Labour Weekend holiday - Legend yacht race to the Mercury Islands

Now for something completely different - a superb 5 days sailing trip aboard 'Candidas' a Chicco 30 sailing north from Tauranga up to the top of the Coromandel peninsula to Mercury Island. The island was named by Captain Cook because he documented the transit of Mercury from there on 9/11/1769!

We did see lots of stars at night but the only transit was by tender to and from the shore for prize giving!

Barry and Diane our wonderful hosts were great fun and we thoroughly enjoyed the sailing, racing, fishing, happy hours and rum nightcaps!

   This is Hahei our favourite place near Cathedral cove.

 

 We took 2 days to sail up anchoring the first night after 10 hours in 'boat harbour' (very literal the kiwis!) A bit wet on first day, then a beautiful reach in sunshine for 4 hours up to the Mercury Island. We saw a range of wildlife including blue penguins (worlds smallest penguins!), Jesus birds ( a type of storm petrel that 'dances' on the water) and sooty shearwaters, but unfortunately no dolphins or whales this time!

Malcolm and Barry had a wee bit of difficulty finding the anchor!!??? caption 'It was here this morning'??

Food on board was in the true yachting tradition, good, plentiful and accompanied by plenty to wash it down!

The island itself can only be reached by boat or helicopter.

 The prize giving on the beach included a fancy hats prize so we were Noah's Arc - the warm hats came in handy on the chilly trip back as well. Barry won a prize for his rainbow monkey hat! Malcolm's was an elephant hat!

One real first for me was catching tasty snapper for tea. We caught 11 snapper and 1 gurnard, all beautiful fish and such fun - food for free I love it. I even learnt how to fillet them although I was a bit hesitant at first as the knife was ultra sharp! Diane and I were definitely the top fishermen on this trip!

 All too soon it was back to Tauranga, again a cold and rough trip. Mt Monganui in the background as we sail into the harbour

But what a wonderful experience and all thanks to Barry, Diane and Michelle who own Candidas.
Thanks a million.

6 months on and Spring is here

It has taken a good few weeks to settle back into a normality and to stop feeling a bit homesick for the kids, family and friends. It has been just wonderful to Skype so many good friends back home.

We have had a couple of quieter weekends and have enjoyed seeing signs of spring, although it does seem to roar into spring here with gales and 'every weather in a day' type of climate (more like our Autumn!)

Here are a few piccies taken yesterday on a walk through the Maclaren Falls Park.

 

We also went to the market a brought a small plant of the balcony!

 

And I went horse trekking - not sure I'll go again I could hardly walk! fun though, my horse was called Destiny! Malcolm played golf - so back to normal.

 

In 2 weekends we are off for a 4 day sail/race up to Mercury Island - fingers crossed for good weather.



Tasmania to meet long lost family

We started with a couple of fun filled, Mossyard reminiscing filled days with Jane and Derek in Melbourne and Shepperton. Melbourne is a GREAT city - buzzing and so many amazing restaurants to choose from. the highlights were the Korean BBQ followed by nitrogen dioxide ice cream complete with syringes of sauce!!

 

We had a superb time visiting beautiful Tasmania and meeting Dad's cousin Moira a very spry 86 year old and all her family. It was really exciting to re-connect the family. Dad and Moira last saw each other in the 70's and none of the Taylors had ever met her sons Ian and Neil and their families.

We had a lovely BBQ at Ian's which turned into a great ceilidh evening which made me realise that we would all get on great if we all met up - I hope it happens one day.

 

It was lovely to see Ian and Linda's daughter Emily who is a Yr 5 primary teacher (Rhian teaches Yr4) and son Sam who is a marine biologist (Cal is studying natural history) - so many similarities.
Moira was great fun and a lovely host, we took her on a wee trip down memory lane to where she used to live in Cygnet.

 

The best thing was reconnecting Dad and Moira - on their second Skype they were still talking 90 minutes later!

Tasmania has stunning scenery and we had gorgeous weather. We went up the Eastern granite coast to Wineglass Bay, the Bay of Fires - azure blue water and huge granite boulders covered in orange - beautiful.

Malcolm was a bit unsure of the wildlife or perhaps it was wary of him? but he did find a couple of places that reminded him of home.

We also went to quaint Launceston and creepy Port Arthur (we did the ghost tour!) the oysters were so good they were eaten before the photo!