Letter from Atlantia April 2010

In mid January we flew back to New Zealand on Emirates Airlines, via Dubai. Margaret's sister, Alison and her husband , Andy, entertained us once more, this time with a rather unique party in the desert. A Christmas tree burning ceremony. We think this is unique to Sharja. The trees were given points for looks and burnability as well as some points by the judges which nobody really understood. It didn't seem to be a particularly religious ceremony but seemed quite fitting to mark the end of a Christian occasion in a Muslim country. Burning seems to have been quite common in times gone past to cleanse the spirit as well as the body. Fortunately it is only bonfires of boats and palettes that seem to be burned nowadays, rather than heretics! Although the Chinese burn paper prayers to watch them rise to the gods in the heavens, and the Cardinals burn white or black smoke when they are deliberating about a new Pope. The fire safety officer would certainly have been pleased with Alison and Andy's friends, the bonfires were miles away from anywhere, in a really arid desert.

We followed a scorpion about the sand trying to capture its picture. It would have given a particularly nasty sting had any of the barefooted children inadvertently stepped on it. Luckily it didn't leave its mark on anybody.

We were given a gruelling time at Dubai airport because we only had one way tickets to New Zealand. It took over an hour to book in after many phone calls to New Zealand immigration. We realise and are grateful that some rules are necessary to exclude terrorists from planes, but we were not aware that plane hijackers and terrorists only bought one way tickets to save on the fares. The very nice booking clerk gave us the best seats he could to make up for the fuss that NZ immigration seemed to have made. Will was very grateful for the extra legroom.

Having been let back into New Zealand we had a quick look at the sights of Auckland. It truly is the City of Sails. Most of the boats did not have their sails up though, and about 250,000 of them were in marinas close to the city. There were Americas cup class yachts that one could charter for match racing

and Michael Faye's 'big boat', an America's cup challenger in the 1990's, dominates the top of the wharf outside the maritime museum. It looks a bit like a stranded whale on a stilt. It was beaten by Dennis Conner of the USA after a little rule bending. Rule bending seems to have been a trait of the America's Cup and a number of challenges have been fought out in the courtrooms of America rather than on the water. Of course the latest America's cup has just been won by an American trimaran, which beat a Swiss catamaran in two races, after extensive try ons in a Swiss courtroom and try outs in the wind tunnels. Both syndicate heads were New Zealanders who seem to make a great deal of money out of the whole scenario. It seems a pity that the British are too sensible (or too poor) to compete any more, although gold medallist Ben Ainslee is leading a British consortium in the Louis Viton cup. This is a formula one circuit on water,occurring in various parts of the world and sailed in Americas cup class boats. The Kiwis won the last one in Auckland a few weeks ago. In New Zealand they take their yacht racing very seriously , and they are very good at it, especially match racing. We have seen this practised at many local clubs around the Bay of Islands.

Except for the marine side of life the rest of Auckland is a bit dull. A few hills, a park and a university, and a Queen Street, where the fashionable used to parade and is now just a hotchpotch of differing building designs and gap sites. The most modern buildings are about 18 stories high and every one of them has the name of one of the big five accountancy firms written in glaring letters on the top. There is also the sky tower, which is a London GPO tower lookalike. The central part is called Sky City but only about twenty blocks rise over ten stories whilst it quickly peters down to about three stories within a mile. The old Victorian Post Office and Customs houses are very impressive though. Regrettably they have been converted to shopping centres. Altogether we felt disappointed that the economy, which is starting to revive here, was not showing beyond the tourist waterfront cafés and bars. New Zealand is trying to catch up with the Australian economy, which has just exploited a considerable number of new mineral resources. It seems a slightly forlorn hope at present when there is much debate going on as to whether even unobtrusive mining should be allowed in one of the very many conservation areas. It seems that most of the land in New Zealand is 'conserved'. This is fine if the political and economic ambitions do not lie elsewhere.

Back on the boat we were soon down to hard work again. We hauled out to antifoul and to change the propeller. The old propeller had given sterling service but was really falling apart at its tips. We were fortunate that Koos, of Opua Engineering, found us a second hand propeller almost the same as our old one, and it was installed with all the correct nuts and pins. It has worked extremely well since its installation.. Atlantia is very happy.

