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Auckland, New Zealand
The flight from Wellington to
Auckland took about an hour and a half and when we arrived,
the sky was heavily overcast with scattered rain. It was late
afternoon and we were tired so we decided to stay in the room
and order room service. I watched CNN and since there was
a washer and dryer in the room, Ashley did the laundry. As
I had mentioned in an earlier journal, our friend Susan Roberton
from Scottsdale, Arizona had gotten us in contact with her
cousin, Peter Little who lives in Auckland. He called that
evening and said that he would pick us up for golf at 9:30
AM the next morning.
We were in the lobby of the hotel
with our golf clubs in tow when he arrived. We made our introductions
and knew right away that we were going to get along famously.
It was a 30-minute drive to his house where we picked up his
lovely wife, Jo, and by 11:00 AM we were on the first tee
of the Gulf Harbour Golf Club. We all had our fingers crossed,
because although the sky was still heavily overcast, there
was no rain. We decided to play a Better Ball format with
the boys against the girls. The game was decided on the last
hole and ended in a draw and the rain never came.
We then returned to the Little's
home where we met their daughter, Jennie and their eight-month-old
grandson, Michael. A bit later, their neighbors, Warren and
Marea Osborne, came over and we had a great visit while our
host and hostess prepared the evening meal. Pete fired up
the Barbie and soon the leg of lamb was on the spit. Jo was
in the kitchen preparing the vegetables that had been gathered
from Pete's garden earlier that morning. It was the first
time since John and Caroline Oakes had hosted our Bon Voyage
party on October 5 that we had been treated to the hospitality
of someone's home. It was a very special evening. We played
with young Michael, shared stories, and made friends with
some wonderful people.
Their home is located on a peninsula
with a back yard that is right on the beach. They designed
the house and did much of the work in building it. The back
of the house is almost all glass and provides a great view
of the lawn, the beach and the bay beyond. The rain again
held off and the clouds cleared enough so that we had a beautiful
sunset. They have a large Pohutukawa tree in the back yard.
At Christmas, it is covered in red flowers. Its nickname is
the New Zealand Christmas tree.
I'm sure that you are all familiar
with the Americas Cup yacht race. The United States had held
the cup for about one hundred years before Australia finally
won it a few years back. We saw the site of their victory
during our visit to Perth, Australia. Since that time, New
Zealand has won it two consecutive times and is the current
Cup holder. They will be defending it against several competing
teams in the next year or so. The Kiwis have built an impressive
Americas Cup Village in the Auckland harbor where all of the
teams have their individual complexes. The challengers include
Great Britain, Italy, Switzerland, Sweden, and three teams
from the United States.
The skipper of the New Zealand
boats that won the last two competitions is Russell Coutts
who happens to be Pete and Jo's son-in-law, Jennie's husband.
Russell had previously also won an Olympic Gold Medal in yachting
for New Zealand. He has since been lured over to the Swiss
team where he is heading up their effort. It was quite a controversial
move and it seems that everyone in New Zealand has an opinion
of one kind or the other.
On Thursday morning, Pete and
Jo picked us up for a visit to the Olympic Village and the
Swiss facility. When we arrived, we saw the remnants of hundreds
of flower bouquets that had been left outside of the New Zealand
compound in remembrance of Sir Peter Blake who had been killed
by pirates on the Amazon River earlier in the week. Earlier
that morning, the flowers had been spread on the water of
his beloved sea. Russell took time from his busy schedule
to welcome us to the impressive layout of the Swiss facility.
One of the team members, Tamara, showed us around and soon
we were out on the dock watching some of the yachts go by
on their way out of the harbor to do some sailing. I was standing
on the near the water when the Team New Zealand boat sailed
by. I quickly took my camera and began taking photos. I noticed
that the sailors were waving at me and of course I waved back
as I clicked away. That's when I heard them shouting, "No
pictures!"
Within minutes, Brian, Russell's
number two, came out on the dock to advise me that he had
just received a complaint from Team New Zealand regarding
someone taking pictures of their boat from the Swiss Compound.
It seems that there is a rule against taking pictures of boats
from competing facilities. Brian told me that they had caught
New Zealand taking pictures of their boat a few days earlier
with a camera covered by a newspaper. This sport involves
a lot of high technology that is carefully guarded by the
various teams. I told Brian that I would be willing to delete
the offensive pictures from my digital camera but only in
the presence of a representative of Team New Zealand. Soon,
Brian and I were on our way next door with my camera slung
from my shoulder.
We were ushered into a conference
room where the legal representative of Team New Zealand was
waiting. We sat down together and I dutifully deleted my photos
as he watched. When we had finished, Brian said to the other
gentleman, "If you are satisfied that we have disposed of
this issue, I believe we need to discuss the pictures taken
previously of our boat". Brian then turned to me, smiled and
said, "Sorry for any inconvenience this has caused you. We
will not detain you any further." With that, I exited leaving
the two men to conclude their discussion.
Peter then invited us to go out
on his boat to chase some of the racing yachts and perhaps
do some fishing. The girls declined, deciding instead to do
some shopping in Auckland. Within 30 minutes, Pete and I were
away from the dock and headed towards the bay and whatever
adventure awaited us. We spotted two boats that seemed to
be within our range and began the chase. They turned out to
be the team from Great Britain. All of the teams have two
boats and sail them together. I believe that is so they can
test various rigging and compare the performance of the two
under identical weather conditions. I was unable to get a
good picture because the seas were very rough and I couldn't
keep the camera from moving.
We then decided to do some fishing.
Pete found a cove behind a small island where it was calmer
and we soon had our hooks on the bottom in 25 meters (~ 80
feet) of water. Within minutes, I had a strike. It was the
hoped for Snapper and large enough to provide Ashley and me
a wonderful dinner. We sailed back to the marina and drove
to the hotel where we were reunited with the girls. After
saying goodbye to our most gracious host and hostess, we dined
on our Snapper that the hotel chef had been so kind as to
grill for us.
Our nine days in New Zealand
were probably the highlight of our journey thus far. Although
the weather was less than perfect, the people, the scenery,
and our experiences were the best. We would definitely consider
a return to this island paradise.
Till next time,
Pat
P.S. It is now Friday, December
14 and we have begun our 8,000-mile trip across the Pacific
Ocean. Today, our itinerary will take us from Auckland, New
Zealand to Nandi, Fiji, a distance of 1,164 miles. When we
arrived at the Auckland airport, Tom comments that we are
again facing a headwind but we should have adequate fuel to
complete the leg. We are airborne at around 10:30 AM with
an expected flight time of about six hours. Two hours out
over open water, Tom announces that the winds are much stronger
than reported and that we can't make it. We will have to turn
back to Auckland, refuel, and begin again. This time we will
first fly 586 miles to Norfolk Island, Australia, refuel,
and then continue another 854 miles to Nandi, Fiji. It is
almost 300 miles further this way but beats swimming the last
100 miles.
We left Norfolk Island about
thirty minutes ago and are on our way to Fiji. The winds are
now helping us so we should have plenty of fuel to spare.
By the way, Norfolk Island has lots of Norfolk Island pines.
It is a small island that was formally a penal colony. It
is quite beautiful and if you are ever in this neighborhood,
it's worth a visit.
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