New Zealand winter, boat work and visas

20 November 2014

A cold misty morning in Opua

 If we are to be judged by the number of blogs published these past few months, 

you would be forgiven for thinking that we have been hibernating in a desperate

attempt to survive this shitty NZ winter!

Our winterized cockpit

Not entirely true.......in terms of travelling and sailing, the weather has not been 

very friendly. So we have been beavering away at the boat job list, hoping to have everything done in time to allow us to enjoy the summer - when it finally makes an appearance.

We have done a lot and spent shedloads of wonga - Projects completed include:

High pressure diesel injector pump

Rewiring and replacing the problem engine relays

Making and fitting a new cockpit spray hood (a magnus opus to do in the saloon!)

It's great to be able to see through the screen once more!

Fitting a new Raymarine A67 chartplotter to replace the aging and increasingly unreliable old Garmin

The new Raymarine A67

The "business centre"...old and new 

Poor confused old Garmin

Varnishing the toe rail for about the 5th time

Stripping and servicing the steering, windlass and outboard engine

Fitting a Dutchman gybe preventer

Rewiring the mast, fitting a new Hella Tricolour, VHF aerial and cable.

In between all this, we did manage to spend a few days out in the lovely Upungu Cove in the Bay of Islands.

We also drove down to Whangarei to meet up with a number of friends who have chosen to use Whangarei as their base instead of Opua.

Nick Marvin (Ukulele Lady, a Shearwater 39 like ours) arrived safely from Fiji with a long list of things to be fixed or replaced, having put in some very fast legs! e.g. 17 days from Galapagos to Fatu hiva ( over 3000 miles), including 3 or 4 days logging 190-194 miles in 24 hours, flying his Parasail spinaker! 

Nick, Rod and Hannes in Ukulele Lady's cockpit

We managed to have a couple of meals together before he flew back to RSA leaving his crew, Hannes, to start working on the list.

We had a fun lunch with our UK friends from Scott-Free (our sailing buddies), Sirena of Oare and Ukulele Lady at a pub overlooking the water.

We returned to Opua to commence the torturous Visa Extension application which includes a battery of blood tests, full physical examination and chest xrays........all this to extend our visas from 28 December to end June 2015 which is the end of the Cyclone season.

Xrays.........................................NZ$150 each  (R1500)

Medical exam............................NZ$150-250 each

Blood tests..................................NZ$284 Rod

                                                     NZ$ 254 Mary

NZ Immigration.........................NZ$ 165 for both

Only about R14000 to allow us to spend more time and money here and avoid cyclones up north!!

PS.......The good news is that we were both declared fit and healthy and good enough to do another passage or two next year.