Northland New Zealand

Time has flown by, and I can hardly believe that we’ve already been here 2 weeks! It’s been great to catch up with phone calls and emails, spend some quality time surfing the internet and just be land based for a bit. I’ve done so much laundry, it’s ridiculous, and Mark’s knocked quite a few of the “immediate attention” projects off the list. We’ve also managed to explore the area a little, driving our new little car to the nearby town of Kerikeri for groceries, lunch and even a movie date… Yes, we went to see the new 007 movie… Talk about culture shock!

Now it’s time for us to move on. Opua Marina is gearing up for their busy summer season, so our slip is only available until tomorrow. We have a berth reserved in Auckland, but it’s not open until the 14th… So, we’ll spend the better part of the next week poking our way down the coast from the Bay of Islands to the Hauraki Gulf. The weather looks to be decent for the most part, once the cold front that’s over us now moves through, so we’re looking forward to seeing a little bit of the coast. It’s less than 200 nm total distance, so we’ll just make a few day hops, and anchor every night on the way. The guy we bought the car from offers a delivery service, so our car will arrive a day or two after we do. We’re REALLY looking forward to some city time, and Auckland is supposed to be a great, walkable, city. I’ll let you know when we get there.

In the meantime, here are a few photos of the Opua area, just to give you a little idea of what it looks like here. We’ve commented so many times that it reminds us of the San Juan and Gulf Islands of the Pacific Northwest coast of America. See what you think!

More later, Michelle

P.S. WordPress has changed the way I can display photos, so click on the first photo and it should bring it up as a slideshow. This will allow you to see larger images.

Cheers at Opua Marina. Notice our Kiwi courtesy flag!

Opua “Q” Dock, our first point of arrival

view from the top of our dock

local jellyfish, Lion’s Mane or Sea Nettle?

another look at one of the many jellyfish in the marina

local car ferry

Brown seaweed and oysters, this place looks like the PNW!

Neptune’s necklace seaweed

oyster and clam shells on a rocky beach

There’s even pickleweed (Salicornia australis) onshore!

Opua General Store

Not carts, “trundlers”

Here’s our car, a little Mazda Familia

interesting products in the supermarket…