Sailing to NZ YARGH!

Let me introduce to the Mariposa, (Spanish for butterfly I have been told, but a 18tonne butterfly? Really?)

But, the story begins before I had laid eyes on the sassy lass that is the Mariposa! It all started as many adventures do, In a pub! I saw a flyer "Crew Member Wanted! No Experience Required!" and I thought, hey! That sounds just like me! So I read on! 

"Sailing Fiji to NZ!" And lucky for me, I happened to be in Fiji and I know my way around the mother land! It was a sign from above - Tim, you need to get your ass on this boat! And since on my bucket list was to have a swing at this sailing thing (right under number 97 - Tame a pet lion) I thought I should pursue this

Any who, after a few emails I shot over to Vuda Marina just out of Lautoka and met the owners who would pick me over the 6 other people that applied... Maybe it was how I caressed the boats rail, maybe its cause I am small and they would be able to throw me over board without much trouble if I got annoying, who knows! What ever the reason, I was officially a sailor!

Two weeks later a good weather window opened up, I was on board and we were off!

A small rain shower before we left the Marina... First storm, Tick!

 

Now it turns out my gun-ho approach to life does not work so sailing.. After around 6 hours I puked my guts out and was feeling pretty nasty till my ship mates threw some sea sickness tabs at me. Half an hour after I took those I felt great! But I couldn't walk... Turns out they brought them in Thailand or India or somewhere... Let just say they were potent! But that was the last I was worried by sea sickness, after a night on the boat I was right as rain!

Looking down the hatch, you can see the awesome stove that sits on gudgeons and swings with the boats movement...

As I can now tie a bowline, I can tell you with total authority that is definitely a sail!

Looking pretty happy pre vomiting!

Apart from leaving and coming into port we spent depressingly little time steering the boat ourselves...

 

 Now within 24 hours I realised that sailing from A to B isn't exactly what I had pictured... While I was on watch from 8am to 12pm and 8pm to 12am and throw in a wee bit of cooking (its a WHOLE NEW EXPERIENCE when the whole fricking kitchen is swinging around like a Cumberland girl at the Monkey Bar) and adjusting the sails maybe a dozen times there was not a whole lot to do...

With my thoughts of swinging through the rigging and having to dive under the boat to free super cute but totally deadly killer whales from the keel swiftly wafting away I read a book on the physics of sailing... Ask me about hull speed, I dare ya!

See that yellow line Tim? Yep! Keep the 180 around there will ya? We're going to have a beer... See you in a few hours!

 The view from "the watch spot". When you were on watch you had preference on this spot where you can easily see the GPS, wind speed meter etc etc... It was also pretty sheltered and was a good spot to wedge yourself into against the movement of the boat.

Looking down into the kitchen from the watch spot.. Check out the stove! It rocked with the boat which (almost) kept things from sliding around. There was a ridiculous amount of storage space hidden around the boat...Its really surprising things are tucked away everywhere.

 Sailing!!!!!!!!!

Still sailing!!!!!!!!!!

 Lets sail a little more!

 You guessed it.... SAILING!

 While we didn't use this map a huge amount with the GPS linked Autopilot... It was handy to see roughly where we were! And I guess in a back up if a hurricane ripped all the electronics off the boat and all that... Still it would of been easy enough. Head south until you hit something, if its white you have gone to far.

SAILING!!!!

 Compass and engine controls

 I actually really like this shot, my night watch went from 8-12 so I saw some pretty awesome sun sets and moon rises.

Another sunset over the pacific!

(What felt like) Day 32... So bored attempting artistic photos....

Oh another sun set... How amazing!

 Day 7. No wind! (see how glassy the water is?) Crank up the motor! (Named Perky) and off we chugged!

 Day 7.5: Perky makes a loud clunking noise and starts to get a little too hot. Meet perky! (same motors than Massey Ferguson's use!)

 I mentioned above how much storage is on these boats...  This pic is from getting into all the tools and spares that are tucked away around the place. It turned out a shaft had shorn in the water pump (see below) and they had 1 brand new water pump, 1 rebuilt water pump and a broken one that seals etc could be salvaged from. THEY HAD SPARES FOR EVERYTHING! Which makes sense I guess, as I didn't see a single mechanic's on the trip. So after two hours we had everything back together and were on our way again... In preparation for being lost at sea I had found several round objects to make my own Wilson but sadly we got the motor running :(

Yup... I think that could be your problem

Yup... That's still a sail. While we were motoring we took in the Genoa, stay and Mizzen sail but left the main up which helped keep the rolling to a minimum!

