Position report sent via Iridium GO

That's a wrap folks. We have made it home after a rather slow but pleasant sail (mostly motor sailing for the want of another 5 knots of wind). Enjoying the sounds of the birds on Mana island busily going about their evening business while we wait for the tide to rise so we can safely cross over the bar. We have one week to ease ourselves back into society before resuming the 9-5 routine. I can feel our tans fading already.

After an all to brief pitstop in the Bay of Islands we are about to set sail again, likely for the last time this trip. To catch you up, we had a fantastic final week in New Caledonia with a friend popping over from Hawaii to spend it with us. We drank cocktails on the beach with waves lapping our feet, partied like locals on the islands just outside Noumea, hiked the red hills of the southern mainland, paddle boarded, kayaked, snorkelled, strolled etc. etc. And then just like that, it was all over. Mike's brother flew in and Arlo and I flew out, expecting to be reunited again in Picton. However after encountering a rather belligerent wind, Mirabilis rerouted to Bay of Islands. So we find ourselves a cruising family again for just a weensy bit longer. We have now had a gorgeous few days with friends here in Kerikeri but sadly the weather window already looks too good to pass up and we are setting off for a race down the west coast chased by a good northerly wind. But first a slow wee motor north to clear the cape. Fingers crossed for a comfortable passage with no seasick baby.

Seeing as the wind was favourable we thought we would stop in Brisbane and go-to Australia zoo as I haven't been there since Steve Erwin passed. The crocodile shows are truly spectacular. We gave up in the end s it was going to blow or schedule out so headed for Norfolk instead but then decided there were probably to many Australians there as well so now we are heading for fiordland for a spot of wild life sight seeing because there is none out here in the deep blue. The ocean is nearly totally dead.

We'll get home eventually! Sent from Iridium Mail & Web.

We are off. Heading home straight into Picton. 1200 miles ( 2160 kms)

Someone email me the ab vs England game updates :-)

Stopped in at New Caledonia’s iconic lighthouse island Phare Amedee on our way back to Noumea. To my delight, despite being highly touristy, this wee island is riddled with sea snakes and even has an out of bounds area where terns and puffins nest. The lighthouse here is beautiful and reportedly has a fantastic view over the lagoon though we will have to wait before confirming that part as it was closed for lunch… it’s a French thing.

We spent a lovely day exploring Casey Island with Kaia, a Kiwi/Hawaiian couple (who we first met in Tonga in 2012) and their gorgeous wee 3 year old who non-stop tells you stories of all his adventures and LOVES to explore rockpools - love that kid!

After passing by here a couple of times already, we finally entered Baie de Prony. First stop was Anse Majic where we were smartly greeted by the crew of Ranginui, a YIT boat. There is nothing like arriving in a new place and instantly making new friends (this time the crews of Ranginui and Panthera - both fellow YIT boats). We have found cruising this year to be even more social than our first season. I think due to a combination of us being more seasoned cruisers (who no longer shy away from bowling up to other boats and introducing ourselves), the new YIT logo on Mirabilis attracting YITsters (most of whom want to thank Mike for the site and help he has given them), and our wee magnet Arlo charming all who meet him. We came to Anse Majic for the walk on offer up the hill to the top of Cap N’Dua for promised spectacular views over the bay and out across the southern lagoon. It delivered! It was a decent climb up a very steep road (we missed the turn off to the walking track despite being warned not to take the steep road - oops) and Nana did herself proud making it all the way to the top despite a dodgy knee. The views really were supberb with the red mineral-rich earth of the mainland contrasting against the blue of the lagoon and sky, dissected by bright green foliage creating vividly coloured scenes. The water in this bay is also incredibly clear despite being a mainland anchorage. In the still of the morning with no surface ripples, we were able to clearly see the coral forest below us (we were on one of the many free moorings supplied in popular NC anchorages).

We spent the night in Baie Ue after being stopped in our tracks heading to Base de Prony by a 25kt headwind and 4kt current coming out of Havannah Passage against us. Before moving on we jumped in the dinghy and putted up the river at the head of the bay. These river trips are always magical experiences, especially when you cut the engine to enjoy the stillness penetrated only by birdsong.

Ilot Maitre is a lovely wee island close to Noumea with free moorings so is a perfect first stop once you finally escape the shackles of port life. The island is popular with the kite surfers with a large shallow area with a sand and seagrass bottom. We spent a bit of time watching the kites and think we might be hooked. It really seems to be the thing to do if you are a cruiser, a great way to make the most of windy days. Better still, there is a popular kite surfing spot just outside the entrance to the marina where we live. The rest of our time here we spent lazing on the beach (while being serenaded by two Tahitian girls and their ukelele), paddling in the shallows with Arlo, stalking sea snakes, and sneaking into the resort pool.

Picked up a very special guest, Mike’s mum (and more importantly Arlo’s nana) and spent a lovely day in Noumea enjoying the tourist attractions. Mike was also able to fix our anchor windlass. Yay, no manually hauling the anchor we thought. Except straight after fixing the windlass, the alternator (which we need to charge the battery that drives the windlass) gave out. It really is one thing after another with Mirabilis this season. Luckily our trusty Captain and Chief Engineer was able to diagnose the problem - a plug had burned out on the external regulator. A quick rewiring job and we were back in action and ready to venture south.

Back in Noumea after a gorgeous sail from Ilot Mato enjoying town comforts and awaiting our next guest and delivery of boat parts - this time Mike’s mum and parts for our windlass which has just carked it. We are also coming to terms with the idea that 6 weeks in the French territory of Nouvelle Caledonie means we will very likely come back with considerably more padding around our middles as we delight in devouring our way through small mountains of French bread and pastries, while at the same time recoiling at the astronomical prices of local produce. The papaya and bananas that had become staples in our diets in Vanuatu (largely freely gifted to us by locals as they are so abundant) are now pricey treats and of inferior quality. Tant pis - bread, cheese and cured meats it is!

We have spent the last week scooting down to Ile des Pins (named for the tall narrow pine trees that dominate the coastal landscape) to pick up friends and then working our way back. We stayed in Kuto Bay, a large horse shoe shaped bay with luxurious fine white sand making it a fabulous swimming beach and popular destination for the cruise ships (though fortunately not while we were there). We did not spend long at Ile des Pins as the local chief has declared the anchorages around all but the southern part of the island to be closed to yachts. Those that have anchored anyway have either been told to leave or in some cases boarded in the night. This seems to have arisen out of unrest following the independence referendum last year. While the overall vote swung in favour of remaining with France, the numbers in the less populous outer islands were much further in favour of independence. With this in mind, we decided to head instead to the uninhabited Ilot Mato in the southern lagoon and get in some sailing time with our friends. Our decision paid off with Mato delivering spectacular views, good snorkelling and stars of the show - ospreys, sea snakes and black tip reef sharks. Though the combination of the sharks circling Mirabilis and the 8 large shark suckers (remora) we managed to pick up in Kuto Bay meant none of us were game for swimming off the mother ship. Even sitting in the cockpit got a bit hairy when a rather large shark actually leapt out of the water behind Jase (one of our VIPs) so close that it actually thudded against the hull when it landed. Reef sharks are actually about as harmless as they come but even I would have thought twice about popping in at that moment - though the fear of a shark sucker selecting me as its new host was far greater. We did all snorkel by dinghy though and while the viz was rather rubbish by the time I got in (delayed by a head cold), the corals were the healthiest I’ve seen in a good while.

We are back on the grid for better or worse. We had a dream run on our crossing (Arlo's first open ocean passage) from Vanuatu to New Caledonia sailing the whole way with no pesky engine and smooth enough conditions that Arlo was able to join us in the cockpit a bit - much better than being stuck lying on the saloon floor with him trying to keep his stomach contents contained. After about 36 hours we glided in to a wee uninhabited island on an atoll at the top of the Loyalty Group (Beautemps-Beaupre) that oozed with serenity. The island is largely bordered by short but sheer rock faces and hosts a small brown booby colony. A few boobies would regularly fly over to check us out with the intense colour of the lagoon reflecting on the white feathers of their undersides making them appear blue. On closer inspection by kayak, the rocks also came alive with a multitude of large rock crabs which would scramble over each other in their frantic dash for cover in response to my rude intrusion as I paddled by. We had the atoll to ourselves and passed the day swimming and endlessly marvelling at the breathtaking colours and vistas around us. We topped it all off with cocktails as the sun seemingly melted into the ocean. Pleasure sensors overload.

Off into the night we go. We have spent a fabulous two months exploring Vanuatu which has exceeded expectations which were high to begin. We will be back as there is so much more to see. New shores beckon though, as do promises of crusty bread, gooey cheese and voluptuous wines.

Back in Vila after a rather boisterous overnight sail from Malekula. The forecast 18kt NE revealed itself to in fact be a 25kt E for a good while there. Strong wind and very rough sea the entire way but otherwise relatively uneventful. Mike was not too pleased when he had to go and drain a flooded sail locker at 3am though. Walking up to the bow in those conditions is gnarly enough as it is let alone when you are carrying a car battery and bilge pump with you. Arlo did great for the most part, seems to do well on the saloon floor - the most stable part of the boat. Hoping to head to New Cal next weekend.

