Seasons greetings to you.

We seem to have taken all of 2009 in crossing the Pacific. Mind you it is about 7000 miles from Colon in Panama to Opua in New Zealand, or at least it is the way we sailed! We traversed the Panama canal in February and arrived in new Zealand in mid October. Most of the time the crew was just Will and Margaret although Stephen and Susan helped us through the Canal and came for a holiday in Tahiti, and Kevin Ballantyne (our Atlantic crew) came with us for the difficult passage between Tonga and New Zealand.

Atlantia performed well during the year although the genoa/forestay fitting parted in the middle of the night in the middle of the Pacific, the propeller nearly fell off, and some of the rigging, including three spreaders, has been required to be replaced in Opua. The wiring was also upgraded in Opua and we are pleased to say that we now have an AIS on board which shows all the commercial vessels where we are and visa versa. It is a great innovation in deepwater cruising which will certainly improve our safety. Many thanks to Kevin who donated most of the system and to Ian of Ishka who did a sterling job running up the masts to install the system for us. We found New Zealand remarkably cold when we arrived there in October since it was only just coming into spring time there. Snow reports told us of snow at 400 metres in the South Island, although Opua which is in the north island has never seen snow. After five years of non use, and with the help of the local Seapower technician we managed to re-engage the glowplug Webasto heater which took the chill off the boat before we retired at night.

Before Kevin left us we had a great cruise around the Bay of Islands in Atlantia. We took Kerry with us as well. A talented man who speaks mandarin, cooks, climbs masts, fixes lights and rigging (on Atlantia) and crews with Frans on 'Son of the Sun' on his way around the world. He also walks and climbs a bit faster than us, but then he is quite a lot younger!

We had a great deal of fun and nearly ended up towing a seaplane to safety off Paradise beach. As it was, we lent our jump-leads to them, but they still couldn't manage to start the engine. They were towed by another boat to safety and repair.

We hired a car for three days and drove on the correct side ( the left hand side) of the road up to the very north of New Zealand, to Rainga Point. This is the area that the Maoris believe their dead souls depart from to travel back to their Valhalla on the island of Raiatia where their ancestors came from, and where we visited the sacred Marae with alters to the ancestors. The area is much respected.

We passed through the most beautiful scenery, very reminiscent of that of the border country between England and Scotland. Rolling, grassy hills, dotted with sheep and dairy farms and some very interesting trees native to New Zealand.

Ghost trees, which live up to their ethereal name in the spring, reaching their bare white limbs hauntingly to the sky; and New Zealand pines which could have been pine trees as drawn by a child, with easily identifiable individual branches reducing in size as the trunk climbs gracefully to the sky, like one tutu wearing ballerina standing on top of a slightly larger one, and so on down to the earth. We saw one of these trees all on its own, perched at the very top of an almost perfectly conical hill. It was quite an alarming sight to see a child's colouring book spring to life. Not that New Zealand is childish in any sense. It is a country where men are men, and sheep are afraid. Or so they said on New Zealand radio. They also have an excellent classical music station there. It plays some very unusual classics that don't appear on radio 3 or classic f m. It is nice to listen to some alternative pieces from ones favourite composers for a change.

We passed by 90 mile beach, a very long hard stretch of sand which substituted for a road north until recently, and is still used by uninsured vehicles that don't mind being bogged down and covered by the rising tide. We met some exuberant Maoris jumping in the air for joy of life. They asked us to take a photograph of them in the air which wasn't too hard since they jumped quite high. The problem came when they asked us to jump in the air whilst they took a photo of us. We may have managed two inches, but it probably doesn't show in the pictures.

We visited a forest which was the preserve for Kauri trees. Kauris have a very smooth bark and a very thick trunk and they terminate a long way from the ground much the same as a telegraph pole. Thereafter some wispy branches straggle from the top upwards and outwards. Your son or daughter may have drawn such a tree in their colouring book. You might have laughed then but such trees actually exist.

There was a Maori wedding being performed under the biggest Kauri tree in the world whilst we were there, complete with priest and music from the boom box. Two vintage ford cars took the bride and groom away and Margaret practised her Maori language on the bride's grandfather . Kiaora, means hello or greetings in Maori. He looked quite fierce with his long white beard and his tinnie in hand, before Margaret said hello.

Kiaora kiaora means thank you when the same two words are strung together. A number of Maori words are doubled up, such as Keri Keri, the local market town, and Wiki Wiki head, which you pass on your starboard hand as you pass into the Bay of Islands from Tonga. We learned that the population of New Zealand is about 4 million people. Perhaps ten percent of these are Maoris who originally came from the Society Islands about 2000 years ago. We tried to find out how many Maoris lived in New Zealand before the British arrived in the mid nineteenth century, but have yet to find out. It was probably many more than the present 400,000 since it is well known that their population was ravaged by the European diseases of measles and flu. Most places in the world that we have been to so far have been ravaged by these or similar diseases. Russel in the Bay of Islands used to be the European capital of New Zealand in the mid eighteen hundreds. In the early 1830s Darwin, during his voyage round the world on the Beagle, visited Russel. He was appalled that the British and American whalers and sealers appeared just to be a drunken rabble. He gave money to the local parson to help form a temperance society. There is no doubt that the recruiting drive was successful, since Russel is now one of the calmest and sleepiest towns we have ever seen with the oldest purpose built church in New Zealand.

