Plan B (Aug 30'16) - New Zealand/Tasmania/Australia

Plan B    (June 22- Aug 30’16)

 

Following our sudden change of plans from sailing across The Pacific (the boat was sold in Tahiti), we opted to continue on to Austral-Asia and go land-yachting. In short, we traveled from Tahiti to New Zealand, Tasmania and ending the trip in Australia. 

All told we drove 15,000 kilometres in three “cramper” vans over a period of three months and absolutely loved it. This is despite the fact we were travelling in their winter period, when the sun didn’t rise until “eightish” and set by five at the latest, was very chilly (especially in New Zealand), and mostly had beaches and camp sites to ourselves.



far too many beaches like this

 

New Zealand:

South Island: From the Auckland airport, we went directly to the van rental depot and quickly experienced our first surprise. We had booked a van on-line based upon the recommendation of some seasoned Kiwis, who must still be laughing at the joke they pulled on two dumb Canucks. The van was very basic, but it was the graphics that elicited the double take. Sweat bands and cheap sun glasses were provided, but we had to buy our own weed. This was like our vanning days back in the early 70’s. Needless to say, we never had any trouble finding our chariot in a supermarket parking lot.

 

We covered the southern island in a clockwise direction and every turn in the road seemed to produce a “wow”! But apart from the heavy morning frost (which didn’t dissipate until noon where there was tree canopy, the lack of any straight road was the only misgiving (that and it was all left hand oriented) and dictated constant vigilance of the white line.

 

Everywhere, the landscape proved fascinating, but it was the Fox and Joseph Franz glaciers that topped our list. To be able to walk on the glacier beds, which only 30 years ago, were ice encased, was spectacular. Our guess is that the glacier retreat will be complete in 10 years time.

Fox Glacier

Franz Joseph Glacier

Fox Glacier bed

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Maeraki Beach meter sized marbles



Milford Sound

enroute to Milford Sound
 




Milford Sound

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

North Island: The ferry crossing to Wellington on the north island could not have been smoother.

 As before, we tried to cover the island in a clockwise direction, but frequently found because of mountain ranges – “you can’t get there from here”.  The active geo-thermal area of Rotarua was a destination not to be missed and was punctuated by the Maori villages in the area. They still utilize the boiling waters for heating, bathing and cooking. You only have to get used to the rotten eggs smell.

Geothermal Valley

Maori Village

Maori Village

Unique to the island are the monster sized Kauri trees. These giants have a trunk circumference of over 15 meters and are over 2000 years old. Fallen trunks that have been submerged in rain forest mud for 1500+ years are highly sought for furniture, because it is impervious to rot.

 

Kauri Tree
 

The landscape is a gorgeous blend of mountains and pasture land and while still very appealing, our vote went to the southern island as having the most eye candy.

The Kiwis have definitely made travelling around their country easy with abundant tourist information, rest stops, excellent signage and a welcoming attitude. The four weeks and 5,500 kilometres flew by effortlessly. We’d love the chance to revisit and walk some of the many alpine tracks which weren’t open to us at this time of year.

 

Tasmania

Being smaller in size, we opted to stay only one week and weather conditions being what they were, this was simply a touring holiday. Heavy rains closed many roads, which was taken as a common occurrence by the locals. Such wash out areas are all marked by a permanent depth indicator, so you can determine if you your vehicle can make the crossing. But generally the roads are good and distances between points short.

Over 21% of Tassies’s land is dedicated to National park and much only accessible by foot or four wheel drive. Although Tasmania is part of Australia, it is like Australia and it is not.

A good day to be ON a land-yacht

pastoral Tass - hops and grapes

Hobart



Hobart

Australia:

Like Canada, Australia is a big place and distances are large scale. We started out in Melbourne, Victoria, followed the coast NW up to Adelaide, South Australia. From there we turned NE towards Brisbane, New South Wales. Then headed south to Canberra and finally to Sydney. Without a doubt, it is our opinion that Australia has far more of their share of beautiful coastline and beaches than any where we have visited.

