Back in New Zealand

APRIL 2004

Heidi and I hiked many of the well-known treks in New Zealand, but never have been organized enough to sign up in advanced for the this best known of all treks. While I was supposed to be working and Heidi was visiting her family, I took a detour to Queenstown on the South Island and joined a great group of hikers for five days of hiking over the mountains to Milford Sound. Averill and Joan Laundon of Stowe organized this with a lot of their Kiwi friends from the South Island. This is a great trek, well-organized, and beautiful. Despite the heavy use, you are allowed only to travel one way which makes you think you are alone in the mountains most of the time. As usual, it was raining in the Sound, but that meant all the waterfalls were flowing. I arrived from Milford Sound in Queenstown a bit worse for wear, but managed to coincide with Roberta and Bobby Schmidt who had rented Harleys and were traveling throughout New Zealand. Bob and Roberta built the first Seguin 44 in 1981 -- the boat that essentially put us on the map. After a night with a group of Harley riders and I was happy to head back to CHEWINK at Half Moon Bay in Auckland to get some rest.

MAY 2004

Drew decided to join us for three weeks catching up to us in Keri Keri where we were visiting our old friends from our chartering days in the Caribbean, Angie and Brian Coen (Their ownership and skippering of TICONDEROGA was perhaps the most successful charter operation in the Caribbean ever. ) With Drew we traveled around the North Island, something we had never done before after many miles on the South Island. We have come to like the North Island as much as the South for many reasons, but mainly because it is more varied and is where most of the New Zealanders live. As a result, we were not channeled into the tourist routes, but could find a lot of great hiking, good cruising, and plenty of friends . Along with some very good hikes, we finally stopped to see the giant Kauri trees. Easily the most impressive tree we have ever seen. There is a Kauri forest buried from a Tsunami thousands of years ago that they are still harvesting.

JUNE 2004

We returned home after a good two months in New Zealand -- a complete change of plans. Heidi had the boat all stocked, charts were bought, boat was in great shape, but I was hesitant to commit to over a year to cross the Indian Ocean and up the Red Sea. With a lot happening at home, a lack of enthusiasm for another year of cruising and looking for a change, we put the boat in Tutakaka Marina where our good friend, Aussie Malcolm, gave us a berth for six months. Our first summer home in four years -- Maine is a wonderful place in the summer and we had a lot to do -- it was a good decision to take a break .

Where to now?