Bye bye Fiji, Vanuatu here we come!!

Hello Everyone

After leaving Musket Cove we went to a little village that we had previously
visited, Margaret had bought a few gifts for them, some old school books,
and had printed off some photos of them that we had taken on our last visit
which they were delighted to receive, and was really lovely to see. They saw
our boat moor up alongside their beach and actually remembered us from over
a month ago. The ladies made us some bracelets out of pandana leaves as a
souvenir.

Tuesday we set off for our first offshore passage to Vanuatu. It took us
around 6 hours to get to the reef pass and this was a delightful sail, wind
at 18 knots force 4 on the beam, we could all handle this we thought!! We
had a tricky exit through the reef pass with another yacht entering on the
transit line, showing wrong running lights and then shinning a bright torch
in our eyes!! Great!On exiting the pass night descended upon us and bought
with it hurricane force winds (note it wasn't a hurricane, just winds
reached up to force 11) lightening and torrential rain!!! Day 2 continued
much them same, slightly lighter winds the storm sail remained up, and still
torrential rain, weather that wasn't at all predicted. We were delighted to
wake this morning to the sun shining, and finally we were all able to have a
shower! the good news is Ocean Lady keeps us nice and safe in such strong
weather! well done her!!!

Tonight Stu is cooking lamb chops and roast potatoes, moral is all good on
board!

Hope all is well at home

Ocean Lady

Back in Fiji

Dear all,

 

Just to let you know We are all back safely in Fiji enjoying the delights of Musket Cove, an exclusive resort. Stu and Laura went off and hired some stand up paddle boards this afternoon, which was a giggle.

 

We are planning on heading to Vanuatu early this week once we have cleared out of customs.

 

Hope everybody at home is well,

 

Love Ocean Lady

 

New Zealand - Part Two

Dear all,

 

Hope you are all well. New Zealand has been treating us well. Once we left Queenstown we headed over to the east coast, where the temperature was much more comfortable (being above zero!!) We headed over to Oamaru to see the boulders that have been created into near perfect spheres.

 

Oamaru Boulders

 

From here we headed up the east coast back to Picton and back over to the north island. On reaching the north island we headed up towards Lake Taupo where we enjoyed some naturally heated hot spring pools. Before heading up to the Coramandel coast.

 

Cathedral Cove, Coramandel Coast

 

The view from the top of Mt Maunganui, Coramandel Coast

 

Again another stunning part of the country and so stunning that Stu decided to propose to Laura! Fortunately she said yes. We then headed back to Auckland where Claire had a surprise for us, a meal in the revolving restaurant in the sky tower. Sky tower is the tallest building in the southern hemisphere overlooking Auckland. The food was magnificent and a great surprise. Thank you Claire and Paul for making an already special day just awesome!!!

The view from the sky tower

 

We have now had a great weekend chilling in Auckland and sorting bits and bobs out ready to return to Ocean Lady this week.

Messing around in Devonport

 

Auckland as viewed from Devonport

 

Hope everyone at home is well,

Love Stu and Laura xxx

 

 

Photos from last week:

 

Every corner has a wow factor, just one of the many lakes we have seen.

 

State Highway 6, a great road trip

 

Fox Glacier

 

More Wow factors

 

Lake Wanaka

 

On the coach tour to Milford sound, cold and snowy – perfect

 

Milford Sound

 

Milford Sound – absolutely stunning

 

 

 

 

New Zealand - part one

>> Dear all,
>> Sorry for the delay in telling you about New Zealand but once again we have been very busy.
>> After an early flight to Auckland which took just over three hours we were met by Laura's friends Claire and Paul. They have been so welcoming and have lots of knowledge of NZ. Claire and Paul have lent us their campervan and after a few days in Auckland to enjoy a proper bed ( the first time since October) and home comforts we headed up to the Northlands and Cape Reinga. The way to describe New Zealand is 'exciting' and 'wow' every turn has a new view that is as good as as the last, if not better. The number of times our breath has been taken away is countless. There are hundreds of photos to plough through and pick our favourites so photos will have to wait for another day.
>> After a few days doing the northlands - anywhere north of Auckland we headed back to pick up Paul and Claire. After a heavy night in Auckland city enjoying the bars around the viaduct the four of us headed down south to Ohakune for an overnight stop before heading down to Wellington for Sunday evening, Paul and Claire flew home for another week at work while Stu and Laura waited for the Monday morning ferry across the Cook Strait. Apparently captain cook didn't even sail across the cook strait so we don't feel like cheats!!
>> On arriving in Picton we took a nice drive along Kenepuru sound before meeting up with stu's friend from uni, Ian. A great evening was had chatting and catching up before retiring to the campervan in Ians driveway.
>> The following day we headed down state highway six towards the Fox Glacier. This has to be one of our favourite roads of all time, the views were amazing!!
>> After a long day driving we dropped into a local pub to check that there ale was ok:-)
>> The following day we did a glacier walk up the fox glacier which was fantastic - again photos to follow.
>> Since the glacier walk we have continued to head south, there is snow on the roadside, frost every morning and beautiful snow covered mountains on the horizon. Today we have been on a coach tour to Milford Sound and a boat ride out to the mouth of the sound. Once again extremely beautiful and photos to follow.
>>
>> Hope everyone at home is well,
>>
>> Lots of love,
>> Stu and Laura
>> Xxx

