#110 NOW July 31, 2006 1630UTC +12 hours (New Zealand Standard Time) Anchored in Awaawaroa Bay, Moturua Island S3513.6 E17412.0 Overcast with light rain, Temperature 60, Wind North @ 5-10 kts. Greetings, Well, it is time to bring you up to date. The past ten days have been glorious with lots of sunshine and temperatures in the 60s everyday. I think Wendy brought some of that California weather with her although fortunately we have not been suffering from the record heat they have been encountering. Wendy arrived via Air New Zealand on July 20. We spent the day exploring Auckland and enjoyed lunch in the revolving restaurant at the top of the Sky Tower. The Tower claims the record for the highest man made structure in the Southern Hemisphere. It certainly provides an outstanding view of the city and surrounding area. Auckland is blessed with a huge, protected bay. The main marina has over 1000 slips and there are several other marinas in the bay that are almost as big. It is appropriately known as the City of Sails. The four-hour drive back to Opua and the Bay of Islands was enjoyable as we spent time catching up on past events and discussing future plans. With the fantastic weather we were encountering it didnt take us long to get the boat out of the marina and into the lovely bays and coves of this area. We spent a couple of nights in Assassination Cove and then cruised over to Urapukapuka Bay. This was a delightful place with sheep grazing on the hillsides. We got the dinghy down and went ashore for some hiking. Urapukapuka Island has some great tramping (hiking) trails with mouth-dropping views from the hilltops. We enjoyed watching some small fantails flittering about as we hiked along. It was just one of those special days. Last Thursday we took an all day tour from Paihia to Cape Reinga. On the way up, we stopped at the Puketi Kauri Forest. These trees are not quite as big as the California redwoods, but they certainly are massive and many of them are over 1000 years old. You may recall that Cape Reinga is the point that we came around when we rounded the North Island. It is here that the Tasman Sea and the Pacific Ocean meet off this rocky headland. Cape Reinga lighthouse is a welcome sight on a dark night and was a pleasure to visit from landside. Much of the area here is made up of huge sand dunes. Perhaps, "hills" is a better description. Some of these are several 100 feet high. The bus stopped near one and pulled out a bunch of sleds. Of course, it didnt take much convincing to do a little dune sledging down these steep slopes, although this was not for the faint of heart. I am happy to say that everyone participated, even the oldest grandpa. On the return, we proceeded down the West Coast, which has no roads. Yes, you read that right, no roads. The tour bus just drove down a shallow riverbed to the ocean and proceeded down 90-mile beach. It was a real hoot. All too soon, it was time for Wendy to leave and after spending a few more hours shopping we headed back to Auckland where we picked up my nephew, Kirk Pettis and dropped off Wendy. Kirk will be helping me get the boat back to Hawaii. We are now in the process of stocking the boat with food and supplies for the cruise home. Target date for departure is August 6. Life is a Cruise, Larry -- Larry Rick Done Dreamin' Nordhavn 40 #33 Site: http://gricknet.homedns.org/Dads%20Web/doneDreamnHome.htm