Adventures with the Vick-Cullens

We're all up fed, and headed out of Mangonui by 0830. Stopped in at a market in Pahia for last-minute items, then to Opua where we caught the ferry to Russel.

Waiting for us at the wharf are Pip and Oliver Campbell, owners of the sailing ketch aboard which we'll be cruising Bay of Islands for the next three days.

'A Place In The Sun' is pulled up to the windward side of wharf and skipper Oliver is not at all happy about the beating she's taking while Dan and Jack move cars up to Pip and Oliver's house. Oliver finds lots of things to be unhappy about during the next few days.

We're finally away and it's blowing really hard. We raised all sail (except mizzen stays'l) in Force 8 gale and flew . . . port scupper buried in green water, and everybody doing their best to pretend at having fun.

Oliver is a very veteran charter skipper, salty as hell, and we're swallowing hard and trying to keep the faith. 'Bullets' gusting down ravines knocked us hard over several times. Sometimes it mellows a bit and the boys take turns at the helm.

We tried to sail into a secret little spot called Oke Bay with just the yankee and fore stays'l set, but the entrance was only bare yards wide and at the last minute a gust caught us and blew the bow hard around, almost putting us onto the rocks. Discretion proved the better part of valor, and we dropped all sail and motored into the anchorage for lunch.

After another wild afternoon of sailing we checked out several anchorages, but found all were getting hammered hard by gusts. Finally found shelter in a little cove near Parorenui Bay.

All the kids, Deborah, K. and D. (Jack is nursing badly sprained toes) climbed the ridge to the top of the Pa behind the cove after dinner for a splendid view of islands and crazily convoluted coastline.

The consensus is beginning to develop amongst our company that, although Oliver is a remarkable sailor and that he and Pip have built one of the finest boats afloat, he is way too cantankerous an old fart to be chartering to the public. What especially annoys Dan is how he keeps complaining about and criticizing all things American. Mutinous rumors are being whispered belowdecks.

Pip made everybody happy again with a fine dinner, and after a few glasses of port even old Captain 'Ahab' Campbell started seeming like good company. The crew assembled in the cockpit for a sunset photo.

Even in a 50-footer, nine bodies is a bunch, so some slept better than others. All night long the wind kept gusting through the anchorage in 50 knot bullets that howled through the rigging like a demented beasts.

Through it all, sweet Kate keeps smiling.

Pip served us poached eggs on toast in the cockpit for breakfast. When ready to get underway, Oliver tried to start the engine. Nothing happened. Somehow we had shorted out all three banks of batteries. After a couple hours of fussing about we at last got the engine started by borrowing a couple of batteries from another yacht. But the electrical system wasn't right and troubled us for the remainder of our trip.

Lunch at Motorua Island. Dan, Ty and Cam rowed ashore and climbed to ridgetop to inspect pillboxes and gun emplacements left over from WWII. These were built in WWII to fend off German raiders. They never showed up.

After lazing about in the sun for a couple hours we motored six miles up the Kerikeri R. to Old Stonehouse, built in 1833 and the oldest building in New Zealand. From there we sailed north up coast (fishing line out, but nothing caught) to Crowles Harbour for our night anchorage. Cam and Ty took the dinghy out for a cruise around the bay.

Wind has finally quieted down, sun is warm, and everybody is happy.

Pip prepared a birthday dinner for darling K.'s 50th birthday . . . champagne, crab salad, baked flounder. Cake and opening of gifts after dinner, and everybody got weepy because we love her so much.

Lazy morning getting started. Dan went for a swim and Kate helped him rinse off with the deck shower.

It is our last day of sailing and we're mopey because in a few hours we have to say goodbye to our dear friends from back home.

Raised anchor, headed back south, and Tyler and Cam (under Oliver's direction) raised all sail under a stiffening breeze. Put up mizzen stays'l for the first time and this wonderful thoroughbred of a ship really kicked up her heels. Oliver says he'll sell her for a million dollars, and not a penny less.

Arrived back in Russell around noon, offloaded the boat, retrieved cars, ate lunch at Orca Cafe. Bid a tearful goodbye to Jack and Deb, Cam and Kate. They enrichen our lives immeasurably, and we love adventuring with them.

On our way home we stopped at Waitangi and toured the Treaty House; where the controversial Treaty of Waitangi was signed in 1840 between 46 Maori chiefs and representatives of the Queen of England. Walked through the gorgeous Whare Runanga (Maori meeting house) with its incredible carvings.

Then we happened upon an amazing machine called Ngatokimatawhaorua. It is one of the largest war canoes ever built: 35 meters long and carries 80 warriors. It is carved out of three massive trunks of kauri which were ingeniously scarfed together with fiber lashings. The tree for the main body of the canoe is over five meters in diameter.

Headed for Mangonui, but first a stop along the way for K. to purchase wool at Akatere woolworks.

It's almost time to leave Northland behind.

Chrys Trussler and Gay Cooper took K. out for a farewell lunch at the Slung Anchor in Mangonui.

The boys' last day fishing down at the wharf. They've still not caught a kingfish. Caught a kahawei and hooked a giant ray, that might well have been a bulldozer for all the concern it exhibited about being connected to a fishing rod. It just kept heading out to sea until the line snapped.

The Trussler girls and friend Lisa came over and all went with Tyler to play down at Coopers Beach. When Chrys picked them up we gave her a fresh John Dory to take home for supper. Later that evening Jerry and Chrys and the girls came back for a final goodbye. They're awfully dear folks who will thrive in their new country. The girls got a little puddly in their goodbyes to Ty P.

Left Mahoe Lane at 0900, and headed south through Kaitaia, left at Mangamuka Bridge to ferry at Rawene and across Hokianga harbour to the little village of Kohukohu. Then south to Waipoa Forest where the last few of the great kauri giants is still standing. We hiked to pay homage to 'Tane Mahuta', the largest of the kauri alive today.

It is a magnificent tree with a perfectly columnar trunk 15 feet thick, and is thought to be around 2000 years old. These incredible trees once covered the Northland, all but a few dozen were felled by the turn of the century. The largest tree ever taken was 28.5 feet in diameter, and contained over 50,000 board feet of dense hardwood.

Stopped for an hour or so at Kauri Museum at Dargaville, then south over rolling pastureland to Auckland.

Tomorrow Rusty Johnson (Ty's buddy from Mercer Island) will join us for the next three weeks and whatever adventures we'll find on . . .

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