So much to say…..most importantly we are safe in New Zealand and are not near the recent earthquake.

We arrived in Fiji and to our surprise were remembered and welcomed with open arms, hugs and kisses by many of the locals. We travelled with 14 checked pieces of luggage, some just bins and boxes filled with boat parts and simple items we can’t get in the South Pacific. We spent 5 days in Fiji at the island where we left Shellette tucked away in a hurricane hole. She is doing fine and was happy to see us (You grow to have a personal relationship with your sailing vessel). While working on Shellette Mike managed to lose our international mobile phone overboard….it happens. Then when we took the ferry back to the mainland Mike’s US mobile phone was stolen from the luggage as it sat unattended on the dock.

We flew to New Zealand and have been travelling around the North Island for the last week. It is so great to be back here. We are enjoying seeing all the friends that we made here last year and all the places we missed getting to. We bought our tent and sleeping bags with us from the boat and rented a car. We are camping along the way and staying in some hotels. Boy the ground sure seemed softer last year  . You know you are a true camper when it is no big deal to spray your bed with Raid or you think nothing of using a Chip Clip to hold your hair off your face!
We just spent a few days at the very tip of New Zealand at Ninety Mile Beach (which is actually only 64 miles long…but long story). This is where the Tazman Sea and the Pacific Ocean meet. It is gorgeous. We planted a small tree there as a donation to the conservation efforts. Our campsite was just a very short walk to the beach where we dug up our own clams one night and cooked them up for dinner…yummy! Mike was like a little kid after I showed him how to dig for them…he had never done this before…you may have thought we struck Gold!! Some of the highlights of these few days were driving all the way down Ninety Mile Beach in a passenger bus at 100km/hr. ..just crazy! We stopped along the way to climb up the steep sand dunes and toboggan our way down. We also stopped at a beautiful beach to dip our toes in the ocean. Leave it to Mike to spot the 30+ Nudist swimmers on the next beach….after which Mike tried to get put on their bus. Later that night we met some of our fellow campers, three young girls from Germany and a woman travelling alone from Holland….So we had a party!

The next morning as I attempted to sleep in I felt the ground rumble. When I mentioned it to Mike he thought I was crazy and simply hung-over. Later that day we found out that there was a devastating earthquake on the South Island. All of NZ sits on some very large Faults. The city is Christ Church and is very historic. Unfortunately, they have many old buildings and those buildings fell and killed 75 thus far and counting. 300 Remain missing. We will be down that way next week but of course will avoid Christ Church unless we find out we can help.

We are headed back to the Auckland area Thursday where some friends, Trish and Michael are having a party for us…very sweet. Then off to see Roger and Rose in Tauranga then Ian in Wellington before we take the ferry over to the South Island.

We’ve been in touch with friends who sailed on to Australia last August and they have experienced very bad weather with the December flooding and recent cyclone there. They are safe but know of many boats that sustained damage or sank! We are very glad we decided to stay put in Fiji one more season. We will be heading back to Fiji early April so long as the Cyclones stay away….one is passing by today but should not be a direct hit to Fiji.

On a much more somber note…we have learned that a woman we met last year on a sailboat was taken hostage along with her partner by Somali pirates 4 months ago off the coast of South Africa. She is from NZ and they are trying to raise the 10 million dollar ransom that is being demanded. Also, the US sailboat that was recently captured near the Red Sea and the four crew were killed, was a boat we also met last year. They were sailing with a large group and thought to be safe going in that area with that many boats. Very troubling. Needless to say, these are areas we will be avoiding. We do keep track of what is going on and where it is safe and not safe to go.

As they say “Don’t Count the Days…Make the Days Count”!!!!! Life is Good……..