Posts In The “New Zealand” Category
We started and ended the year in world-class sailing locales in two countries: the Hauraki Gulf, where Team New Zealand defended the America’s Cup, and now in Sydney Harbour, the start of the Sydney-Hobart race. Before visiting New Zealand, our main knowledge of the Hauraki Gulf was that big body of water where the America’s…
Fiordland has been on our list of special places to visit for nearly as long as we’ve been boating. We were captivated after seeing a photograph taken from way above Milford Sound of a lone boat heading into a narrow channel between soaring, jagged peaks, its long wake slowly heading out for the shoreline. Fiordland…
After a three-month circumnavigation of New Zealand’s South Island, we’re back in Wellington. We first visited here in January, after spending a few weeks in the Hauraki Gulf Marine Park. On our first visit, we arrived in unusually calm conditions for “Windy Welly” and anchored for the night off Oriental Bay, with beautiful Carter Fountain…
When we traveled from Fiordland to Stewart Island earlier this month, we rounded Southwest Cape, our first of the five great capes. The other four are Southwest Cape, Tasmania; Cape Leeuwin, southwest Australia; Cape of Good Hope, Africa and Cape Horn, Chile. We also reached 47 degrees 2 minutes, the farthest south we will be…
Before visiting New Zealand, our main knowledge of the Hauraki Gulf was that big body of water where the 2000 and 2003 America’s Cup races were fought. But it actually is a major cruising destination and marine protected area. The 1.2-hectare Hauraki Gulf Marine Park comprises more than 50 islands and includes Great Barrier Island…
Auckland’s Sky Tower stands 1076 feet high and is the tallest freestanding structure in the southern hemisphere. On a clear day, the views from the tower are spectacular. Besides several restaurants and observation decks, visitors also can experience the tower from the outside, either through a Sky Walk or a Sky Jump. Sky Walk participants…
Even after travelling through the South Pacific, New Zealand’s Bay of Islands is a standout cruising destination with many sheltered anchorages, walking trails to viewpoints, and several nearby towns for provisioning or enjoying a meal ashore. Opua, in the Bay of Islands, was our first landing in New Zealand after a 1,200-mile run from Port…
Last Friday we hauled out at Norsand Boatyard in Whangarei, New Zealand for bottom paint, zinc replacement and other minor work. This was the first time Dirona has been lifted on a rail-trailer, where the boat is pulled ashore while it rests on a track-mounted trailer. All other times we’ve used a TravelLift, that lifts…