Sailing the Bay of Islands

John finally got to do what he wanted for the weekend so we chartered a 30 foot Nolex sailboat in the Bay of Islands for 2 days. Bay of Islands is about 3 hours north of Auckland. The area is called Bay of Islands as it is a bay with a bunch of islands. The area is well known for sailing. Eric and Martin (the Holland guys) were also back in Auckland this weekend so they joined us on the trip. As sailing always goes, there were hours of calm with moments of excitement. We started the trip on Saturday with an instructor. As we did not know the area at all, we thought it best to have someone along that was familiar with ocean sailing. The instructor (also named John) used to long haul deliver sailboats across the oceans. He was very knowledgeable and had some great stories. We dropped the instructor off late Saturday afternoon so John became the official skipper. We found a nice cove to anchor in for the night. Things went good until the wind came up quickly and blew the boat over the anchor line. When the boat went over the anchor line it caught on a steel ball on the keel and got hung up. John and the guys spent a bit trying to get the line free but he finally had to take a late night swim to get the line free.

Sunday was also a pleasant day for sailing. We ventured out into open waters briefly in search of dolphin until we had to reef the mainsail due to the winds picking up. The boat we chartered was set up with a huge mainsail. Overall, we had a very enjoyable weekend and enjoyed the time with Eric and Martin.

Here is a link to pictures from the weekend-
http://picasaweb.google.com/jandlmarshall/BayOfIslands2009_03_21?authkey=Gv1sRgCN6NsY6239OCHQ#

Work- Here is an article about the company that I work for that you might find interesting. Eagle Technology (who I work for) resells the Geographic Information Software (GIS) which is developed by ESRI (which is a US company). ESRI published an article about development work that Eagle did for the NZ Animal Health Board. The article gives you an idea of the type of work that Eagle does. http://www.esri.com/library/casestudies/new_zealand_animal_health_board.pdf

I now know more about NZ DUI laws

The police here setup random checkpoints where they stop the random car for testing. First they make you speak into a device and say your name and address. If it detects alcohol on your breath, they ask you to pull over for another test. In that they use the same machine, but with a tube attached to it to test to see if you are over or under the limit. If you are under, they thank you for your time and you go on your merry way. The police are actually quite nice here, and may tell you about their camper van trip through part of the USA if they realize you are from there. If you ask, they will also tell you about the procedure you would have had to go through if you had failed the test. -John

Happy St Patricks Day

Yes, St Patty's Day is celebrated in NZ. There were lots of radio advertisements for stuff going on around town and there was also a parade the other day. John left town yesterday for work and is not yet home so we won't be partaking in any of the green brew this year. We are actually missing out on the Guinness bus tour to the Irish bars!

Over the weekend, we met up with our friend that is here from the States. We drug him along for a couple hour bush walk up a mountain. You don't go for a hike in NZ, you go for a 'bush walk". A bush walk basically means going someplace undeveloped. Wikiepedia says "In New Zealand, the term has a more specific connotation — that of isolated, heavily forested countryside, as opposed to the open coastal plains and tussock-covered High country (New Zealand)high country. Bush always refers to areas of native trees rather than exotic forests." Sounds like the Kiwi's are pretty specific about what is classified as bush area!

Whangarei

We had more adventures over the weekend. Friday started off by meeting up with an old friend from Des Moines. We met John Sullivan in Des Moines back around 1994 through John's brother George. Last time we saw John S was in Colorado around 1998. John was in Auckland over the weekend to visit his girlfriend Wendy who is a Kiwi. We went out for a nice dinner and drinks. John is our first official "I am in the area, lets get together" visitor.

On Saturday we went to the Auckland Boat show. Everything from motorized kayaks to john boats to huge motor and sail boats were represented. There was also all the props and tackle you could ever need. To John's disappointment, we went home empty handed.

On Sunday we drove north a couple hours to Whangarei (pronounced 'fun-gar-ey'). Wh in Moiri is pronounced as an 'f'. This was new territory for me but John had been up there for day trips for work. We stopped at the Whangarei Falls (picture 3). At the top of the Falls, there were some kids swimming and jumping from the trees. If you look at picture 2, about 3/4 of the way up the tree you will see a kid standing on a branch. They were jumping from here into the river and making a pretty good splash. John took a swim at the bottom of the Falls and met the local eel who was big and slimy. Thankfully I was watching from the picnic table.

After the Falls we headed a little further North to Matapouri Beach (#1 picture). This beach would be in one of my top NZ beaches that we have been to. The beach area is very picturesque and there was some pretty good surf as well. The waves were big enough to give you a good knock down if you weren't watching.

Not much is up for this week besides work. I have started an adult ed cooking class. A Italian lady that moved here recently from Italy is teaching it. We made fresh pasta last week and are making pizza from scratch this week.

Birthday

Thanks to everyone for thinking of me on my birthday and sending emails and cards. John took me out to see Vicki Christina Barcelona and to an Italian restaurant last night. Jackie, Liz and Beth would have fought over the waiters. We might have to stop by when you are down for a visit.......

Not a lot new going on here. For the last couple weeks it has been rainy on Thur, Fri and Sat and then clears up on Sunday. It looks like we are going to have that pattern again this weekend. Last weekend, there were stern weather warnings put out for heavy rain and high winds--- bring in the animals, bolt down the lawn furniture, stay off the ocean. We had a tropical depression go through and the wind howled all night. On Sunday it cleared up and we were able to go for a bike ride.

I have been in GIS (Geographic Information Systems) training for work the last 3 days. It has been rather interesting and has been much more science based then what I am used to. I have learned all about New Zealand Transverse Mercator coordinates which deals with how best to get a round world accurately represented on a flat piece of paper. I have also learned about how you can add geographic information (roads, rivers, trees, etc) to the software and how everything in the software is represented as either a point, a line or a polygon. I really don't have to know about how to use the software but it helps to understand it when running projects.

The Auckland Boat Show starts this weekend so John is all excited about that. If we win the lottery between now and Saturday we can buy one of the $1 million+ launches that will be on display. Along with the fancy boats I believe there are also going to be some informational classes you can attend.

Only 18 more days until Spring in Iowa and Fall in Auckland! By 8:00 pm it is dark here now and it is dark when we get up in the morning as well. The Fall fashions are out in the stores. Kind of depressing that summer is coming to an end.