Finally got in around midnight. Had good wind, no wind, wind with big waves, no wind with big waves ( that one sucked ) and right when the finish line was in sight, ie the Anchorage, strong winds roaring out of it further delaying bed time grrrr

Beautiful day for sailing today. We had planned on just a day sail but the going was too good so we are pushing on. Will pull in at Southwest of Malakula tonight and await the promised northerly to jump down to Efate and ready ourselves for the sail across to New Caledonia.

HOMEWARD BOUND!!! We are heading home at long last. It's just that home is a bloody long way away.

Stopped here for the night, very calm non rolling Anchorage even in a decent se blow. Just sailing past the president coolidge ww2 wreck and million dollar point ww2 dumping grounds. Will blaze through luganville and down West coast of Malakula heading back to Vila. Some NE winds have our name written all over them. Arlo is still getting Sea sick, so it looks like I'll be sailing back to NZ by myself!

We've arrived at pretty much or northern most point of the trip. We were meant to head across past the Amabe volcano ( ACTIVE ) but it would have been a night sail in a strongish southerly with a sw swell so not ideal. With that passing through, we will have pretty much missed our opportunity to get to Pentecost. We will have to head against the trade winds to get back down to Port Vila ready to head to New Caledonia shortly. But first we will wait out some weather and chilax abit, although that might be a bit hard now the COT warrior ( crown of thorns ) has arrived and got Dani all rarked up with talk of diving walls etc. There goes my lounging on the beach with the book!

Sailing Vanuatu is continuous shifting baselines of my definition of paradise. We are now on the east coast of Santo Island tucked in between two islets inside a reef happily sheltered from the whitecaps outside it. We had a barbeque ashore on the first night we were here with another boat with fireflies in the trees above us. We are here for Vanuatu's famous blue holes. Yesterday we visited Riri and today, Matevulu. What an experience. We went by dinghy (paddling would be amazing but we didn't think Arlo's tolerance for our indulgence would last that long). After entering the river mouth you make your way up through the increasingly narrow and verdant river banks keeping an eye out for rocks and logs which gets easier as the water changes from murky and brackish to so incredibly pure that you feel like you are flying. After a kilometre or two of this magic carpet ride, the river opens up again to reveal an intense blue at the source of this clear spring water. And they have rope swings!

Well that was a rather interesting sail up the coast. Total downwind sailing with the boat hitting 9knts with the help of a wave! We were constantly surfing between 7.5 and 8.5 knts, while I was standing on the duckboard rinsing nappies. A couple of times I had to hand on as water rose to just under my knees as the back of the boat was hit by the next wave. I did notice the top of the mast bending quite a lot between the top stays and the lowers, might have to google how to re-adjust the stays to prevent that. It was a bit harder than the day before due to Arlo not being able to sleep in a bed due to the boat lurching as our course was not directly as the waves were going but rather 15 degrees to starboard which caused us to wander a fair bit. I had to hand steer for quite a bit as we were running close to the point where the main would back wind and try to jibe. (which the auto pilot liked to do often). At 7-9knts the miles disappeared quickly, so it wasn't all bad. We headed down the channel and tucked in behind a resort island and picked up a mooring. We will head round to Luganville tomorrow morning and hopefully go to a resort for the day swimming with Arlo as windyty says it will be as windy again, and that's really only fun for the wind generators!

Almost decided to continue on to Santo yesterday and arrive in the dark but decided against it and instead Anchor behind this little island to get out of the building wind and waves. A bit of a roll but nothing the stern anchor didn't fix. It was just a pit stop nothing more nothing less, didn't even leave the boat/swim incase the sharks from port sandwhich were still peeved we didnt stop there and followed us up the coast!

Lovely day sail to Banam Bay on the east coast of Malekula Island today. Just a short pitstop as we continue to push north tomorrow. It's Mike's birthday tomorrow so by god we better have good sailing conditions or I (and no doubt you all) will be hearing about it for sure.

Don’t listen to anyone who says to skip Lamen Bay! This bay is the ultimate turtle experience. The bay is full of large turtles feeding on the seagrass. We were not lucky enough to snorkel with the dugong that was here, though Mike did spot it a couple of times form the surface. The turtle action more than made up for it though. While they are generally lovely placid lumbering things, they are not averse to a little play it seems - I saw one grab hold of an anchor chain and ride it as it moved with the gentle swell. I even got a video of the action. We departed this morning for the east coast of Malakula after a family paddle outing. Arlo seemed quite happy wit the view from his throne with the added bonus of being able to keep a dry tush now as he rides in comfort and style.

LOTS of nudis! Revolieu Bay for the win! We tucked in inside the reef in this beautiful bay and met the lovely people of the yachts Pilgrim and Kupere (both YITster boats). We introduced our selves and were very glad we did. Ron off Pilgrim is my dream man - sorry Mike. He opened my eyes to the oodles of nudibranchs on the reef here and is a one man COT killing machine. In three days he killed around 400 of these starfish which while fabulous looking, are an absolute menace to the reefs now their populations have exploded unchecked due to few of their natural predators remaining. He also made for the perfect dive buddy being just as engrossed in all the invert life as I was. When I hit my 70s, I want to be Ron! I was sad to leave as would very happily continued diving this spot for a week if I could. Especially given how lucky we were to have Brazil off Kupere offer to hang out with Arlo while we were gone. Arlo loved his time with Brazil and we returned to an extremely happy wee boy having had two solid hours of play with his new buddy - he didn’t miss us one bit the little toad!

Moved here, my God it's hot today

Nudibranchs! I saw my first nudi of the season while snorkelling at Sulua Bay, Emae Island. Emae was a delightful unscheduled stop. Nudis alone would have done it for me of course but this spot had much more to offer. After the obligatory snorkel we all jumped on the paddleboard for a sunset stroll along the beach, weaving between jet black volcanic rocks, sending crabs scuttling for cover as we went - though it was the shells that needed protecting from me. I was in shell heaven. I promised myself a while back I would stop collecting shells - not really practical things to have floating around a boat. I have found though that 'They're toys for Arlo' is a rather convenient excuse to continue my beach combing. We ended the day drinks aboard Tutkum with a lovely couple of longterm cruisers originally from Turkey and departed early the next morning as dolphins moseyed through the bay. Emae, you are a bit of alright.

It took us a little longer to get to the turtles and duegongs so we stopped on the way and had a little stroll along the beach. All three of us jumped on the paddle board and paddled ashore and even caught a wave but I had to throw up the handbrake as a rock popped up right in our path while we surfing. Will have to try this surfing on the paddleboard some more, it was pretty fun but maybe not with Arlo and Dani in the backseat hanging of for dear life. (Actually I think Arlo was nodding off)

24 mile sail tomorrow to the next reef that needs snorkelling.

Water temp: 26 degrees, Air temp 27 degrees.

After a miserable two days of rain we moved into the marina to get the nappies, water and power sorted. We now have full power, full water and clean nappies except one, which was quite spectacular and such a joyful experience to prepare for the washing machine. Arlo we love you but please no more of those in public, especially at the pool while mummy and daddy are trying to drink their cocktails and enjoy the first sunny day in ages.

We left Paddy and Anna out at hideaway Island to effect repairs to the engine, clean some nappies and prepare to sail north but....... the weather turned even more miserable so there was no sun, no wind and only drizzle so no real water either. We made the call to hit the marina, plug in and return to being a liveaboard with full AC power where we could run the washing machine with the dry cycle! (great on the rainy day) I think we washed about 50,000 nappies. Our batteries are still charging at 10amps a day and a half later since they went on shore power, they were obviously pretty depleted.

We stayed an extra day in the marina just to get said washing done and hit the pool - where Arlo unleashed his surprise on the world. Luckily there was an Ausie family with 4 kids there who were more prepared than us with wipes. On the boat, we just have a salt water - water blaster for emergencies such as that - hang surprise from hell out the back from the davits and blast till clean ( both arlo and nappies ) - they love it, no really they do.

Tomorrow we drop our lines around half 6 in the morning and head north into crocodile and malaria/dengue mosquito infested waters. I just found out there are a few sea snakes up that way as well - great! I saw a shark as big as the boat heading away from Hideaway Island the other day, yes as big as the boat - well sideways that is, so there was no paddle boarding in anything deeper than 30cm of water and I didn't even go swimming ( how do you know if it was only bluffing and about to pull a sneaky u-turn!)

Time to pull 5th gear out of Mirabilis tomorrow, we have to get in by dark and have a long way to go!

Back out at Hideaway Island. Went to the fire show last night with Paddy and Anna. Was a great show and this time viewed from shore with Arlo enjoying the beginning and end with a little snooze inbetween while Dad confronted the person that boarded our dinghy and nicked our torch. It's a funny feeling standing on shore with your son sleeping on you, next to a group of youths who were clearly shining your torch back out to the pier spotlighting their mates with their new high powered torch, acquired from your dinghy down said pier. Needless to say they were good about returning it when I pointed out that I need the torch to get my sleeping son back to the boat safely. Might go visit the crystal pools today.

