Having
spent three months in Europe and Asia I returned to Auckland for one month as
planned to take advantage of the New Zealand summer for cruising, exploring and
racing.
Zefiro
had been looked after with good care by Jeri the Mate and his crew Zaw and
Nanda. We engaged Keiran Russel, a local sailor in order to sail comfortably in
a three- watch- system for the duration of our three week cruise around the
North Island and to take care of the Yacht at anchor whilst Jeri and I were
away exploring the South Island by car. Keiran would also act as a chef.
Provision was stored on board and less than 24 hours after my arrival we sailed
out of Auckland harbor with a nice easterly breeze for a short and fast sail to
Kawau Island, just 30 NM north.
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| We anchored in a large bay and I was happy to test the new tender, which had been manufactured during the three months stay at Auckland. It’s a very good and strong 4,90 m dinghy with a 70 HP Yamaha Outboard engine. |
We visited the 19th century mansion of Sir George Grey, the notorious and influential Governor of New Zealand who owned this island as a personal playground while his country was fighting many wars with the native Maoris for land, which he wanted for English settlers. The nicely restored house has original interior, which gives us a good idea of the lifestyle in those days. Quite comfortable and the well-maintained Victorian gardens certainly added to the grand presence.
The
weather report had predicted quite rough weather at the east side of the North
Island and we had therefore chosen to sail anti clockwise down on the west
side. The calm anchor bay at Kawau had given us a good night’s sleep and we set
off in the morning rounding Cape Reinga at midnight. A fresh easterly kicked in
and Zefiro speeded down south on a fast reach. By sunset the second day we were
close to the impressive sight of Mount Egmont a coned volcano above the town of
New Plymouth. Mount Egmont is now called Mt. Taranaki. Maori names are seen
everywhere in a delayed quilt over the former colonization of their lands. We
were now heading directly to the Cook Strait where the Marlborough sounds were
waiting for us.
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| Quite a shock was expecting us at daylight when we observed the gooseneck pin had been broken. (This is where the boom is attached to the mast). |
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| The bottom part of the Tang fitting had cracked as a result of the broken pin and the massive boom was hanging loosely down from the attached mainsail. |
We were extremely
lucky in that wind and sea state this morning were very calm so we could
stabilize the 12 m long and 600 KG boom by tightening it with extra halyards
and ropes to the mast and lower the mainsail. Scary to imagine what could have
happened if had occurred in bad weather. It would have been very expensive and
we could have lost even the mast in case the boom would have jammed into the
rig. Imagine this to happen in the Pacific thousands of miles away from
civilization. In our case we were just 100 miles away from our
destination.
Sunday
morning after three days at sea we arrived at the Cook Strait, named after
Captain Cook who found shelter in the famous Marlborough Sound in 1770 - like
Abel Tasman much earlier in 1642 - from the funneling winds in the channel
between the two large Islands. We entered the Queen Charlotte Sound and
dropped anchor in Waikama Bay around the corner of the South Island gateway-
town Picton. We had clocked 700 miles. The beauty of the surrounding green
scenery made us forget our accident for a while, we were very grateful for our
luck in the fateful incident. The next morning though we had to get active in
our attempt to repair the damage. I was still wondering whether we would have
to abandon our planned Millennium Cup Regatta in Auckland in about two weeks.
And yet we were lucky again. The well-known boat builder Ian Franklin had just
set up a new boatyard at the old shipyard of Mortensen at Picton after he had
lost everything during the terrible Earthquake at Christchurch two years
earlier. His tools were still at the unpacked containers. But he had big
experience in the construction of carbon built race boats and our rig is made
of carbon. The examination with Franklin on board convinced us we were in
good hands with the repairs. Also Southern Spars, Zefiro’s mast builder agreed
to make a new pin of the highest quality under guarantee terms. We had reason
to believe the original pin – made by Nordic Masts in Danmark – to be of
inferior quality. Southern Spars had acquired Nordic Masts a few years ago.
With
the repairs set into motion Jeri and I were ready to commence the long
anticipated excursion of the South Island. We rented a car and drove the roads
crossing the famous sounds to Nelson where we found many old Victorian houses
and a Museum with historical stories and fascinating displays explaining the
wars of the British with the native Maoris.
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| There was still time in late afternoon to visit Blenheim the famous wine growing plateau where we had dinner at the beautiful Gardens of the renowned swiss immigrant winemaker Hans Herzog. |
The
next morning an 800 km drive took us down the wild West coast, passing the
widely known gold miners town Greymouth where in 2010 deep underground 29
miners got trapped.
