Tauranga, New Zealand

Kia Ora

Coming up with an excuse for not writing for more than two weeks after my arrival in New Zealand isn't easy so you are going to have to settle for an apology, sorry. Seeing as that is out of the way, a great big HELLO from Tauranga, Bay of Plenty, New Zealand. I am currently staying at Tauranga Bridge Marina which if you look on a map you will notice it is on the Mt. Maunganui side of the bridge, I think I will say I am staying in the Mount, seems to be where the action is, nice beaches, fun night spots, (better to google.) So far NZ is treating me very well, I have a few things to write about, my sail down, my experiences and plans for here, I hope you enjoy as this will probably be may be my last letter until my travels continue.

After five months in Fiji it was definitely time to leave, the threat of another hurricane was very unlikely and spending some time making money long overdue. I tried watching the weather while waiting for the much talked about "weather window" and eventually just said, "whatever, it's not like I'm sailing around Cape Horn," and picked a day to leave. Thursday seemed a good day, like most sailors who aren't superstitious I try to avoid leaving on a Friday. I made a list and completed the few things I needed to do, come Thursday nothing really worked out as planned. On Wednesday night I went up to say bye to my friend who worked the bar at the marina and was well over-served, at least my caring friend managed to put all my drinks onto someone elses bill. The next day I slept a little late, did the last couple of things I needed to do, was ready to leave but had to wait for the Vuda Marina staff. The Marina staff all came to where my boat was berthed and sang a goodbye song complete with guitars, it was quite touching, I will never forget the friendliness of the Fijians. By the time I sailed to Lautoka where the customs office is they were on lunch, so much for leaving on Thursday, if I checked out at 2, when they got back from lunch, and left by 4, I would never make it out the pass before dark, oh well. The next day I checked out and motored into fairly strong headwinds towards the pass, still didn't make it before dark, oh well, I found the lead in lights and followed them out in the dark. The wind was blowing strong from the wrong direction which was fine with me as all I was after was some sea room.

The sail from Fiji to NZ is around 1200nm on the rhumb line, I have so far manged to average around 100 miles a day in the trade winds. I managed to prove without a doubt that this is not a trade wind route. I was expecting this passage to take longer, I was expecting head winds, calms, gales, pretty much everything. Preparing mentally for a longer passage is important otherwise things like fighting the wind just get out of the pass only to find that after waking up from your second night at sea you can still see land might get to you. The first half of the trip, distance wise, was all head winds, some gales, some near calms and everything in between but all headwinds. This means you can't sail directly to where you are going, you have to sail twice the distance in the wrong direction to make half the distance in the right direction. Sailing into the wind in calm seas isn't so bad, just the boat is leaning considerably to one side, as the wind picks up and the seas increase in size it becomes quite uncomfortable and eventually pointless. Generally the waves come from the same direction as the wind, if you are sailing into the wind you are sailing into the waves. Unlike any of the other points of sail you get a rather jerky rocking back and forth of the whole boat along with all the other motions. Rather uncomfortable and occasionally it is timed just right and when you come off a wave the bow is in the air for a bit and smashes violently down causing a loud bang and the whole boat and rig to shake, kind of stressful. Eventually, in a boat the size of mine, the waves slow you down so much that you don't actually make any way, you kind of involuntarily heave to. I am not complaining, sailing is the method I chose to travel and when you have to endure a less than ideal passage your arrival tends to be that much sweeter, usually.

After 22 or so days at see I was pretty stoked to be arriving in New Zealand, not just because of the passage but after nearly a year in the tropics I was excited to get out of the heat and humidity and also to be in a fully developed country. This part of my story is a little embarrassing but hopefully you will find it funny, I managed to laugh in spite of myself. Basically I am broke, I am trying to do anything I can to avoid selling my boat and returning home. I was concerned about arriving in New Zealand with no money as I was supposed to be able to show customs proof of funds to support myself for the length of my Visa and all my research suggested the only way I was going to make any money as a builder would be to have transportation. I do not by any means fit into the parameters of any bank loan application, not even close but am super lucky to have some wonderful people in my life who have the means and heart to help me out temporarily. Before leaving Fiji I arranged to have some money available to me upon arrival or at least I thought I did. I did not buy many groceries for my sail down, basically I spent three weeks eating the same boring things over and over again. Much of my time was spent dreaming about the groceries I was going to buy, the foods I had not been able to buy for over a year, I would go out for dinner once, not something broke people should do but after three weeks of oatmeal and noodles I deserved it. I would arrive early on a Friday, good, banks would be open, by the evening I could be eating red meat and drinking a cold beer. After clearing customs I headed straight to the bank with funds in the form of a bank draft that had been mailed to the marina where I had checked in. For numerous reasons I thought the bank draft would be ideal but I was wrong, in short the bank wold not clear it for five working days. Not a matter of life and death but rather disappointing.

New Zealanders have so far been wonderful. The customs officers where super cool and only interested in getting me cleared, customs throughout the south pacific have been pretty chill and I was a little worried that because I was in a fully developed country they may have been a little stricter like at the Cdn/USA border, not the case. The marina staff volunteered to drive me to the bank, even the bank staff seemed to try and accommodate me. I met my boat neighbours who invited me for dinner and after hearing about my situation offered to loan me some money if I wanted. This was all in my fist day. Since then the marina staff have been helping me to find a vehicle and one member offered me his car to drive around and look for one, when I told him I was reluctant to borrow someones vehicle as I was unsure of driving on the wrong side of the road he said, "don't worry it's a BMW, you'll be safe." I have been hanging out with my neighbours a fair bit and have spent some great days just doing what New Zealanders do.

Reluctantly I will tell Jonathan's guide to quiting smoking, on the condition that if next time I see you I am smoking you are not allowed to say, "I thought you quit." Pointing out the obvious is never necessary. Mental preparation is key, I decided quite a while ago that I can not afford to smoke, I should say I do not want to do what it would take to do to afford to smoke. I had decided NZ would be a good place to stop as smokes are about twice as expensive here as they are in Canada. I left Fiji without enough smokes to get me anywhere near NZ. By the time I got to NZ I had quit smoking. Pretty simple, the hard part is not starting again, so far I haven't.

What else is there to say, I am pretty sure I have a job and a vehicle lined up, by this time next week my early retirement will be suspended. I will send another e-mail with some pictures after I get my CPU fixed, I guess they only last 10 months on a boat in the tropics. My plans are always changing but at this point I will be here for a year and hopefully have enough money saved at the end of a year to continue travelling. As always I look forward to hearing from anybody who has the time to write. I apologise if this letter seems rushed, because of my broken cpu I have to write at a internet cafe, kind of annoying.

Cheers,

Jonathan