Warm Rain Ship's Log

Concert at Kawakawa Train Station

Today we spent a lovely afternoon at the train station in the nearby town of Kawakawa. The concert was held to raise money for restoring the old train station and steam train. We sat our lawn chairs in the bit of shade that was made by the train cars and settled in for a diverse range of musical acts ranging from a father/daughter duo that sang contemporary songs to a couple that sang opera. In between we heard country music, rock, and even (surprisingly) enjoyed a hip hop dance performance by a group of local kids aged five to seventeen. Click here to see a few pictures from today's outing.

Warkworth/Auckland Photos

I've finally uploaded photos from last week's road trip. Here's a couple pictures to whet your appetite. The first is of Tom, Sally and Barley at a beach near Sally's home in Warkworth. The second is a photo looking up at a Ponga tree in the Perry Kauri Tree Park. A ponga is a huge fern tree that grows to great heights. They're beautiful and you see them alongside the roads everywhere. I just think they're really cool.

The slideshow will take you through photos of the beaches around Warkworth, our walk through the Perry Kauri Tree Park, the mail run ferry ride around Kawau Island, our visit to Auckland and last but certainly not least, our visit to Brick Bay Winery and Sculpture Garden. Click here to see the slideshow.

Wicky Wacky

I think Tom needs a new pair of glasses...

Road Trip: Whangarei to Auckland

We spent the last week on a little road trip south. We left Opua last Monday and spent two days in and around Whargarei (Fong-a-ray). The main reason for the road trip was to take our propane tanks (the fuel we use to cook on the boat) to be “certified” so that we could get them refilled in New Zealand. After dropping the tanks off at the testing facility we drove around the coastline and found a 100+ year old tavern where we had lunch sitting on the deck in the sun. We spent the second day shopping for clothes, visiting friends in the marina and poking around marine stores in Whangarei. Tom booked us into a hotel room that had a spa bathtub so I packed my bubbles and wallowed in a bubble bath both nights – what a treat!

On Wednesday we drove further south to Warkworth to visit friends that we originally met and cruised with in Mexico - Alan and Sally (s/v Jack Nesbitt). Alan is away in England as his mum passed away over the holidays, but Sally and puppy Barley made us feel at home as soon as we arrived. Sally was born and raised in New Zealand and was a fabulous tour guide for the remainder of the week. We visited a Kauri tree park, took a ferry run to Kawau Island on the mail run, visited America’s Cup Viaduct Harbour in Auckland, and had lunch and took a sculpture tour at a winery near Sally’s house.

While Sally attended a quilting class on Thursday, Tom and I went to the Perry Kauri Park in Warkworth. The Kauri is a protected tree in New Zealand and the walk through the tree park was beautiful. The main attraction is a Kauri tree that is almost 1,000 years old. It’s huge and stands just in front of the parking lot. You can then take a walk on a boardwalk through a forest that hosts Kauri trees and many other types of flora & fauna. The walk was less than an hour long and not too strenuous – just right for Tom and me.

On Friday Tom and I took the walk-on ferry to Kawau Island. All but a tiny piece of Kawau Island is private land and there are no cars allowed on the island so mail is delivered by ferryboat 3 times a week. We took the “mail run” tour and the ferry stopped at different bays around the island to drop off mail, passengers, lumber, booze, groceries, etc. at each stop. I estimate we made 12-15 stops – all of them just long enough to unload or load whatever it was that was earmarked for that particular bay. It was a great way to see a lot of area in a short period of time (4 hours total).

Sally drove us to Auckland on Saturday where we met up with friends Jan & Dave (s/v Baraka) who had just arrived the night before from a 7-week trip home to Seattle.  All five of us (and puppy Barley) crammed into Sally’s little car for a trip to Sailor’s Corner, an area of Auckland that houses numerous marine chandleries and bookstores. Sally then took us to America’s Cup Viaduct Harbour where we ooh’d and aah’d over several America’s Cup sailing boats. This was the highlight of our road trip as we’ve waited many many years to see these sights in person.

As our meeting up with Jan & Dave was unexpected, they stayed in Auckland Saturday night, but we took several of their large pieces of luggage back to Sally’s house with us so that they could drive back to Opua with us on Sunday.

On Sunday morning Jan & Dave took a bus to Warkworth and we spent yet another wonderful day with Sally. She took us to Brick Bay Winery and Sculpture Garden where we had a scrumptious lunch before taking a leisurely 1 ½ hour stroll through their sculpture garden. The setting for the winery is nothing less than spectacular. The winery restaurant spans across a pond and there are grape vines on the hillside and sheep grazing in the pasture. The artwork on the sculpture garden walk is first class and a must see!