Relaxing in the watch spot... Must of been getting close to NZ wearing a fleece and pants!

 Where I slept while we were under way... I became the master of napping during the day! I had a cabin in the fore peak but it was pretty noisy from the slap of waves so I kipped on the couch! The beds (and couch) had these amazing slings that were stashed under the mattresses, when it got rough you pulled these things out and clipped them onto the roof and boom, your bed had sides so you couldn't possibly fall off!!! 

You can't see it in the photo but you could just barely make out NZ from this point... It was an amazing feeling!

 The view from the kitchen!

I'm flying Jack I'm flying!!!

Took a while to get close to land... The attempted artistic shots continued!

 NEW ZEALAND BABY!!!!!!

Oh its so good to be home!

You gorgeous piece of rock you!

I thought I would end on a high note. My foot! I did mention I got bored right?

So we had sailed from Vuda Marina to Opua, NZ. I had never been that far north before in old NZ and it is a gorgeous piece of country! Right about till you get an hour from Auckland... Then its nasty. So I hitch hiked to a bus depo and bussed to Auckland. From there I managed to borrow a brand spanking VW and cruise on down to Wellington where I left the car. It turned out one of the ferries had dropped a prop off in the middle of the strait somewhere which played havoc with the ferry timings so after a lovely 2:30AM sailing I managed to hitch to Nelson in record time and I almost got a lift to my door!

What a trip! After a week or so catching up with the friends and family I did the reverse to get back up to Auckland and jumped on a plane back to old Fiji, I have to admit I missed it!!!

Highlands Walk

Off we go on another Ruck Sack Club adventure! This time into the highlands up towards the north of Viti Levu! It was a three day trip, during which we traveled the entire way around the island which was pretty cool! The first night we stayed at the Stonebowl Lodge again, which featured in an earlier post and then we had a short day hike from there into the first village where we stayed.

 Visiting a village always includes a Sevu Sevu or welcome ceremony, which is based around the sharing of a few bowls of Kava...

 The younger generation learning the customs from the elders....

 

After which we got to partake in the famous Fijian hospitality... Unfortunately I cannot name much of what they included in the spread but as always, it was a pretty good feed!

 

Pretty leaves!

 It was pretty hot going, with no cover what so ever for large sections of the trip! We had to carry a fair amount of water each and we took advantage of most of the rivers we saw to stop for a quick swim... 

Some parts of the walks were under the canopy, which was blessedly cool after being out in the open. We were sweating so much it was impossible to get the sun block to stay in place it sort of oozed off with your sweat... Lovely!

Local boys enjoying a swim with us! Standing up on the bilibili (raft made of lashed together bamboo) can be quite a mission!

One of the swimming holes that were some of the highlights of the walk... A better showing of the bilibili!

Growing up on the west coast of the south island of New Zealand I thought I had seen some rain... It went from clear to absolutely torrential rain in the space of a minute! It was definitely refreshing!

Eventually we arrived at the next village we stayed at... I give you, the leaning bure of Fiji!

Nature decides to reclaim a bure...

More walking... Right up in the hills this time, something like a 4 hour walk before we get to our first swimming hole... It was inhumane! Luckily it wasn't as hot as it could have been :)

Finally we got to the river, stopped for lunch and a swim! From there on it was a nice easy walk down the river... But not after a serious paddle in the river!

Awesome lunch spot!

Matt being truly excited with the mini rapids at the head of the pool!

Walking down beside the river... It was a bit cooler with the water near us and it was really easy going! 

 Some people were quite excited when we started getting close to the end of the walk! As usual in Fiji, it started pouring 5 minutes before we got to our accommodation, and we were all dripping wet by the time we got there!

We spent the night in an eco lodge type hostel. As mosquito's are my mortal enemy I usually sleep in my tent, well that and it doesn't stink of anyone's feet apart from my own! After some fireworks, an awesome sleep and a few more swims in a nearby river it was time to jump back in a carrier and head back to Suva.

It was a long trip home! We were all a little sun burnt, bitten and smelly but it was a awesome trip!