Happy New Year!

Jared, Emma, Jocelyn, Alec, Kyle, Emilie, Jenny and Maya at our marina.

Beautiful gardens at our marina

Well, Auckland is quite the city! In addition to attending to some mundane boat chores, we've had the chance to be out on the town shopping and exploring this excellent city.

Sunset Chrismas Day

Chrismas day was sunny and warm and we concluded our day with a potluck dinner aboard O'vive.

Dionne, Laura and Marg on O'vive, Christmas Day

Cute Christmas Pukekos

Jocelyn, Alec, Jenny, Paige and Emilie on the M/V New Paige from Alberta

The kids from Malachi and O'vive joined New Paige on a trip to the Auckland zoo which they really loved.

The kids have also been taking walks to the park and playing on the cool playgrounds that they have. There is even a public toilet that you enter by pressing a button like an elevator. Once inside, the room plays you music and warns you that the door will unlock in 10 minutes. Paper is dispensed automatically as are the water and hand dryer. Very advanced!

Nathalie, Dionned and I have been out walking several mornings as the weather permits and we love admiring the sweet little homes, some large ones too as well as the wide variety of mailboxes and gardens.

Merry Christmas - Meri Kirihimete!

From the Crew of Malachi to all of our family and friends.



The pohutukawa tree (Metrosideros excelsa) with its crimson flower has become an established part of the New Zealand Christmas tradition. This iconic Kiwi Christmas tree, which often features on greeting cards and in poems and songs, has become an important symbol for New Zealanders at home and abroad. http://www.nzhistory.net/



We have been busy getting ready for Christmas here in Auckland and are all excited for the holidays. Auckland is very similar to Vancouver, actually and interestingly enough, we are currently in a marina on the North Shore. There is a passenger ferry that runs between the North Shore and Downtown, much like the seabus and once you disembark at the ferry building downtown, Queens, the main street is right there, just like Granville St. And, much like Granville St. Queens St. is filled with the popular chain stores, book stores and souvenir shops, even movie theatres, cafe's and shopping malls.


Unlike Vancouver, the bay is always buzzing with a plethora of sailboats and on any given day, we can watch the America's cup boats sailing by. On that note, the Americas Cup qualifier - the Lous Vitton Cup, takes place at the end of January and the cities marinas will be fully booked for this exciting event.


Jay's mom arrived on the 17th after almost two days of travelling and has returned to the cruising lifestyle as though she'd never been away from it.

The view from our marina.

Yesterday, we went up the Skytower, at 328 meteres, it is the tallest tower in the Southern hemisphere, 12 largest in the world, and we enjoyed a panoramic view 80km in every direction, it was breathtaking! The tower, which took just under 3 years to build, wieghs 21 million kilos, about the same as 6000 elephants!




The lights at many downtown intersections, like this one, stop traffic in all directions so than pedestrians can cross any way the wish.


Although we all really wanted to bungy jump off the top of the tower or walk outside around the perimeter we settled for the indoor view and a picture with Santa.



We've been attending Harbourside Church in Takapuna, just a 10 minute drive from the marina. This is a vibrant and exciting church and we really enjoyed the Christmas Carol service that was presented on Sunday rather than on Christmas eve. The whole production was excellent and the music outstanding.

Maya & Kyle at the pre-carol service activities for kids.





The grand finale of the carol service.

We will be celebrating Christmas morning on board Malachi and will join with O'vive and Orca III for a potluck Christmas Dinner on the 25th.

Mimi Whangata to Auckland

After leaving Opua we visited several beautiful secluded anchorages and enjoyed many beautiful hikes and even some scuba diving.

Our third anchorage was Mimi Whangata where we met up with O'vive. It was in this very beautiful spot that we enjoyed a really cool hike through rolling pastures with a fabulous view from the top. Fortunately, the farmers released the cows into an adjacent pasture or our hike may have been abbreviated.

On the way back to the boats, the kids in O'vive's dinghy and the adults in ours, the kids stopped to watch dolphins swimming nearby and the adults went to shore to investigate a glider that had landed on a beach after finding itself with no more uplift to make it home.

Our next stop was Tutukaka where we spent a couple of nights at the marina. The day we arrived, the local bar "Schnappa Fish" hosted a summer kick off party with live music all day long. We hiked up to the Tutukaka light house for another panoramic view of the water and headlands.

From Tutukaka, we took a scuba diving trip out to Poor Knights Islands, rumoured to be one of the top five dive sites in the world - we couldn't miss out on that one! Jay, Jocelyn, Dave, Emilie and I planned to dive while Jenny and Alec snorkelled. Unfortunately, during my first descent, my ear drum ruptured so I was unable to dive but I snorkelled at the second site and it was very cold and very colourful and beautiful. On the first dive, the others saw an octopus which was a hilight. The second dive site was a very interesting dive through a cave filled with blue fish that crowd all around and part to let you pass through. Jocelyn, in particular, loved this part. I'll be posting a video on youtube sometime soon.

Great Barrier Island was the next stop. Not much commerce on this island, but it abounds with beautiful tramping trails and gorgeous scenery. We set out to hike up Mount Hobson, no small feat, and reached the summit approximately four hours later. On the way, we stopped for lunch at an ancient Kauri dam which was used to transport Kauri logs to the bottom of the mountain. The logs would be felled into the gully above the dam then the dam would be closed to allow enough water to float the logs. This sometimes took up to two years! When the water was high enough, people would gather to watch as the dam was released and all of the logs and water were set free. This was said to be a terrifying event.

Kids at the Kauri Dam

Some of the over 800 stairs we climbed

One of the creek crossings on our hike

Lunch at the summit

View from the summit - Malachi is in the middle

Jocelyn and Alec in the Geothermal pools on Great Barrier

The Pateke/Brown Teal duck is an endangered species that primarily exists on Great Barrier Island. As you can see they go to great lengths to protect these rare birds that swam beside our boat.

The following day, we rented a van to tour the island. We visited two tiny communities and even got to see the local santa parade in Claris! This was a very Big event for a very small community and it seems that everyone was there!

Face painting at the parade

Our last stop before Auckland was at Mansion House Bay on Kawau Island. This was a very pretty stop and we explored ashore and visited the Mansion House gardens - the Mansion itself was closed when we were there. It was in the garden that we spotted an albino peacock! None of us even knew such a creature existed! We saw another coloured peacock and a wallaby too on our tramp out towards an old copper mine.

Albino peacock, a direct descent of the peacocks imported by George Grey, the first governor of New Zealand, in the 1860's.

The most beautiful Hydrangea - Elsie, this pic's just for you!

We're now in Auckland and we've been very busy buying a car, Christmas shopping and, of course, boat chores. We bought a Toyota Windom (Duane you'd be proud) and are adjusting to the right hand drive and to driving on the left side of the road. NZ has some funky driving rules. Jocelyn has been studying for her learners permit so that she too can drive, this should be interesting for her once we return home.