We made it to Fiji. What a great trip. The course was due north 1000 miles. The first day we had great winds from the SW at about 20 knots, so we were making 7-9 knots boat speed. The next two days the wind lightened, so we motor sailed. The last 3 days is what [...]

We are back in Opua, 5 months ago this is were Nicole , Colby and myself made our first New Zealand Landfall. Wow! has it been that long? Did alot too, from caving to touring the South Island by train and bus and Ferry and many adventures in between including finding the most awesome hugging [...]

We’ve made our way to Bay of Islands which is located in the northern part of the North Island. Captain Cook came here and named it Bay of Islands for the 100+ islands that line the coast. It is beautiful, to say the least.
We had a terrible loss of many of our pictures [...]

The big event this week was that I got my Kite Surfing card. I have been working towards this for the last month. Now I can rent equipment anywhere in the world. It was great to get up on the board and Kite Surf, thank you my talented and lovely instructor Jasmin.
I have not done [...]

Shellette is back in Whangarei as is Gary. Mike and I had to make a quick, unexpected trip back to Denver for business but return to NZ on Friday.
We received some somber news about our friends from Washington State, Brad and Linda on sailing/vessel Kattywompus. They are also in New Zealand. Their boat [...]

So you’ve read Gary’s email on he and Mike sailing from Wellington to Tauranga. They had to deal with a leak in the boat but luckily all worked out and they are safe. Mike was able to fix the problem once they made it to Tauranga. I drove again to Tauranga and met [...]

Mike and I left Wellington this morning (Thursday) @ 10 am after taking on fuel and water. It was a perfect day for sailing 15-20 knots of wind, sailing at 7 knots and no clouds in the sky. We even had dolphin swimming with us out of the bay, always a positive sign for a [...]

Okay….so you’ve heard me say it’s very windy in New Zealand right? Well it is so unbelievably windy I simply cannot begin to describe it appropriately. Gary has returned from his week of touring South Island. We are still in Wellington waiting for a weather window to clear so Mike and Gary can [...]

Wow how time flies. I am now 5 days into my road trip of the New Zealand South Island. First part of the journey was taking a Ferry from Wellington to Picton. As I mentioned I am staying in Backpacker Hostels. They are like youth hostels which I have never stayed in. They offer differant [...]

Mike and I have returned from our South Island adventure. What a fantastic trip! We rented a car, had a tent and two sleeping bags and made our way down the entire East Coast of South Island and then headed to the West Coast and back up to the top. We [...]