 

When we crossed the interior from Adelaide to Brisbane, skirting the Outback, we had anticipated vast dusty orange vistas, but found all to be green owing to the past two years of substantial rain fall. Only once did we attempt driving on an unsealed road and quickly found ourselves up to the axels in sticky red mud. Only our experience from driving in snow, saved us from a hefty tow job.

typical Outback with a little Mad Max
 

typical outback gear with reinforced roo bumper
 



go anywhere outback camper

Just west of Canberra, in the Blue Mountains, we visited the Jenolian Caves, of which there are many such sites around Australia. These particular limestone caves are 10 kilometres long and the depth has yet to be determined. They are also the oldest such caves in the world and contain limestone formations which boggle the mind. The few pics here hardly do justice to the depth of colour, size and complexity of the formations.

 

 

 





 





We could babble on for pages about the sites in the SW corner and have definitely put a return visit back onto the bucket list. Only the next visit will be to see the WNW coastline.

Home:

We are now back home in Canada, enjoying the warm fall weather and summer harvest and thinking where did the time go? We enjoyed ourselves so much, even in the cramper vans, we wonder - is there a………… land-yacht in our future? 

Before we think any more about that, we need to rescue Two Moons from the dusty boat yard in Spain and prepare her for a return trip to the west side of the Atlantic in 2018.

Best wishes to all…..G’day……….Mike and Grace  (mobile 226-600-5051)

 



camp site vermin

 

cockatoos - make crows sound like song birds

 

Mt Cook

half of NZ



12 Apostles  - Aus Great Coast Rd.

 

Marquesas-Tuamotus-Tahiti - Plan B  July ‘16

Marquesas – Nuku Hiva

Before we left the Marquesas, we rented a car to tour Nuku Hiva. The vistas we encountered were marvellous. The extreme ranges in flora as the elevation changed made you question if you were still on the same island. PICS The road itself was a challenge going from 5 kilometres of paved two lane to single lane goat track and back to paved for no explicable reason. We rarely got out of 2^nd gear! Chickens are everywhere, but in the higher elevations cows and horses roam freely (mainly on the road). Wild pigs were also a common site.

With such lush vegetation, we couldn’t understand why we needed to be at the local vegetable market by 5:00 am in order to get the slim pickings that were offered. The real treat, however, was at the local dock where fresh yellow fin tuna was to be had for $5 a kilo.

Early on the docks for fabulous tuna

A great tiki rebuild (except the palm leaf roof is plastic)

This is one island that definitely held “the wow factor” for us.

The Tuamotus

After a week at Nuku Hiva, we moved on. Having just been “fixed” after two hours the auto pilot packed it in again, which necessitated 200 more miles of hand steering.

The Tuamotus are a series of coral atolls covering an area 600kn by 1500km and are said to be the largest group of coral atolls in the world. Only half have a pass enabling a boat to enter inside the reef which must be negotiated with the tides and depending upon what the winds have been doing there could be a build-up of water inside or a deficit changing the nature of the water flow.

Look close for one that didn't get the tides right

According to Darwin these circular reefs are the remnants of a volcanic island, where the coral reefs formed around the shores. But the volcano has since disappeared leaving the low string of palm fringed islands making up the atoll.

We had no problem with our first atoll Ahe, but once inside found it littered with bouys marking the black pearl oyster beds.

Our first atoll was Ahe,  a smaller one where you can see all inner shores (motus) once inside. Some of the motus are connected by low concrete bridges built by French legionaries. The principal mode of transport around Ahe, apart from the open fishing boats was the three wheeled bicycle. Some cars and trucks, but when your stretch of road is only 5-10 kilometers the bike makes good sense. Folks were very friendly and quickly realized our high school French was something best forgotten.

The dark blue patch is 500 meters/the white is 2 meters

The string of motus ringing the atoll

Homes are smallish, run on solar panels, have large water catchment systems, with many having additional reinforcement against the winds.

This is the rope and sand bag approach

Practically everything comes in by boat from Tahiti – food, building supplies, fuel and this is reflected in the price.

Snorkelling around the many coral heads was not inspiring because the coral is struggling owing to bleaching from the sun. Fish population is diminished due to coral decline and overfishing by the locals.

Our second atoll was Rangiroa. One with a very large interior, such that you couldn’t see the other side and it had two passes. The water in the passes runs quite strong, but apparently it is wide enough and deep enough to enable a large cruise ship to slip in.