The local painters were good, if a little pricey. Paul, the local rigger, and his British team were very efficient, replacing bits of rigging, spreaders and fittings. Atlantia feels as safe now from falling masts as she ever has done. We were befriended and helped by our neighbour in the yard, Hylton. He owns a tug which was standing in the yard in front of us and he was painting it a very striking red. He is an avid Scotiaphile and has books on puffers, crofts and lochs in his library. We were fortunate enough to be invited for drinks at his lovely house, which overlooks the Opua marina and the river generally. A great position.

After we relaunched we invited John and Nicole from Gannet, and Jim and Marion from Balu to join us on Atlantia for the national (Waitangi) day celebrations. There were Polynesian migration catamarans in evidence as well as the largest Waka, or war canoe, in the world. There was a little rubber safety boat running around getting in the way of photographs. Why it was there is anybodies guess,since it was already full with four officials and had the Waka capsized there would have been more than a hundred people in the water to save. We heard the Maori war chants as they floated quickly by, flashing their paddles and changing sides every six strokes to keep their canoe on an even course. There are no outriggers on the southern Polynesian canoes. They are kept afloat by balance, brute size and power. The chief stands at the stern with his steering oar shouting his commands and leading the chants. A bit like Atlantia . There was a 21 gun salute and we saw the smoke. The breeze was regrettably away from us and it was very difficult to hear the guns, let alone the brass bands and other many shoreside celebrations. We all had a very relaxing day and Will and Marion discovered that they had both frequented Leigh on Sea Sailing club at the same time in the late 1960s. The world is indeed small. Marion's maiden name was Day and apparently her family still live in Leigh.

We set off soon after for a cruise to South Island. Just the three of us, Atlantia, Margaret and Will. We tried to buy a pilot book that would take us around the whole of both Islands, but to no avail. The only book that seemed to cover most aspects was Clay's book about South Pacific anchorages which we had used for the last 4000 miles. Obviously a good buy in the UK. We were told that if we wanted to go to South Island we should go north around the top and down the west coast of North Island for four days until we reached Cook Straight. We fancied exploring the east coast so we thought we would sail that way instead. Regrettably we chose incorrectly.

We had a wonderful voyage out of the Bay of Islands and through the Huraki Gulf where Auckland is situated, and thence on down to the Bay of Plenty. It certainly looked like the bay of plenty since the small fishing boats always seemed to have at least one fishing line taught when we passed them. We reached as far South as Tauranga and mount Manganui. We were making for East Cape, about half way down the east coast of North Island, when the wind turned against us and went light with a lumpy cross sea. At the same time severe storms were forecast for the area about 100 miles south of us , and where we were going. Since we really hadn't properly explored the Huraki gulf, or the adjacent Coromandel peninsula, we decided that discretion was the better part of valour and that we should turn around and head north again. We didn't want to sail into gale force headwinds for a week when there are better things to do. Instead, at a much later date, we took a camper van around South Island. Of which more in the next blog.

We were woken at three in the morning after we had turned north to our first anchorage at Mayor Island. A sport fishing boat was shouting that there was a tsunami warning, and the coastguard had radioed to tell him so. If he had listened to the VHF he would have learned that the wave was predicted to be one foot high (300mm) and wasn't due into our area until 0930. Another six and a half hours. We went back to bed whilst the anchorage cleared of local motor boats. At the civilised hour of 0730 we had a telephone call from Stephen in Glasgow telling us a tsunami warning had been issued by the powers that be. It is nice to know that our family still look out for us, and we were pleased to allay his fears on the matter and gave him some details. At 0930 when the wave was due we were on the high seas. The tsunami wave of 150 mm swept majestically below us. The swell was over 1500 mm high at the time so it was a bit hard to tell if it was really there. Fortunately there was no damage on shore either. Apparently this was the third time that a warning had been issued recently without any real effect. Hopefully the warning won't be issued once too often.

We visited Great Mercury island with its beautiful white cliffs and sandy beach. We dredged for scallops and actually found one of the right size. It was very tasty.