Back from the Yasawa Group

Dear all,

 

We are back from the Yasawa Group of Islands. Another amazing group. We managed to visit a few little villages and present some Sevusevu to either the Chief to be or the mayor. The villagers are so happy and content with their lifestyle it was lovely to see.

The highlight has to of been swimming with Manta rays off the Manta Ray resort. It was so good we went back the following day for another go.

Swimming with Manta rays needs to be put on everyone’s bucket list!

 

The alarming thing about these islands is the inaccuracy of the charts and the chart plotter quite often we were shown to be high and dry on the chart plotter so a good look out was required!

 

We are now back in the marina to pack up Ocean Lady. She’s going to have a rest whilst Alan and Margaret fly home to visit family and Stu and Laura fly to New Zealand to visit friends. We’ll keep the blogs coming but they are likely to be about New Zealand and not our sailing voyage around the world (and not the UK) so apologies as this probably wasn’t what you signed up for!! Normal blogs will be resumed at the end of July.

 

Below are some photos from last week.

 

Hope everyone at home is well,

Lots of Love

Ocean Lady

 

Scotland line up against Fiji

 

Fire dancers at the First Landing Resort

 

And a photo with the performers afterwards.

 

The Yasawa Group

Dear all,

 

Happy fathers day to everyone!

 

We have now left Vuda Point Marina in Fiji and gone to the outer islands of the Yasawa group. Vuda point is a great marina complex with the first landing resort next door.

Laukota is a 30 mins taxi ride away where almost anything can be purchased. Welcome back to civilisation!!! Unfortunately the weather has has more resemblance of a monsoon season! But hopefully the low pressure system has moved away now and we will have settled weather for a bit.

The highlight of our stay in Vuda point has to of been going to the Scotland vs. Fiji international. A fantastic atmosphere and a great Scottish win. We did struggle with who to support, Scotland want independence but would have fewer fans, whereas Fiji love the UK and are very patriotic even having a public holiday for the Queens birthday.

Then in the evening after a lovely meal in a local resort we went to the bar and Wales were playing Australia. The bar was a mix of Aussie, Kiwis and one wee Welsh girl with plenty of fight (Laura) - Fantastic atmosphere!!!

 

After anchoring up off the picturesque island of Weyasewa this afternoon we went ashore, expecting to offer the chief of the island some sevusevu (Kava roots – used to make grog) – In return the Chief will welcome the visitors to his village offering his protection and all reasonable assistance . We met a young lady (Andi) and lots of village children (Jimmy, Norman and Lou-Lou) who welcomed us and showed us around the school and village. The schooling was really good for such a basic island. They were so welcoming it was great to see and witness.

 

We hope to visit a few more of the Islands before returning to the marina.

 

Hope everybody at home is well,

 

Lots of Love,

Ocean Lady

 

 

Arrival in Fiji

Dear all,

 

At last we have reached Fiji after a wet & windy sail. We arrived in the dark and the navigation lights on the shore were either not working or different to the chart. Given that the chart plotter has been out by over 0.2 of a mile in places it wasn't worth the chance so we had to hove too and we waited until sunrise this morning to enter through the reef pass. It was actually quite comfortable especially as the watch was accompanied with a chocolate cake Laura had made during the day.

On entering the reef pass it seems as though the Fijians have been upgrading there navigation lights and towers, but the charts have not followed suit – yet!!

 

As we motor up to the town of Lautoka checking in with port control and customs we establish that today is a public holiday. We seem to be pretty unlucky with an on going trend of arriving on public holidays.

1, Galapagos Islands, arrived during part of a 4 day public holiday,

2, Marquises' arrived in Nuku Hiva jut before Easter public holidays,

3, Aitutaki arrived for the Vaka voyaging society arriving and enjoying a public holiday

4, Tonga arrived in time for Emancipation day

5, Fiji Cannot clear customs because of a public holiday!

 

Oh well, I guess we could do with a rest! We will have to anchor and stay on the boat till tomorrow when we can clear customs, it will give us time to eat some more food before we get it confiscated.

Our midday position was 17 39.4S, 177 21.8E

 

We hope everyone at home is well,

Lots of love,

 

Ocean Lady