NZ North Again - Wellington to Coromandel Town

Russ inside Cathedral Cave

The 2 Sail R's  have been on the North Island for almost three weeks.  We are currently in the Coromandel area and have enjoyed a mix of rain and sun.

We arrived in Wellington mid-March.  While there we once again visited friends Jessie and Simon.  For four days we took care of some business, i.e. retrieving our passports from immigration (visa extension took a long time to process), had a pre-sale inspection of the campervan, and visited the radio control station for Wellington Harbor.

Our new NZ friend Helen whom we met on the South Island (Pounawea Motor Camp - South of Dunedin in the Catilans) invited us to visit the Wellington radio conrol station where her daughter is one of the radio controllers.  The narrows into Wellington are shallow in some places with rock hazards.  Controlling traffic in and out of the bay prevents many would-be disasters.  It was an interesting and informative visit.

Helen and daughter, radio controller Jo

Office with a great view and a lot of responsibility

 Helen is also the next proud owner of "NZed", our little camper van.  She will be flying up to Auckland to pick up NZed as we are ready to depart for Fiji.  We have grown fond of NZed and know Helen will take good care of him and have fun doing so as well.

After our business and visiting were complete in Wellington, we headed north towards the Coromandel through Palmerston North, Hastings, Napier, Wairoa, Tauranga, Waihi Beach, Waihi, and then to Coromandel town.  We enjoyed the Art Deco Architecture of Napier,

making new humanist friends in Tauranga,  soaking in thermal pools in Awakateri,

playing in the pools at Hot Water beach,

Fun for all ages

and hiking to Cathedral Cove

We have less than two weeks left in New Zealand and are enjoying our remaining time here before we head back to Fiji and resume our adventure on Worrall Wind.  If you are receiving this  blog via email, be sure to go to worrallwind.blogspot.com to see the captioned slide show.

All is well with the 2 Sail R's from Worrall Wind.