Tag Archives: new zealand

Sweet As….New Zealand

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New Zealand, specifically Whangarei, has been our home for the past 8 months.  We have had an amazing time exploring this beautiful country, meeting new friends, and getting lots of much needed work done on our beloved Sugar Shack.  As our Kiwi friends say, ‘sweet as’ time!  “Sweet as” means “good, right, ok, excellent, great… in Kiwi”

Sugar Shack spent most of her time tied to the dock at Town Basin Marina while she got her make over.  Many locals knew us by Sugar Shack as she was a constant for so long.

Lots of Work Done:

We managed to get a lot of work done on Sugar Shack.  The boat was under construction and in complete chaos for nearly 6 months.  

  1. (2) New Lithium House Batteries
  2. (5) New windows on the cabin
  3. Rebedded all of the other windows and painted protective covering
  4. New Dinghy and new chaps to cover her
  5. New Interior cushions
  6. New Exterior cushions
  7. New Cockpit enclosure
  8. New Main sail and Genoa (by North Sails)
  9. New Stack pack
  10. New Stainless Steel countertops
  11. New Ceiling panels and new interior lights
  12. New artwork and pillow covers

She looks like a new boat….almost.  Just a few more things to do when we come back.  Sweet as!  You are probably thinking…what “come back?”  Yep, we decided to come back to New Zealand next season (which is just a few short months away).

Next Season

New Zealand has the expertise and resources to work on Sugar Shack.  So, we decided to come back to replace our bottom paint with copper coat.  This requires highly skilled workers to apply the copper coat properly. We are also considering a wrap around Sugar Shack to make the side of the hulls look better.  Still in the researching and contemplating stages on the wrap.

Hopefully, we will come back, haul out for a few weeks, then spend the rest of our time sailing around New Zealand as opposed to sitting at the dock.

But with a nightly view as sweet as this…who can complain?

Our blogs run 10-12 weeks behind actual events.  We left New Zealand in early July.  

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?

Road Trip Highlights

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Did you enjoy riding along with us on our month long road trip across the north and south islands of New Zealand? We had so much fun exploring and adventuring  and sure hope you have the opportunity to explore it in person some day.

If you are interested in getting a copy of our itinerary, please email us at christine@svSugarShack.com.  The itinerary is broken down by day, with kilometers to each location, links to all activities, bars, restaurants, and hotels.  Here is a recap of our road trip.

Overall journey was well over 5,000km and took us about 28 days.

Here are highlights of each major stop:

North Island

Auckland- The City of Sails: Sky Tower and Viaduct

Loads of fun in Waitomo starting with the beautiful glow worms

And The Lost World Adventure where we abseiled 100m into the earth!

The road trip continues to Wellington, the southern most point in the North island and the capital of NZ.

South Island

We take a ferry across the straight to the South Island.  We visit the Nelson Classic Car Museum and take a Sky Wire ride over the valleys and trees.

The Abel Tasman Forest has several really cool hikes and caves to explore.

Next we make our way down the west side of the south island:  Westport, Charleston, Greymouth and Inchbonnie.

The absolutely beautiful pancake rocks stun us with their unique beauty.

We took a phenomenal helicopter ride over the Franz Josef glacier and dozens of other glaciers.

We get perplexed at Puzzling World and see a huge waterfall in Wanaka.

Definitely one of the highlights for me was our Shotover Jet Boat ride.  A truly thrilling and exhilarating experience!

My favorite day was our trip to Milford Sound where we took a 5.5 hour bus ride, 2 hour boat ride, and 45 minute plane over one of the world’s 8th wonders!

We make it all the way to the southern most point of the south island, Stirling Point at 46 36.53!

Stewart Island

Although we did not technically “drive” to Stewart Island (as you can’t bring your car over), we did take a ferry and enjoyed exploring this “3rd island” of New Zealand.

Our road trip finally turns us around and we have to head back north.  We start by going NE toward Dunedin which has the world’s steepest street (San Francisco has the world’s crookedest street).

We find beautiful, little blue penguins and a steampunk museum in Oamaru!

Christchurch is a city of potential being rebuilt after several natural disasters.

North Island

Tongariro National Park is the home of the world’s best one day hike.  Even though we could not do it, we did manage to hike over 15miles in 2 days.

Lake Tapu has many hot springs, geysers, and mud pools.

One of my favorite waterfalls is Huka Falls where 200,000 liters of water push through the falls every 9 minutes.

Orakei Koroko Geothermal Pools fascinated me with the vibrant colors, geysers, and hot pools.

The road trip continues on to Rotorua where we take a float plane over the lakes, volcano, and hot springs.

We loved the Redwood Tree Walk where we crossed over 28 swing bridges!

And we conclude our road trip with a relaxing day at Polynesia Spa where we soak in acidic and alkaline hot springs.

A truly once in a lifetime experience to be able to explore this amazing country by land.  Even though I felt like we saw a lot, we did not touch on so many other wonderful things.   I think a return visit will be in our future.

Events from this blog occurred in mid-February to mid-March 2023.  Our blog posts run 10-12 weeks behind actual live events.