Spring cleaning…

We are in the process of tidying up our blogs. We plan to combine the products under two new headings, Auckland and Bay of Islands. Watch this space!

Canadians are cool, aren’t they?

You bet! OK, we were outnumbered, but they know how to enjoy themselves and have a very similar sense of humour to kiwis (and yes I might be a bit biased as I have relatives over there!).

A group of Canadian nurses, working in Auckland but hell-bent on seeing as much of New Zealand as possible every weekend, a lovely couple from Florida with their children Zachary and Emma, recently arrived in New Zealand to settle here for the foreseeable future, Ulrike, a solo traveller from Germany. And 2 newly-weds from Newfoundland, Jessica and Adam, my early morning travelling companions on the Swim with Dolphins trip.

After a hearty welcome on board Lion from our skipper Paul, I got talking to Jessica and Adam. Where are you from, what brings you to New Zealand, etcetera and the story that unfolded started to intrigue me.

They were here on their honeymoon. Not remarkable in itself, but how they got here was quite amazing.

Air New Zealand had run a promotion in Canada where people had to submit a video showing how they were not just cool but the coldest Canadians, and why they deserved a free trip to New Zealand. Entries poured in but Jessica’s video was picked as the winner by popular votes.

Visit the Coldest Canadian web site…

Jessica and Adam used the prize for their honeymoon, a dream trip to New Zealand. So time to make them work for their supper (or lunch in this case!).

After a short briefing from our skipper Paul and crew Kerry and Mercedes, we headed into a beautiful bay on Urupukapuka Island to drop anchor for lunch. Kerry and Mercedes had been hard at work in the galley preparing some lovely food for us which was soon polished off by all on board. Then time for a snorkel, leisurely swim or kayak ashore for a wander around the island. Some time in the water was almost compulsory as the sun was beating down with hardly a breath of wind.

After lunch the breeze was stirring and as we upped anchor and left the bay we could feel the sea breeze starting to freshen. We hoisted the mainsail, which involves five people helping out on the grinders whilst the crew invoke us to greater effort than most of us felt capable of, but eventually the main was at the top of the mast. We unfurled the jib and headed out through the narrow passage between Motukiekie and Urupukapuka.

The wind was from the north so we had to tack frequently involving a lot of grinding. I was beginning to think that skipper Paul was tacking so often just to see us working up a sweat and work off the excesses of our lunch. Who needs to pay gym fees when you’re working hard on 80 foot Whitbread maxi?

Once we cleared the narrow channel and all the small boats with divers down hunting for scallops, we headed across the bay towards the Black Rocks and Lion picked up speed and started to fly across the water. She may be getting old but she has a remarkable racing pedigree. Peter Blake had Lion built to compete in the Whitbread Round the World Race and probably made her overly robust to be competitive as he really wanted to win. She won the Sydney-Hobart race in 1984, a gruelling race where only 46 of the 151 starters finished, a warm-up to the Whitbread race of 1985-86. Weighing in at 40 tons and 80 feet long she is still something to behold and a joy to sail.

Nearly everyone on board got a spell at the wheel including youngsters Zach and Emma, who has the making of a fine skipper despite not being as tall as the wheel yet! As we gybed back towards Pahia the call was made to raise the gennaker, which involved much feverish but controlled effort by our awesome full-time crew and some bemusement of the temporary crew. Lion powered away on a reach, the fastest point of sailing but sadly we were heading for home.

All too soon we were alongside the wharf in Russell where the toughest decision was whether to get the ferry back to Paihia or to go to the Duke of Marlborough (New Zealand’s first licensed premises) for a cold beer to toast the day when I met the coldest Canadian…

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

All images are copyright Explore Images (2012)

A huge thank you to the awesome crew, Paul, Kerry and Mercedes and everyone on the yacht who contributed to the most amazing trip…

We had the coolest Canadians on board the boats on Saturday…

The day dawned with hardly a cloud in the sky and barely a breath of wind.

Perfect for the start of the Swim with Dolphins/Lion New Zealand Dolphin/Sail combination trip. Hopefully the breeze would increase after lunch for the sailing.

It was a bit early in the morning when I caught the hotel shuttle to Paihia, so gave my 2 fellow passengers a good morning nod of the head, and focused on my day ahead. We shall encounter them again later…

With a sense of anticipation we boarded our vessel DIII, with a hearty welcome from the crew, Gary, Pip and Kirsty, the on board photographer.

After a safety briefing and a description of what we would hopefully see, whether swimming with the dolphins may or may not happen, we slipped our berth at Paihia and headed out into the Bay of Islands.

Skipping over the ripples on the sea we scanned the horizon, eager to be the first to spot a dolphin breaking the surface. The crew do the same, and that is Kirsty with her head poking out of the top of the boat!

The boats on the Bay all work together, so when one finds a pod of dolphins, a call is put out over the vhf radio and that spreads the word. The Department of Conservation monitor the situation closely, so there is a limit on the number of boats that can spend time with a pod, so as not disturb the dolphins if they are sleeping or have babies (calves) or very young dolphins amongst them. (Did you know dolphins can sleep by shutting down one half of their brain, and keep one eye open!)

After a while we got the call on the marine vhf that a pod had been spotted, so we picked up the pace a little. On our arrival we were told by the crew that we had encountered common dolphins (Delphinus delphis), which, despite their name are not seen as often as bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) in the Bay. One of the reasons may be that they tend to like living in deeper water (we were around the 50 metre depth mark) whereas bottlenose dolphins are more ‘common’ in coastal waters. It can be a little confusing!

The main result was that we wouldn’t be swimming with the dolphins, just watching. A shame, but that was the information our highly skilled crew gave us. We spent a wonderful time watching the dolphins interacting with each other, the boat, playing in the bow wave, surfing in the wake of the boat as we left them. One particular juvenile (maybe a teenage dolphin?) was repeatedly leaping out of the bow wave until his mother came alongside to rein them in…

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

All images are copyright Explore Images (2012)

After we left the pod we spent the rest of the trip scouring the Bay of Islands from one side to the other, watching the awesome bird life, like the group of little blue penguins (anybody know the collective name for a group of penguins?), shearwaters and, most memorably, a petrel skipping the wave tops whilst it fed.

What is there better than a morning spent on the calm waters of the Bay?
Find out tomorrow when we continue our blog, featuring a great afternoon on Lion New Zealand with those cool Canadians…

Lady Pippa Blake’s book: Journey

On 5th December 2001 New Zealand sporting and adventure hero Sir Peter Blake was killed by bandits at the mouth of the Amazon River. In this intimate account, Sir Peter’s wife Pippa offers an intensely personal account of their life together.

Unpublished photographs from her personal albums, behind-the-scenes stories of Sir Peter’s sailing adventures, and Pippa’s own journal entries and artworks provide a moving insight into a life shared with one of this country’s greatest sporting legends.

http://www.penguin.co.nz/afa.asp?idWebPage=30233&ID=2045063&SID=44366597

Lion Maritime Development Charitable Trust

Lion New Zealand is back in the Bay of Islands fundraising for the Charitable Trust, offering day sailings and Dolphin Swimming/Sailing combinations.

To find out more about the Trust and how it operates visit the Lion NZ web site:

http://www.lionnewzealand.com/index.html