Scorpio arrives in New Zealand

(Click on any photo or map for a blow up)

The 1.100 nautical miles from Tonga to New Zealand are on a course almost due south and covers the latitudes from 21 south to 35 south. Therefore a broad specter of weather can be expected and it is difficult to pick up a weather window without at least some bad weather on the way. This is a passage normally made just before the onset of the cyclone season, whish officially starts on November 1. If you attempt to start earlier you risk encountering wintry weather in the form of late south westerly spring storms when approaching New Zealand. If you are leaving too late, you may be in the way of an early cyclone! This year's first cyclone, by the way, was Xavier, and he showed his ugly face as early as mid October, but luckily faded away before doing us in Tonga any harm. He certainly got our attention though! The meteorologists believe that this season will be an El Nino year, with more than the average number of cyclones in the Western Pacific.


In Tonga we saw several whales	Full moon, with one day remaining to NZ.

We saw several whales in Tongan waters, some quite close to the boat. Of course, we never got out the camera in time, but the artistic impression above is quite accurate.

The direct course from Tongatapu to New Zealand's North Island leads close to Minerva Reef, where it is possible to anchor in reasonable weather. The strategy for us was to closely monitor the weather faxes we receive once a day, to determine if the weather was likely to develop adversely around NZ during the estimated day of our arrival. If we would get such indications before passing Minerva we could tuck in there for a few days and wait for a more suitable prognosis later.

Just before Minerva we received forecasts that indicated severe storms around North Island on November 8, but we estimated that we would be able to get into Opua by the evening of November 7, so we decided to forget about Minerva and carry on instead.

The trip was a mixed bag of weather with some uncomfortable confused seas and strong winds, particularly at night. But we also had long periods of no winds and flat sea so, with the need to arrive before November 8, we also had to do quite a lot of motoring.

Half ways our autopilot broke down and, in accordance with Scorpio's law, this happened just after dark on a particularly bad weather night. We still had more than half the way to go and hand steering for more than 500 miles in those conditions with a short handed crew was out of the question. We had some luck, however, and I was able to fool the autopilot system and we were able to cover the remaining distance without manning the wheel. How this was done I may explain in a side story shortly (for the technically fascinated). The story will be called: "Mohammed and the Mountain, or How to steer a small boat with a screw driver".


Paihia is the nearest town to Opua	Map of northern North Island

During this trip the temperatures got lower each day, quite dramatically for us with our personal thermostats accustomed to the tropics since several years and the woollies were pulled out of the mothballs.

We entered the Bay of Islands around 4 o'clock in the morning of November 7. Thanks to a full moon we had reasonable light even though there was a solid cover of clouds above. Just before sunrise we tied to the customs dock at Opua. We had reached a new Continent!


The woollies are out again, but a cold beer tastes good anyway	Approaching Auckland's Downtown harbour front

The following 12 days we were tied to the dock at Opua Marina. The weather was a real shock, with almost constant rain, strong winds and temperatures around 12ºC (!) inside the boat on some mornings. During this time we were able to send the autopilot's control unit for repair. Finally the weather improved some, but not much, so we let go of the lines and started on our trip along the shore south towards Auckland. Our son Jens and daughter in law Heta were soon scheduled to arrive there for a 2 weeks honeymoon (!) aboard Scorpio - we only hoped that the weather would improve in time.

On the way we stopped at Tutukaka harbour, Bon Accord Harbour at Kawau Island and Motutapu Island before entering Auckland harbour in the morning of November 22.

[One week after our arrival in NZ we heard disturbing news on the radio: On November 16, 2006, rioting broke out in the Tongan capital city of Nuku'alofa when it seemed that the parliament would adjourn for the year, without having made any advances in increasing democracy in government. The public expected democratic changes from the new monarch. Government buildings, offices, and shops were looted and burned. Eight people died in the riots. A state of emergency was declared on November 17, with emergency laws giving security forces the right to stop and search people without a warrant.]