Category Archives: Locations

Places around the world

New Zealand Jade

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Jade, Green Stone or Pounamu are just a few names of the many names for New Zealand Nephrite.  This greenstone plays a vital role in Maori culture.  It is considered a treasure or “Taonga”.  Jade is only found in the South Island of New Zealand, known in the Maori language as  “Te Wai Pounamu” (“The Greenstone Water”).

Only one Maori tribe has rights to collect and carve NZ pounamu / jade and they are from the west coast of the South Island. This tribe is the largest in NZ and is called Ngāi Tahu.  Only members of this tribe are allowed to collect, harvest, and carve NZ jade. And you have to be born into this tribe in order to have access the stone.

All pounamu is sourced from riverbeds and boulders in the South Island, especially the West Coast. The colour and markings of each stone vary according to its river source.

Jade can be found in other parts of the world, but it is a distinctly different type.  Jade in NZ is very difficult to carve because it is very hard and is not typically translucent.  Chinese jade for example is softer, easier to carve, and often see through when you hold it up to the light.  Thus the cost is much less expensive.

New Zealand Greenstone

Below are large pieces of jade.  In the upper left photo I am kneeling by a typical boulder found at the river bed that has been exposed by hundreds of years of water wearing its surface to expose the beautiful jade.  The dolphin in the lower right is a piece from China.

I could not resist. I had to get a kiwi made of NZ greenstone and I bought a pendent which is a symbol of strength and hope.

Tbeautiful greenstone is in many shops but you have to be very careful not to buy a piece made from a foreign country.  I was told to ask the merchant where the jade was made and by which tribe or carver.  The answer will easily reflect the origin of the stone.

Events from this blog occurred in May 2023.  Our blog posts run 8-10 weeks behind live events.  In our last blog I introduce you to our new ghost who was very mischievous!

New Zealand Quirks & Oddities

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Every country is full of funny quirks.  Of course they are not quirky to the locals, just to the foreigners.  I thought I would share some of the quirks that stood out the most to us.

During our month-long road trip I mentioned the narrow, windy two-lane highways.  In fact, I would venture to say that 90% of the roads in NZ are 2 lane (one lane each way), windy, narrow roads. The pay off is that they all have spectacular views of mountains, glaciers, valleys, hillsides, rivers, or pastures.

But what I did not mention were the numerous one-lane bridges.   Usually one side has “right-away” but most times the cars just proceed ahead and hope that there is no oncoming traffic – it is frightening and amusing.  Matt calls these “shoot out bridge” because in Texas the biggest vehicle would have right away or the smaller one would be shot.

Adventure or Quirk?

Pedestrians do not have the right away unless they use a rare and very specific, designated cross walk (which are far and few between).  These beauties are hard to find and are not located in most intersections.  Maybe this is not a quirk but rather part of the adventure of being a New Zealander?  Here is one of the elusive “proper” cross walks with orange dots and white cross lines on the street.

Kiwi’s risk their own lives each time they get on a bicycles.  So many locals ride bikes on these narrow, windy roads and there is no bike lane or shoulder.  They share the road with cars.  And if there is no passing lane, you are stuck behind the bike until you can safely pass.  It is super surprising to me that they don’t have bike lanes for all the adventure loving bicycle riding locals.

It seems that all New Zealanders are adventurers. I am sure it is not “all” but seriously we run into locals all the time doing something heart stopping and thrilling.  I love that they are very outdoorsy, fun loving, and living life fully.

An Everyday Quirk?

We stayed at over 25 different hotels ranging from backpacker motels to 4-star hotels.  Every single one had a mini fridge with milk stocked in it.  Most of the hotels had heated towel racks which I love!

There are a lot of men, boys, and teens with mullets!  Not just one or two here and there, but a lot!  I was told that mullets never really went out of style in NZ and that there is a huge resurgence now.

All of the plugs have on/off switches.  Took some getting used to frankly as I was perplexed why our devices were not charging while plugged in. You have to plug in and turn on the switch.

All eateries, cafes, bars, fancy restaurants have a “pay at the bar” system.  We’ve sat and waited for the check at many places only to be told to go to the bar to pay.  Slightly embarrassing, but we are learning.

It is absolutely “normal” to go barefoot into a grocery store, market, or restaurant.

A lot of New Zealanders own classic cars.  Not really a quirk to most.  But what was a quirk to me was that they actually drive them and get them out on the roads and truly enjoy taking them out for a spin or showing them off in the parking lots.  Americans tend to keep their classics locked up to be admired not enjoyed.  It was great fun to see all of the classic cars on the roads.

Really Funny Quirks

We saw a lot of really funny, quirky signs around New Zealand.  They like to post signs that “talk to the drivers on the road” but I missed most of them as we drove by.  I saw a lot of signs showing the proper way to sit on a toilet – do you think this is a quirk?

On New Year’s Eve, most of the bars and restaurants were closed by 10pm.  Kiwis celebrate on the beach or the few places that stay open in Auckland.  When we asked why they were not open it was because the cost to employ people to work on NYE was too high.

I am sure many of these “quirks” are absolutely normal to New Zealanders.  But to me, they are lovely little quirks that make me love NZ that much more!

