from an email dated Mar. 9, 2005
“Our cruising adventures begin! Our flight arrived early on a Saturday morning. Rod met us at the airport and drove straight to Gulf Harbour where Raven awaited. The day was spent getting settled on board – unpacking suitcases, stowing our belongings, adjusting to the dramatic time zone change. New Zealand is 19 hours ahead of Tucson and we lost an entire day en route. But we’ll get it back on our return home;-).
So far the weather has been perfect and a variety of activities has kept us quite busy. The morning after our arrival, as soon as we took care of a few remaining chores and errands, we set sail for Great Barrier Island located about 40 miles east of the mainland. We anchored in Whangaparapara Harbor and took the dinghy ashore for a quick look around and a short leg-stretching walk. We spotted our first Kaka, an endangered native parrot.
Over the next few days we sailed from Whangaparapara to Smokehouse Bay where the yachties (New Zealand term) can do their laundry onshore in the provided washtubs and wringers. There is also a fire you can fuel yourself with firewood to heat up water for a hot bath. I think I will stick to Raven’s nice hot water shower and forget the communal tub! However the combo washer/dryer machine aboard the boat is currently on the fritz, so Anouk did do some scrubbing in the wash tubs and hung the laundry out to dry on Raven’s lifelines.
We took a short steep hike from Smokehouse Bay to a high spot with an inspiring view, which involved lots of huffing and puffing and good aerobic exercise. Good practice because it turned out next on the agenda was a serious hike to the highest point on the island, the summit of Mt. Hobson. We were promised an incredible view from the peak, but a drizzly wet cloud settled in and instead we got a pretty good soaking and no view at all. But successfully reaching the highest point on Great Barrier Island, some 3,000 feet above sea level, was still an accomplishment to write home about!
The final stretch to the summit was a seemingly endless staircase (800 steps – Carol counted) courtesy of the Department of Conservation. The wet conditions added to the challenge, making the steep ascent extra slippery. You can see Mike was grateful to finally reach the top! We rewarded ourselves by gobbling our sandwiches quickly, before the bread got soggy, and headed back down.
The hike took 8 hours round trip and involved some talented clawing up steep, slippery gullies, pulling ourselves up by tree roots. For sure my fitness level ticked up a notch or two. Throughout the entire trek I mentally thanked my exercise coach at the gym back home for the workouts. I could definitely feel that training kick in to save me from tumbling down the hillside.
Home again, all in one piece. A hot shower followed by a delicious dinner of wine (lots), salad, cheese and crackers – and then early to bed. High fives all around though, for having finished quite a challenge in good shape.”
