Christmas 2010 -2011

Gosh! Where did this year go.  It seems only a short time since I last wrote.  Guess that is just another sign of old age. 

It has been a fairly quiet year in the Price household.  We did eventually have a lovely holiday on the boat last summer.  We sailed as far north as Manganui Harbour.  What a beautiful old world town with the best fish & chip shop in NZ.  We would love to get up there again and spend more time as we were rather rushed but had a great time anyway.  We still love our holidays on the boat and are planning another one for after Christmas this year.

We returned to Auckland at the end of January.  I had to return to Wellington to sort out June and Dad’s affairs.  We could not leave the house empty for more than 60 days and so the decision was made to empty it and rent the place out.  It was a mammoth task and sad getting rid of things that had been around for such a long time with heaps of memories.  We each kept some mementos and then gave the rest away.  The house is now rented to a young couple who seem very happy.  Dad and June are well settled in to the retirement village life.  June is very happily confused.  Dad has good and bad days, with the bad days now out-numbering the good.  It is sad to see such a proud independent man like this, having to get everything done for him.  I try to get down to see them as much as possible and keep them in nice clothes etc.  I am happy to say that Dorothy and Derek have returned to live in NZ after 5 ½ years away.  That takes a lot of the load off me.  They brought a big motorhome with them and are living and travelling in that until they tire of it.  Then they will move back to their home which is now rented.

I had a knee joint replacement in July, the result of a skiing accident 21 years ago.  The knee had collapsed so much that it was taking a toll on my health.  It is now four months since I received the new knee and I am better than I have been for years.  I am so lucky to have had the option available for me.  I am able to do things I haven’t been able to do for a long time.

In September we went for a ten day trip to Brunei and Kuala Lumpur with the NZ SIFE team ( students in free enterprise).  Tony is the NZ CEO.  It is a voluntary organisation although he is supposed to be paid but like most of those kind of enterprises there is never any money to be had.  They do pay for his airfares and accommodation though.  So I pay my own way and we travel together.  The SIFE World Cup is run every year in a different country and this year it was in KL.  The NZ team did very well but were out beaten.  However, a good time was had by all.

Apart from that trip we had spent quite a lot of time doing the usual repairs and maintenance on the boat over winter.  Tony has been installing a new radar which will help in bad weather and at night.

I have spent a lot of time in my garden.  I am really enjoying this and the vegetables are always handy, and of course they always taste better than bought ones.

.  Both girls and families are coming up to Auckland next week for the holidays.  We are all going to Stephen and Rochelle’s holiday home for Christmas dinner.  They have a lovely home in Matakana, about an hour’s drive north of Auckland.  We will all bring a portion of the meal.  Then on Boxing Day we are taking Rowena and Bella out on the boat for 3-4 days and after that we will do the swap over and Naomi, Alastair and Nate will come out for 3-4 days.  We will finally get the boat to ourselves about 4^th January when the tribe all go camping together.  We have decided that they get the house while they are up and we will sleep on the boat.  During the few days over Christmas it will be a bit crowded in the house with so many people and we will appreciate the peace and quiet of the boat at night.  So it will be a really family Christmas.

Once Tony and I get away on our own we are hoping to stay on the boat until the end of January even though Tony may have to do some work during that time.  We will come back to Auckland for 14 January as Tony’s sister Glenda is getting married and wants us to attend.  She and her partner Peter love ballroom dancing and have lots of friends who dance.  So they are having a dance after their wedding.  They have encouraged Tony and I to learn to dance.  We have only mastered the waltz so far but are thoroughly enjoying it and are determined to learn more.  We are very fortunate that the local RSA is just around the corner, a 3-4 minutes walk for us.  So we have joined up and are now going for meals there regularly.  We are amazed at the number of really elderly people who attend and dance.  Tony’s mother had written him off as tone deaf when he was young and so he has never thought he could dance.  But now he is learning to listen for the beat and is doing very well.  And the biggest thing is that we are having fun together.

All the family is well.  Caleb turned five a few weeks ago and finishes at his pre-school today.  He will attend the same school that Stephen went to next year.  Ethan will be four in February and is talking really well with a huge vocabulary.  I spent yesterday afternoon with him and we had a great time at the park.  I really enjoy the times I have with the children but am exhausted after they go and the house always looks like a tip then.

