Still in Whangarei NZ

After arriving at Marsden Cove marina and briefly catching our breath after the tiring passage from Hobart, we headed up the Hatea River towards Whangarei town centre and Riverside Drive marina.  It's a bit of a different environment here than we're used to. We're far from the sea, fourteen miles up a small, tidal river. It's very quiet and peaceful, the wind never blows too hard, the water is never rough and so far, the weather has been perfect. We're located a short distance away from the town centre and the rather crammed conditions at the Town Basin marina. From our berth, we can enjoy a view both up and down river. Upriver, we look towards the town centre.

Downriver, we have a good view of the lifting bridge known as 'the Fishhook of Pohe' which we passed beneath to get to the marina.

At Whangarei, the water is tidal and shallow. Thus, it never developed as a commercial port. Instead, it has become a haven for international yachties. Over 400 international boats visit NZ every season. There are many that come back year-after-year, spending the NZ winter in Fiji, Tonga, or, New Caledonia, returning to Whangarei for the NZ summer to avoid the Pacific cyclone season and to work on their boats. The boat in the berth next to us is an immaculately maintained, sixty foot, Dashew-designed Sundeer. The US owners have been back and forth between the islands and Whangarei for twelve years! Another US boat in the marina has been here doing a 2-1/2 year refit. They were elated this week as they were able to finally move off the dock for the first time since starting work.

The Town Basin area has been redeveloped and is full of coffee shops and trendy eateries. The marina office, gazebo, restaurant and clock tower are central to the activity.

Flower beds abound and benches are many, a lovely spot to park yourself for a while on a sunny day.

The Hatea Loop is a 5k walking loop that runs alongside the river, around the basin, across the lift bridge and through the marina we are at. It's very popular with tourists and locals alike.We walk some part of it every day to get to the shops and suppliers in town.

At first, the weather was very summer-like. Now, we're definitely into autumn and the weather has changed, just this week, to a lot of grey skies and rain. It's still near 20C, so, we're not complaining, not too hot, not too cold, just right for boat jobs.

In-between jobs, we've also been taking advantage of a network of local walks that go a little further afield. The walk to Whangarei Falls went upriver through dense forest.

We could hear the falls and feel their mist before we saw them. The trail opened up to a perfect little cove with multiple falls. It was a fantastic setting in which to enjoy our packed lunch.

We've only left Whangarei once since arriving here almost eight weeks ago. Luckily, we've already seen most of the NZ tourist sights during our 2016/7 three month campervan tour, so, don't feel like we're missing out and are enjoying being in one place for a while. We took our first break from boat jobs last weekend to go to a boat show in Auckland, about a two hour drive away. We visited the boat show and did some shopping, then, on our last day drove to the top of Mount Eden. After parking the car, it was a very short ascent to a spectacular view across the old volcanic crater to Auckland Harbour bridge and Sky Tower. There are many of these old volcanic craters scattered about the local area, fascinating to visit.