Social, Social, Social!!!

Oh my are we doing that here!!! Socializing to the max!! the girls at Revas! Nancy, Marilyn, Robin, Marg and Me - Dionne

We had a great time at the cruisers night at Reva's. lots of fellow boaters there. Candine's last one as they left on the Thursday. Hope to see them in Hawaii!

the Candine bunch - Austin,Chris, Chrissy, Tim

We went for a road trip to Opua to see The Dorothy Marie and Steve's boss from Sea Power.

Jay from Malachi - doing the fun job!!

On the way we did the boat yard tours! Stopped in Dockland 5 to see Malachi doing their bottom - also ran into Oddity ( met them in Minerva, they came for the Marlin feast) after we left and went to Norstand Boat yard to see Tin Soldier - Glen (Tin Soldier) doing the big job!!

they are a steel sailboat like us and are doing almost the same work we did a few years ago. ( they sandblasted the bottom and their deck! have the mast off and are re rigging it, and have been battleing the weather) do you all remember us doing that?!! Well I am feeding them tonight - oh we can so relate to all they are going through! We saw a few other boaters on the hard there as well. Still not sure what we are doing. we only need to clean our bottom. We may have scared ourselves away from the boatyards!!

Steve checking on the work, remembering a time with our boat!!

Anyway ,off we went to Opua, sure was neat to be there again!

Glen our dingy ride to The Dorothy Marie

Sally and Kyle on the ride back to their boat

Buddies to the end!! Me and Sally

We had great time with Glen and Sally - we sure miss them! They are our family here!! We are planning on going to Great Barrier Island with them as our last cruise until they come to BC. They are continuing on to Fiji. It will be very strange not to be on a passage with them.

After our visit ( way to short must see them again!!! We went to do a little shopping and poor Emma wiped out and scratched up her face! Not a fun thing.

We headed over to Bruce and Kris's ( Steve's boss from SeaPower in Opua) place for a BBQ dinner. What a beautiful view they have!! It was an excellent time, great food, fabulous people and a must see again before we leave.

Kris and Bruce from SeaPower Opua

and Skippy our favorite dog! He is just lovely, belongs to Kris and Bruce

this is what I look like when I am doing the blog , ( when all is going well, today I have had nothing but troubles - for some reason cut and paste are not working and I have had to drag everything into place, what a pain!! Hopefully , you will be able to click on the pictures and make them full screen - not sure, I have not made them smaller) sorry no picture of how I look now, it would scare you!!!!!

More fun in Town Basin!

The kids went on a camping trip overnight with another boat , Provider,they took 12 kids! They all had a good time- even got visited by 5 possums Maya on her way to the camping trip!
Once the kids got back, we were off with Wesly and Jacquie for a mystery tour and roast lamb dinner. Our mystery tour took us to Whau ( pronounced WOW) Valley Dam and then a petting zoo. the kids love that!Wesly and Jacque and Steve in the bunny cage. complete with doves and parachetes notice Steve's little friend in his hand! don't leave home without it.
these flowers reminded me of our lilacs- don't smell like them but kinda look like them. oh so pretty. I took lots of flower pictures , the pink one at the beginning of this post is my favorite. not sure what kind it is, if you know please tell me.
one of the many birds around! trivia what kind of bird is this?
just because you haven't seen enough sheep here in NZ!
-the kids loved this guy! We think its an Alpaca not a LLama - anyone know for sure?
Even Steve had fun feeding the animals! He loved to torment the goats!!

in the bunny cage, Kyle got to hold a rat, Maya a bunny and Emma a guinea pig that looked like the one she had in school called Cinnamon
Kyle's favorite - the Emu!! he spent a lot of time with this guy,eventually getting to pet himand the fabulous roat lamb !! we had a real traditional Kiwi dinner! complete with pavlova for desert.

just another day in Whangerei!!

Beads made by Dionne!! Can you tell I love blue?