Regrettably over half of the houses are for sale, summer home victims of the recession, but the museum is most interesting with a substantially sized model of the Endeavour, Captain Cook's ship. Over the bay and about a mile away lies the home of the first representatives of the Kings and Queens of Britain. It is next to the House of the Ancestors, which is the Maoris sacred meeting place. A bit like church and church hall rolled into one. The houses are on the grounds of the area where the signing of the treaty of Waitanga took place in 1836. this was a treaty between the British and the Maori chiefs where it was agreed that the Europeans would not disrupt the Maori way of life and that the British could settle amongst the Maoris and help repel any boarders. This was ostensibly to keep out the French who had designs to annex New Zealand to France, much as she succeeded later in doing to the rest of South Seas Polynesia. The Maoris did not trust the French. The Maoris welcomed British technology, organisation religion and guns. Some Maoris found out that although the foreign religion helped pacify the warring clans and prevented slavery, nevertheless the British philosophy of land ownership was very different to their own. The British delineated land ownership for individuals, whereas, in Maori custom land was common, to be looked after by everyone. This basic difference in philosophy led to the Maori Wars, which only finished in 1876. New Zealand became a protectorate of Great Britain rather than a colony, although it was initially ruled by the Governor of Australia. Perhaps needless to say the Maoris have had to acquiesce to the British notion of land ownership although there is no doubt that the two nations try hard to live in some harmony, especially at the grass routes level; although there is also evidence of racialism at political level.

We were given an exhibition of the Maori Hakka by the junior school boys and girls at the yacht club in Opua in honour of all the boats reaching there from abroad. They appeared to be well integrated and performed the songs of welcome admirably. We were also entertained at the 'House of the Ancestors' at the Waitanga treaty grounds on flagstaff hill, this time by Maoris who were all descended from the local tribes and chiefs. They gave a very good performance of the Maori dances and story of the local tribes both before the British Missionaries arrival and afterwards. The major difference we noted between the New Zealand Polynesian, or Maori dances, and those of French Polynesia, further north and east was the airing of the tongue by the southern men and the shaking of the hands and rolling of the eyes by the southern women. Otherwise the dances are similar and equally graceful.

We tried to ask why the difference occurred but did not receive an appropriate or sensible answer. The only reason we can think of is that they emulate some royal family of the past who perhaps did not have all their reason. Perhaps they think it is dignified, such as the Spaniards do, who now pronounce their c with a lisp simply because their king in the nineteenth century was unable to pronounce his cs properly. We will keep asking and will let you know if we find a credible answer.

After losing all the crew in the direction of the 'States and Australia, Will and Margaret cruised north for a day to Whangeroa Harbour, past little blue penguins, wild islands and rocks.

The Harbour is a marvellous natural stretch of water accessed between two high and rugged headlands and comprising three very different types of landscape. The first to the north, resembles a Norwegian fjord towards its head. There are steep rocks at the edges. We anchored close to the Dukes Nose which was supposed to be reminiscent of the facial silhouette of the Duke of Edinburgh, it is! The area was beautiful and very quiet.

We rowed around the head of the loch and saw a number of summer shacks nestling at the foot of the cliffs. We left Atlantia at the anchorage and sailed Dipper up to Whangeroa. A five hour sail against the current up the harbour. We were rewarded with a very tasty fish and chip lunch at the local gamefish club, run by Sally. We had 'bluenose' as our fish in a light batter. It was similar to cod but much less dense.

The next day we motored Atlantia up to Whangeroa. This time it took half an hour rather than the five hours of the day before. Whangeroa is surrounded by flat farmland and oyster farms abound in the shallow estuaries around. We anchored in six metres of water and rowed ashore. It was surprising how much like an English country lane in spring time the road appeared to be.

We passed an old boat building yard, which had been famous in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries for its Kauri wood motor launches. One had passed us whilst we were at anchor. The ladies had all been muffled up in scarves and hats to keep out the cold. The third type of landscape to be found at the harbour is similar to that found in the estuaries of Devon and |Cornwall. Deciduous wooded slopes surround calm areas of water with the occasional field full of cows ambling down towards the water. Oyster catchers should abound, the oysters certainly do. On every rock surrounding the water, but the birds are comparatively scarce, and quite a lot smaller than the British variety. The native kingfisher has a vibrant blue back and is quite common around the harbour.