We spent a cool couple of days back around Havannah harbour. We went to an Independence day celebration with local live music, snorkeled a ww2 plane wreck that non of the cruisers seem to know about and is located right under our noses just a short dingy ride away from the anchorage. The plane is in excellent condition in 4-5m of water so an easy snorkel. Saw an amazing lime stone cave that was so big that naturally I thought it was going to cave in on me every step I took, even though there are cave drawings in there that go back 3000 years.

We stopped in at the famous wahoo bar and had a nice relaxing beer with a couple from a neighbouring boat called Restless whom had been sailing in one form or another around the world for the last 20 years! Naturally his description of devil's point was spot on. I suspect we were a bit too slow in getting round it as true to form it turned into the karori rip with washing machine conditions and thoughts of motorhomes entering my head again. Why does the wind always come from where you want to head to? We are tucked up on a private mooring( merci Anne-Marie ) next to the super yachts in Vila, in the second day of rain since arriving in Vanuatu, waiting for the pasties Paddy and Anna to arrive.

Moved back to Port Havannah for a non rolly nights sleep. As nice as it was in the other anchorage with the fantastic snorkelling, gorgeous beaches and water the same colour as the blue in Mobil signs (you know, the same place as you buy fuel for motorhomes ), not hearing the diesel sloshing around in the tank all night will be a godsend!

Off to the ww2 museum tomorrow. Turns out before last night, we happened to have been anchored in a "cleared" minefield from ww2!!! On the chart it says any vessels engaged in submarine, anchoring, fishing or underwater activities are at risk of finding the one mine they didn't manage to clear. We were engaged in Anchoring and snorkelling. Lucky I only saw the warning on exiting the mine field after being there for 4 days!

We head to a massive lime stone caves with some old artwork in them and then to Port Vila to await the arrival of my Race engineer who has some replacement race **cough cough** parts for the yacht. Of course the real reason is to hang out, drink beer, swim and dive and watch a wicked fire show!

Every third day is a washing day for us now. We have resorted to using the washing machine as it takes too much time to manually do the 2 million nappies Arlo gets through in three days. We use reusables which is just as well as Vanuatu has banned disposables so everyone is forced to use reusables, which is right up our alley as Dani has used them full time from 7 weeks. Once you get the system going, it is great, saves money and most of all the planet. All those still using disposables, hope you have your tickets to planet B sorted ;-) So running the washing machine uses way more water than I was anticipating. We are having to run the water maker for a day and a bit just to make up the extra usage. The last two times we have gotten away with it on wind and solar all day, but I'm not sure how that will last. No rain as of yet to top the tanks and if it stays like that there maybe shortages. Arlo will just have to wander round starkers.

We are having a lazy afternoon here in Undine Bay and Arlo is happily playing on the saloon floor so I thought I’d take some time out to reflect on our journey so far.

We have now been here for a month and are well settled in to the cruising lifestyle. It is quite a different experience from our last season back in 2012 pre-baby. Back then we were novice sailors making it up as we went along - we see that all too clearly now with a bit of experience under our belts. We were a bit nuts! But we had some incredible adventures for it.

We are now a little more cautious in the weather we head out in and the anchorages we choose, as being thrown about in a floating steel tub with a 7 month-old on board is not nearly as much fun as you might think. Our pace is also quite a lot slower as it takes so much longer to do things what with naps, feeding, packing the baby bag for every foreseeable circumstance and seemingly entire days dedicated to washing nappies...

And yet, the whole experience has been incredible and better than we could ever have hoped for. And we still have so much to go. Vanuatu is tremendously diverse with every drop of the anchor treating us to some new delight. We have met wonderful people - cruisers and locals (they adore Arlo) alike, seen things that have taken our breath away and left us in awe, swam, floated and dived from boat and shore, strolled along beaches and through villages (including an exceedingly eerie nighttime nakamal faux-pas), climbed a volcano, dived an offshore pinnacle, and bounced along in the back of trucks marvelling at the scenery and serenity of island life as we pass by.

The sense of community and simple living here just make so much sense and once again have us questioning the madness we have created for ourselves in modern developed societies. For all our technical and political advances, we really don’t leave ourselves a lot of time to just stop and enjoy life. I digress though.

Where was I, dolphins, turtles, dazzling arrays of fish, gorging on tropical fruit, cocktails at sunset yadda yadda. You get the picture. It’s pretty epic. And best of all is experiencing every part of it with the sweetest little boy we waited so long for. Everything just works. And seeing him drink it all in and grow so quickly - every day, together as a family, is such a gift. And completely makes up for the stress and exhaustion in the lead up to get here. 100% worth it.

Before Arlo was born and we talked of our plans, we encountered numerous well-meaning people who would raise their eyebrows, tell us we were mad. We couldn’t. Shouldn’t. Well we are, and it is wonderful and wouldn’t give this up for the world. I hope this will help them better see the positives and opportunities that surround us all in our lives.

I know Arlo won’t remember this, but I feel this has got to be setting him up for a an incredible future. Shooting across the bay in the dinghy together this morning with dolphins bow-riding and leaping all around certainly can’t be bad for him anyway.

well that was fun! water over the bow on anchor in 29.3knts of wind with a 2.4 mile fetch! We thought about moving but couldnt as the windless would not work at all. Turns out all the bad weather we had intially on the way up, which caused our front hold to be flooded had caused some bad connections, which just happened to present themselves last night. It wasnt that bad, we've had much worse back home in windy welly/Marlborough sounds ( 66 knots on anchor springs to mind) so we were pretty ok with the surf going past the cockpit. I did close Arlo's window as the waves were starting to reach it along the side of the boat.

Anyway, we awoke to paradise this morning and spent the day enjoying it. Swimming in near 28 degree water with unlimited visibility ( great for spotting those nasty sharks a mile away ) and perfect beaches. An unexpected bonus was I got to see a WW2 crashed aircraft.

Where we are anchored was a big strategic US Navy port during the war, which is great for me but blah blah blah ZZZzzzZZZZzzzzZz for Dani. So I get to see the odd occasional leftover piece of WW2 awesomeness , and she gets to see a couple of sea shells and a crab.

So far the boat is holding together - just. We haven't needed to run the motor for power yet, so the extra solar is doing great even with the washing machine having to be used for nappies more than we realised. In fact, we had so much power left over from yesterday (after running the water maker all day on solar alone) that we turned off the wind gennies. The twin wind gennies are making a huge difference over night. We even had a move night on the 43" tv and were still charging (with fridge and freezer going, plus lappie, plus Dani's smoothie maker, plus the baby intercom).

Depth sounder in the dinghy is the bees knees! If you don't have one GET ONE! So much better for finding cool snorkelling/dive spots, anchorages to sneak big bertha in and general recon. Ours was $99 and is mounted permanently but just unclips, and the battery is a $39 burnsco 12v jobbie that never seems to need charging.

Highlight of the trip so far was today's swim. It rivalled the mid ocean swim when the crew (Reece and Andre) jumped overboard and a gigantuan (probably a megaladon) shark was just beneath us. (later turned out to be the shadow of the boat - but you can never be too careful!). Still both epic swims. It's taken this long to have another one.

We have 2-3 more nights in this harbour and then we head north to pele/kakula island where we will never leave as it is paradise (unless there is a shark around, then I'm gone burgers)

Arrived in Port Havannah. Spent a lovely lazy afternoon swimming and hanging on the beach yesterday with new friends. We will stay around here until the weekend at least when we will catch up with old friends again.

Diving!!! Mike found this magic anchorage on a stunning bit of coastline with a reef 300m offshore rising up to 1m depth. We revved up the compressor, filled the tanks and took turns diving while the other hung out with Arlo in the dinghy. It worked brilliantly. Proof of concept - you can have a baby and still go cruising and diving. Yippeee!!! Result: one VERY happy Dani.

Finally dragged ourselves away from Vila where we were spoiled rotten by friends Adham, Anne and Nils who live there. Have now ducked around the corner for some snorkeling and a reportedly fabulous fire show. Nice to join some other boats we know too.

Leaving Erromango after three lovely lazy days. No other boats here despite the attraction of a superb freshwater swimming hole and caves...albeit with human remains. Perhaps the island's reputation for cannibalism is keeping others away. Mike was able to make himself useful fixing one of the locals' freezer. That's 2/2 for my hire a hubby business as he also fixed the generator at our last stop. Will keep him around I think. First sail through the night with just the 2.5 of us. Happily it's a balmy one with a nice breeze and gentle swell...so far anyway. Next stop is Port Vila.

Still in Port Resolution of the stunning Tanna Island. Today we said goodbye to Dre and Reece, our epic crew who helped us get here. What a phenomenal start to our cruising season. We have only been here five days and already had some out of this world experiences. Highlights have been walking through the eerily quiet village nakamal at night (mid-kava session) to the local 'restaurant' for the most exquisite island cuisine, and the feeling of absolute awe as we stared into the belly of Mount Yasur volcano as it was erupting. We have also met some wonderful people already - both fellow cruisers and locals a like. Today we take it easy and catch up on chores - key being installing a washdown pump to clear the thick layer of gritty ash that is continuously accumulating all over Mirabilis. Will likely start heading north in the next couple of days. Side note for MCC friends - such a crazy small world, we joined the tourists yesterday to go up the volcano and among them were fellow MCC club peeps including Ross Fenton and Helena, our favourite sometimes bar lady.

