Whanagrei

Hi there.

Arrived in Whangarei yesterday afternoon after taking a couple of days to sail down from the Bay of Islands. We stayed in Tutukaka on the way down.

Dan was unable to find work in BIO at the moment, one place said maybe in a couple of weeks, so we are here and he has put in his CV in one place but if not successful we will carry on down to Auckland.

We did a bit of bay hopping in the Bay of Islands. We figure we could probably be there almost a year and still not see every nook and cranny. We didn't get anywhere near the Kerikeri side of the Bay. We spent a couple of nights in a large bay, (sorry can't remember the name) due to a supposedly strong SW forecast, but didn't get much over 20 knots but all the other boats left on the second day and we were starting to doubt our decisions!! But the holding was good and we weren't at all uncomfortable. And we did share the view with Micheal Hill - Jeweler in his big grey vessel (can't call it a super yacht as I don't think it was very attractive!)

On the Saturday we came up to our first wharf ever and got some lovely spring water kindly supplied by the local land owner. We then went just around the corner to Dicks bay which was great swimming and playing and BUG finding as you can see by the photos!

After a lazy morning another easy sail around to Urapukapuka Island again where the we meet up with another family by chance that we had met over the weekend. Another great place for swimming and play and lots of under sized snapper caught much to the boys delight. Didn't matter that they had to go back, thrill of the catch and all.

On the Monday night we went to Opua and the wharf to charge up the battery bank and try to find Dan a job, with not much luck, so after a night with the ferry giving us all its wake every 15 minutes we headed to Oke bay then Tutukaka before getting to Whangarei.