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