The boys finally made it in yesterday at 3 with Dani (me) and Arlo joining shortly after following a brief stay with a lovely local family. Lads now back ashore to clear immigration and stick up on tropical fruit before we head around the other side of the island to escape the roll. Thanks so much for all your love and support for the boys on their adventure. They assure us there were some unforgettable stunning moments out there to balance out the frustrations of weather - curious whales, leaping tuna, dolphins, stunning sun sets and rises, and jumping off the boat into pure blue water in the middle of the ocean.

Still bloody motoring - day 5 of providing karma to mother nature by burning diesel for refusing to give us wind!! Lessons learned from this trip: 1) Don't change your prop to a sailing enhanced one, you won't be sailing end of story. Instead get the biggest prop for burning lots of diesel, because that's all you'll be doing.

2) On that note, convert all your water tanks to diesel tanks so you can carry more of the good stuff.

3) That brings us to water, get a 140l/hr water maker so you can just make water when you need it, as you'll have your engine running anyway.

4) Don't worry about trying to get antique self steering going ever, you won't need it, as those things require wind to work and since you'll be motoring everywhere due, to no wind, dump it or take it to the scrap metal dealers to get some more diesel money. But what about power savings I hear you say, well you'll be motoring and that 200amp alternator will be able to supply a small island nation with enough power to put them into space, let alone cover the needs of the auto pilot and other non sailing systems aboard.

5) Get rid of all solar panels and wind generators. You are not sailing since you are motoring and have all the power you could ever want. Run the microwave, use the bread maker, use the washing machine (remember water on demand) and even run the dry cycle!! And in their place put some deck chairs or recliners, as this is prime relestate with a view. And now those pesky winds generators are gone, relax and crank the stereo right up to max amp draw, which is not actually possible to achieve as you will be motoring with enough power to send a small island into space.

5) Onto the mast, don't replace the rigging it's a waste of money, which would be better used in buying massive amounts of diesel to fill your tanks for three or more seasons, because that's what you'll be using - diesel. Your mast is really just an aerial and radar holder and nothing more. If you think it's a good idea to put sails up on it, don't. While they may look pretty, they achieve absolutely nothing and have the functional equivalent of a painting on the wall. 6) When buying a sailboat don't believe the marketing spiel...ie the word sail in sailboat is a misrepresentation, you will actually be motoring and only ever be able to achieve that feeling of sailing by reading sailing magazines or watching sailing videos on YouTube. Everything else is a lie. 7) Someone else figured this out before me, and using the sage advice above decided to build a boat and called it a launch.

Still motoring, even after writing this novel on a tablet.

Sent from Iridium Mail & Web.

We have been converting diesel into two parts wind and one part water today. We've filled our tanks, had showers, made washing buckets, filled Jerry containers and anything that will hold water. We've charged camera and laptop batteries, used the 240v drill with hole saws to cut new holes in the boat and anything that requires power as we have a 180amp alternator just sitting there twiddling its thumbs. The crew were in the suicide seat today, bow riding away. Andre thought he was on the Titanic and was pretending to fly, he just needed a strawberry milk in one hand and it would have completed it.

The bean bag made it on to the dodger roof to provide an epic view for whale watching, but alas there were none, the Japanese must have been through this way recently.

A car carrier decided to make a beeline for us, 1st it was 15 miles out heading on an intercept and then it was passing 1.3 miles in front which my may sound far, but given the size of those things had us all a little worried, except Reece who was down stairs snoring away. We would have saved him a spot inter life raft I'm sure. The ocean is a big big big BIG place, so really 1.3 miles away! We were on wind hold at the time in very light winds, and once it crossed into where our wind was coming from, Mirabilis manged to do a 90 degree turn due to turbulence - unless dolphins were messing with our rudder, yeah that's more than likely it. Meant to be an even nicer day tomorrow, perhaps we will stop the boat and go for a swim, well at least I'll go down the boarding ladder for a dip. Those sharks are sneaky bastards and probably have been waiting for us to take a quick dip the whole time, ready to pounce. We actually saw a shark today, well the others think it was a dolphin but I think a shark in disguise. It was alone and I'm pretty shore it's only sharks that are Nigel no mates.

Not even half way.......Are we there yet? Sent from Iridium Mail & Web.

It was almost impossible to go east or get some easting all I managed to do was go less West than the mother nature wanted us to go. Maybe we are meant to stop at Norfolk for a muffin! Right now the wind is coming right from where we want to go, so can't go that way.

Just heated and finished the chicken pie, yum. It's only a week old so let's hope it stays down. We made sure only 2 of the 3 crew are it so one could live to tell the tale.

Least night was pretty much hell on Earth in terms of waves, wind, sleep and comfort. We were prepared but it turns out you never are really fully prepared for the fury of mother nature. A motorhome really is a great alternative to being out here! I can tow a 4wd or racecar (517hp Merc :-) ) with a motorhome.

We had sustained 35knts with a gust of 41 while trying to furl the headsail in some more as we had a tad too much rag out. So after that died back to 30 for the next 5 hours or so the waves started to hit. Several flooded out cockpit even though we have full cockpit clears. There was just so much water it was coming in the roof holes as if someone put a hose in every gap and let rip.

That only happened 5 or so times even when we had decided to run off down wind. We broached a couple of times resulting in getting hit. I turned the a Auto pilot onto full power which stopped more of those. We had oodles of power due to the trip wind generators pumping it in.

And now we are motoring, just like motorhomes do. Motorhome Current temps: Air 20 c Water 19.36 c Sent from Iridium Mail & Web.

Ummm ...... That's not daunting at all! Sent from Iridium Mail & Web.

Red sky morning sailors hang on tight! Motored all night and hosted the main about 5am. Nice gentle breeze which will no doubt steadly climb into the ferocious beast that we are usually accustomed to around Wellington. Around midday from what I can tell till tomorrow morning. At least this time there will be no stupid oil rigs jumping out right in your way.

Prop is working well both motoring and definitely the best with sailing. I think it has enabled us to break free from NZ :-) Sent from Iridium Mail & Web.

image: crew posing.

We had quite an off and on night with bursts of high speed and slow patches so we kept 2 reefs in from new Plymouth with squalls coming through with gusts up to 26knts but mostly 17-20knts steady breeze but constantly moving the sweet spot on a course towards the shore. If we tightened up we were then crashing into waves more, so we choose to suck up some of our sea room to the coast in the hope the weather changed and allowed us to track parallel again which it did thankfully.

Seas are slight and the sun is out, the wind is nearly gone. We pulled out our awesome light air sail that was gifted to us and is as old as me! We are now drifting between 4.5 and 6 knots in 9 knots of wind, great for Mirabilis.

1st order of business today figure out why we have pooling water near the companion way hatch in the cockpit, normally it runs out the back. This usually means we are bow down, which means 1\2 ton of water in the front hold which totally is flooded. Bilge pump wire had corroded and broken in the rough weather. I tested it before we left, and quickly checked the connections, but guess not carefully enough. We busted out the emergency bilge pumps and pumped it out, emptied the locker of all the stuff we tried to give away at the marina and no one wanted and repaired the connection.

And the then we noticed we were being covertly shadowed by a medium sized highly camouflaged submersible whale of which Dre wanted to ride it! This guy was truly nosy and surfaced around us 3 times while we were changing to the light air sail. The last time was no further than 5m away. What type of whale was it I hear Dani asking, well it snorted, had fins was large and swam.

It's a low power day today, little wind, sun hiding behind sails and rigging and starting to get cloudy. Determined not to run the engine but might have to give in if wind dies to nothing so then it will be a high power day yay!! Soooo or house has now officially circumnavigated the North island of New Zealand.

Sent from Iridium Mail & Web.

Retry the pic again, did it work this time Dad? Sent from Iridium Mail & Web.

had to alter the racing sail setup to tighten up into the wind. Not a bad days sailing, still can't believe we haven't even left nz waters yet and had so many different conditions.

I've added a pic of today's sailing conditions. Anyone leaving comments just a note they are being seen and enjoyed by us and it is nice to get them, it's just a little hard to be on the tablet on a rollercoaster and not get queazy.

We left New Plymouth yesterday about 4pm and headed back out into the deep blue. Our depth sounded stopped working at 450m deep and Waikato is 55 NM off our starboard bow ( we are 99kms out to sea from Waikato for those land lubbers agmonst you).

We had a relatively fast sail last night with 25-30knts the whole night so not much sleep was had. Things are calming down today so a good chance to catch up on sleep, eat and see if anything needs fixing on the boat after what feels like a 16hr rollercoaster ride.

Are we there yet?

Arrived and anchored. Crew managed first food since departure ( chicken pie yum).

