In New Zealand

Hello from New Zealand,
It is amazing to us that we have sailed this far this last year and what was once a dream is now a reality.
We sailed from Nuie to the kingdom of Tonga in 36 hours and it was a great relief to get into calm waters that the Vavau group provides. The area is much like the gulf islands of BC with lots of small islands all over and white beaches with palm trees all around. We had a great time for two weeks here going to a couple of Tongan feasts, meeting up with lots of our friends that have got ahead of us. The people are very relaxed and friendly. We got to go out to a few of the reasturants run by expats who sailed in here and just stayed. All very nice with wifi connections that sort of worked sometimes!! From the Vavau group of island we sailed down sixty miles to the Haapai group of islands which are just atolls with no high ground but gorgeous surroundings. This is probably the prettiest area of the south pacific that we have found so far. We were invited to lunch at his house by one of the locals on Haafeva who was very insistent that they did not want any money or anything at all just for us to come. Well we went and had a great lunch of lobster, fish, breadfruit, pinapple etc. This was served in the living room (sort of) of his home. All the family was there to see us with all the kids running all around. We brought over a back pack and a big bag of stuff that we thought they may need. It was all much appreciated as these people do not have much. On the other hand they have never heard of work but grow what they need and catch what they want from the ocean so they really have no need for money. They have pigs, lots of pigs which are on all the islands here. There must be thousands of them on the islands of Tonga.
We spent a couple of days all by ourselves on deserted beaches walking, swimming and snorkeling before we headed to the southern group of Tongatapu and the main town of Nuku Alofa. We anchored by an island which has a bar restaurant called big Mummas. This is a very friendly cruiser place and has a launch that runs over to town. We spent the first day in town clearing out of the country doing all the paperwork etc then just wondered around the town. We had lunch at Friends, which Sarah will remember, bought bread and cakes at the bakery which has been operating since 1894, and just enjoyed the sites. The following day we took Kilkea to the fuel dock and filled up as we had a good looking weather window for the next day.

We would have liked to stay longer but the weather looked good for the 1050 mile passage to New Zealand and most all the other boats were taking off so like a little group of Charlie Brown characters we also left at noon. The first three days was windy and rough with winds up to 35k and rough seas that had everyone in the fleet feeling a little off. After that the winds dropped for us and we had 24 hours of good smooth sailing before the winds died completely and we had to run the engine for the last two days. It took us 6 days for the trip which was well ahead of most all the other yachts. There was a great welcome for us from the other yachties that were already here and the local marina has a big welcome week with all sorts of things set up to do. So the next morning we were off on a bus to visit some of the sites up to a town called Kerikeri. Lots of fun and even managed a visit to a vineyard to sample some of their wines. There is a BBQ tonight and tomorrow put on by different business`s plus some other stuff so we are still busy. We will get to the boat stuff next week.
From last November till this November we have sailed about 10000 miles so a busy year!!