I was in Wellington a couple of weeks ago and caught up with Isabella and Nathaniel and we are both looking forward to spending some time with them at Christmas.  It is a shame that they live so far away but we talk most days and the children now have a natter with me on the phone.  I don’t always understand what they say but we get by ok.

July 12 2012

Another 8 months have passed since this was updated by I will try to add to it over the next week or so.

Christmas News 2009 from Crew of Windspirit

Nathaniel aged 4 months

Tony & Mary in Prague

Isabella aged 2 1/2 years

Ethan aged 22 months

Caleb Price aged 3 years

After a very exciting time sailing to Fiji, around and back to NZ last year we needed to get our heads down and bums up and do some work to earn our keep. Tony was fortunate that he was able to keep his work going while he was away and has built it back up since we returned.

Over the last year, his work has taken him to Hong Kong, China and Taiwan. Then in September we both headed off to England and Europe for four weeks, some for work and some for play. We had a great, but extremely tiring time, meeting up with Dorothy (my sister) for three days in London. We had a lot of talking to do in such a short time, but did manage to get a bit of sight seeing in too. This time we bought a Eurail pass and traveled by train from London (On the Eurostar) to Brussels, then to Amsterdam, Paris, Prague, and to Berlin. We enjoyed the trips on the train as we got to see a lot of the countryside. We went on an overnight train from Paris to Prague, which was a new and interesting experience for us. Then after Berlin, we flew to Vienna for a few days recreation and on to Dubai. That was a whole new ball game for us, having never been to a desert country before. All in all we had a really great time.

I have given up nursing after doing it for nearly 40 years. I now spend my time doing the clerical work for the business, running our home affairs, doing maintenance on the boat and being a grandmother.

We had a lovely time with the family over last Christmas. Spent some time in Wellington with Rowena, Naomi and Al and our granddaughter, Isabella. We also visited my father and stepmother, June. They are only just coping at home with lots of outside help. Dad has given up using the computer now, which is a real shame but finds it too hard to go in to the spare room to use it. I thought about buying him a laptop but he would have trouble with the small keys etc and anyway his eyesight is pretty bad now. June is becoming very forgetful and muddled in her thinking.

We are really enjoying our four grandchildren. Caleb (3) and Ethan (22mths) are real trouble as they are so close in age that they, together, get in to so much mischief but they are a lot of fun. They are in Auckland. Rowena’s daughter, Isabella (2 ½) and Naomi and Al’s son, Nathaniel (4 months) are in Wellington, but we do get to see them every month or so. Fortunately there are now reasonably priced airfares to Wellington and so when I go there I get to stay for 2-3 days and really get to know them well.

This Christmas our friends have lent us their house again for a few days and so we will be having a traditional Christmas dinner with the family. It will be great because our kids and their kids will all be there. Also we have invited Tony’s sisters and their partners and they will bring Tony’s Mum, who has just turned 88years. She is well but VERY forgetful now but she still loves coming out and having a good time.

We are still living on the boat, but had a break earlier this year when we did a two-month stint of house sitting on the North Shore. After ten years of living on the boat, it is time for a change and we are actively looking for a house to buy and live in. We love the boat but now that we have the grandchildren it is becoming harder to have them visit and stay. Also we are yearning for a bit more space to stretch out and I want a wee veggie and herb patch. There is not a lot on the market at the moment but we hope it won’t be too long before we find the home that we both love and can afford.

I can’t think of any more news but will consult with the boss before sending this off. Well, the boss checked it out, made a couple of small changes and has left me to it.

Merry Christmas to you all.

Opua to Auckland.

