Category Archives: Locations

Places around the world

New Zealand Welcomes Sugar Shack

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As luck would have it, we arrive at Marsden Cove, New Zealand around 3:00am.  Not a good time to navigate new waters in the dark of night (not even a full moon out).  Tricky, do we attempt to go in without tracks or knowledge of the area or do we motor in circles until daybreak?

As we are contemplating our options, another boat called Only Time pops up and look like they are heading to the same place as us.  Sweet.  We call them on the radio and ask if we could follow them in.  Not ideal, but certainly better than circling around for hours!

Marsden Cove has a beautiful statue of waves lit up at night.

Once tied up to the “Q” dock or Quarantine Dock we grab a few hours of sleep before the officials come aboard.

The next day, we are greeted with customs, immigration, maritime/border control and bio security.  The first three went super well as we had all the documents completed and prepared ahead of time.  I was sorely disappointed that they did not ask to see proof of a clean bottom!  Especially since I spent over 4 hours cleaning it before we left.  Ugh!

The last person to come onboard is bio security.  NZ is very, very strict about what you can and cannot bring into the country.  You have to declare everything and they have the right to take anything that is on the list.  For example:

Prohibited Items

  • Fresh fruit, produce, vegetables
  • Eggs, dairy, milk, cheese, creams
  • Meats of any kind
  • Passage meals.  Yep, all the meals that we made for the passage that we not consumed, got tossed in the trash.  Over 8 meals!
  • Honey
  • Nuts, seeds, rice, popcorn, bay leaves
  • Sea Shells, wood products, feathers (yes, I have them all onboard)

So, after we filled two trash bags full of prohibited items he left.  Our fridge and freezers are now empty…good thing we are in a place where we can replenish them.

We are now officially allowed to cruise the New Zealand waters!  Success!  

After we are cleared into the country, we have to get off the Q dock and we can take down our yellow Q flag and put up the NZ flag.

Town Basin Marina

We untie from the dock and make the 2 hour motor from Marsden Cove Marina to Town Basin Marina which is up the river.  As we motor along, we are greeted by beautiful green hillsides and lovely homes.  

On the way to Town Basin Marina, we have to cross under the Te Matau a Pohe (Fish Hook) bridge.  So, we hail the bridge operator and ask him to stop traffic, raise the bridge, and allow us through.  Pretty cool experience.

We tie up to the visitor dock as our regular spot is not available yet (we arrived 4 days earlier than planned).  But we are tied to a dock and near shore!  Super excited! Sugar Shack is right in front of the marina office with the red roof (with fenders out).

This marina has several side tie slips and then slips on poles where you tie to a pole in front and behind you.  We opted for the side tie slip which is more convenient, but more expensive.

We make a quick run to the grocery store, “Pak and Save” where we find Stubbs BBQ and Vegimite!  There is a nice cafe right on the dock where we stopped for lunch (see Sugar Shack in the background).  Can you tell we are very much enjoying New Zealand so far.

Stay tuned for next week when I show you all the cool things to do in Town Basin, Whangarei!

The events from this blog occurred in early November 2022.  Our blog posts run 6-8 weeks behind actual events.  Did you read about our passage from Fiji to New Zealand in our last blog post?

Yalobi Waterfalls in Waya

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We ended up leaving the rugby tournament early because a strong weather system was forecasted to come through and cause all sorts of problems for us.  So, we left after the first set, 16 games in 11-minute increments.  Our new destination is a small bay called Yalobi off the southern tip of Waya Island.

We pointed as high as we could to head North towards Waya.  We managed to sail the first 10nm.  But  we just couldn’t make it so we had to turn the engines on for the last 7nm.  Straight into the wind and waves.  Thank goodness it was only a short distance as it was not comfortable.  We got rained on several times in addition to the wind and seas on the nose.

We arrived in Yalobi Bay on Waya Island to a beautiful double rainbow, but it was only out for a short while before the wind and rain came for 18 hours straight.

