slowly recover without capsizing.  We then watched the same thing happen to the next boat (one our size).  If the three of us had been thinking, we would have told the captain there was a massive gust of wind coming.  This didn't occur to us.  At this point Chris has finally stripped the five layers of pants we is wearing off and is about to pee.  Well did that gust of wind hit.  And the boat went. Boom and part of the main in the water.  Massive chaos, people sliding everywhere to keep it safe.  Captain yelling commands (he never yells), and Chris with his pants down flying across the cabin.  He showed up on Deck with his pants all pulled up missing his lifejacket and coats just to help us regain control.  Poor guy didn't get the chance to pee for another few hours.

We saw dolphins!!!!! They passed across the bow in the evening.  It was fantastic, our first NZ dolphins!!! The winds were high and the waves were large, I have never sailed in anything like it. 

We arrived at 3:30am making it a 17.5 hour race.  It was a new moon so sailing at night was weird.  It was so dark we hit an island.  Bird Island.  Thankfully no damage beyond a bruised shin where I fell into the cabin.

I will point out here Team Vodafone (a massive racing trimaran) set a record and finished the race in 5.5 hours.  CRAZY FAST!!!!

Russell is a beautiful little town.  It was absolutely packed with sailors.  I would like to say we enjoyed the town and really explored it.  We ate, we went for a ten minute hike before we absolutely ran out of energy and then we slept for a few hours on  the beach.  I heard an elderly couple telling each other that young people don't appreciate a beautiful day like that.  They couldn't believe we were sleeping through it.  I almost mentioned that we had been sailing until 3:30am that morning and were leaving for Auckland again at 9pm, but I thought I may as well let them have their moment.  Plus, I was far too tired to move.

We headed back to Auckland at 9pm and arrived at 8:30pm on Sunday night.  A 23.5 hour sail.  Neil and I traded off steering until the wind began to be a constant 25 knots with gusts up to 35 knots.  I was almost pooping myself.  We did have a pod of dolphins turn up near Auckland.  They raced the boat for a while and made me forget how scared I was.  Our captain was so good, and the boat was amazing.  They weren't even flinching.

As a thank you we bought him a litre of Mount Gay rum.  And before we even started the race, I dropped it over the stern.  Well it is still below the dock.  We bought him another in Russell.  I guess it was one for the boat and one for the captain.

The race was amazing, I might have sworn off every sailing again, but that lasted all of that evening.  I love it: the wind, the waves and the water.

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We have now visited Napier in Hawke's Bay! Chris' colleague is from there so we were able to drive down with her and her boyfriend.  Her family was amazing and let us stay with them.

We climbed Te Mata Peak which is a stunning walk near her house. The view from the top was amazing and the hike was worth it.  This country is breath taking.  People say the North Island isn't breath taking, but I think they don't open their eyes.









The next day we went to Cape Kidnappers to visit a Gannet colony.  Turns out there are three colonies there.  The cape is named after Captain Cook landed their and one of his men was kidnapped.  They got him back but the cape kept the name. 



The fishing club does not have a great boat ramp so they launch the boats tied to the trailers and they motor out, anchor the trailer and head out fishing.

Boat trailers floating waiting for the boats to come back.

We took a tractor ride out to the gannets.  Our driver was amazing and taught us all about the layers of the rocks.  He pointed out earthquake fault lines and showed us samples of each layer.

Earthquake risen sedimentary rock!

Earthquake fault line!!! This one has an 11m vertical motion.

The tractor ride along the beach at low tide.

The gannets were amazing!!! The chicks are slightly late this year so they weren't there yet but the adults were absolutely beautiful.  I don't know what I was thinking but I didn't realise how terrible the colony would smell.  I am not the brightest bulb in the drawer.  The gannets can only take off and land into the wind.  This means when they slow down to land they just kind of fall out of the sky.  Made for some interesting crashes.

Check out the egg!!!!

Chris took some amazing photos.  



















The trip was amazing, and then it got better!!!!

We saw wild Oras feeding along the coast on the way home.  They were herding sting rays into the shallows.  You will have to zoom a little in the photos but it was AMAZING!!! (and crazy rare in Hawke's Bay to see Orcas)











Well, off to bed.  We miss you all.  Looking forward to our next Skypes.  Please keep in touch and stop by if you are ever in town.

Love,
Chelsea
xoxoxo

Happy Thanksgiving!

Hello all,

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!!!

We wanted to wish you all a happy Thanksgiving and hope you are having a wonderful time.  We brought Thanksgiving to NZ with us and had friends over for dinner last night.  The food might have been different but there was still too much of it so traditions held true!

I hope all is well at home.  Wishing we were all together to celebrate!

Love,
Chelsea
xoxoxo

Okahune, Ruapehu and Steampunk!!

Hello all,

Sorry for the lack of updates.  We have been spending our time at home as the early nightfall and daily rain has given us an excuse to stay indoors.  However we have done a wee bit of exploring since our last post.