Our blog posts run about 10-12 weeks behind actual events.  Events from this blog post occurred during our 6-month stay in New Zealand (Nov.2022-May.2023).  We unveil our brand new high tech North 3Di Sails in our last blog – did you read it?

New Canvas: Inside and Out

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New canvas!  We replaced all of our interior and exterior cushions when we purchased Sugar Shack in 2010.  Do you remember the horrid teal pleather that was on the boat when we bought it?  The shop in Turkey did a really great job replacing the cushions and covering them.  We replaced the interior cushions with a beautiful, light tan micro suede called Alcantera and the exterior cushions had a sturdy, stainproof, water resistant beige sunbrella. 

Fast forward to today…if you were to look at our cushions from afar you might wonder why we were replacing the fabric…Even I think they look pretty darn good from this shot.

But, when you look closely, the fabric has started pulling away at the seams especially around the bolsters.  Unfortunately, this is not fixable.  I know, I tried and it doesn’t hold as the fabric is too thin and worn to hold the thread and glue.

And some of the cushions have actually worn through the fabric on the sides.

Exterior Cushions

The exterior cockpit cushions are holding up a little better but they are stained and looking a little tired.  They are also retaining water (when it rains the cockpit gets wet) which takes ages to dry out.

Shopping for a Dressmaker

One of the first things that we did when we arrived in New Zealand (Nov.2022) was to look for canvas makers.  We knew this would be a huge job and so we wanted to get on the books early on.  We met with several companies and decided on Masterpieces in Canvas.  The owner, Kim, is very professional, has amazing creative ideas, great suggestions, and a reputation for stellar work.

The Pending Canvas Projects:

  • Replace fabric on interior Cushions (7 backs, 8 bottoms, 1 nav seat, 2 bench seats, 1 round seat)
  • Recover exterior cushions (3 long cockpit cushions, 2 helm seats)
  • New back bolster covers at helm seats
  • Dinghy Chaps / cover
  • Cockpit enclosure
  • Sail Bag Cover (North Sails will provide this)

We selected a new, hardier interior fabric that is a macro-suede in Ash (left photo).  For the exterior, we selected two types of a new (to us) fabric called Sauleda.  The main cushions and helm seats will be in light silver gray called Tandem Piedra.  The new dinghy chaps, sail bag, helm bolsters and cockpit enclosure will be in a darker gray called Tandem Grafito.

The macro-suede is water and stain resistant and can be scrubbed and cleaned.  The Sauleda is waterproof, stain proof and much stronger than Sunbrella.  It has more threads making it a sturdier fabric.

The Big Reveal:

The new cushions came in and boy oh boy are we excited.  They turned out so beautifully that we did not want to sit on them!  The color is perfect, the material is soft and luxurious, and the design is perfect.

Kim has great attention to detail which can be found in all the seams, curves, and design.  Yours truly (Christine) made the beautiful, buttery soft blanket in the bottom photo.

The bottom side even turned out really nice.  She used a beautiful black phifertex, with sturdy zippers and wood on the bottom (so your bottom doesn’t sink into the holes below)

The seat at our navigation table even came out super cool.  We bought a new chair and had Kim recover it to match the cushions.  This new chair is on a swivel so it turns around and will lift up so we can still access the storage underneath it.

Outside Canvas work

The vendor in Turkey did a great job providing us with large, cushy cushions.  All we needed to do was add a little more water proofing and new canvas.  They came out beautiful as well.

Cockpit Enclosure

Matt and I had made our rain and sun shades and they were very tired and did not completely enclose the cockpit so when it rained everything got wet.  Kim and Matt designed our new enclosure that has windows and is completely enclosed.  We will most likely only use the large back panel and the two side panels (not the corners) on a daily basis.

From the inside…excuse the mess but we are still under construction…

A New Dinghy and Chaps

Our amazing Avon 3.4 lasted over 22 years!  She was a spectacular dinghy and lasted way beyond expectations.  She had a deep “V” bottom, a false floor so we had a flat surface to stand on inside dinghy, tall transom, locker with hawes pipe and 3 pontoons.  But she had several slow leaks and we just could not keep up with them.  We thought about just replacing the pontoons because we loved this dinghy so much, but the cost was equivalent to a new dinghy.

Avon no longer makes small dinghies (they just make gigantic dinghies) so we could not even replace her with another one just like her.  In fact, we had a lot of problems finding a dinghy we liked.  We wanted a 3.6M dinghy, with a deep “V”, false bottom, tall transom (for our long shaft outboard), and hypalon pontoons.  But, New Zealand does not sell dinghies with hypalon pontoons because they are too expensive and they don’t sell.  So, we had to go with a pvc version which just are not as strong or sturdy.  What can you do? Just means the life span of this dinghy will be maybe 5-7 years tops.

We sell our beloved Sweetie along with our old 8hp Mercury outboard.

The gorgeous new outfit for Sweetie 2.0

And we get new chaps made for the new dinghy to protect the pontoons.  Sweetie 2.0.  The far left photo has shadows from the trees – the bow is actually perfect.  Kim added two beautiful pockets and the craftsmanship around each cut out is simply amazing (lower left photo).

Here is a photo of Kim and Roger (our sailmaker)

Events from this blog occurred between April-May 2023.  Our blog posts run 8-10 weeks behind actual events. We replace all of our ceiling panels, ceiling lights and update the master bath in our last blog.