Across the atoll is a lagoon (Blue Lagoon) which could be visited by your own boat, but because of distance, the many coral heads and poor anchoring possibilities we opted for a day trip with a local tour operator. The ride over and back at 20+ knots in lumpy seas will remain memorable. But, although the lagoon was very picturesque the snorkelling was lacklustre. Inside the lagoon were many black tipped sharks (benign) ranging in length up to about one meter and constantly hovering around while swimming. Outside the lagoon, where the tour operator threw all the lunch leftovers were lemon sharks 2-3 meters long, creating quite a frenzy when the food hit the water.

 A BBQ on the beach was provided and at the end of the meal three large parrot fish were laid on the BBQ. Instinct said – don’t eat the parrot fish/they are coral fish and susceptible to ciguatera (a toxic substance that comes from the coral and works its way up the food chain). But the belly said – it looks good and the locals are eating it. Should have listened to the brain. I had an afternoon of what we dubbed Rangiroa Rage, but Magnus’ endured his for three days. – if in fact that’s what hit us.

 On the return trip the operator dropped us into the nearby pass and here the snorkelling was exceptional. Vibrant coloured coral and fish were to be found in abundance. Unfortunately it was an out going tide and we were swept past much quicker that we would have liked. So we later visited another pass by dinghy and found the same plethora of sea life, which we enjoyed at our own pace.

Before we left the Rangiroa atoll we visited a local pearl farm to learn how the oysters are seeded to create the pearl and why they are black. The pricing however remains a mystery.

Inserting the shell irritant into an oyster

Note the white shell irritant in the center

Tahiti

We were fortunate in leaving for Tahiti when we did because the weather changed and blew hard the following week. Safely inside the reef which rings Tahiti we watched the 2-3 meter waves crash upon the reef, curling along in one continuous wave for hundreds of meters. At the right sun angle the entire wave shone an azure blue. Just the stuff brochures proclaim.

Doesn't do it justice - a 3-4 meter wave breaking over the reef

Plan B

We are now moored in the Tanai Marina, Tahiti, having sailed 4600 nautical miles and have been notified by the owners that they are selling the boat here in Tahiti. The long distances and constant mechanical break downs have been more that they wished to endure.

So Grace and I have booked flights to New Zealand, Tasmania and Australia and will be renting “land yachts” (camper vans) to complete the passage we had originally envisaged. Sounds like a good plan, but it is now their winter period and this morning’s check on weather indicated night time temperatures in the range of two and three degrees Celsius. Snow might also be possible in the more southerly areas. At least the beaches won’t be crowded, but there goes the tan.

We have done some touring around Tahiti and agree it is our least favourite destination this summer. There aren’t the high rise hotels you see in Hawaiian travel pics, but there are 117 kilometres of road with 40,000+ vehicles. I’ve stood where Captain Cook stood in 1769 to take his sextant sights on Venus and also where Captain Bligh landed in 1788. The vegetation is very lush, PIC  but we just haven’t encountered “the wow factor” experienced in other landfalls. The people remain very friendly, but it is just too busy, noisy and uninspiring. You have to admire the tattoo artwork displayed on practically everybody and it is tempting……… but on a 66 year old sagging body, I fear an embarrassing smudge may be the best result. I feel like we are going to miss the best part of the Pacific Islands by ending the sailing trip here, but maybe another opportunity will arise where we can make those missed landfalls and then we can reconsider that tattoo.

Nana (goodbye)……….Grace and Mike

The land crab (this one about 25cm) lives in a burrow, climbs trees and can cut through a coconut husk and shell

Galapagos and The Marquesas   May 17, 2016

 Hi All:

 

Galapagos (March 21 – April 8)

It is two weeks ago since we checked into the Galapagos and we are now making preparations to check out and undertake our really long sail (3000nm) to The Marquesas.

 

One of the Saddleback Tortoise

 

A Marine Iguana

Some of the lay abouts on Santa Cruz

We have seen quite a bit here at the archipelago, but nowhere near as much as we had anticipated. The Park Authority is very restrictive about where you can visit and practically always requires that a guide be in attendance. This makes perfect sense when you see the flora and fauna being protected. Our entry permit enabled us to stop at three island harbours, from where we were required to purchase day cruise packages. There are many areas we hoped to be able to visit, but were not allowed unless we were on a 3-4 day cruise ship program. Even if we hired a guide, we were not permitted. This sort of ruling does not sit well and in fact has convinced many cruisers, like us, to bypass the area on their way west. The high entry fees/bureaucratic rigmarole/travel restrictions/expensive travel packages seem to outweigh the benefit derived. The choice areas appear reserved for those on the pricey cruise ship plans. But there is a check mark on our bucket list.