Heading to New Plymouth for repairs. Self steering gear failed yet again. I swear if it had a quick release pin it would now be 40 leagues below. I'm not sure when it happened but most likely before the two uncontrolled jibes in 30 gusting 40 ,(due to the autopilot freaking out as something else was controlling the boat). The self steering gear has again bent the shaft and now tube and is locked sideways causing a hard turn one way. It was not safe to remove in 4-6m hence new Plymouth here we come. Main needs some new cars as they popped during the jibes eeek!!

On our way. Sea sickness plagued our first few hours but most coming right now and just had our first dolphin sighting.

Went out for a quick sail today - sea trials for both Mirabilis (new rig, prop and self-steering gear) and Arlo (our new human). Looking good for a Wednesday departure for Vanuatu. Giddyup!

Resetting to back home. Getting ready for our next years voyage with home grown crew.

We have finally left Abel Tasman and spent last night in a new favourite Whangarae Bay, Croisilles Harbour. We had great fun kayaking the coastline this morning, surfing white water between gaps in the rock and poking our noses into wee caves along the way. Now underway headed through French Pass for Whareata Bay on the east coast of D'Urville. Stunning day out here made all the better with icecreams from the Okiwi Bay holiday park shop.

Back at Anchorage for a few days. First day back we explored Falls River mouth by kayak and then walked up to the impressive falls themselves in the afternoon. Mammoth boulders and deep pools sent this straight to the top of Mike’s all time favourite walks. We were then rewarded with a full day of rain to replenish our energy levels and our water tanks.- filling 200 litres in an afternoon.

Stunning afternoon and dead calm evening at Totaranui spent swimming and lazing on the beach and then watching the sun set to reveal a clear starry night from Mirabilis.

The last few days have been stunning here in Abel - these photos are from kayaking Awaroa estuary and river at mid tide (feeding time for the oystercatchers) and high tide (up river excursion).

Had an interesting night as we had been stern anchored in to keep the bow into the wakes of the masses of tourist boats/ferries during the day and at 1am the wind changed to 20, gusting 30's so I had to get out and release the stern anchor and it was about that time I was wishing we had raised the dinghy. I seriously thought the line was going to break. I put another three painters on and also fashioned them into a bridle to stop the jerking from the waves, gusts and especially the voices in my head telling me we are about to loose our brand new dinghy! On the plus side, we started the day with full batteries after the twin wind gennies pumped in so much power I thought our old batteries might go into meltdown, so naturally I put on everything that needed charging. Off to do a walk to Marahau and back after lunch.

All stocked up and on our way to Adele Island in Abel Tasman for a week or two!!

Spent two lovely days being tourists in Nelson. Such a great little city.

Set down in Croisilles Harbour for the night. Will have to explore next time as it looked like there were some nice spots at the southwest end of the bay and good wildlife. We saw penguins, seabirds, seals and dolphins on our way out.

Anchored for the day south of Sauvage Point at the south end of D'Urville Island to explore the steep craggy coastline down this end. Had a great paddle and walk to the top of the Point to view poor abandoned Mirabilis. Met one seal and had some big fish swim under us out at Paddock Rocks - to which I was alerted by Mike's squeal.

Crossing Admiralty Bay as the cloud lifts to a beautiful day ahead. Headed through French Pass.

We have moved on out to the outer sounds in preparation for the big blow coming. We got internet coverage on the way out and jumped online to see pictures of NZ being flooded and lashed. Last night for us was quite pleasant, a lot of rain and no wind ( we were expecting 40 knts ). Tonight we are expecting 50knts, probably get 5knts knowing metservice.

Walked part of the Nydia Track yesterday from Nydia Bay campsite past magnificent old rimu laden with epiphytes up into striking tall stands of beech to a breathtaking view over Ngawhakawhiti. Stern lined in in Chance Bay last night we didn't feel a puff of the 40kts we were hiding from. Lovely clear water yesterday before the rain (great views of rays parading past our doorstep, including a big one while Mike was swimming - hehe, enjoyed pointing that out and watching how fast he can move). Now headed further out the Sound. 50kt SW forecast. Eep!

Pretty spot in Portage Bay. Wee gem in Kenepuru with native bush throughout Portage. Take Home Bay is lovely and quiet, hidden from Portage itself. Short walk over the saddle to Queen Charlotte Sound. Stick to Portage for swimming though, a good few degrees warmer.

Spent the night here and dinghyed to Havelock for a perfect but short reunion with old sailing friends turned landlubbers. Now off to explore Kenepuru Sound.

Ngawhakawhiti Bay, our happy place! Virgin bush and all day dawn chorus. Photo at nearby island scenic reserve.

Made it to anchor inside Aligator Head at midnight last night. Great southerly breeze carried us swiftly most of the way dying out on queue at 11 for a still night. Now feasting on a full cooked brekkie motoring down deeper into Pelorus to our favorite spot in World's End to join our friends on Pebbles.

Finally left the berth after having sorted the boat for a month away. First Pelorus, then D'urville and finally mosey onto Abel Tasman and Golden Bay.

And we are off across the cook. Not sure why we do it but everything is always last minute getting the boat sorted. Start engine, no charging, go to put steering wheel on, important bit missing so can't steer, go to check wind speed, bird stole spinny thing. At least the fridge is still working for the beer.

Quick update - We are back at home in the marina. If you have got some strange emails, that is just me testing the new app functionality out. Please ignore them, nothing to see here move along.

Crossed Tasman Bay and through French Pass yesterday followed by a stressful evening in a gusty Port Ligar threatening to swing into a couple of launches after our anchor windlass packed itself and we dropped the better part of our hundred metres of heavy chain. Mike had to manual haul a bit until he managed to fix it well enough with a bit of plastic chopping board to get the rest up. All our moorings full, we decided it was late enough and to chance it on a charter boat mooring. We have now had a good sleep and are prepared for what promises to be a rough crossing home.

Leaving Kaiteretere after a great day out with Mike's brother and kids up at Bark Bay. Now headed for French Pass as we make our way home to Mana.

Have been anchored here the last three days, no cell reception and only just discovered the free limited wifi. Didn't miss it at all, but would have been great for weather. A launch that parked half a boat length away decided to move after nearly being blown into us and I suggesting us being steel would win in an altercation.

A short hop and our last sail of 2016 to join the relative masses (we pretty much had Totaranui to ourselves) at The Anchorage in Torrent Bay for NYE.

Anchored here for the night. Hopefully the southerly doesnt get stronger or we'll have to move in the night.

Crossed Tasman Bay in blue skies but sadly no wind so had to motor the whole way to Totaranui where we spent three nights.

Nearly there yay!

Left D'Urville around 11am after a quick explore of the boulder bank by dinghy where we had our second encounter with Greville Harbour's friendly resident fur seal. Beautiful day but only just had the wind pick up enough to cut the engine about half an hour ago. Sailing along nicely now.

We passed through the boulder bank at 3m deep an hour after low tide, the tide rips through here at six knots at flood which must be exciting as it was moving enough when we came through. Mill Arm where we are now is beautiful, completely surrounded by native bush and chocka full (hundreds!) of eagle rays (mostly) and sting rays as our kayaking revealed. Today we went dinghy exploring trying to find walks but could only find private tracks. We did get treated to quite a show though as a fur seal ripped a fish apart in front of us, rolled around a little contentedly then moseyed off again. Met a couple who are spending six months cruising around NZ before heading offshore - jealous!

Lovely day motoring down to Greville Harbour from Port Hardy. We stopped at Moawhitu Beach to wait for the tide to turn before we could enter the pass in the boulder bank into the inner harbour. We kayaked ashore and walked around the lagoon (swans, pateke and Canadian geese) behind the beach and had a very quick swim not to be outdone by the family that choppered in for a picnic and swim further down the beach.

Left Mana at 0730 and had a great sail averaging 8kts across the Strait in fresh 25kt southerlies easing and rough seas but pretty comfortable as all was coming from our aft quarter. We made the most of our new cockpit surrounds lazing in the cockpit the whole way. We couldn't quite aim high enough and the wind petered out once north of Pelorus so had to motor sail around the corner into Port Hardy. Going through Stephens Passage was fun as the sea rises up out of nowhere. Great rock formations with the three sisters and an arch. Not much bird life to speak of this passage, a cape petrel, white-chinned petrel and I think a black-browed albatross. The north end of D'Urville is all farmland but South Arm where we picked up a mooring is beautiful, surrounded by native bush with great bird life and song - the perfect setting for post-passage sundowners. Explored the base of the arm by dingy and did a little beach fossicking. Cool rock formations with vertically pancaked rock, boulders that seemed to have been iced and soft rocks washed up full of holes from burrowing bivalves, the shells of some of which were still in them. Mike limited me to just two souvenir rocks...party pooper.

Great day out with family racing in the Evans Bay Yacht Cruiser Division.

