WHANGAREI TUNING

Spendingspree and things for free
We came here to Whangarei because a) it's a bit further north in New Zealand and therefore «on the way» for us. b) Lots of people have told us to go here because it is apparently really easy to get «everything» done here, and it's supposed to be plenty of other cruisers you can gather information from.
As we had no dinghy we were forced to check into a marina. There we were quickly dubbed «The Orange Glow» due to our bright orange safety-netting that we've been (very gratefully) sponsored by the Auckland City Council. Thank you Council!

Our slightly more fancy neighbours took well to their new young Norwegian, scruffy and inexperienced cruising colleagues. We had heard lots about the generousity of the cruising community, but what we experienced in that marina was way beyond what we expected! We were showered with freebies from the other boats. As they passed us on their way to the trashbins they always stopped by to ask if we wanted their old boomcover, hatch funnell, solar panel mounts (aka random bits of aluminium tubing), WiFi antenna, their old cockpit cushions, new (!) sailbag etc etc. We got so many more or less useful bits and pieces we couldn't believe it! I guess their generousity might have something to do with our hopelessly inexperienced and dirt-poor appearance.


We arrived with a super-long To-Do list. Included on this list were new batteries (oh my God, the prices!), new solar panel mounts, fixing half a dozen electrical issues, sorting out how and where to stow stuff, fill our diesel-tanks, fill our water-tanks, get a proper solar panel mount and doing The Engine.

This last task ended up taking us almost a week and costing us about 550 $NZ (about et par tusen norske krones). It seemed that the deeper we dug into Good Old Yanmar 2GM20(F), the more stuff we needed to fix, sort out, repair, replace or buy. However now she's running like a dream, and has apparantly accepted all her new parts and fluids.
All the while we were doing boat maintenance we got heaps of information, tips, hints, radio frequencies, software and general help from the other cruisers. They even lent us plenty of tools to do the jobs so we didn't have to struggle with our own (which are limited to three adjustable spanners, 5 screwdrivers (4 philips and one gigantic flat), a multitool, a hacksaw, a hammer and the world's biggest axe (don't ask why, we can't give you an intelligent answer.))
We also took advantage of the vicinity of a supermarket to buy and stow away an amazing amount of supplies.

However yesterday, after 10 days in the marina, our «new» dinghy finally arrived in the mail, and there was no more (at least not a whole lot more) reason for us to stay at the marina. We had a last shower for a while, dropped our moorings and floated down the river to anchor up with the other slumdog cruisers, where we belong.
We are at present discussing whether to stay here until our necessary work is done and the weather breaks, or to carry on to Opua, even further norh, to do the same thing there. We are also disussing whether to abandon our original plan of going to New Caledonia first, or set sail for a a slightly longer first leg, and go to Fiji instead.
All for now, peace out.