Ocean Echo 1: North Island, New Zealand

Dear friends

It has been fairly nice dry summer at Northland, New Zealand's North Island. Temperatures have been pleasant most of the time. We are presently waiting for an other cyclone leftover, which is coming tonight. It is a tropical Low from cyclone ITA, which has landed at NE coast of Australia. This Low is merging with an other low pressure system from Tasman Sea, westward of N. Zealand. Will see, how bad it gets. We had several cyclone leftovers hitting NZ this summer. Worst was cyclone Lusi, which made my anchoring at Great Barrier Island very difficult. I ended up anchoring in deeper water 22-24 meters and it did not work too well in 50+ knots (100+ km/h) winds. I had to re-anchor 2 times during the cold rainy night. Even 2 anchors and 90 meters of chain were not enough to hold my boat, too deep. It turns into difficult task for one man crew. We are expecting El Nino episode starting this summer, which will influence Central Pacific region's weather pattern in up coming months. I am still helping out with the weather forecasts on local VHF net. I will be sailing to Fiji by mid May.

I have finished most of my important repairs at the end of February, which allowed me to go for a little "walkabout" with the boat. It was very enjoyable to see some new areas at Northland. It is a overnight sail from Bay of Islands to Great Barrier Island (Treasure Island) at Hauraki Gulf. There is a sheltered lagoon inside, which gets fairly busy for anchoring with the boats from Auckland area, being only 40 nm (80 km) away. Main summer months January - March are very busy there. G. Barrier Isl. has a lot of very nice walks - hiking trails, which are well maintained. Most of the Island is designated as a park/reserve. N. Zealand is well known for very unique vegetation and many kinds of spectacular trees. I have seen some very cool stuff here made by nature. I have spotted many Little Blue Penguins in local bays, when time gets quiet. Orama Oasis resort at Karaka Bay is very special place, recommended.

NZ sailors have told me, that easiest way to see downtown Auckland is via ferry from Waiheke Island. It worked out quite well and I did not have to worry about taking the boat to Auckland harbor. Downtown waterfront is interesting to explore. Plenty of mega yachts and activities. Britomart is a transport center and it is an interesting development. Skywalk - Skyjump tower is well known for bungee jumping.

Kawau Island - Mansion House Bay was an other interesting place to visit. The house was build for Sir George Grey. Estate/park has interesting vegetation and trees imported from various parts of the world.

Finally I had a chance to explore my local neighborhood by the end of March - Bay of Islands. It was a quieter time and very enjoyable. I did find some nice islands. This area also gets very busy during the summer. Cruise ships visit B. of Islands regularly. There are plenty of tour boats, helicopters and other attractions available.

I do feel welcomed in N. Zealand, which is not the case in some other countries! N. Zealanders are very friendly and helpful. The country is very well organized, advanced and interesting to visit. Highly recommended for holiday or snowbird vacation. Tourism is one of main industries in NZ. Great Britain - England has very close relationship with N. Zealand.

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Maintaining this blog could by complicated time to time, because Internet signal/connection for uploading pictures, will not be as good/fast as it is in large cities/communities. Please, excuse my poor writing skills and grammar. Google translate does good job converting text to other languages.

I hope, that you will find something interesting in this blog – enjoy.

Jara (JJ) Holcman s/v Ocean Echo 1

(old blog's address - http://oceanecho1.wordpress.com/)

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