Thursday 21st July to Friday 2nd September

   Carillon's facelift is complete - we just need to tidy up the last few bits and pieces and she'll be ready to go sailing again.

   

We flew back to New Zealand towards the end of July and spent a few days with our friends in Auckland before returning to Whangarei. Friendship Yachts had finished their part of the work and Carillon was now on the hard in the Docklands 5 boatyard. We now had to put back all the deck fittings and rebuild the insides of the cupboards where we'd had to remove the ceilings to get at the bolts under the deck. We wanted to get her back into the water as soon as possible so that we could move back on board so our priorities were to get the mast back in, put some deck cleats back in place so that we had something to tie up to and antifoul the bottom.
   We went back into the water on Friday 5th August with the mast in, the deck cleats in place, the stanchions in place but not bolted through the deck and the pushpit and pulpit held on by a few screws and a prayer then spent the next few weeks with one of us on deck putting the fittings in place and filling the holes and bolts with Sikaflex and the other one of us grovelling in the cupboards trying to fit the nuts and washers on the bolts without getting covered in too much Sikaflex. By the end of August all the deck fittings were back on and we were well on the way to having everything back to normal.
   The new fridges worked extremely well - we can reach almost everything without having to empty and repack each time and the new cooker is a great improvement on the previous one. We finally have an oven that will get hot enough to make really good double chocolate chip muffins.
   On the whole the weather has been pretty kind giving us lots of fine days to get the work done although it did get a bit chilly for a while and we had frost on the dock in the mornings. We plan to stay in Whangarei for the next month or so to tidy up all the loose ends before the start of the next sailing season.

So with most of the work completed we're taking time out and GOING SKIING!!.

Sunday 4th to Sunday 11th October
Skiing at Turoa
    The forecast for the week was good so we packed the warm clothes and headed south. The closest ski fields are on the slopes of Mt Ruapehu a bit south of Taupo. The place to stay is the small town of Oakhune south of Mt Ruapehu and about half an hours drive from the Turoa ski fields. We rented a cosy chalet for the week, hired skis, poles and boots and Monday morning headed up to the slopes.
    It took a day or two to get back into practice and Lyn's lesson was really helpful so by midweek we were skiing the intermediate slopes like pros (well maybe not quite like pros but we were getting down without hitting the snow too many times). Conditions weren't quite like the French Alps and the ski fields are not as extensive but we had loads of fun and really enjoyed our week.
   We made Friday our last day of skiing because the slopes tend to get pretty packed at weekends and we were beginning to feel the aches. We planned to go back to Whangarei on Sunday so had a free day Saturday. We went walking on the slopes of Mt Ruapehu just below the snow line and had a superb view of the ski fields at Turoa and across to the snow-capped mountains to the south and east.
   Sunday we had a leisurely drive back to Whangarei getting back in time to get the chippie before they closed.

Monday 5th to Tuesday 25th October
Town Basin Marina - Whangarei
     We spent this time tidying up the last few jobs and waiting for the weather to improve. We set a date around Thursday October  20th to leave but then discovered our new mainsail was due to arrive from Hong Kong the following Tuesday so decided to postpone until then. The sail arrived first thing Tuesday morning and seemed to fit with no problems so Wednesday 26th was now the leaving date.

Wednesday 26th October to Tuesday 1st November
Whangarei
   We finally left a couple of hours before high tide and motored down the river to Urquhart Bay. We planned to sail to Gt Barrier Island about 50 miles SE so needed to wait for westerly winds. The forecast for the next few days was easterly so we planned to hang around for a few days - that was until the generator packed up. The options were to put up with it and use the main engine to charge the batteries until we got up to the Bay of Islands or return to the marina and get it fixed straight away. Since we knew there was a mechanic in Whangarei who could fix it and the forecast for the next few days was easterly winds we went back to Whangarei. After checking the generator the mechanic concluded that we needed a new solenoid which would take a day or two to come so we made plans to leave again once the generator was fixed.

Wednesday 2nd to Sunday 20th November
Whangarei - Gt Barrier Island - Opua
   First thing Wednesday morning the mechanic turned up and fitted the new solenoid and we were able to leave on the midday tide. This time the wind forecast was SW so we had to find a more sheltered anchorage than Urquhart Bay. We stopped much further up the river in Parua Bay which was sheltered from everywhere.
    On Friday the 4th with a light SW wind we finally made the trip to Gt Barrier Island. We had a gentle sail most of the way and by late afternoon were motoring into Fitzroy Harbour at the northern end of the island. This is a superb anchorage sheltered from every direction. The harbour consists of a large bay with a number of smaller bays and inlets. At the mouth of the bay a large island protects it from all directions leaving just a narrow channel each side of the island to enter the bay. We anchored in Kaiarara Bay and spent the next two weeks exploring the island and just relaxing. The northern half of the island is country park with a number of walking tracks. We did make it up to the top of Mt Hobson which is the highest point on the island and managed to pick a calm clear day so we could see for miles. On the way up we stopped to look at the remains of a kauri dam. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries kauri trees were logged almost to extinction. On Gt Barrier Island the loggers would build the kauri dams then store the logs upstream until the area was full. The dam would then be tripped and the logs would rush down the now swollen stream to Fitzroy Harbour where they would be rafted together and taken to Auckland. 
   We hired a car for a day to explore the rest of the island. There are only about 800 people living on the island although in the summer there are lots of visitors. Most of the population live around the southern town of Tryphena which is where the ferries come to. The island has two airports albeit on a small scale. The planes only carry about a dozen passengers. The beaches on the eastern side are long and white and, we are told, have some of the best surf in NZ.

Gt Barrier Island

    
   We'd planned to leave after a week or so but by now there were gale force winds outside so we just hung around for another week until we had a favourable forecast. By the 17th the forecast was 15 knots SW so that seemed a good day to go north. As it turned out it was nearer 20 knots but with the wind on the beam we had an exciting sail and made good time to Whangaruru averaging about seven and a half knots which for Carillon is quite fast. Next day we sailed just a few miles to Whangamumu because everyone had told us what a beautiful anchorage it was and a lot more protected than it looked. The inner harbour at Whangamumu has a narrow entrance which opens out to a wide bay protected from everywhere except the NE. It's surrounded by hills so is a bit gusty in strong winds but is protected from any swell (except from the NE). We spent a day there watching a pod of dolphins who had come into the bay after a shoal of fish. They spent most of the day there playing and fishing and were a real joy to watch. We then continued on to Opua in the Bay of Islands. The weather was forecast to turn a little unpleasant in a day or two so it seemed a good idea to get to a protected anchorage. Once anchored at Opua we caught the bus back to Whangarei to pick up the car and the new compass which had been sent to the Town Basin Marina. The old compass had developed a bubble which seemed to be slowly growing so we decided it was time to replace it.