We set sail on Auckland Anniversary weekend

We decided to take the yacht out for the remainder of Auckland Anniversary weekend. Jef had taken Tuesday off work to have a extra long weekend. It seems like forever ago that we had taken the boat out. It was good to be out on the water.

We had zig zagged all the way out of the harbour with the sails up, and once we got past Okahu Bay we decided to motor the rest of the way to Motuihe. If we had all the time in the world then, sure, we would have slogged it out for another 3 hours, but since we had set off late in the day it wasn't a good option. We anchored in Waihaorangatahi Bay, which was very full at this hour of the day. Always enjoy seeing the city from this vantage point.

The following morning I had to dive off the back of the boat into the frigid water...actually the water wasn't too bad once I was in. But prior to that we had visitors pop over.

Jef and Kien went off to the island on the kayak to do some exploration. I hung around on the boat and enjoyed the quietness.

That evening Kien and Jef did some fishing with the bait they foraged from the shore...and Kien caught me dinner! But in all the excitement no one took a photo of the snapper on the line. I sizzled the whole thing up in the pan and it was delicious. Then we settled in to another night, with hardly any boats around because for a lot of Aucklanders they had to be at work the following day.

Making the most of a beautiful day

Re-posting since none of the photos came through - urgh, Google! What are you doing to me? When Picasa Web got shut down by Google and replaced by Google Plus and Google Photos its been so much harder for us bloggers. Hopefully I've sorted it out, but we shall see...

On Saturday we took the boat out for a few hours to fish and generally enjoy the harbour and the sunshine. Jef spent all morning/early afternoon cleaning the boat – Kien and I are so grateful! We motored out to a spot across the harbour where we saw some other fishing boats somewhere around Stanley Bay. We anchored up for a few hours and dropped the line over. It was a bit choppy out there, but not too bad. Kien was so excited - he's been saying he wants to catch his own fish on his own rod, because the last time he had something on his line the rod snapped.

We had a pleasant afternoon on the water, and as the sun was setting we decided to come back into the marina before it got dark. Auckland is so beautiful from this vantage point.

Coming in to Westhaven marina to our berth is very pretty, especially at sunset.

We are going to make the most of these beautiful weekends out on the harbour while we still can, and very soon we will be putting Cariere on the market. With our limited time it is hard to justify having a 28ft yacht and paying for a marina berth to keep it in when we can hardly use it. So I'll savour these times.

The fishing trip

2 weeks of school holidays and all routines go out the window! But we are back, and I'm reining this little dude in again. We are back to the points system for earning screen time - and here's his story, which is worth 3 whole points (and I'm being really generous by making a point worth 15 mins instead of 10 minutes set last term).

Good bye Auckland city, hello Hauraki Gulf

Finally we set sail. It's been way too long since we were last in the Hauraki Gulf anchored up somewhere. It's been one very busy year indeed and finding the time to use the boat has been difficult. But once we have set sail it feels so wonderful and you make all these promises to yourself that you'll try harder to make this happen more often. On Monday 28th we left our Westhaven slip and said good bye to Auckland central as we sailed off.

We haven't been out much this year on the boat, mainly because Kien gets rather sick if it's too bumpy. But now that he's big enough we get to try sea sickness medications for him. I got him some Sea Legs as well as some homeopathic lollipops. They seem to have done the trick!



We anchored at Motuihe for the night. This island is always a nice stop that's relatively close and easy to get to.





Ducks almost always come to visit us when we are anchored here. I came prepared with stale bread at the ready.





He loves feeding the ducks.

A beautiful day in the city

Wow, what stunning weather Auckland had this weekend! How appropriate that its the start of daylight savings, and it feels like summer is here - just when we are about to leave NZ for all of October. I'm very much ready to have a nice long break away from work. It's been pretty rough this year with the project I've been working on, and I'm glad we've delivered the solution and I'm now finally able to get some decent vacation time with my family.

We needed to check the boat today to make sure it's all secure while we are away. Jef dropped Kien and I off at the start of Westhaven Drive and we enjoyed the beautiful sunshine as we made our way along the promenade.





It wasn't long before we were on the boat and Kien was talking excitedly about taking Cariere out this summer and kayaking around. It's been a while since we've been out and anchored in a bay somewhere.







Yesterday we were in Otahuhu and stopped into one of those cheap Chinese stores and picked up a bargain of a toy for a few dollars. Last night Kien had a bath with his submarine, and today we took it out and launched it at the marina.



The thing with cheap bargain toys is...engineering. The motor that attaches to the bottom of the sub isn't that secure, and Jef warned Kien about that. So what happened? Jef was picking the submarine out of the water and next minute...plop...bye bye motor. Oh the tears that ensued.



A quick drive to get another submarine from the same store, and we were home with a boy in a paddling pool in an ill fitting wetsuit.





A fabulous day in the city.

About last (last) weekend

Oh, are we already into a new week? Already? I still haven't quite caught my breath yet after last (last) weekend, and last weekend just gone. They go so quickly, don't they?

So here's what we got up to last (last) weekend. It all started on Saturday with a visit to the Auckland Beekeepers Club apiary to see the hives being opened and the honey extraction process.



Kien and I have watched this process many times on youtube, so it was really nice to be able to see it for real.





We are all pretty excited to get ourselves a hive which we are going to put onto our roof. Urban beekeeping is such an exciting prospect. I'm wanting to enrol in a course (night classes) in May to learn all about hive management and the beekeeping laws etc.

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On Sunday we went to the Stardome Observatory - specifically to see rocket launches. We thought they were going to launch real rockets, but alas they were just water rockets (which Jef has already got/done/rigged up at home). But it was still a good outing. We saw a cool show about our solar system, and we looked through the solar telescope to see the sun spots. Kien ran around, collected cicada skins, and climbed trees while watching the water rockets propelling up into the air.



We even found a live cicada, which we suspect is ready to shed its outer layer since it was so placid and even let us touch it.



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We then went home to grab a few things and headed out on the yacht to the deep fishing hole near Stanley Bay.





I caught a couple of small snappers which we released, but other than that there was no fresh fish for dinner. It was fun to be out there on such a beautiful day, and the cityscape was beautiful from our vantage point.



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Back on dry land in the early evening, and it was time to head off to the Auckland Lantern festival.



Kien loved the dragon dance.



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That's all folks - except during that weekend I also converted part of our berm out front into a vegetable patch.



Yay, looking forward to beets, onions, kale, silverbeet, spinach and bok choy over the coming weeks/months.