Sailing in the Bay of Islands

by Julia


Heading north for for a naughty nautical adventure. 260 kms later we meet the yacht in Russell, unload, park the car, and sail away. Thanks to Claire, Kev & Matt for sailing to Russell to meet us. It’s a tight fit, but we manage to stuff our our gear on. We managed to do some proper sailing in our race to get away from touristy Russell. The maritime environment is something our kids have not experienced in a great deal, we have only had the occasional kayak trip, managing Abel Tasman by kayak well over two years ago when we all fitted in one kayak. This is a change of scene, for us, being surrounded by water - luckily with some great friendly co-sailers. There was lots for us to learn, especially how to operate the toilet and make a bed from the dining room seats, let alone the unfurling of sails and jibing. The highlight was waking up early and photographing the sunrise on mirror calm water two steps away from my bed in the morning. The first full day we headed out to the end of Cape Brett to see the hole in the rock up-close and to try our luck at fishing. We caught marine life and put it all back, they were too small or entirely inedibleh. We had a sailing lesson with skipper Kev detailing how to stop the boat from plain sailing to standstill with a steering technique, and it was fairly effective. Being map geeks, we tried to follow the land from the maritime map, but we’re still working on our maritime orienteering techniques. The evening came around, and still no fish on a line appeared in time for dinner …Julia brought out her spare fridge supply.

The next morning we hoisted ourselves around the boat hanging from an umbilical line exploring the outer edges of the boat on the Sunday, and for extra adventure,  Ryan & Matt went up near the top of the mast for a good photo op. After working off our feast breakfast of blueberry impregnated pancakes, we headed to Robertson Island to walk up to the summit for a view and snorkel in the rock pools. Do try this this at high tide, as the pools were less that knee deep as the tide went out, but perfectly still water for the children. We discovered, it is still possible to cruise around on the outer edge of touristy Paihia and Russell and to have the experience of a remote place. We forgot about phones and shops, read and talked, and focused purely on the patch of water just around us. Fantastic weather, great company, overall a very mellow and rewarding weekend.

Thunderbolt and the High-5-0

By Alan

For the High-5-0 challenge, Mal Law was spending 50 days running 50 offroad marathons including 50 mountains. Every day different support runners ran with him as well as raising money for the Mental Health Foundation. I'd signed on for running day 2 of the challenge in the Kaimanawa ranges. The Hillary Weekend had raised the funds and given me plenty of hill training but was it enough?

An early start and initial steep climb through beech forest led to the tops with spectacular views across to the volcanoes of Tongariro in the early morning light. Once on the Umukarikari ridge we there was great running along the good track then down to Waipakihi Hut.

After the hut we climbed into the trackless Middle Range. Very happy to have a bluebird day to navigate through the open tops. A stark contrast to the last time I was in the area in a whiteout when tramping with Joolz. The open tops had everything from great scree running to nasty slow vegetation fighting ascents. After about 8hrs we were on the summit of Thunderbolt, great name for a bland flat-topped mountain with amazing views.

But there was more. To get home we had a 600m descent followed by 500m climb & descent over Urchin. That climb was one of the hardest I've done with over 10 hours of hills already in my legs. Finally we reached the finish after 12hrs, 42km and 3000m of climbing. I was done for, but for Mal this was just day-2 with 48 more to complete his challenge! Read Mal's blog of the day here.

Some northern exposure

by Julia

Friday was the most beautiful sunny day - so we spent it indoors at the emergency doctors trying to get a new cast for Ryan’s arm. Ryan fractured his wrist after falling off a climbing wall on an adventure course last week, we were wanting a good solid cast on so we could go away for the weekend. Some of the family waited in the cool of the air conditioned waiting room whilst one other sat in the hot car with the windows down so the food we had just packed to go away with on the weekend didn’t perish. A few hours went by before Ryan was able to replace the already battered plaster cast with a sturdy fibreglass cast in bright green. We were,  at last, ready to head north along with Auckland’s peak hour traffic towards the Bay of Islands.

Claire, Kev & Matt had invited us to stay in their Okiato hideaway near Russell. We had met them cycling the Otago rail trail last year as friends of Laura, Paul, Riley & Tara. The combined team effort on the trail with the kids and pitching camp together every night,made for a great tour. Claire and Kevin had kept in touch and invited us up to visit them, and try some adventures up north. I was not able to do any great adventures with my leg still feeling the pain in the back of the thigh every time I was walking, straightening the leg, or bending over, but Kevin had suggested an early morning kayak. So the next day I was up before most of the ‘birds’, the tide was in, Kevin and I kayaked round the island near Paihia, and wished we had brought some money to stop in and buy a coffee - we were needing breakfast, but its a great way to start the day. The others were inspired to try out the kayaks as well. After the water play, we drove to Waitangi, finding a few geocaches and getting a history lesson on the treaty. It was an interesting time to visit, as outside there were many school groups practising their rowing and chanting in their special waka as part of the 175th Anniversary celebrations for the following weekend.


On the Sunday Ryan and Alan found a huge multi-cache problem to solve which took them walking all over Russell. The rest of us walked around the very distinctively French-looking Pompallier house where some of the first ever missionaries in New Zealand translated religious texts into Maori. We learn't how they tanned a hide, bound books and listened to the basis of many print-related turns of phrase. We found Alan and Ryan at the end of their puzzle trail sitting on the electrocution chair having a rest after solving their challenge. A lovely weekend up north with relaxed social adventures for our injured family members. We were hooked, and vowed to return for sailing in a few weeks time.