Auckland

We've moored ourselves smack dab in the middle of party central here in Auckland. The brokers' dock is next to the charter boat docks. So now with the holidays in full swing, we've been warned that the partying will go on until 1 a.m. each morning. Being Friday night here, it's already getting loud and "festive," if you call drunk people wearing Santa hats festive. I guess we'll be pretty happy to be leaving here soon.

The packing and boat projects are coming along nicely. We have a crate coming on Monday to put our stuff in to ship it home. That's a relief, as it was a bit stressful arranging the details. We've been encouraged that a number of people are waiting to view the boat. Graciously, the broker is giving us a few days to get our stuff in order before we have to be all cleaned up for buyers to view. Pete has redone the wood in the cockpit, fixed the dings in the steering pedestal and done some painting around the outside. It's all looking great and we keep wondering why we didn't do that a year ago. Isn't that always the case when you sell something?

We had more wind than we needed on the trip down, (25 knots on the beam and gusts to 35), resulting in pretty fast but lumpy sailing. We revisited a small island to see some penguins that we missed the first time around and then spent one last day with friends. The family on "Dolphins" has gotten to be one our favorite boats to hang out with. They'd rented a house near Auckland and we had a nice day visiting and playing. They are considering living permanently here, so we went and viewed a house just for fun: 5400 square feet, 4 bedrooms, 3 baths, and an indoor pool on an acre. Not bad. I felt a bit giddy thinking of living in a house again. There were all these amazing machines that do the washing for you!! I'm glad our decision process is over, especially when I listen to the other families debate where to live and when to finish sailing.

On our way into Auckland Harbor, we saw something very tall in front of us, which I thought might be a building, or a crane. It turned out to be the mast and sail of a New Zealand America's Cup boat. Escorted by 2 chase boats, they literally sailed a circle around us and we were doing 7.5 knots. Pete thought we should put up the spinnaker and give them a run for their money, but I figured we'd have to challenge them to a 500 mile blue water passage to avoid humiliation. After a day on the race boat, everyone would be wet, hungry, bashed and begging for a ride on the nice steady cruising boat. A very impressive sight none the less, with their shiny paint, matching foul weather gear and "Toyota" sponsor logos on the carbon fiber sails.

The weather has gone back to cool and wet, after the summery days last week. It's not cold anymore like when we first arrived though, as summer is only a few days away. The kids are enjoying dock life in between rain showers. They spent most of the day on their stomachs peering over the side. The baby fish and squid in the water are fair game for small children with nets and buckets. Several local kids joined them and we had to go out and check out the catch every so often. They are really excited for Christmas and to see everyone. It's surprising how little Carter remembers about home. It'll be interesting to see what they remember from this trip.

Thanks for reading, K