It was great to meet again many of the cruisers with whom we have spent time in Fiji but there becomes a time when we want to get home and back to a "normal" life. We had been watching the weather for a window to sail down the coast but with South Easterlies predicted we were reticent to head out. However Tony was itching to get back to his neglected clients and we made the decision on Saturday to head to Auckland.
It makes me wonder how we can travel around the Pacific and always have head winds. But that is the way it is. Even though North-Westerly winds were predicted, we still sailed South in to head winds. It was an extremely brisk sail with large rolly waves. We were pleased to arrive at Tutakaka that night and have a good sleep. Then the next morning we headed out to an Easterly wind of 25-30knots for our sail to Kawau Island. This was again a fairly rough sail but we were greeted by a pod of dolphins and thousands of sea birds. We arrived at Bon Accord Harbour, Kawau Island at about 3PM, had a quiet drink and early sleep. These long sails are very tiring.
At present we are just north of Ragitoto Light, having a quiet beam reach sail for a change. We shall berth at Westhaven and then start the big clean up. The boat is absolutely covered in salt crystals.
It has been another successful cruise but we are pleased to be home.

The long trip home

We went in to Lautoka on Monday and returned our Internet Vodem. We were surprised to see that all the Indian women and little girls were dressed in the most beautiful Saris and glittery shoes. The clothes were all colours of the rainbow. The people were all preparing for the festival of Diwali, which is the festival of lights, similar to New Year for the Indian people. We were lucky enough to hitch a lift in to town with a very pleasant Indian man, who actually invited us to his home for the festival the next day, and he explained the meaning to us. Unfortunately we were not able to take him up on his offer because we ended up leaving before that.
We finally had the go ahead from Commander to leave Fiji on Wednesday 29 October. So even though Tuesday was a public holiday we decided to pay the overtime rates and clear customs on that day. While Tony took the taxi to Lautoka to clear, I was madly sorting out the last few jobs, which needed to be done before we left. He returned to the boat at about 11AM and we set sail for Momi Bay where we intended to stay the night and leave the next morning. However when we arrived there at about 2PM we found that an on shore breeze had set in, which would not have made for a comfortable night's anchorage. Therefore, after a very brief discussion we chose to leave immediately and head out of Navula Passage and south to New Zealand. We are very pleased that we made that decision because boats that did end up leaving later got caught in bad weather close to NZ.
Our trip, although uncomfortable and very tiring was actually quite reasonable. Of course, it did not come without challenges. We each did three-hour watches from 7PM until 7AM. Tony took the 7-10PM and the 1-4AM watches and I took the 10-1AM and 4-7AM. This seemed to work for us except we then had, what I called, the 10 o’clock syndrome. This occurred every night except one. Something always went wrong at that time just after Tony had gone to bed. Usually we had an increase in wind speed and direction, but sometimes it happened to be the instruments that went crazy for no apparent reason. A couple of times the auto helm decided to run amok. Then the sails would back and all hell would be let loose. However we would eventually sort out the problems and things would settle down. But it did not make relaxing easy.
We were able to keep up to date with the positions of other yachts in the area by listening in to Des’ radio sked, morning and night. Over 6 ½ days off shore we did not see any other yacht, ship or plane until the last night when we all were starting to converge for the sail in to the Bay of Islands. That night we saw the lights of three other yachts. It was very hard to sleep that last night because we were excited about coming home. Also the wind and waves had started to increase ahead of the oncoming low-pressure system. We were very pleased to see the welcome sight of the Cavalli Islands and next to clear the Nine Pin. We then knew we were home.
On the radio we heard that there were 15 boats at Opua waiting to clear Customs and that there was no room at the wharf. It seemed like a good move to slow down, sort out the boat and have a well-earned hot shower. What luxury! Tony finished his shower just as we pulled up at the quarantine wharf.
We did not have to wait long before we were boarded by first Customs and next bio-security. No problems there except that they took any items which could be grown, e.g. chickpeas etc. Not a lot and we were soon on our way to the Marina for a well-earned rest.
While sailing in to the bay we received a phone call from our good friends Wendy and Warren who informed us that they would meet us at the pier with fresh bread, tomatoes and bananas. That was a real treat and they assisted us with our lines and making the boat fast on the marina. They stayed for about two hours and then left us to rest. It was really great to be welcomed home and such a surprise.
The last few days have been a blur with us sorting out bits and pieces and doing heaps of laundry etc. We have also enjoyed dinner at the Opua Cruising Club each night. The meals are reasonably priced, $10-12 each and the company is great.