Feeling good to have our home home again. Just tied up back in Chaffers after a 36 hour trip from Akaroa, 24 hours of which was under sail (a nice change from our trip south). The trip was relatively uneventful apart from the 3am lurch where we were knocked down so far that the entire galley contents ended up on the floor with raw egg running down the opposite wall! Luckily we were both in safe spots on the low side so didn't go flying ourselves. Sleep was hard to come by after that though with us bracing ourselves every time we surfed down another big wave and started to broach. Fortunately the autopilot handled it the rest of the way. Thanks for following our journey, it has been incredible and lovely to be able to share a wee part of it.

Heading home.

Arrived entrance to Akaroa harbor after a very quick ( for us ) passage where for times we maintaining 8.5 to 9.5 knots and 7.5 to 8.5 most of the time. It looks like we will depart here late Monday night.

Departed Dunedin for Lyttelton on the tail end of storm force winds and have now been experiencing our more normal gale winds we are so accustomed to. We even hit 11.9 knots. Not bad but it was down wave tail wind :)The only one brave enough to be outside is walle our autopilot.

Berthed in the heart of Dunedin. Fantastic coming into NZ cities via yacht, although trip up harbour was mental with 35 knot winds and waves breaking over the deck!! Coolest old buildings and train history in this city.

We left the very beautiful Stewart Island behind us at 6pm last night from Lord's River sailing out of our nice protected anchorage straight into very rough and high seas with up to 44 knot winds. It was quite spectacular out there and Mike thought later we really should have had some Metallica (or other equally hardcore anthems) playing. About an hour or so out though the wind dropped right back getting down as low as 10 knots which had us wondering whether we were completely mad going out in this as that sea state and no wind is a rather dire combination. Fortunately the next front came through and the wind settled in at around 30 knots which after we had cleared the island and were able to bear up towards our destination Otago, was not all that bad and had us making great ground overnight. This is a deviation from our original plan of heading home via Fiordland but we ended up deciding not to rush and do Stewart Island justice. Fiordland will just have to be our next cruising season.�The wind has dropped off just now as the new day has dawned on us and we have put the motor on to keep up progress and be in for tea. The weather is looking pretty messy for the next couple of days so we might hole up there for a bit, hopefully next to the yacht Evohe which is berthed right in town and has invited us to tie alongside should we ever need to. More on our encounter with Evohe and her wonderful crowd when I catch you up on our Port Pegasus adventures.

We spent two more days at Evening Cove. Monday saw a could southwest wind come through but we were not deterred by that, nor the hail that fell on us on the dinghy ride to the start of the track to Frazer Peaks - Gog and Magog. Ok, we were a little deterred but we had learnt from our last experience and were at least well prepared with full wet weather gear and the weather is so volatile here that it is a gamble whether it will be hailing or shining in the next ten minutes so no point waiting for the weather to come right. And we had heard the views were spectacular so decided to persevere. The three hour walk up to Magog took us nearly four after we lost the track...and then found it...and then lost it etc. with much bush bashing and soggy sock crossings along the way. Still, we were not disappointed and were well rewarded with incredible views. The sun even came out briefly a couple of times.

The next day we had a lazy start then decided to head to the very south of the arm for a short walk over to a seaward beach in Broad Bay. On the way we dropped off the kayaks at Tunnel Cove to explore on the way home. While there we walked through the tunnel in the rock to have a nosey at the other side. On the way back Mike was a little ahead back on the other side of the tunnel when I simultaneously heard a squeal from Mike at his end of the tunnel and a bark from a large male sea lion who had been snoozing just out of site just a couple of metres from me on my side. Mike had come across his girlfriend on the other side and somehow we had managed to sandwich ourselves in between the unimpressed couple. When I stopped laughing I went to Mike's rescue (I shouldn't really laugh as a few years ago I was equally wussy fending off three pups in a forest on the Otago Peninsula, but he did look funny trembling up a tree) and we headed back to the dinghy leaving the couple reunite in peace - Mike insisted on carrying the kayak paddles with us for protection! Broad Bay beach was lovely and we saw three more male sea lions (though not quite so close this time), including one particularly old looking bull, then finished off with a kayak around the southeastern side of Evening Cove.

We woke on Wednesday to a dead calm day where everything we saw above the water was mirrored on it. We weighed anchor and headed for Islet Cove to explore Seal Creeks in the north of the arm. While underway we saw a yacht heading into the south of the arm, looking through the binos it looked familiar and sure enough it popped up on AIS as Evohe, a 25m steel yacht that I first met when I was about 9 years old when they were passing through Wellington with their three kids as part of an anti-drift net campaign - we protested on parliament steps together! I had then met Steve (Evohe's captain) again just over ten years ago when I was lucky enough to sail down to Stewart Island on her for some filming of a marine awareness kids video. Evohe tends to do conservation or research cruises so I hailed her on the radio thinking I might know someone on board and to say hi to Steve. I soon found I knew half the crew with the filmmaker from my last trip being on board, Steve and another crew member from that time, and three others I knew from Undaria eradication diving I have done in Fiordland. To add to my delight they were more than happy to lend us tanks so we were able to get in a couple of dives after all - something I had all but given up hope on after the blow of not being able to get our dive compressor working despite many many hours and dollars spent on it before coming down. We wrapped up the day with drinks and dinner on board Evohe - it had been their last day of filming (Big Blue Back Yard episode) so everyone was very ready to let their hair down. Oh, and to add to the small world syndrome, while on board indulging in said drinks, two kayakers emerged out of Seal Creeks and came up to say hello, turned out one was a chap I used to work with at DOC (Mike Jacobsen) and had been out sailing on his yacht before. So from seeing no-one all week (after the hunters), we come across two parties and know almost all of them. Nuts!

Thursday morning the wind died down temporarily so we took the opportunity to head down into the south arm of Pegasus. We have secured ourselves in a great all weather anchorage up in Evening Cove, stern-tied in and with a secondary anchor out for good measure. We are experiencing day after day of very strong wind. After a good deluge of rain the clouds parted enough on Friday for us to explore the cove by kayak. The tannin in the water from all the runoff had left the sea an intense reddish brown colour and we captured our first views of the impressive Bald Cone which we intended to climb the next day. As a teaser, we went ashore Friday afternoon not far from the boat, where we climbed a track up to the ridge line to get our first tantalising views of Pegasus from on high. Even this was deemed stunning, and in cloudy, drizzly conditions too. On Saturday the wind was honking but the sky started to clear around midday and we decided to brave the white caps to dinghy into the wind down to Billy's Cove, 2nm south of our anchorage, for the walk up to Bald Cone. It was not long before we regretted not bringing full wet weather gear as the wind was far stronger than we realised and we soon found ourselves ploughing into white-capped trenches. We made it though, despite one particularly strong gust giving the dinghy far more air than was comfortable. Once we had ringed ourselves and our undies out we were on our way, and it wasn't long before the journey was deemed worth it. The walk was stunning, terminating in a rope assisted climb that delivered us atop huge slabs of magnificent wind and water-worn granite rock which had within them perfectly formed seats and hidey-holes to shelter from the wind in, while taking in a snack and the view. The wind gusts meant I was often on all fours while scrambling from vantage point to vantage point, for fear of being blown right off. Indeed I nearly lost my sunnies at one stage when they were blown right off my face and over the edge of one of the giant boulders. Fortunately, and somewhat miraculously, I was able to find and retrieve them from the manuka scrub below. Once the rate of "wow!"'s per minute had eased off, we started our descent back to the dinghy and enjoyed a much tamer down-wind ride home back to Mirabilis for a well deserved cup of tea (swiftly followed by a G&T for that crew member most partial). Today the wind is flexing its muscle even harder and so we are observing a day of rest - baking bread, reading books, posting updates to YIT (Dani) and updating YIT itself (Mike). Tomorrow - Gog!

After a luxurious deep sleep we wake up in Port Pegasus and discover just how close we are to some uncharted rocks. We decide to move deeper in to the cruising guide recommended anchorage and stern tie off. It is good practice for when we really need it and has the added benefit of fantastic views and birdsong to eat your porridge to. We then spent the rest of the day exploring by dinghy. The first river we creep up has the most beautiful moss covered boulders for scrambling up at its head, and on our way out we pass a sea lion and her rather wee pup - much smaller than the one we had seen at Otago a few weeks ago. We tootle up a couple more river-fed arms (rather warily after our Port Adventure experience) then head toward Belltopper Falls which were recommended by a friend. We pass an old settlement and compressor on the way, which seems totally absurd out here where we feel as far from civilisation as you can possibly get. Ironically, we then run into a group of hunters - the only other people in the entire North Arm of Pegasus as far as we can tell. They are collecting scallops and tell us they are the only hunters in the area having booked out both Pegasus hunting blocks - again, reassuring to have made their acquaintance for future bush walks. Cheerily, they also assure us better weather is on its way as it has been mostly grey and gusty. Belltopper falls wow us after all the miniature waterfalls we have gotten used to down here and we arrive just in time to shelter under a tree and admire the view with a hot drink and a bikkie. The shower passes, we admire some more, and then make our way back across the bay (a good fun bouncy ride as the wind is still up). Just outside the entrance to our bay we find ourselves surrounded by an enormous flock of titi living it up in the wind gusts. Repeatedly taking off and then crash landing again - they are hardly elegant in the latter, especially compared to the albatross that we are used to watching slowly tilt their wings and stretch out their landing gear to ski to a smooth finish. These guys on the other hand remind me of my own first attempts at water skiing - I was less than graceful I assure you. Delightful to watch. Frustrating to photograph. Back on board it's time for a sundowner. The next morning we tune in to check the weather. The forecast is for three solid days of strong winds. I much preferred the hunters' forecast. Having seen the main attractions in the north arm, we decide to move on down to the southern arm while it is calm to set ourselves up securely for carefree exploring over the next few days.

