New Zealand - Held Captive Against my Will

New Zealand, the picturesque setting of the Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit... a land of beautiful mountains, picturesque waters, crazy adventures and prison....

A 3 year reunion with former yacht-sinking desert-island marooning legend Helena
http://barefootedgypsy.blogspot.co.nz/2012/08/shipwrecked-marooned-destined-for.html 

New Zealand kicked off brilliantly - there were amazing people to catch up with and phenomenal things to see.

Karl's face upon seeing his first ever live hippo

There were places to explore:

But after ten days of patiently waiting for our Australian visas  to come through (aside from the two weeks wait in Tonga) we knew we needed to get out of Auckland.

We hitched North.
To anywhere.

And wound up at Nghawha Springs Hot Pools (and campsite and hotel)

We were just going to stay for a night but help was needed and new challenges were to be overcome

Look how good that mowed lawn looks...

I seemed to be getting the hang of house keeping and cobweb candy-flossing when an unidentified flying creature attacked me

And made me swell up like Shrek.
When my fingers stopped bending I was forced to become a leftie.

Eight days of intense labour (and Christmas) in the beautiful Northlands later, Karl finally got his visa.

And so it was that we bid dear Carole farewell 

Sadly we didn't get to keep the vests

And we hitched back to Auckland with Pat, an incredible Kiwi who took us to the beach

And to spectacular viewpoints

And dropped us right on the doorstep of the house we'd be staying at.

Hitching doesn't get better than that!

After an unplanned catch up with sailing friends we hadn't seen since Panama (April)

Karl wondered his way to the airport and flew off to the distant magical land of Aus leaving me a somewhat lonely traveler for the first time in... um... a flipping long time.

At least the fireworks were pretty

It was 2015.

Already.

Flip!

I had slight plans. I had no visa.

I had no idea what to do next.

So I defaulted and went hitching...again.

Four hitches later, a lovely family took me in and told me to stay with them and sort my life out.

They put me on the internet and made me plan my route. 

Apparently you can't just hitch hike to anywhere...

And so it was that I headed for Napier - a land of winyards and art deco;

a land of opportunities...

...And prison.

Prison gave the whole being kept in New Zealand against my will a whole new meaning.

But at least they believed in justice and equality for all

Three hours of random "community service" a day got me a roof over my head - in my own ghost-infested cell. 

And allowed me to roam and explore Napier freely.

I got to catch up with more awesome and inspiring friends of yonder years 

Missing the water, I even tried to get involved in the sailing club

And I was even put in charge of flag raising... but I'm not sure racing is for me 

all the flags are crazy confusing and you get in trouble when you raise them upside down.

But still, it felt a bit like home - I think this whole sailing thing takes a while to get out of your system.

Tomorrow ends my prison sentence which is good - I don't want to end up like the hundreds who died here before me.

But after two weeks, it's sad to leave my awesome fellow inmates behind. 

Tomorrow I hitch North.

I hitch to blokarts and driftkarts (http://www.blokartheaven.co.nz/ )

and Auckland and a flight

Actually now that I look at it, New Zealand hasn't been all that bad... I suppose it's the awesome people around you that make life brilliant. 

And there sure have been a lot of awesome people about.

Thank you all!

And finally - now that my visa has come through - after six weeks of patiently waiting.

I head back to Aus.

Time to Leave... For Real this Time!

We should have known that Panama wouldn't let us go too easily... It's Panama.... Nothing and I mean NOTHING is easy!!!

I successfully checked us out in the manner our wonderful agent had advised (you know, some cash inside one of the passports to avoid the $105 per person exorbitant leaving on a sail boat fee) but after I found the passports I had accidentally left in the supermarket hours before and returned to immigration a second time, the man casually looked surprised and handed the cash back to me (with a stunned uninterpretable facial expression) before simply stamping us all out of the country and laughing hysterically! I think he could see I'd had a rough day!

Eventually we all made it back to the boat alive and ready with supplies to last a life time (or at least a few months) but sure enough the engine wouldn't work... By 5 am the once immaculate boat looked like this:

By 6 am we were all napping in the cockpit before reattempting problem solving. It's a long story, but I fixed our engine with a garlic clove... no jokes!

Just before departure the heavens opened up and we finally had the shower we had all been dreaming of for weeks. It was perfect!!!

Some people might have taken too much soap though....

It was brilliant to hit the ocean again!!!

 

We stopped briefly in Las Perlas to say hi to some friends and get a free breakfast....

We caught some fish (and a shark - but the camera, like us, was all but ready for the ordeal)

We celebrated finally being out of Panama waters by smoking cigars.

\

And finally decided to go to Columbia instead of Ecuador...

 Everything was perfect!

Until the wind died... (although there were so many whales and dolphins and sharks that we didn't mind too much)

Although when in one day we made negative nine miles, we started to get a bit worried...

In fact the captain went crazy....

But despite the engine breaking (again), the sail ripping, the propeller shaft leaking, the cockpit leaking, the new stove breaking, the wind vane breaking, all our fishing lines getting tangled around the hull in a desperate attempt for a fish to escape... and I forget what else,  we kept the moral up and kept ourselves entertained.

Because it really doesn't matter how many things go wrong, you can't not enjoy life with this kind of view.

Even the crazy birds wanted a piece of our action!

Yes, life was great!

But it was still really nice to see land again after 15 days at sea!

With our engine broken, we tacked through the craziest channels to find what we thought would be the perfect anchorage; fighting currents and dodging startled fishing boats as we went .

When finally we anchored for the third time that day, we found ourselves welcomed to Tumaco, Columbia with beers and an amazing meal and the friendliest people you could possibly imagine!

Yes, the 400 mile trip took us two weeks, but every single bit of it was worth it!

I licked the land hello and life was brilliant! And to be honest, I have fallen more and more in love with this place every day since!

We have worked and fixed and shopped and bid farewell to Michael as he cycles to Patagonia and Cinthia as she hitches/ bikes/ whatevers to the lands of snow boarding... And tomorrow the crazy Swede and I finally leave land for real and set sail for the proper Pacific. The trade winds.  The nothingness. The stars. The phosphorescence. And all the time in the world for music and writing and reading and thoughts.

700 litres of water...

It's sad to say goodbye to the wonderful people and strange prettinesses of Columbia, but it's time!!!

We are anything but ready for the months that lie ahead of us, but I don't think you can ever really be prepared enough for the Pacific.

Tomorrow we will finally be sailors again.

It's about time :)