The good news is that the rain has brought out the lush green hillside and created several cascading waterfalls.

When we arrived, there were 3 other boats in the anchorage.  By sunset, another 4 boats arrived to hunker down and wait out the storm.

Sun Comes a Shining

Finally, the sun comes out and we are able to go ashore to do our sevusevu and walk around the village of Yalobi.  We meet the chief and several locals who are more than happy to show us around their village with 58 families, a small infirmary, and a school.

There are lots of fabulous homes scattered in between the concrete houses.

We came across a monument which honors the many Fijians that died during the massive Spanish Flu pandemic in 1918.  Fiji lost 14% of their population in a matter of months due to the pandemic.

We strolled along the long, beautiful, beach.

And we discovered lots of cascading waterfalls that filled the streams, water tanks and livelihood of the village.

The Yalobi hillsides and village come alive after the rain storm – so green and healthy!  There was one rather large 50meter yacht that had a helicopter fly off and into the sunset.

We also found this adorable puppy that I so wanted to stuff in my backpack!

The events from this blog occurred in early September 2022.  Our blog posts run 6-8 weeks behind actual events.  We experience our first Fijian Rugby game in Yanuya – did you read about it on our last blog?

Fijian Rugby

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The Fiji rugby team has been a major force in the 2022 world rugby tournament.  It is a serious sport here in Fiji and is played on most of the islands.  We were lucky enough to be able to attend a tournament in the Mamanucas!

They started at 0700 on a Thursday morning as they had to get through 32 teams playing 11-minute games.  Each team does a prayer before each game.  One team recently lost their chief, so before their game, the entire stadium had a moment of silence. (top photo).

While 2 teams are playing on the field, the other teams are warming up on the side lines.

The teams do this fabulous thing that I call “hike the player up” when the ball goes out of bounds.  Each team raises one team member as high as they can go and those team members try to catch the ball that is thrown to them from offsides.  

To restart the game, they scrum, where both teams of 7 huddle together in a circle and one guy tosses the ball in the center.

I will tell you that these players are real men!  No falling down and pretending to be hurt (like in US basketball or soccer).  They take a hit and pop back up!  And I mean they really take a hit!  We heard them pound the ground and saw the dirt shoot up.  No pads or helmets!

Good or bad, I have no idea

A lot of “oops” moments where they just couldn’t hold on to the ball as they were pummeled to the ground.

But there were a lot of great moments and fast runners in this rugby tournament.

Most of the time, they held onto that funny football with all their might!

Almost every match had a score or more.

We were wondering what they used to mark the field and wouldn’t you know it, they use used motor oil!

The rugby players might have only played for 11 minutes, but they played harder than any other sport I’ve seen!  And it is no surprise that they played so passionately as the first-place team won $3000FJ, 2nd place won $1000FJ and the teams that lost in the semi finals each were awarded $300FJ (the entry fee).

We made lots of friends on the side lines.

After the game, we headed to their artisan market that they opened specially for us.  They had 6 rows of tables filled with local Fijian crafts.

RULES OF FIJIAN RUGY

  • No shoulder pads or helmets
  • The ball must be pitched backwards to your teammates. No forward passes
  • A team can pitch the ball back and forth to each other as many times as they like
  • There is no blocking to assist your runner
  • Everyone runs with the ball and tackles equally.
  • When you are tackled, you have 1 second to let go of the ball and purposely “fumble” the ball.  Don’t touch it again until you are up from the pile and standing on your feet.
  • When you tackle someone, you cannot touch the ball until you are on your feet.  You cannot dive on a loose ball.
  • Typically, there are 15 plays from each team, but in Fiji there are only 7 from each side.
  • When your teammate pitches the ball to you as you are running down the field, and you drop it, that is a penalty (called “knock down”)

The events from this blog occurred in early October 2022.  Our blog posts run 6-8 weeks behind actual events.  Wilson is back on Cast Away Island – did you read about it on our last blog?