🇳🇿️ Back in the Westerlies

Ahoi, land ahead! At dawn the first contours of New Zealand become visible. The gentle wind that brought us here all the way from Fiji has now turned into a stiff headwind. We should have stayed in the lee of the east coast for shelter. Engine on. Speed over ground only 2 knots, what to do ?….

Our only option to reach land, Bream Head near Whangarei, is to motor-sail the last 80 nautical miles.

On arrival in New Zealand one must prove that your boats bottom is clean and that any food on board complies with the strict New Zealand biosecurity rules. At inspection time it turned out we had thrown away far far more than was necessary! All in all the check-in process was smooth, fast and everyone was really friendly and that is a nice surprise directly after a 8-9 day passage.

The staff at Marsden Cove marina are lovely. We spent a few days relaxing at the marina where there is everything you need. We liked the way you punched in a code to get through the gates and the same one for the toilets and laundrette. Hiring a car for the day was made easy at the marina office and not too pricey.

Stella drove us to Whangarei to visit our friends Chris and Biru who are on a mooring at the town marina. The roads are fine but getting stopped after 5 minutes for driving too slowly by a police car as soon as we reached the main road, with sirens and jazzy lights was rather unexpected.

Whangarei is a nice town with plenty of art and there is lots to do. We walked round the Hundertwasser Art Center which is memorable. The Austrian artist Hundertwasser moved to Whangarei in 1973 when he was 40 years old. He was invited to design the curved and colorful building in the above photo which took until 2022 to complete, although he died in 2000 before that happened.

You can buy anything in Whangarei: there is a large selection of marine shops, second hand shops, organic shops and big supermarkets like Pack ’n Save. Even “forgotten” foods are available and it is mostly New Zealand grown.

After our return to Marsden Cove marina we were just in time to get supper at one of the many food trucks that had gathered for the monthly foodie experience on the grass at Marsden. Happy locals and cruisers sitting on rugs on the grass eating delish take aways and enjoying the evening sunshine . Really a foodie place this New Zealand, so it seems. We had samosa’s, vegan butter chicken, masala dossa’s, and a Korean dish. All absolutely scrumptious and the sun set after a great day out.

Our days in Marsden Cove marina are over and our adventure to explore New Zealand has started!