Traveling Northland NZ

2/15/07
Greetings from Ohana Kai. We have certainly been busy in this New Year. The second week of January we got used to life as fishy out of the water. We hauled the boat out and "put her on the hard" as they say to get some work done. We were really pleased to see how well the bottom paint had held up all this time. A quick sanding, a couple new coats and she's nearly ready to go. A few more projects involving the rigging and the prop completed and she was back in the water by Monday. whew. As fun as the new location was for the boys with a spectacular hill for exploration behind us, this climbing the ladder business to use the restroom is for the birds.

Christmas celebrations and Santa were good to us this year. We enjoyed a quieter than usual but none less special celebration of all gifts we have been given in our lives. Surrounded by our boating family we had a spectacular dinner with our favorite fleet complete with Diana from White Swan, and Bob in spirit as he tended to his brothers health at home on Port Townsend. Sarabi hosted and the Kelly's and Capaz crew were all present. A white elephant gift exchange still has people wondering who got the snazzy boxers and who wants the rat. New Years was complete with a fire works display from the nearby town of Pahia. We celebrated in style on the end of the wharf with our pals from Diva complete with a toast of champagne. The boys saw their first midnight though Dad nearly missed it.

We spent the next few weeks wrapping up our projects in the great anticipation of spending the majority of our time left in NZ with visits from both sets of grandparents. I can safely say this event is bigger than Christmas around here. The countdown started long ago! We have managed to slip in a few more short and sweet camping trips. Best of all has to be our journey to Shipwrecks Bay or Ahipara Beach on the north west side of the north island. You have to see it to believe it as mini-vans to quads traverse beach and tide pools at low tide to reach around the sand spits. All this in order to find the right stretch of land that won't go under as the tide comes in. We only had to push the Kelly's car out of soft sand a couple of times. We all had a bit of fun surfing there and Kelly boy, Tristan and Matthew braved sand tobogganing. As it's name suggests, riding your boogie board down 100+ foot high sand dunes. Hot and Sandy!

Bruce has completed his kite boarding lessons from some new pals Su and Dave Kay of Ruakaka Kite Sports. They are champion kite boarders here in NZ and champion people to boot. Congratulations Su on her 3rd straight National Title down in Nelson NZ.

Now that we are finally getting our computers back in working action (salty air, pitching seas and electronics don't like each other), we will be getting the web site back on track in the next few months and up to date. When the internet is running it is usually strong enough to call people and chat. So... your goal is to download the free web program SKYPE at www.skype.com, and we will be able to talk to you and you can see us for free. Did I mention FREE. If you get any microphone that can plug into your computer it will work to chat with us. If you brave the little camera that goes with it we can see you.

That's all for now. Hope your winter is slowing down and your spring just around the corner. We'll be exploring the north island with family for the next 5 -6 weeks and let you know all that we find. Sheep shearing and mud pools here we come!
until next time,
Lisa and the boys