Today we drove to Auckland and we will fly out to Fiji tomorrow. Randy had a pretty great day as he sailed on one of the America's Cup Sailing boats. It was built in 1995 and was a contender in the America's Cup finals. He had a chance to take a turn on the grinder. (Which is a wench handle to tighten the lines.) He was also one of only two who had an opportunity to have a turn at the helm. There were two of these Grand Prix machines out and the intent was fo...

Today we sailed the R.Tucker.Thompson which is an old 2 mast wooden schooner "Tall Ship". It was a great experience. It was an all day sail with great weather. We started with pretty calm winds but in the afternoon we had at least 10 knots so we could take it totally under sail. We saw dolphins again today but for only a brief time. We also spotted another little blue penquin. We could take turns at the helm but what was most fun was climbing out on the bow...

Today was another day that scored a 10! Randy thinks it was the best day we have had. We sailed out of Paihai at 10 on a 40 ft boat with two other people and the captain of the boat. He was fine with Randy immediately taking the helm,so Randy was very happy about that. We had another perfect weather day with temps in the 80's. The Bay Of Islands is an absolutely beautiful spot with turquoise water and MANY islands. By noon we were at an island and anchored....

Today we traveled to the Northland and are staying in Paihia which is access to the Bay Of Islands. There are 177 islands in this area. Randy wanted to be able to spend at least 2 days here. We drove through Auckland "The City Of Sails". The harbor was filled with sailboats so hope to spend a day there as well on the way back. Wanted to document a few NZ fun facts by our observation: Even though there are lots of sheep in this country woolen products are mor...

We began our day by checking out the city of Napier which is on the east coast of the North Island. This city was totally destroyed by an earthquake in 1930 and then rebuilt with an art deco design. It has beautiful gardens along the ocean. There are a lot of Native Maori legends in this area. We then headed to Lake Taupo which is the site of the world's largest volcanic eruption. We also saw the Huka Falls which was a beautiful aqua colored water fall and wa...