Opua, NZ

Sorry for the long delay in blog entries! It is a long story and I shall unravel it in time. Suffice it to say that we have arrived safely in Opua, NZ and it feels great to have made it! The laptop crashed the second day out after flying across the cabin and landing in a puddle of water. That was because the sudden squall with god knows how many knots of wind in it knocked Toketie on her ear and as we watched cushions float out of the cockpit and Linda slide to the lee side eventually standing
on the coaming, we thought hmmmm this is interesting....and why are we doing this again? But we got through it and almost had to turn back due to damage to sails but we persevered and sewed miles of duct tape (thank you red/green) on the sails, jury rigged the rest that was broken and turned south once more to do the 800 remaining miles to get here! Easy to say now that we are here but a bit trying at the time.
But the welcome we received by our friends on Sukanuk and Wyntersea outweighed any doubts we entertained about the reasons for doing this last challenging leg to NZ. And it was challenging! Toketie performed like a trooper and when the chips were down, we buried the rail and drove her through mountainous seas, spray flying over the dodger as she ploughed through the waves. It was awesome!
Feels strange to be at a dock after so long at anchor. Long list of boat chores to attend to before we can explore the cruising grounds here. For now, must get some rest! Cheers