23rd November 2008: Long Bay Marine Reserve

We didn't have much spare time, but we managed took a short trip to the Long Bay Marine Reserve.

We had a good few hours' walk along the sea front, and spent a bit of time watching the wind- and kitesurfers enjoying the conditions. There are some pretty good sites for BBQs and general enjoyment of the beach.

On the way home we narrowly missed being attacked by a runaway shopping trolley in Foodtown's car park. We reversed in a hurry and a nearby parked car bore the brunt, losing a rear light. It's a jungle out here.

22nd November 2008: Sailing America's Cup yachts again

For the second time, we attempted to take a kayak trip to Rangitoto Island. This trip was my leaving gift from work in the UK, but has been cancelled twice due to high winds. This time, with the forecast for 25-35 knots of breeze, we thought we'd fill in the spare day with some sailing on the America's Cup yachts in the harbour - new experience for me and a load of CHPers, and a repeat experience for Tim. (The load of CHPers will probably become a bit of a theme from now on, now the team out here is up to strength.)

The sailing was great fun, with the true wind speed hitting 40 knots at one point. The boat got quite tippy at times but always felt very stable and solid, cutting through the chop rather than being tossed about. Prize for getting the most drenched goes to James, who always seemed to be sitting on the lee side (the downhill side) when the big bits of spray came in.

16th November 2008: Piha & Karekare

Took a load of CHPers to the Waitakeres to see Piha and Karekare beaches. Both were riddled with surfers; good weather, and high season, seem to have started in earnest the past couple of weeks. I never previously realised how much surfing requires you to be able to dodge other surfers in the water - a bit like skiing on a busy slope.

We wandered up Lion Rock at Piha, then drove round to Karekare and took the Zion Hill Track over to Pararaha Stream. Back to Karekare along the beach. Took around 3 hours, much quicker than our last walk in the area, because the rain had let up for enough days that there were no mud-bath sections on the track. A bit of paddling to round off the walk was lovely on a warm day.

15th November 2008: Sailing on Thelma again

Thelma, the yacht we sailed on previously, needed crew for another race so Tim went along again.

The wind was a bit stronger this time, and unfortunately we managed to break the boat about 20 minutes into the race: The belaying pin holding the peak halyard snapped, causing half the mainsail to flog and causing a fair bit of panic while all the sails were dropped. We were forced to retire from the race and return to port.

There was a professional photograher about, taking pictures of these very impressive boats.

That's us on Thelma in the foreground, just before the start.

8th November 2008: Classic yacht race

Having been given a pointer by someone at Tim's client, we wangled a day crewing the classic yacht Thelma in a race in the Waitemata harbour.

Thelma is a gaff-rigged cutter, built in 1897 and recently refurbished. It was an excellent day's sailing in sunshine and 15 knots of breeze. We were both on the foredeck involving a lot of hauling on sheets (Tim) and a day of tailing them (Sophie). We loved it, and Thelma took line honours. For non-sailors that means we were first over the finish line, but we probably didn't win on handicap-adjusted time.

Hopefully we will be able to sail on Thelma again soon - she races regularly and apparently often needs crew.

Update - The picture to the right is of us sailing on Thelma...

5th November 2008: Phantom of the Opera

We spotted that Phantom was on at the Civic theatre in Auckland, so Soph organised it as a social Wednesday for the CHPers. Everyone seemed to have fun: it was a good performance, especially Christine.

Aucklanders seemed to be surprised that we haven't already seen all the musicals, us having come from London. However, we've already seen more islands in the Hauraki Gulf than most of them. Local's apathy?