We are doing all kinds of projects! getting the boat ready to set sail again. We have sold our kyack , the kids here are cleaning it. Steve is fixing up the sailing dingy and finishing up Orca III projects. We have been cleaning out every nook and cranny making room for all the food for the next couple of crossings. I am stocking up with as much as I can to avoid buying anything except fresh stuff in French Polynesia. also making room for Graeme! Along with that I have been making my own glass beads! I love it and Steve has already got a plan in mind for making me a studio once we get home! Kyle and Maya have been doing glass fusion - lots of fun!!

scrub scrub a dub dub! They are happily cleaning cause they make some money when its sold!

at the dock in Town Basin Marina - Whangerei Northland New Zealand

building away!! she is looking good, Maya is will be painting the name on it - wait and seeMaya loved the glass fusion class! she is very creative!
Kyle finishing up the final touches with a lesson from the teacher. He also is creative! But he wants to do glass blowing.

Annie Rose glass bead studio! this is where I create!

Maya's creation! ready to go into the kiln.

Oh I forgot to mention on the last post!! way to go Karen and her daughter Kiya, for getting the answer right - the chronometer is the thing it was!! they used that at sea many many years ago!

Waipoua Kauri forest!!!

Now here's where we see the Kauri trees!! oh my there were so many, and the big ones, the pictures don't do it justice! read the signs , see the girth ( circumference ) the two biggies what a sight to see!!
We borrowed Meridians car and drove the 1.5 hrs just to see the forest! at one time they were all over the north island but got logged and gummed to almost extinction. Now they are protected and not allowed to be cut down , all the Kauri that is used for making carvings and such are from the swamp . they dig it up from the swamp lands , and are dated to 4,500 yrs old!! Love those trees

and off we go to find our tree.............

FACT Kauri forest once covered a million hectares of the north. Now only 7455 hectares of mature forest remain!



We left Tane Mahuta and went to see the four sisters , and the father of the forest, along the way we saw many many giant trees. here Maya touches the bark..................
The forest brings out the best of Steve! Taken by Emma while we admired the 4 sisters
FACT waipoua forest is the largest remaining kauri forest in the world

just sitting on a kauri log having a good time - don't ya think?
The four sisters! We had a lovely walk through the forest full of Kauri trees
FACT ; Ancestors of the Kauri first appeared in the Jurassic Period 190-135 million years ago. Kauri forests are among the most ancient in the world.


Steve and the kids - this was quite the sight to see coming around the corner!! pictures do not do it justice!! this is one wide wide tree!

Dionne and her trees, this one isn't even big compared to Te Matua Ngahere or Tane Manuta Yep the tree hugger!!
And this man is Rick Taylor, he takes swamp kauri and turns it into beautiful bowls and fancy containers. He gave the kids a demo and in 40 minutes had made a bowl, almost ready to sell. a few more steps to go! Kept quizzing the kids and giving them prizes. they each got their own Kauri gum! It was fun to hang out in his shop. He even explained how they get the swamp kauri, showed a video and explained the different types of grains of wood. and colour. The golden fiddle back grain is from the stump and the green kauri is from the top of the tree. This is his shop!

Just another day in Whangerei!

The kids and I , with Nancy and girls from Meridian and Chris from Candine all went for a hike along the Hatea River to the Kauri Canopy boardwalk. nice walk through the forest and along the river, but we were a little disappointed as we only saw a handful of Kauri trees. in fact we really only saw 3 - I am sure there were more but so spread out ...... not the Kauri forest I was expecting. still a pretty walk, and boy my butt felt it!
tghis is
this Kauri tree is about 500 yrs old. one of the 3 we saw here. and the oldest one here
our happy hiking kids!! they did well, its a 2hr round trip.
this little fella is one of the cycada's - he landed on Emma shoulder. they are very loud and you here them all day when its hot out!! amazingly loud!

so here's a story.............
we went for dinner at this couple's home - Wesly and Jacquie- we met them because they happened to see our boatdown in the Town Basin Marina in Whangerei NZ and recognized it ! Wesly asked if it was built in Cowichan Bay by a fellow named Gordon Rutherford........... not everyday someone happens to know the fellow who built our boat especially in New Zealand!! turns out they are buddies. and how cool is that!! great people and we had a wonderful dinner. We will be getting together again before we leave!!