Winter is wrapping up and September 1st (the first day of spring) is coming! Although it rains daily, the sun is always out.  This results in multiple daily rainbows.  We see more rainbows on the way to work every morning than we did in a year back home.  They add a beautiful touch to the continual dampness that has engulfed our house.

A few weeks ago we were invited with some work friends down to Okahune (a ski town to the south of Ruapehu) for a ski weekend.  Although neither of us has gone downhill skiing in years we couldn't pass up the opportunity to see some wonderful NZ countryside.  So off we went excited to see snow (it is winter after all) and maybe try out the bunny hill.  Not many people can say they have skied on an active volcano.  (Most volcanos in NZ are active, but I have recently looked into it and I feel there is nothing to worry about.)

When we arrived this was our view of the mountain:

Shame it was covered in clouds and we never got to see it. People keep telling me it is there (and we did drive up something big to get to the parking lot for the closed ski hill) so I guess I will have to keep trying.  The weather unfortunately took a turn for the worse and the snow melted, the ski hill closed due to the lack of visibility and horizontal ice/rain.  But what do you do when that happens? Start drinking at 10am and continue the rest of the day!

In a strange twist of fate it turns out the last time I was in Okahune (with my wonderful father ten years ago now) the weather was the same and we didn't see the mountain then either.  I got to go to the same restaurant, see the same clouds and feel the same rain.  Although I have gotten older, it is nice to know some things will never change. Crazy feeling of deja va all weekend!

Additional bright side to the terrible weather: I was Sober D for the group and got the chance to drive a Subaru Legacy with a twin turbo engine!!! No stalling!!! Chris was a jealous boy (or at least that is what I tell myself)!!!

On the way back north to Auckland we squeezed in some sight seeing.  Lake Taupo was beautiful.

Fun fact about Lake Taupo and the surrounding region: 

This used to be a massive volcano which erupted and collapsed into a caldera.  A caldera is a incredibly large crater formed by the collapse of the giant magma chamber.  This entire region is in fact a super volcano! The eruption which formed this caldera was the largest eruption in the Earth's past 70,000 years.

Check out the pumice (white floating volcanic rock) in the foreground!

As we left Taupo we stopped by Huka Falls:

This is a fast flowing river which goes through a little canyon before bursting out at the falls.  Due to the heavy rainfall over the weekend the torrent was fantastic. This is truly my favourite colour blue.

Heading back towards Auckland sent us through Rotorua.  This is a region full of geysers, steam vents and volcanic activity.  The smell as you drive in hits you like a wall of farts and the sight of the steam rising through the forest and fields was something else.  We would see farm fields nicely cut around a little clump of trees and steam rising from the middle.  It is as though this amazing natural formation is an annoyance to the farmer.  We stopped by a geyser area to check it out but refused to pay $33 each to see a natural phenomenon.  Therefore we checked out some vents beside the parking lot and hit the road again.  We will certainly be back and will be able to take more time to explore the area.  This is far too interesting a region to explore in 30 minutes.  This is definitely a future weekend getaway for us.

This is the best picture of the weekend in my opinion:

You can see the sulpher, the steam action and the raw beauty of nature.  Just perfect. (Plus I took it, so I am proud.)

Thus concluded our weekend away.  We had a great time making new friends and exploring a new part of New Zealand.  We saw wild horses, volcanic steam vents, beautiful forests and got to spend time with friends.  Although no skiing, a fantastic weekend none the less.

Before I leave you again I have decided to add some quick pictures from the Steampunk Ball hosted by our employer.  We decided to go full costume and we rocked the look!

Official photo from the ball

 We took the ferry into town (wickedly awesome) and only had a few people give us crazy looks...bonus!

We weren't able to get too many photos at the ball (and before hand was too crazy with the preparation) so we managed to get a decent one after getting home.  I have to say Chris was looking pretty smashing in his suit and hat, he was the best dressed at his table.

End of a lovely evening!

Picture taken before costume was 100% finished.  The coat took me 3 straight weeks but it was worth every minute when the CEO told me I could be up for best dressed! My table won best dressed team, he was right!

We are enjoying life on the other side of the world (and are certainly making the most of what this part of the world has to offer) but we definitely miss our family and friends at home.  We hope all of you are well and enjoying the tail end of the summer.  Please have a shot of real maple syrup for me.

Today I noticed Daffodils blooming and it made me think of home in the spring.  These backwards seasons are hard to wrap your head around.

Thank you for the birthday wishes! Chris took me out for fish and chips (we pretended we were at Mackies) followed by a surprise mystery location.  He took me to a wonderful magical chocolate place and treated me to the richest hot chocolate I have ever had.  It has hot chocolate made of melted chocolate inside what was likely chocolate pudding with what was likely chunks of chocolate.  I still can't figure out how it stayed liquid enough to drink.  Chris had a Mocha and we split the following dish:

We were both on such a chocolate high that we were shaking the whole drive home.  It was intense! Such a wonderful treat.  It even succeeded to put me off chocolate for a week and a half.  Not sure if Chris has eaten it since.