 

Food and beverages at the grocery store are pricey because most is brought in by boat. Some examples: 1 liter long life milk: Panama $1/Galapagos $3, 1 liter box red wine – Panama $3/Galapagos $12, small jar Peanut butter: Panama $4/Galapagos $10. In short at least double the cost of everything, or more. Travel accommodation however is a bargain, with prices sitting around $20-$50/night, depending on the elegance of the room(s).

So we experienced the blue and green footed boobies (didn’t see red), the giant tortoises, the sea turtles, the penguins, the many sea lions and seals, the stately land iguanas and the black swimming ones. We had a lesson on the habits of the frigate birds. They are predatory and only eat what they can steal from other birds, acquired by catching the other birds in flight by the tail and shaking them until the prey regurgitated the food. We snorkelled amongst white tipped sharks and many tropical fish. There are some seriously beautiful beaches to stroll (without a guide), which was absolutely necessary because, the daily temperature is 8 degrees higher than average. This is having an impact on the food chain. I know we are losing weight.
 

Topography on island off Santa Cruz - pure dessert

Under every cactus were land iguanas - not so colourful since mating season was past

Blue footed boobie

 

At the end of our two week stay the boat was loaded with as much fresh produce as we could find, which wasn’t a lot. We purchased two stalks of green bananas to see us through our passage. Four days later all bananas had fallen off one stalk and the other was only days behind and we hadn’t even left port.

 

At Isabella Island we checked out making sure we had our zarpe – a document that signifies you have properly checked out at your last port and can be entered into the next. Without it you can be refused entry and be required to return to the last port and with 3000 nautical miles facing us ………….

The Marquesas: May 17’16

 

Our trip to the Marquesa Island group was not without its challenges. Firstly the traditional trade winds never materialized, so we did not enjoy what is known as the Coconut Milk Run.  At times there was zero wind and some of the purist sailors took down their sails and went to bed for the night.

A few days out of the Galapagos we lost the second auto steering, which necessitated hand steering for the bulk of the passage. The first died enroute to the Galapagos. Twin head sails purchased specifically for this run were too much for the head stay and damaged the furling mechanism relegating them useless. We had to use a smaller sail to maintain headway. We also flew a genaker (a very light air sail, which had never been flown) to make speed. But despite these handicaps, we still completed the passage in 24 days.

 

There were approximately 200 boats heading the same way (Tahiti) from various points east, at different times, under a common flag known as the Pacific Puddle Jumpers. It is a very informal regatta, with a daily radio net to keep track of one another, just in case help was needed. One boat we were monitoring was a single hander who left from Panama and was into his 45^th day. But we are told the record is held by another single hander who took 60 days to complete the trip.

 

Being part of French Polynesia, The Marquesas are French possessions and rely on French support. We took time to visit five islands, each one providing a view into daily life. Our favourite was Fatu-Hiva simply because of the dramatic island topography. Trading fruit and meat for fishing gear, clothes or rope was more common than exchanging currency because obtaining the goods directly was easier than importing to the islands. Their homes are very basic with minimal furnishings, but all seemed to have the flat screen TV.

 

We ourselves are hampered by the inability to obtain repair materials. All must come via Tahiti, with a hefty transportation fee attached plus time delay.

Our favorite anchorage thus far - Fetu-Hiva

Today we are at our last Marquesian Island Nuku-Hiva (the Capital) trying to bring the boat into a suitable state of repair to handle the last 700 miles down to Tahiti. Since arriving in the Marquesas, the water maker has failed and requires parts not available until Tahiti. This is where the old definition of cruising is derived – cruising is fixing boats in exotic places.

Central Park in Atuona, Hiva-Oa

 

In the next few days we hope to visit Herman Melvilles’ (Moby Dick) home stead. We saw where Gaugin lived his lusty life style. Chicken is plentifull, if you can catch one as they all roam the islands free range. To get fresh produce here you must be at the local market around 5:00 am or it will all be gone. Even then variety is limited.

The view on Hiva-Oa from Paul Gaugin's grave site

Pretty good example of all Marquesian Islands - IMO

 

As usual, we feel we are just skimming the surface and not staying long enough to fully absorb this Polynesian life, but The Tuamotus andTahiti awaits……..M&G