On our return to the Bay of Islands we anchored in the shallow and very sheltered estuary of Keri Keri. We explored the inlet in Dipper, this time rowing the five miles up to the town basin at the Old Stone Store, and past a splendid, if small, steamboat.

The stone store is the oldest stone building in New Zealand and dates from the 1840s. As well as being a secure store for farm implements and grain, it was also used to store the local Bishops books at one time, so could almost have been termed a library. It was a barracks at the end of the Maori wars in the 1870s but is now a shop on the lower floor and an excellent museum on the first floor. (or second floor if you use the American English version!).

It is also the base for the traditionally dressed local ladies who give an excellent history of the area and tell tales of the positive interaction between the Maoris and the British colonists, in addition to the tale of the local Maoris returning to the area from raiding the neighbouring Maori tribes for slaves and potatoes. The town of Keri Keri is about a mile from there up quite a steep hill. We just made it without collapsing and were rewarded by buying a leg of lamb from Churchill's, the first stand alone butchers shop that we had seen since Ireland! The meat was the best we had tasted since Scotland!

We sailed Dipper around the estuaries of Opua a few miles away, where we anchored Atlantia. On one occasion, in the wilds of almost nowhere, we were waved at vigorously by some people building a house high up on a bluff. We thought they were being very friendly but they may just have been warning us that the water was very shallow where we were. We didn't go aground however and were swept back to Atlantia on a two knot current.

The week prior to leaving for Scotland was spent enhancing the electronics and painting cetol on the covering boards to the main saloon deck. The cetol has lasted for a year, which is acceptable for any varnish in a tropical climate, and it managed to keep Atlantia looking smart the whole way across the Pacific.

We flew Emirate Airlines from Auckland via Melbourne , Australia, to Dubai. It was an 18 hour flight but we were looked after very well by the stewardesses and arrived very refreshed to be met by Margaret's sister Alison at 0530 in the morning. Since we tend to have a watch system for two of us of three hours on watch and three hours off, we don't seem to have much trouble with long haul flights and sleep very well. This doesn't always work afterwards however when there are so many exciting things to see, such as in Sharja. One tends to think of the desert as being flat sand, like a vast beach, but this doesn't seem to be the case around Sharja and Dubai where there are many small trees and shrubs overlying the arid ground. Arid that is except for the roundabouts, which are a luscious green, watered with fresh water produced from seawater by the reverse osmosis method. Similar to the process we use on Atlantia for our fresh water, but on a much larger scale. Whilst we were there it was the 38th year of independence from Britain, and National Day. We saw some interesting holiday pursuits such as picnicking on the roundabouts

or getting bogged down driving over the sand dunes.

They also go skiing on proper snow in Dubai, but inside, and the new outing is to travel on the driverless, ultra modern, clean, efficient, metro. Since there is no driver everybody crowds around the front window to take photographs. We were no exception.

The buildings in Dubai are spectacular and the Burg Dubai is the tallest building in the world at about 830 metres. It is truly 'awesome ' as they say in New Zealand. The other buildings are on a grand scale as well, although there has been a slow down in construction recently due to the world recession. Last year a third of the worlds tower cranes could be found in Dubai, feeding its insatiable appetite for building. This year regrettably it is noticeable how many tower cranes and jack up oil rigs are lying idle. We visited the world famous artificial islands, The Palms. Although impressed by the uniformity of buildings along the palm 'trunk' we could not quite see the necessity for the crowded building out into the sea when there is so much land available in the desert closer to the centre of Dubai and Sharja. It seemed to be an extravagance.

Alison and Andy were most hospitable, even providing the entertainment of the Dubai seven aside rugby tournament, which was very exciting. The fact that it was dominated by New Zealand and the Polynesians, who we had just met, made it doubly so. We were treated to an Arabian feast cooked by Andy and had a very tasty lunch overlooking Dubai creek

with the newly weds, cousin Jonathan and Lynsey, from Scotland, on their honeymoon.

We have spent Christmas at Margaret's mother and Father's cottage at Lochgair in Argyllshire. We think it is the thirty third Christmas we have spent here and are very pleased Stephen and Susan have joined us in this white winter wonderland. Once again the hospitality has been exemplary and we have very much enjoyed ourselves.

We were pleased to be able to visit Adrian and Lynn in Norfolk and John and Barbara in Sussex before Christmas. It was good to see everybody and we were followed around the country by the snow as we drove from place to place. Thank you to everyone who has given us such a generous welcome on our visit. We hope to be able to visit more friends soon but are very sorry not to see everybody before we leave in early January.

Hopefully our travellers tales have helped to take your mind away from the dire straits that the New Labour government seem to have plunged Britain into. Perhaps the self aggrandising, selfish, people will have been voted out of office before too long and your life may become a little better. May 2010 be good to you. For us? It will see us across to Australia and over to Indonesia and Singapore and perhaps a little further before the years end. That's the plan anyway, but a cruising sailors plans are apparently set in aspic. Mmmm hope you like the pics,

Love Atlantia