Remember to give us a shout as often has you can, and if you are ever in NZ you have a place to stay.

Love to all,
Chelsea
xoxo

Waiheke, Tawharanui Park and Coromandel

Hello again from New Zealand. It has been a while since anything was posted but because we live here, there is no sense in posting all of our daily routine....just the exciting stuff.

First up, Waiheke:

We decided to go to Waiheke for the annual Jazz festival. Waiheke is an island just off the coast of Auckland (a 40 min ferry ride). The jazz festival was great, lots of mixed styles of jazz and one of the additional benefits of Waiheke is the wine. Waiheke is a beautiful island with plenty of wineries (I think we counted 40-45 on the map). Unfortunately it rained off and on that day but we did get a few pictures. Before we attended the music venues, we went to a winery about a 10 min walk up from the ferry port. It was the most scenic vineyard I have been to, check out the pictures:

Tawharanui Park:

This is located about an hour and a half north of Auckland from where we live. It was the first time we crossed the bridge to the North Shore and looking at the center of town from the bridge was really cool. You could see the harbour and all of the sail boats with the tall buildings as a background and the tops of the volcanoes spread throughout the city.

Tawharanui is an open sanctuary. There are gates at the entrance to protect the native wildlife from unnatural predators. As you drive up to the gates, they open and you are to make sure they close behind you. As soon as you enter, you can see the cleanliness of the sanctuary and it is quite amazing. The sanctuary is set up to protect the already existing forests and wetlands and also restore them. It also serves as a place for the re-introduction of threatened species; as well as the monitoring of animals and plants. It is nice that such a place allows the public to see it and we thoroughly enjoyed hiking the trails and beach paths. At one point we both commented on how it felt like we were in the movie Jurassic park, as the setting was very similar....with exception of the chunk of time that the little kids behind us hiking with their parents were screaming. Although, maybe if those kids were in the movie, the dinosaurs wouldn't have eaten anyone.

Here are some pictures of our day there, and a brief description:

Little Black Shag

Still the Little Black Shag

Song Thrush

Tui

Bell Bird (When we heard the name of this bird from a fellow bird watching couple we thought they said Bill Bird)

North Island Robin (a rare sight!)

A hungry Tui

Coromandel:

We decided to go to the Coromandel peninsula for a long weekend. We left around lunch on the Saturday and made it to Whitianga (pronounced Phitianga) around 3:00 pm. Our motel was amazing, and right on the water. The rest of the day we walked around the small town and settled at an outdoor
restaurant along the waterfront that had wood oven pizza and a nice little bar. It was a nice way to unwind.

Just outside the hotel

View from the living room window of the hotel

The next day we road our bikes to the fairy. Whitianga sits in the middle of the horseshoe that makes up Mercury Bay. Right beside the town, there is a river that leads all the boats in to the town harbour. You can cross this river to the other side (called ferry landing) and there is a scenic reserve called Shakespeare Cliff. It's a great spot to see Mercury Bay, where Captain James Cook sailed into in the 1700's. It was the first time we have used the bikes to explore somewhere other than Auckland and it was a perfect day.

We then decided to ride back as we wanted to get to Coromandel where the Coromandel Smoking company that everyone at work was mentioning is located. We took the ferry back to Whitianga and drove to Coromandel (about a 55 min drive over/around the mountains). The Smoking Company smokes just about every type of fish you can think of. As soon as you enter the store, you can smell the smoke and your mouth waters. We bought some muscles, scallops, tuna and a variety pack of many different types of fish. It was delicious!!!

Then we met up with Chelsea's work friend who was at Hot Water Beach with a few of his friends. Hot Water Beach was closer to Whitianga so we drove back and then made our way to the beach. It is where an underground river of hot water flows from the earth to surface in the Pacific Ocean (essentially a geothermal spa). You have to go at low tide or else there is no way you would be able to sit on this part of the beach. The idea is that you bring a shovel, dig your own hole, and relax in a hot water spa. We made a few holes that were quite cold, then we took over someone elses hole that was warm, then these people who had been sitting there not saying anything for a while left and we decided to sit in there hole. Turns out they were sitting in the hottest water around and enjoying the view of everyone else being cold. When you find the right spot, the water is very hot and sometimes you need to get the cold ocean water to cool the hole down. It was a fun time and something that is worth seeing when you come to visit.

The next day (my favourite day of the weekend) was the biking day. We checked out of the motel around 10 and took the ferry back over to ferry landing. From here we rode to Cathedral Cove. It was about a 20 km ride there over many large hills (MOUNTAINS as Chelsea calls them). The road was not too busy so it was quite a peaceful ride.

 When we arrived at the Cathedral Cove parking lot, after a "mountainous" hill, we locked up the bikes and began the hike to Cathedral Cove. It was about a 35 minute hike to the cove and well worth it as seen by the pictures.

Ciao for now,
Chris