We're off, Port Pegasus here we come! It looks a bit breezy but sure, we'll be right. Let's make a nice cooked breakfast to eat on the way. Um...Dani, what were we thinking?! We left our lovely snug sheltered anchorage and are now off the coast in 30knot sustained winds - not quite the lovely 15 that was forecast. This is a full wet weather gear, life jackets and tethering straps affair. Still, it is pretty spectacular out here and boy do the birds love a good stiff breeze to play in. Maybe it's just that this Port acts as a wind factory? Half an hour later, turns out the entire Stewart Island is a bloody wind factory. We creep inside Shelter Point (again, loving how literal and accurate the place names are turning out to be) and set down the anchor to resume poaching eggs and frying kranskies and wait for the wind to calm down a little. It doesn't, it gets stronger and our calm anchorage is soon as bad as the berth at Chaffers Marina. Rather than the forecast NW, it is much closer to a westerly making a direct route impossible. We give it a bit until we at least have the tidal currents on our side and head off. If we can average five knots, we should make Port Pegasus before nightfall. We don't. With all the tacking our track on the chart plotter looks like the side of a Christmas tree, but we have go out to get a decent wind angle then come in again every time the swell (tide against swell never ends well - should be a nautical saying if it isn't already) gets too big as we move out of the "shelter" of the island. We push on and at one stage feel like it might be easing off a little so set up a lappie in the cockpit to watch an episode of the cheesiest of all TV series,�Quantico (seriously it's like the McD's of TV, you know it's awful but you keep going back). 10 minutes in we get slammed by a 40 knot gust which instantly builds the sea. No more TV, tack in again. Two more hours to go. Eventually we make it and the conditions do ease slightly on the home stretch. Once inside Pegasus we are granted instant reprieve. We anchor in Ben's Bay a little after midnight and fall straight into a deep sleep.

We finally broke our Stewart Island marine mammal drought and spotted a couple dozen or so fur seals sunning themselves on the rocks on the way in to Port Adventure where we arrived to the equally out of character�experience of actually having to share an anchorage with, not one, but two other yachts. We chatted briefly to a couple of lads from Dunners on one yacht then scooted off to make the most of the high tide to explore up Heron River. We passed a hunting gang turned seafood gatherers on our way and made ourselves known (so as not to get shot when off exploring) then carried on our way. Heron River had a massive entrance to it and unsurprisingly, plenty of herons (shags) were spotted along the way. We eventually arrived at the spot where sea turned to river proper and probed on up a little further marvelling at how the water was rushing in one moment then out the next varying nearly a metre at a time. Then in, then out, then....oh crap! It's staying out, and we had squeezed over a very shallow rock sill to get up which was now largely out of the water and becoming more so by the second! The sandflies were circling, pulsing with excitement over their soon to be trapped prey. Back in the dinghy, engine up and white water rafting we did go. Port Adventure indeed! We discovered a small tear in the dinghy later but otherwise came out unscathed and now marvelling at both nature and our stupidity. Time for refreshments and some downtime�reading in the cockpit to end the day. The next morning we kayaked to the western shore where there was a tidal estuary which we walked up to yet another pretty waterfall. The wind was then getting up and we decided to make our move south. The fact that the two other boats in the anchorage had decided to high tail it north should perhaps have been a warning sign that it was not going to be a gentle trip.

After Prices Inlet we moseyed on back to Golden Bay ready for our guests to disembark in the morning to catch the ferry back across the Strait. We took shelter in the lee of Iona Island to try and hide from the 35 knot gusts though still found ourselves having to battle with a poorly wrapped headsail that had started to unfurl itself. Fitting that Ali was here, as the first time this happened was when we first met Roxi and her crew. They came to our rescue after spotting the newbies wrestling with the same thing on a typical day in Chaffers Marina nearly six years ago. It is all weirdly quiet now and Scrabble for two just isn't the same. After waving goodbye we motorsailed back around into Halfmoon Bay where we are now sitting out strong winds off Butterfield Beach and will reprovision before venturing further south. The trip around was lovely as we came across huge flocks of titi (muttonbird or shearwater as you fancy), gulls and terns dining on a boil-up. There seem to be plenty of little penguins about too as we always see them as we move between the inlet and Halfmoon Bay. We even spotted a yellow-eyed penguin a few days ago. We spent last night in the pub (the South Sea Hotel) chatting a bit to both locals and visitors. I felt rather priveledged after talking to the two men who came here as part of one of their bucket lists realising how much more we get to see and do with our own boat to get around on and not having to be part of a group of tourists when you do go somewhere. It's a cruiser's life for sure. We are taking it easy today (REALLY easy - I?m taking a leaf out of Mike?s book and am on the couch in my robe at lunchtime!) while the wind gets this little tantrum out of its system then tomorrow will head to Lord's River for a day then down on to Port Pegasus. We will probably spend a week there and then head straight to Fiordland so may not have internet or phone reception again for quite some time (after we leave tomorrow) so fear not if you don't hear any more from us. We will have radio scheds with Maritime Radio on the passages to Fiordland and then up the West Coast back to Welly. See you on the other side friends and fam! Oh, and the random photo of Mike snuggled up in a blanket was from when we went to a rather odd but educational local film about island life...narrated by a dog. We were happy enough for the opportunity to snuggle up in blankets and scoff chocolates and ice creams on a drizzly day.

After our morning treat of watching kiwi on the beach at Little Glory, we spent a wonderful final wet and wild day with our guests exploring Prices Inlet and Kaipipi Bay by kayak, dinghy and foot. The kayaking was beautiful with many cute bonsai islands and cosy coves to investigate. The dinghy ride trip to Kaipipi was wonderful with high tide letting us probe far inland; and made all the more fun by a rollercoaster ride back to Mirabilis into wind, rain and sea. I soon learned it is best not to howl with delight as you plough into a wave after I funnelled a good amount of the inlet into my gullet. The old whaling repair station was fascinating to wander around too with enormous ice-damaged props, an old boiler, building foundations and various other remnants all just walked away from after whaling became uneconomic. The size of the props testament to the size of the vessels that were pursuing those gentle behemoths of the Southern Ocean. It's hardly surprising that didn't last.

Snorkelled in the morning at Ulva Island with loads of lovely jellyfish which far from fazed mum as I was watching her to see if she was going to freak, but no...instead she planted her hand right into the middle of one to see how big it was! Bigger than her outspread hand was the answer. We then moved to Little Glory in the southeast of Paterson Inlet in search of kiwi and where we met a couple of lovely hunters who had been there for a couple of days but yet to spot any sign of deer. We fossicked on the western beach a little amongst the seagrass then went ashore on the eastern side of the cove for the short walk over to Ocean Beach where we promptly came across a deer in plain view about 15 metres in front of us. Ocean Beach was gorgeous and we saw kiwi tracks but no kiwi. This morning though we tried again heading ashore at 6am while it was still dark. We nipped over to Ocean Beach hoping we might be lucky enough to glimpse one in the distance, we came across one almost instantly who was as unfazed by us as mum was by the jellyfish. We spent about 20 minutes just watching him feeding in the sand. VERY cool. We then saw a much bigger one in the forest on the way back across the island. Kiwi hunt SUCCESS!

Sitting in Golden Bay with internet again and at very long last with our new outboard on board having arrived two weeks after we first expected it. We have spent the last few days exploring Ulva Island, Native Island and a bit of the mainland by both land and sea, in and on. We have had some stunning days and some grey days but fortunately all very calm. We have yet to spot kiwi but were delighted with the birdlife on Ulva Island with Ali and I spending twenty minutes glued to one spot watching six mohua flitting around us (a first for both of us). Of course typically my camera battery died at the precise time when one finally settled in the perfect spot to get a photo. Unfortunately for Mike, he had gone on ahead shortly before and had decided to hide up a tree above the track to give us a fright when we came along. He spent the entire twenty minutes perched up that tree so determined he was! He did get a good jump out of Ali, I on the other hand have clearly been married to the clown for long enough to be less phased. Meanwhile mum was further ahead staking out what she had hoped was going to be a kiwi but turned out to be a cheeky weka. Still, a wonderful walk for all of us with some great views and a rope swing at the end to play on too. Yesterday we had a snorkel in the morning at Native Island in the northern part of Te Wharawhara (Ulva Island) Marine Reserve. Mum was new to snorkelling but turned out to be a total water baby. The kelp and colours were beautiful though we had an outgoing tide so the viz could have been better. We saw great numbers of butterfish and blue moki though, the former in particular evidence of the marine reserve as they are usually much more sparse being a popular target for spearos. The experience was slightly marred however when a passenger ferry started bearing down on us, blowing its horn and aggressively yelling at us that we were illegally anchored in a marine reserve (actually, NOT an offence) and that we would be reported if we didn't put our catch back (we were NOT taking anything more than photos) and move out of the area. Mike's snorkel was thus cut short as he went back to the boat to radio up to find out if there was some additional no anchoring rule for the area we were unaware of. There wasn't, the guy was poorly informed and a bit of a git in his attitude. The tourists delighted taking photos of us baddies and our boat so no doubt we are infamous on social media somewhere. I at least take heart in the fact that the locals clearly care about their marine reserve to police it, even if this one was a little zealous in his approach. Anyway, more stories to share but it is time to get off the computer and head out for a walk and to start breaking in our new outboard.