We rode out a near gale at Great Barrier Island in the completely smooth inlet of Port Fitzroy Harbour and had a very relaxing time exploring this inland water wonderland. Great for sailing Dipper around, even in the strongest wind. We walked for eight and a half hours along tracks and dirt roads on Great Barrier Island to see three pieces of wood that used to be part of a Kaurie dam. In the nineteenth century the loggers used to fell the huge Kaurie trees and then roll and push them to a position in the nearby stream. They then built a Kaurie dam in front of the logs, and when they were floating they pulled the plug (released the dam). The Kaurie logs tumbled down the water course on the flood, until they grounded again. Another Kaurie dam was constructed and the plug pulled again. And so on until the logs reached the sea and they could be floated to the saw mill to be processed. The planks proved to be some of the most durable and stable in the world and were much prized in New Zealand for building boats and houses. The trees are now protected since they can take 1000 years to grow to a decent size, and there are naturally only a few left. (the pictures were taken during a visit to a fully reconstructed Kaurie dam when Stephen and Susan visited).

We sailed to Coromandel harbour, a large sheltered bay on the west side of the Coromandel peninsular. It was a pretty village reached up a very muddy creek. We saw black swans at the entrance to the creek. It was low tide so we didn't think the black was caused entirely by their natural feather colouring, but they were very graceful as they took off.

The population of the village of Coromandel increases from about 2000 in normal times to about 20000 during March, when they have a local arts and food festival. Fortunately we just missed the festival. We had a lovely sail in plenty of wind to Man o War bay on Waiheke island and caught a blue fish on the way. Very good eating for two days. We walked to Stony Batter, up a long road and past various vineyards. Stony Batter was the site of gun emplacements during the second world war. Fortunately the guns were never used in anger. The museum was small but concise and the tunnels were expensive and therefore unvisited. The lady in charge was the first person in New Zealand we had found who appeared taciturn. Her sheep said more when it came to join us for lunch at the picnic table. It had a leather collar on though and appeared quite tame. They were harvesting grapes when we walked back down the hill and it looked like hard backbreaking work. We were passed on a few occasions by lorries carrying large bins of grapes to the presses.

When we thankfully reached the beach at Man o War bay we made straight for the waterside bench to have a good rest. We never made it. We were very kindly invited invited to join the double seventieth birthday party that we had to pass through to the bench. Eight delightful New Zealanders, who had all been to university together 50 years ago, were using the public barbecue area for their lunch. We were fed and wined and cannot thank them enough for their wonderful hospitality. One of them lived in Auckland. He said Aucklanders were known to other Kiwis as Jafas ( just another f---- Aucklander). After lunch we were taken along the beach to where an old Victorian house had once stood. The house had been visited in the late nineteenth century by the then Prince of Wales who had arrived in a man o war, hence the name of the bay. Regrettably the house had been demolished.

It has been obvious in our travels in New Zealand, that by far the majority of New Zealanders are open honest friendly and intelligent. We have been very impressed. Mind you, most of them, or their forebears came from either Britain or Polynesia, so perhaps it is hardly surprising! We visited one or two other places on our cruise to see if they would be suitable places for Stephen and Susan to visit when they came to visit us, during their all too short visit to us in March.

Hugo and Gislayne from Beduina who now live in Auckland kindly helped to pick up Stephen and Susan at Auckland airport and we were able to show them the waterfront at Auckland and the environs of the Viaduct Marina where we had moored the boat for a few days. On the one day of their holiday when it poured with rain we managed to find ourselves visiting the Maritime museum. It is well worth visiting. Not only does it demonstrate the history of dugout canoes and catamarans from the northern Polynesian islands but it also gives very good examples of the newer history of dinghy sailing and Sir Peter Blake's triumphs in the round the world races and the Americas cups of the 1980's and 90's and into this century. The modern technology displayed was impressive and we even designed a 'cupper' on the computer and beat a stalking horse on a race simulation. This is the land of the water jet engine designed by Mr. Hamilton in the South Island in the mid 1940's and there is an excellent exhibit of them in the museum. There are many good local examples of the engine, which is used by small power boats as well as well as medium sized ferries. Of course the engine is also used in jet skis, which are not really our favourites, perhaps more because of the inexperienced users who know little about sea safety, than the machines themselves.

