Merry Christmas from Auckland

Jacque, Chloe, Ivan, Neil & Cheryl "Farewell to freedom, back to work" party on board Camelot.

Christmas parade Auckland

Santa, downtown Auckland.

Megan, Brian, John & Annette..... lovely friends in Warkworth NZ

Dock on right, marina walkway, on left, Ferry to Auckland.......easy peasy!

View of our marina from the road behind us shows marina and Auckland across the water.

Fiona, Rory, Arend & Isobel,( living in Auckland) family of our very good friends Tessa & John in San Francisco

Merry Christmas and happy New year.

It's all go here, new country, new jobs lots of new things to do & find out.

Have not taken the boat out for a sail around yet, its too busy with all the Kiwi's out & about in their boats enjoying the Christmas holidays.

Everyday here at the marina, the locals pour down the docks with huge cartloads of food & booze to take out on their trips.

We'll wait until the big rush is over. There are quite a few islands to visit just off the coast, some have small towns and wineries on, others nice hikes and cycle routes.  

Boatyard blues..........

Yes we've got the boatyard blues.

We are high & dry "on the hard" as us boaters call being out of the water.

We are in a town called Warkworth about 30 miles north of Auckland. The yard is way up the Mahurangi river.

Usually we don't mind being in the yard, but this time we had torrential rain holding up progress initially, and now as of today one of the top painters on the crew ( Jackie ) is incapacitated and can't go near the paint.

Had an allergic reaction to all the toxic stuff in the yard, so had to be invalided out to a beautiful local bed & breakfast!!

(Yes I spent hours during the night punching myself in the eyes to make them swell up, the wheezing and tongue swelling took a little more ingenuity to pull off!)

Seriously Neil is having to finish off the painting on his own, which is hard work, but I did book a room with a huge bath so he can soak his aching muscles.

Back in the water soon, hopefully I can stand the fumes for the time it takes to relaunch the boat.

Off to our new home ........Bayswater marina, and starting work Monday Dec 14th.