Dani rewalked the Rakiura Track to Maori Beach with mum and Ali plus an extra hour to Port William where we met Mike who had sailed around on his own with just one minor drama when the autopilot started misbehaving in current and jammed on just as we were radioing from shore. This is the third time it has jammed on, but hopefully the last. We spent a glorious evening there with margaritas for the ladies and jager for the Captain followed by steak on the barbeque and kiwi calls from the shore. Today Mike and mum went kayaking back down to the lagoon at the top end of Maori beach for some seaweed appreciation and collected a few mussels while they were at it (Mum's influence). Dani and Ali went snorkelling amongst gorgeous tall macrocystis forest. It turned out to be a great spot for seahorses and Ali found us a lovely wee carpet shark chilling out on the sea floor. Next stop, Ulva Island. Stay tuned.

Anchored in Oban just off the wharf waiting for our guests and outboard engine to arrive. We went for a stunning half day walk to Maori Beach along the start of the Rakiura track when we arrived. The scenery is unbeatable and we even stumbled across some kiwi tracks! We'll be heading back there on Mirabilis to stay over night in the hope of spotting some on their dawn feeding stroll. There are tui and kereru everywhere and fairly frequent kaka too which is a real treat. We have been doing a lot of boat work since, getting to jobs that we didn't quite finish before heading off. Our big remaining challenge is getting the new hydraulic system working to drive our compressor so we can get diving. We need all your positive thoughts here, it is causing a fair bit of swearing to come out of the engine room at the moment. And having seen how clear the water is and how rich the algal communities are here, we are desperate for a dive. Yesterday we went kayaking and were lamenting not taking the camera with us. We didn't expect huge amounts just going from the anchorage here right next to the main wharf and west along the northern coast. It was incredible! We went at hight tide which allowed us to venture up two creeks feeding into an estuary we were exploring (shown in the photo at low tide from when we walked past on our way to the Rakiura track). The first was great, the second almost brought me to tears! After paddling through the sedges we entered a magical area with tall trees either side covering it right over and ending in a small waterfall. After that we kept exploring further and further along the coast with each headland we rounded revealing another cove and headland begging to be explored. That's it for now, more once we start exploring a bit further afield.

We made it!! Stewart Island 524 nautical miles (943km) from Wellington. Motored all the way ( 90% ) so we are selling Mirabilis and buying a launch, no just kidding, but seriously might as well have brought one down! Arrived to a stunning sun rise and a beautiful calm day. I fear tomorrow is going to be windy ( great for sailing the wind is I hear)

Yesterday was a lovely day exploring the cute wee settlement of Port Chalmers before refueling after all the motoring we have had to do had sucked up the bulk of our diesel. Then out to Aramoana near the harbour entrance where we kayaked ashore and I managed to go for an unscheduled swim after an unfortunately timed set of waves crept up behind me. We had a beautiful walk along the squeakiest sandy beach and came across a female sea lion and what looked like a juvenile male lazing in the sun. We then cut through the sleepy little village only made up of a few streets and walked out over a large saltmarsh on a DOC boardwalk where we could see lots of pied stilts and some banded dotterels in close and a range of other birds further off too distant to identify. On our way back to the boat though we had a spoonbill fly overhead - a fabulously quirky looking bird if ever there was one. Back to Mirabilis, dinner made, everything secured, anchor away and...our peace was shattered. Very literally. As we were winching up the main it suddenly let go slamming back down on the cockpit roof with a massive thud and the shattering of glass as our entire front dodger window pane was obliterated into thousands of pieces. We figure one of the reefing lines must have been caught on a baton which then slipped off - at least the baton didn't break. After a bit of moping at our luck, some cardboard, rubbish bags, a roll of extra wide electrical tape and an hour and a half later, we finally left Otago and headed south once more. And once more, no wind and many more engine hours. Still, today is a glorious sunny day, the seabirds are super abundant (we just saw a lovely Buller's albatross with its striking yellow bill which Mike was impressed with) and we have just passed Nugget Point and are off the Catlins coast due to arrive in Stewart Island at day break tomorrow morning.

Anchored just outside Aramoana. Amazing beaches and they should really be what it is famous for, not the site of one of NZ's biggest shootings.

Things were going well, we departed Timaru with repairs all sorted, were visited by more Hector's dolphins and had lovely sailing weather which gave Mike a chance to put the finishing touches on getting our new chart plotter, radar and depth sounder all working in unison. We were even treated to an incredibly vivid sunset...And then the southerly struck us, head on. After battling into it for a gruelling couple of hours we decided to hove to rather than waste diesel getting nowhere fast anyway. Fortunately after just a few hours the southerly weakened and we were on our way again. By this stage we are getting well over being under motor but we have to push on. We continue crawling our way through the bleak grey day. Around noon I got out the camera with the intention of taking a snap for YIT to show everyone it isn't all blue sky and lollipops out here and instead ended up spending the next few hours taking photos, mostly of albatross (royals and white-capped), though try spot the shark in the grey photo below. The sky cleared up and the next thing we know we have a pod of common dolphins making a bee line for us. To top it all off we entered Otago Harbour passing Taiaroa Head (where the royal albatross hang out) while sitting on deck eating freshly baked chicken pie prepared by my wonderful mum before we left. We are now anchored in Careys Bay where we kayaked ashore to find a fuel berth to replenish Mirabilis and a cute old stone pub from 1867 with pints and chips to replenish the crew. All cheered up after a bumpy and grisly grey start to the day.

After a four hour icecream and repairs pitstop in Timaru we are underway again. While there we discovered one of our alternator belts was nearly split through and didn't have any spares so were pleased to be able to stroll up the road and get replacements. We sailed out of Timaru about 1:30 in perfect sailing conditions with a couple of Hector's dolphins sending us off. We have had them regularly since we first approached Banks Peninsula; I never get tired of that telltale puff of a blowhole nearby.

After a few blissful hours of lying in the beanbag this afternoon with just the sound of the water around us, we have just now had to start up the engine to keep up a decent pace and get somewhere we can shelter before southerlies arrive. We are looking at either Moeraki or Otago Harbour at the moment but will see how we go. Should be able to tuck in for just a day or two before the final leg to Rakiura/Stewart Island.

After aborting an attempt to find shelter for repairs at Banks Peninsula we are now headed to Timaru Harbour. We have a loose nut on our prop shaft which means we have to keep the engine running to keep pressure on it or...I'm not really sure what but it sounds very uncool. I found all this out after being torn from a deep sleep to Mike yelling that he had to go overboard to take a look at the prop - not what you want to hear far out at sea! Thankfully he made it back on board fairly quickly and figured out the problem. We just need to be somewhere safe and sheltered to do it. Fun times with boats! Prior to that we had a stunning evening with incredible phosphoresence and some sort of big predatory fish investigating our rear followed by some very excitable dolphins a few hours before dawn putting on a great show for us. Loads of birdlife during the days too. So nice to be on the dawn shift as you watch it get lighter and those guys start to come into view. The silver light of the moon on the water at night makes that pretty beautiful too. Around Banks Peninsula we have had the usual Hector's dolphin escorts, including seven that tried their best to usher us in to Akaroa Harbour, unfortunately that whole coast turned out to be a serious wind factory so here we are, Timaru bound.

First night at sea over with, nobody sea sick or even a thought of it which is good. The Cook was pretty tame though with a nice Northerly blowing around 20 to 25 knots which allowed for a gentle broad reach / downwind motor sail. We have turned off the engine this morning and are still maintaining 6knts with no main and just the full head sail out (Your old one Paddy).

Dani is asleep after a marathon effort of working all day yesterday, until half midnight, then sailing Mirabilis just clear of Barrets reef and starting our watch rotation. I was first watch - drew paper against scissors :( - and managed to stay away till 3:30am and Dani 3:30am till 6:30am. Time for Radio Sched.

We've cast off. Heading from Wellington to Stewart Island, a distance of some 500 miles as the crow flies. It took one month of of full time boat chores - that we seemed to have saved up over the last three years - to get Mirabilis ready for the trip south. She still isn't complete but that is the nature of cruising, or perhaps just me. Without the help of a close friend and family we most likely would not have made our cast off date. Many thanks goes out to you guys!