1999-2004: The South Pacific 

New Zealand - what a change from the tropical island nations we had been visiting for the past year and a half!  We mostly stayed in Kerikeri on the north island, at the "bach" of our new friends, the Farrands, with lots of local sailing (in case you haven't heard, the Kiwis are mad about sailing).  We also had an extensive trip to the South Island, accompanied by Caren's mom Nicki.  And once again, as in Fiji, we contemplated settling down, we liked it here so much.  I only wish it was a bit warmer...  

We didn't write very often, but I took a lot of videos and photos - here are some of them, in no particular order

Nov 21, 2000 - Kerikeri, New Zealand

Dear Friends and family:

Yahoo! We made it. We had strong, rough weather to start out (gusts up to 49 knots) and after four days ducked behind delightful Norfolk Island for a few days to get out of the weather. The rest of the trip down was very fast with lots of wind (we had a 220 mile day) and a near miss with a gale on the way into New Zealand. We arrived just hours before it got nasty! Steven (our crew from the Cook Islands) was great and really strong.

New Zealand has been freezing but very friendly and beautiful. We are moving into a little cottage on a private beach that our boating friends (a family with 4 kids) are loaning us along with a car. In one week we will get the van that we now co-own with another sailing family who have just left for Alaska for 6 months.

Rachael has been staying with our New Zealand friends at their farm house since Nov 4. She loves the town of Kerikeri and the school. She wants to move here and buy a house. Hopefully she will move in with us again when we move to the beach house in the same town.  Lots of stuff happening on the boat, so it's great to be on land while the workers invade. We miss you all.

  Love and Kisses, 

  Caren

Dec 19, 2000 

Dear Sam, 

as I flip through my New Zealand memory bank, a few modest suggestions come to mind. We too found the country a tad cold -- our visit was in November and even the Bay of Islands had a seer, windswept, down-rent aspect akin to the opening pages of 1984 when scraps of litter are scurrying across the empty pavement in front of shuttered or open but empty shops. Eventually, we scrapped our planned overnight stay and retreated to a charmless motel about half way back to Auckland. Continuing on, the town of Napier proved more interesting if only because it is the world epicenter of art deco (thanks to an earthquake at the right time...shades of S.F. getting lots of Victorians after 1906). Then, the flanks (and the top) of Mt. Egmont are drop-dead gorgeous (near New Hamilton, I believe).

On the South Island, we rented a pontoon plane at the lake flanking Te Anau and swooped over the Sutherland falls etc. Milford Sound is, of course, the must...likewise, the road trip south from Te Anau to Invercargill -- take the back road, the furthest one to the west for a truly kneebuckling swath of scenery. The whole area around the flanks of Mt. Cook and neighboring mountains is Swiss-quality highlands.  Porn remembers New Zealand as a place where you can hear your heartbeat at night...also, her dreams featured white dots (presumably the sheep omnipresent as we drove south).

For ourselves, we are off to Hawaii, thence a sprint to Bora Bora, Moorea, Tahiti Iti and Rangiroa -- this time at high-end hotels rather than yours and my traditional lodgings.

more later all best Pancho

Dec 19, 2000 - Kerikeri, New Zealand

Dear Big John:

Thanks for RE's email address - I just wrote her a note to test it. And, yes, it is still too expensive to send us any but plain text via email, although the situation may change.

Caren and the kids are in Kerikeri, buying Hanukkah presents. Rhapsodie is anchored offshore, visible through the windows of the bedroom of the cottage as I type this note. It is lightly raining. Two nights ago we wont out looking for kiwi birds (this is one of the best places in the country to spot them), but came up dry. There are golden pheasants and California quail (I) everywhere. The kids dig up green-lipped mussels and tiny, sweet oysters from the beach in front, then grill them over a fire, then give them to the adults (they like the catching part, we like the eating part).

This morning a young woman began tutoring our children. Dana began the morning with a firm commitment to do no work and to dislike the teacher, and ended the morning having completed a large amount of work and liking the teacher immensely. We will keep our new tutor through January (she will sail with us for several weeks during that period), and if we like her enough, and if she likes us enough, she may just become a crew member of Rhapsodie for the next cruising season.

John, thanks for all your wonderful notes, for being such a great husband and father, for your piano playing, for sticking with basenjis even though they don't deserve it, for everything. I love you very, very much.

Sam

Yacht Rhapsodie

Kerikeri, New Zealand

Dec 19, 2000 - Kerikeri, New Zealand

Dear Pancho:

Thanks for the update on the election. We missed all but the last three weeks, then got our fill once we reached New Zealand. I would have loved to have been in the States during the final countdown. Anyway, good luck, Bush, you are going to need it.

We are getting settled in Kiwiland, but it is a slow process -- one month has already gone by, and we still start each day with a list of things to do, then run around and try to do them. We are staying in a cottage on a beach in the Bay of Islands, the hot cruising grounds for New Zealand in the summer. In a week or so, this small area (probably no bigger than San Francisco Bay, but with a lot more islands and anchorages) fills up with sailboats from all over New Zealand, as the kiwis celebrate their summer vacation with races, fishing, barbecues,and island hiking. We will join this merry throng after spending Christmas with friends in Whangarei (south two hours by car), and celebrating Hanukkah amongst ourselves (I think there are about ten Jews north of Auckland). A month of sailing, then Caren's Mom arrives, and we hit the South Island for a month or two in our trusty 230,000 kilometer Mitsubishi diesel 8-seater van (currently in the garage for the third time -- hey, what do you expect for US $500? Perfection?) Then back north for more sailing and land travel, and on to the South Pacific for another sailing season in May.

We love New Zealand. The kids and I want to move here (for at least the summer months), but Caren finds it a bit cold. She is going to take a short trip to northeastern Australia and the Whitsundays early next year to see how that place compares with here, but the short answer is: New Zealand is clean, friendly, and really, really cheap. How cheap? You can get a gorgeous waterfront home with a dozen acres for about $150,000, and you would have trouble spending more than $200,000 anywhere outside of Auckland and its suburbs. And not just housing -- cars, boats, food, doctors, clothing, you name it. It is like being in the first world with third world prices.

Enough prattle. The adventure continues. Stay in touch,

Sam

Yacht Rhapsodie

Kerikeri, New Zealand