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| The next stop was Franz-Josef-Glacier where by coincidence we met Angus and Leslie, the owners of Calliope who unknowingly were on a similar excursion as us. |
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| Sunset dinner and early breakfast we took on the shore of lake Matheson. The views at Mounts Cook and Tasman were impressive. Nice memories of the mirror reflections in the retracting morning dew over the glassy waters of the lake. |
A further stop at the iconic Fox Glacier saw us
climbing up and we noticed the sad glacier reduction thanks to global warming,
the blue iced edge of the pre-times frozen snowfields still remaining very
impressive.
At
noon we were off another 600 km across the South Island mountain range to the
stunning fabled mountain lakes around Queenstown. In the surroundings of the town with its 29.000 inhabitants many locations were used to make the film trilogy “Lord of the Rings”. The
environment of Lake Wakatipu offers countless nature excursions of which we chose
a few.
The
next morning we took a helicopter for the long dreamed about flight to the
majestic Milford Sound in the Fjord land with remote and untouched black sand
beaches and deserted glaciers in the endless scenery made world famous by Peter
Jackson's movies.
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| An unforgettable memory. |
From Queenstown we headed back north
300 km and stopped to view Mount Cook (renamed Mount Aoraki) and the Alpine Museum giving the history of climbing the highest peak of New Zealand and of
course its most famous climber Sir Edmund Hillary.
Again
300 km later over deserted highland roads we reached Christchurch. This used to
be New Zealand’s most lively city centered around a gothic architecture with
it’s highlight the famous cathedral. Now the Centre of the city is no man’s land
– New Zealand’s Ground Zero. Two years ago an earthquake flattened the complete
city centre, killing 185 people. The cathedral lost its twin towers. We found
rooms at the only hotel still standing. The view over the city with the
destroyed buildings, rubble heaps and empty streets were very sad. I read the
government was contemplating whether it might be cheaper to rebuild the City at
a new location.
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| Yet the citizens don’t seem to give up and they seem to have hope in the tristesse. Near our Hotel they have started a shopping and Restaurant village placed in and around painted containers in fresh colours. |
We had dinner and breakfast at a 100-year-old Restaurant, a wooden building that had luckily survived the violent movements.
The
drive back to Picton on the east coast needed Jeri’s full concentration; the
roads were mountainous full of serpentines. He mastered the trip in a very
efficient way and I felt safe throughout the 2.500 km journey.
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| We stopped of course at the world-renowned Cloudy Bay winery and bought same bottles of 2012 Chardonnay. |
Throughout
our seven day excursion we had been in contact with Keiran who was supervising
the repairs and we knew progress was according to plan and finally when the pin
had arrived from Auckland and the boom refitted we decided to wait for a
day for the 40 knot wind to calm down in order to avoid the dangerous Cook
Strait waves.
670
miles later after an uneventful cruise we dropped anchor early Sunday morning
at Waiheke Island, a relaxed upmarket hideaway community just 2 hours sail from
Auckland. We celebrated with a nice lunch at a good restaurant overlooking the
Hauraki Gulf and the Skyline of Auckland enjoying a typical New Zealand summer
day.
Monday
morning, February 11th, we moored back at Viaduct Marina at Hobson’s Wharf,
the circumnavigation of the New Zealand North Island counted 1.400 nautical
miles. Zefiro had done 37.000 miles since she left Cape Town, South Africa in
August 2009. Now ee had to prepare for the Millennium Cup Regatta.
Auckland
is the city of sails. The Yacht Industry is famous; everybody seems to be a
sailor. The expertise is second to none and it was not difficult to find
excellent sailors to race on Zefiro. We had our sails repaired at Doyle Sail
makers and so the word spread around quickly.
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|
Jeri
had organized a perfect team and so including the four already on board we were 15. |
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| During the three days leading to the race we had one day of practice and unloaded about 4,5 tons of equipment - needed on a world navigation but not during a race. Extra anchor and chain, ropes and a lot of other stuff went to the pier or was stored ashore. |
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| The three races took place Friday, Saturday and Sunday and the weather was just perfect with sunny skies, winds between 12 and 25 knots breeze and flat waters. We won the first two days and lost on the third day by 15 seconds, so we came first overall comfortably. |
Thanks to our dream team sailing crew we won the
Millennium Cup 2013 and hope to be back one day at Auckland for another
Millennium Cup but even more so to spend time in this beautiful country with
its easy going, hospitable people.
