We just finished our first full week in NZ, Opua specifically, and can see why folks keep coming back here. It is a beautifull little town and the climate is, while a bit cooler than the tropics, about right now that summer has arrived. We did get over to Paihia, the next town over which is about 10 kms to the North, for an hour or so where there is a larger grocer that had enough to get us stocked up a little. Roads and all that goes along with that etc. were excellent and real first world, everything so far has been real tidy and folks real nice, waiting for the other shoe to drop. So what do we fill our days with now that we are based somewhere? Oh news flash, we are now also for a short time in a private marina slip, with services and water etc... Real treat that is! Good as! As they say round these parts. All slips are privately owned and there are few available in our size range where owners are absent so it is very temproary but a nice change none the less. Same sort of costs as at home but a small advantage in exchange rate for us. So over the past 10 days or so as all the last of the incoming boats were gathered here in Opua, there were many parties at the local Opua Cruising Club and on boats and docks as everyone got a chance to visit boats they have heard on radio but perhaps not actually met up with for months or longer and even meet others for the first time. The sense of comunity is very strong and the sense of relief among the crowd having made it here, being able to walk off the boat onto civilized lands, feeling like home, and etc. added to the festive feel of things. There were special funtions and dinners all organized around the incoming fleet before they all spread out around NZ. This is for the last of the group, while there were all kinds of "special" events and tours and dinners and prizes and funtions and free food and seminars and all kinds of cool stuff a couple weeks before we arrived, we chose to hang as long as possible up North in the nice stuff and missed out on some of the fun. Anyway, the first few days were filled with lots of fun and activity and it was nice to see everyone that were still here. Most have now moved on to cruise locally or move down to Wangerei, pronounced (fong,ger,eh) or Auckland, pronounced, never mind, you got that one. There is much more to offer down in the big cities in terms of facilities and services and amenities but there is no rush from our perspective, we are happy to take it slow and cruise our way around as we feel the need and the trades here seem excellent so far. So back to finding something to do during the long daylight days. The last few days, we removed the main sail and jib for cleaning, repairs and restiching and a new UV cover for jib, removed the boom and vang for rebuilding of the gooseneck and knuckles, had the goosenecks on the mast reamed and sleeved, a rig inspection, new anchor light, new head fly windex, removed back stay tensioner for rebuild, removed and disassembled anchor windlass (way harder than I thought) serviced and re installed it with new motor, installed a dedicated salt water anchor chain washdown system, installed new refrigeration cooling system and pump, washed entire boat of grime and salt etc with nice clean fresh water, scrubbed an amazing amount of grime off the sun shades by laying them out on a nice convienient dock and giving them the business, laundered about 1/3 of the cloths that we have not used since leaving home from some of the storage spots that just got a little stinky form all that humidity and lack of air flow,booked the reefer tech to vacuum down the system, install a new dryer in line, a backflow preventer in the A/C return line and recharge the system with new gas, about to remove the injectors on the main engine for rebuild along with the exhaust mixer elbow and turbo charger for rebuild ( those will be easy and cheap) NOT, need to find materials to build a new sea water manifold which will involve a trip to somewhere other than local stores and so on. The list of "stuff to do" is still as long as it was when we started but it will be nice to have all this dealt with so the boat is perfect again and we can then dilly dally as we like as we explore the rest of NZ. Back to work!