Christmas 2017 ...

Merry Christmas to all from us on SOL 

Our very natural Christmas Tree

We left Whangarei Tuesday 19^th December and sailed in a good 15 to 20 knot breeze down to Algies Bay, passing so many familiar places on the way – Langs Beach, Waipu Cove, Mangawhai, Te Arai, Pakiri, Omaha and Takatu Peninsula before going out the back of Kawau Island then turning towards Sandspit and Algies. Unfortunately, as we went around the bottom of Kawau we had to drop the sails and motor – a very bumpy wind against tide ride – the port engine overheated. So, under one engine we limped to the mooring in Algies we had borrowed.

Once we were safely moored – albeit rather hesitantly as it was very close to two other boats – we inspected the damage - the issue we had had with our starboard engine back almost a year ago to the day had occurred on the opposite side – we had melted our port engine water lock box. So, first thing Wednesday morning we walked to Snells Beach to Mahurangi Marine and managed to source a replacement which was in Albany and our very kind friend, Colin Chester, drove from Silverdale to pick it up and delivered it to us. We hadn’t seen Colin for ages and spent time catching up over coffee and cake on SOL. Colin then dropped us in Warkworth where we walked the car yards in search of a cheap, tidy, reliable car for the next 5 months – we found a pretty good 2008 Toyota Camry for sale privately and by 730pm we were its new owners. We celebrated with a drive into Snells for fish and chips for dinner!!

John and Sibyl - looking just the same!!

Whilst in Warkworth we dropped in on John and Sibyl Patrick, Sibyl used to look after the children after school back in the days when we had Warkworth Printing and was like a grandmother to them. It was lovely to see them, and find they hadn’t changed at all – we sent a photo to the children and the resounding response was – “oh, that’s John and Sibyl” and “they’re just the same”.

Thursday was spent replacing the old water lock box and checking there were no further problems. Then, as my sister, Theresa and her husband Des had arrived up to their holiday house here in Algies it was off to have drinks with them!! They have been so very helpful, especially with finding us the mooring here in Algies. 

Friday morning dawned overcast, drizzly, and initially with limited visibility but we headed to Kawau anyway. By the time we arrived in Mansion House Bay though, it was another beautiful day. We anchored SOL just metres from the beach, walked around and up to the Coppermine Lookout. It’s a pity but due to some wind damage causing trees down, most of the tracks are closed at the moment.

Mansion House, Kawau Island

We decided not to go through the publicly owned historic house – originally the home of the Coppermine superintendent then purchased in 1862 by Sir George Grey, former governor of New Zealand – this time, we will do this when we have visitors aboard, so just wandered the grounds. The Department of Conservation has, over many years, reintroduced many of the plants Sir George had, spending many hours on the manicured gardens and the house has been restored and furnished to how it was in his time.

Anchored so close we could almost walk ashore!!

Friday night we availed ourselves of the free bbq ashore (eating another yummy tuna meal) then to bed, planning to explore more bays of this island Saturday, maybe going into the bay where we had owned a bach and spent all the summers of our childhood – Speedy Bay, between Bon Accord Harbour and North Cove. However, the ever-clumsy Mrs Docker managed to sustain a nasty eye injury and after an extremely painful sleepless night, Saturday morning saw us racing back to the mooring at Algies, then spending two hours waiting at the doctors’ surgery before having confirmed that, yes, a rather large piece of cornea had been scraped from my right eye by an errant fingernail when removing contact lenses. Local anaesthetic drops gave instant relief, to be followed over the next few days with drops for pain and as a precaution against infection, and the warning that it probably not improve until at least Christmas Day. Grrrr.

Christmas morning, we drove down to Norah (my stepmother) in Castor Bay then to Christmas lunch in the Rest Home in Forrest Hill with Thomas, my father. We had a superb lunch, then spent some time sitting outside on the deck with him (dozing) so we left him to rest. We went back to Norah’s then down to Castor Bay beach before tackling the traffic back to Christmas dinner with Theresa and Des. Sandy, Jamie and their three young children (Sandy is my niece) were there too so even though we didn’t have our children close we still had a lovely family Christmas Day.

Wednesday 27^th December, we drove to Orewa 35km south, to renew our NZ driving licences so we could change the car ownership, and do a couple of other bits and pieces – not a good plan we discovered when having done what we wanted to do we started the drive back north – everyone else had decided to go north as well – the traffic was banked up bumper to bumper from just out of Orewa. Enough of this, my ever-patient in traffic, husband said after looking at the stationary line of cars ahead of us, and he turned around. 

We decided that even if it took just as much time, we would take the scenic route – through Waiwera, Puhoi, Ahuroa then out towards Kaipara Flats before turning back to Warkworth – and we had the road to ourselves.

Puhoi is the place where my ancestors came to from Bohemia (in the Black Forest area on the Czechoslovakia-German border) back in 1863. The Turnwald block was at Ahuroa. So often we have been here in the past but never tire of it.

A visit to Puhoi is never complete without a trip to the old cemetery

Between Puhoi and Ahuroa

Nearing Algies we got a call from Theresa to tell us that Des, who had been keeping an eye on SOL from their place, felt that the little red wreck of an abandoned sailboat moored behind us appeared rather too close for comfort, so we hotfooted it back to find that – yes – it was almost in our cockpit!!

Time to move.

So, at 2.30pm we waved them goodbye for now and set off in the direction of Whangaparaoa.

And it's "Cheers" to all for a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year