Honeymoon - Day 5 (Jan 31st)

Day 5 - Abel Tasman to Motueka

We had a lovely day today. We picked up the anchor quite late, it was around 11 once we'd had a swim, made breakfast and tidied up. Actually I can accurately say it was exactly 11, because I've been keeping up the log book. Kind of. I'm at least putting in hours motored, destination and point of departure. I need to get into the habit of doing it, so when our chart plotter breaks I at least have a co-ordinate to put into the GPS. We actually got to sail for most of today and it was amazing. We could chat without yelling and just floated along on top of the waves. I think it's like comparing a push bike to a motorbike - they'll both get you there, they're both fun and often the motorbike is faster. But it's so much more peaceful and you feel so much closer to everything around you without the engine.

We cruised past Tonga island again to look at the baby seals then made our way to Motueka, which is near Nelson. We tried to anchor in Kaiteriteri but there were too many private moorings and no free space. After cruising the coast for a bit we managed to tuck in behind Ngiao island, where the water gets down to 4m deep at the lowest low tide, which is a bit shallower than we normally anchor in. But it should be ok. Our boat is 1.8m, but we like to be safe.

We spent all afternoon reading in the shade and jumping in the clear water when it got too hot. Garth managed to get the outboard going for our dinghy (we've had it for a year and didn't even know if it worked), and found it has 2 speeds - fast and faster. It's 8hp on a tiny dinghy, so I'm not surprised. But being mobile with no draught meant we could head out over to the island, then the beach, then to split apple rock. It's a giant rock that's been split in half, and looks pretty cool. Creative naming around here.

We also inspected sandy beach, which is where we 're heading tomorrow so we can go horse riding - the plan is to drag the dinghy over a heap of sand at low tide and leave it somewhere. Hopefully the sand doesn't go back too far... We wouldn't be able to go at all if Garth hadn't fixed the motor, so it was lucky he's so handy. We tried 2 different horse riding places in Golden Bay, but one was too far away for us to get there without assistance and the other one didn't call me back. Hopefully this one will be better than those guys anyway! It's a beach trek, which is what we wanted.

It seems really simple just going ashore, but it's not. The beaches here are shallow for quite a long way out, so we can't get near them without the dinghy. When we stopped at the marina it was the first time we'd been on land since we left, and I didn't even realize. No people since we left either, so nobody minds if I go for a swim or use the solar shower on the deck in my birthday suit. All the main towns seem to dislike boats, as there isn't really anywhere to go. We got lucky for the first few days because it was so calm and we could anchor anywhere, but now we have to be careful so I don't get sick. I've been pretty good on this trip, I've only been queasy once. We had to move last night to a spot an hour away that was more sheltered from our original anchorage because the wind and the tides were fighting each other, turning the boat side on to the waves. That's bad. I'm in the cockpit at the moment, because the boat is going crazy. I keep thinking I'm seeing falling stars, but it's just a light on the hill bobbing up and down frantically as the boat gets tossed around like a piece of driftwood.