Packing the car for the trip back to Opua was quite a challenge. In addition to the 3 bags of clothing/stuff that Tom and I had packed, as well as the three propane tanks that we had certified, we stuffed Jan & Dave and their 5 bags (2 of them huge) into the car. Our poor little Honda became an instant low rider and the wheels scraped on the wheel wells with every bump we hit on the 3-hour ride back home. Nonetheless we laughed and had a great time.

This little week-long trip was one of the most special ones that we’ve taken so far. I’ll edit and post a photo album of pictures soon.

Russell Tall Ships Race

Yesterday we took the car ferry over to Russell to see the Tall Ships race. When we got to the town pier the ships were nowhere in sight as the race had begun almost an hour earlier. The 16-mile course took the boats well out of sight of the bay so we drove to the Russell Boat Club to look around while waiting for the ships’ return.

There was a group of men on the grounds of the boat club preparing a hungi – the Maori version of a BBQ - a huge pit dug into the ground, filled with hot stones & embers. Food is then placed on top of the stones to cook. Apparently the fire had been lit early in the morning and the stones were now ready to be put below ground. We watched the men move the stones off of the sheets of aluminum on which they were sitting and place the stones into the ground. It was no easy feat but they used implements that looked like bent pitch forks to move the stones. They were then going to place the food into the hungi to cook for the afternoon. They were planning on serving 1,000 meals at 6pm!.

As our trip to Russell was spur of the moment we could not stay for the hungi as our friends David & Linda had already made other plans for the evening. But no worries – we were told that the “takeaway” in town had the best fish & chips around so we decided to try it out for lunch. The food was great and it was fun eating lunch that was wrapped up in yesterday’s newspaper.

After lunch the tall ships had not yet returned to town so we drove up to Flagpole Hill. From there we were able to watch them sail toward Russell (in very light air). Even though the day was gray it was a beautiful sight to watch the ships glide across the water under full sail. After a brief drive through the surrounding countryside we made our way back to the ferry dock for the 5-minute ferry ride back to Opua.

Click here to see pictures of the hungi and tall ships.

Short Boatyard Stay

This morning we moved Warm Rain into a slip in the boatyard so that the rigger (Rob) could do some grinding on our headsail tang. Rob had the job done in no time and we are now just waiting until slack tide to move the boat back into our marina slip. The remaining rigging work should be completed this week and Warm Rain will be good as new!

Sunday Farmer's Market

Yesterday morning we drove to Kerikeri to attend the weekly Farmer's Market. All of the summer fruits and veggies are out now and we had fun tasting fresh cheeses, homemade breads, chutneys and jams as well. I also saw the biggest cabbages and eggplants that I've ever seen. Unfortunately I didn't think to snap a picture of them but I'm sure we'll go back again soon and will try to remember to do so. We bought some sweet corn on the cob which we'll have with tonight's dinner and some tamarind chutney. I think I'll experiment with spreading it on top of baked chicken. Yummy!

Waipu Highland Games

Happy New Year to all! We spent a quiet New Year’s Eve watching movies aboard Warm Rain then headed out today (January 1^st) on a road trip to Waipu to attend the 138^th Waipu (Why Poo) Highland Games. Waipu is a tiny community about 60 miles south of Opua and the day was picture-perfect with sunshine, blue skies and temperatures in the 70’s.

The ‘games’ consisted of primarily dancing competitions for the girls and young boys and athletic events for the men. The dancers ranged in age from 6 to 17 and performed several different types of Scottish dances – the Highland Fling, Irish Jig, Highland Reel, Sword Dance and more. All of the dancers did great but we enjoyed the little girls the best – they just looked so cute in their costumes!

The men’s athletic events were touted as the original Extreme Sport and I can see why. The first event that we watched was the Caledonian Hammer Throw. The hammer is an iron ball fitted on a long, flexible shaft. It weighs either 16 lbs (the light version) or 22 lbs. (the heavy version). The athlete grips the shaft, spins around in 2-3 complete turns before releasing the weight. They are judged on distance thrown. We also watched the Weight for Distance throwing competition where they guys throw a weight attached to a ring handle by chain, again judged for distance.

My two favorite competitions were the Caber Toss and the Gaelic Dead Weight. In the Caber Toss the athlete attemps to flip a section of tree – averaging 18 feet and weighing 80 to 120 lbs. – end-over-end by holding it upright against the shoulder, running a short distance and thrusting it up and over. The goal is to make the narrow end flip over the wider end in a perfect turn and have the pole fall directly away from the athlete in a 12 o’clock position. Easier said than done but very fun to watch!

I also marveled at the strength necessary for the Gaelic Dead Weight competition. The object is to toss a 56-pound weight up and over a high crossbar using only one hand. The winner of the competion tossed the weight up and over a 16 foot pole! These guys are big bruisers and you wouldn’t want to call them a sissy in a kilt – you wouldn’t live very long!

After a walk down “Clan Row” – booths set up by the different clans represented at the games – we headed back to Opua. It was a great way to begin a new year. Click here to see pictures from the Games.