Far North Adventures: Part 1

This week has been a marvelous adventure! We have so much to tell you that this blog will be in three parts, over the next few days.

We left Mangawhai Heads before dawn on Tuesday and headed north. Along the way we just had to stop and record this view of an island off the coast putting on a good imitation of Mount Doom as the sun rose!



We stopped for a necessary 'pit-stop' in the small town of Kawakawa and found ourselves confronted by a FAMOUS public toilet designed by a well-known NZ artist, Friedrich Hundertwasser, in 1999. Hundertwasser involved the members of the community in this project, having the local school students make many of the ceramic pieces. It's truly amazing and its "colourful exuberance" has, as the brochure says, "put the Northland town of Kawakawa on the international tourist route." Frank assured me that the men's side was just as cool. New Zealand--it constantly surprises you!

We arrived in Pahia just in time to pick up our tickets and catch the passenger ferry across the bay to Russell, where we boarded our home for the day, the tall ship R. Tucker Thompson! This replica of a classic sailing ship was built in 1976 and has sailed to many destinations including Vancouver, but at the moment it is offering day and week tourist experiences in the beautiful Bay if Islands. And what an experience it was! This shot is a not-so-good photo of a photo to show you the ship under full sail (when you are ON the ship, you can't get this shot!), and the other shows her with sails reefed as we lunched in a sheltered cove.
I took dozens of photos of the impressive masts, sails, and rigging, but here are just two to give you an idea of how majestic it all was.

The rather multicultural crew (Australian skipper Sam, Welsh cook Andree, and 3 other young people, only one a native Kiwi) were welcoming and competent, and made our day exciting but comfortable. It was really impressive to see these young folks (none over 30) deftly handle the complicated sails and rigging as a well-oiled team. They are shown here briefly relaxing after serving the 8 passengers tea and scones with jam and whipped cream (delicious!) mid-morning.
Just after our tea break, there was great excitement as we were briefly joined by a small pod of dolphins playing and swimming alongside. Hard to get a good shot of these swift creatures, but here's an attempt to capture one...

The crew members were clearly very experienced...as Andree's tattoo attests! She may be a 'Pyrate Queen' but she's a great cook--the lunch of curried chicken salad and fresh mussels was fabulous, even if I couldn't bring myself to eat the mussels (Frank said they were wonderful--I'll take his word for it).

While we were at anchor at lunchtime, we were invited to try climbing the rigging. Frank got pretty high up, and I decided to challenge myself to trying it too...not bad for a couple of oldies, eh?

I also got a chance to steer the ship for a short while. As you can see, I was lovin' every second! Along the way we saw the bay where Captain Cook (the first European to NZ) harboured (now aptly named Anchorage Bay) way back in 1770--not too memorable a sight unless you know the historical significance, but anyway!

Most of the day was clear and sunny, but late in the afternoon a brief squall blew up and we had the excitement of clinging to one edge of the deck while the other edge was underwater as the ship heeled over hard to run with the wind. Very thrilling! I couldn't take too many photos as the rain and sea were threatening the camera, but hope you can get an idea from these few.

We were sorry to see the harbour come into view at the end of a fabulously memorable day. It was an experience we will both treasure and would recommend to anyone visiting New Zealand.

Back on the mainland, we drove another hour north to Mangonui to our overnight stop at the Waterfront Apartments. The beautiful sight that met our eyes as we entered our room was almost enough to make us forget our regret at the day coming to an end. A huge bed dressed in pure white silky linens and brocade cushions, draped in a lacy net canopy, with vibrant orange hibiscus blooms adorning the bedside tables, a full kitchen, and a living room complete with free current DVD's and microwave popcorn--bliss! The evening view out over the harbour from our large balcony completed the magic. What a perfect day!!