Wednesday 25 April 2012

Exploring the bay of Islands


The next day we moved over to New Zealand's oldest European settlement, Russell. A sleepy tourist village, after doing some food shopping for the ship, I had about 40 minutes free time.



 I chose to spend my time buying a hat and drinking a little coffee. 

Other crew members decided on another approach....


Yep, two of our deck hands decided that what they really needed to remind them of their ocean passage was matching yellow smiley faces on their arses. No, I am not joking.

After Lunch and all parties were back aboard, The Soren cruised over to Robertson Island, where one of Soren Larsen's old skippers is now care taker.  When I went a shore, I made the decision not to take a camera. Some times we can get so caught up in capturing moments, you're not really present. I walked the beach, looked for interesting shells and sat by a calm lagoon.  It was great to have time alone and not be thinking about anything in particular.  I have to say that island was one of the most beautiful places on earth.



That night we ate mussells, cockles and a BBQ. I was also introduced to fig-eras which tasted amazing.  In the morning there was some sailing to be done - and the ship was taken out to see for the day. Setting anchor at Russell, the voyage crew left on the Friday morning. It was sad to see some great people leave to move on with their travels.

And now, its turn around time. Sitting along side in Opua, all hands are busy setting up the ship for our next big voyage - our 32 day trip to the Cook Islands.

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