…from an email dated Mar. 29, 2005
“After our diving adventure in the Cavallis, the following day we headed out to sea and cruised 40 or 50 miles south. With the wind non-existent, we substituted the motor and cruised along at about eight knots. Because the water was glassy smooth, we were able to spot schools of tuna nearby from the ruffled surface marking their passage. Rod trolled with his favorite lure but sadly failed to hook one. We had to go to the fish market in Auckland to have tuna steaks for dinner.
We anchored overnight back in Tutukaka Harbor and the next day motored another 40 miles or so to Kawau Island to spend the night. There is an old governor’s mansion on this island, but unfortunately, we arrived too late to take the tour. Instead, we went for an hour-long hike (in drizzling rain) from the mansion to an old coastal copper mine. On the way, we scared up three or four wallabies! Apparently then-Governor Grey in the 1800s imported a certain kind of wallaby from Australia to populate the grounds. This species of wallaby is now extinct in Australia but thriving on Kawau, so they are being exported back to Australia to try to reestablish the population. They look like tiny miniature kangaroos.
The next morning we sailed to Waiheke Island for a 2-day visit. Waiheke is a well-developed island not too far from Auckland. Some residents commute daily by ferry to work in Auckland. There are some twenty-plus wineries on the island and it has a pleasant vacation vibe. We dinghied ashore and climbed up a hill to the Te Whau Winery where we sampled their red wine. Because it was Good Friday, we could purchase wine by the glass but they weren’t allowed to sell it by the bottle. Mike and I then took off for what was intended to be a leisurely walk but which turned into a 2-1/2 hour partial circumnavigation of the island.
Easter weekend is different in New Zealand from what we’re used to in the U.S. It is apparently the second biggest holiday after Christmas, and a lot of businesses were closed from Friday through the following Monday. In addition, a large portion of restaurants and cafes were closed as well. The ones that remained open tacked an extra 20% on top of their usual prices for the privilege of eating there!
Sunday morning we sailed from Waiheke to Auckland, making sure we arrived in plenty of time to attend a Norah Jones concert that night. The winds were pleasantly moderate, so we enjoyed sailing the entire way. Every time Rod spotted another boat under sail headed in our same general direction he had a tendency to make a race out of it, unbeknownst to our competitors. We tacked back and forth the whole trip, which is not the norm for a cruising boat but was good practice for us newbies.