Mind you, we have found that safety from sharks is perhaps more difficult on land than in the water. We only just managed to escape some financial sharks in Scotland with the help of Scottish legal and financial lifesavers, to whom many thanks. Regrettably we have fallen foul of some very shallow water sharks on the internet in Auckland who hijacked our email contacts and tried to send a bulk mailing to everybody on our email list encouraging them to buy I phones. Please accept our sincere apologies if you received an email that was headed 'hey', it was not from us. You probably noticed that anyway, since their English was far from grammatically correct. We now have a new email address which is wrudd@hotmail.co.uk (not underlined) which we would be grateful if you could use in future. Our original address has been shut by hotmail and at present we are unable to access our addresses, although hopefully we will persuade them to give us our contacts back again. Perhaps you could email to our new address so we can have you on record again. Sorry for the trouble! We look forward to hearing from you though.

As a family we sailed all around the Huraki gulf and had a following wind wherever we went. The wind in New Zealand really does go round in circles. On this occasion the wind blew between 10 and 35 knots making for some exhilarating passages. Stephen or Susan steered most of the time, keeping a straight wake where it was not swept away by the waves. We visited Great Barrier Island where Stephen, Susan and Margaret climbed mount Hobson, at a mere 2000 feet.

They walked another 9 hours to the hot springs and then collected 1000 cockles. Will made a rather good appetizer with some of the cockles together with shrimps, avocados and a sweet chilli sauce. The rest of the cockles were pickled in white and wine vinegar for use in the future.

We visited the the Mansion House on Kawau Island,which had been created by Sir Charles Gray in the late 19th century. He was a a governor of New Zealand twice in the 19th century. He brought in many Australian species of fauna and flora. The wallabies seen on the lawns are descended from the collection he made.

The Weka which thrives here is a native bird however. Like the Kiwi it has no wings for flight but is quite an attractive bird running around the the grounds of the house.

The house itself is quite grand with some interesting local features. Much of the general architecture is of traditional British type, whether large or small, but has a tin roof and a balcony, or usually a covered terrace tacked onto the front elevation. There is often some attractive fretwork adorning the beams between the columns, which are about eight feet apart (appx 2.5 metres). Some of the single storey buildings, and especially the older ones, are very pretty.

Having sailed to Tiritiri Matangi island we were really pleased to see the Takahe bird. This is another flightless bird indigenous to New Zealand. There are only about 400 of them left in the world. We saw six of them including a fledgling and felt very privileged.

The reason that there are so many unique flightless birds in New Zealand is that originally in the country there were no ground predators. With the arrival of the Maori about two thousand years ago, and the British nearly two hundred years ago, the dog, cat, rat, stoat, weasel and Australian possum have all been introduced. These, and the humans, have reduced the number of the flightless birds almost to extinction. In the case of the moa, they were all eaten by the Maoris! There is presently a very conscious effort to eradicate the introduced species in their wild form and to limit the areas and numbers of domestic dogs and cats. Hopefully this will save the indigenous birds for future generations. The bell birds were singing on Tiritiri with resonant sounds,

and the Tui who look like a large blackbird but with two white bibs under their chins were also making a lovely call, and the stitchbirds were flitting from flower to flower.

We sailed up from the Huraki gulf to the Bay of Islands, the scene of our original landfall. On the way we stopped of at the old whaling station at Wangamumu,which had been shut down in the 1930's. It is a very isolated place, and was closed when New Zealanders realised they were biting off the hand that fed them. There are now a number of whale and dolphin watching boats that operate out of the Bay of Islands and are far more profitable now than they would have been killing whales. 'Home again' in the Bay of Islands we were surprised to see a myriad of small craft on waters that had been virtually deserted during October and November. There seemed to be nearly enough room for all though, including a wonderful school of dusky dolphins. They seemed to be unphased by some unruly driving by some of the small private fishing boats, which were going too fast despite the rules that govern behaviour of boats near wildlife. We had thought that New Zealand was rather draconian in some of its rules and regulations concerning wildlife, but can now fully endorse the authorities common sense solutions put into law. If only all 'Kiwis' would adhere to them!

. We hired a car to take Susan and Stephen to Auckland airport after a last, very enjoyable, supper with John and Nicole. It was sad to see them go despite the fact that we had given them a very good look at the wild life and the outdoor life of North Island New Zealand and its hospitable people. We have just travelled around South Island in a camper van and hope to show you some of our adventures around there in our next blog. Coming Soon to a Computer near You. In the meantime we hope you like the pics

Love Atlantia