Auckland December 16 2006

Hello again everyone.We know it's been awhile. I think we've been in Auckland now for about six action packed weeks. On arrival, we parked the boat at about 7AM and headed off to brunch, then chilled out for the rest of the day. Our first order of business was to get a car, and it is amazing here. They have car fairs where people just bring their cars and you do the deal right then and there. Holly had gotten her car when we arrived (she spent last season here and kept her car) and she and her boyfriend gave Joey and me a ride out to one of the fairs. There must have been 500 cars there! NZ requires each car to be inspected and get a warrant of fitness every 6 months or so, so you're pretty safe buying one at the fair if the WOF is current. So, we looked and looked and looked. Only wanted to spend about NZ$2,000--US$1,300--and there were plenty of choices, but we settled on a 1990 Honda Vigor with power everything including a remote car starter. Everything worked and it was in good shape. Just needed a front right wheel bearing for about $150, so we bought it. NZ$840!!!! and it's in great shape. Of course, we're not naive. We figured other stuff would need to be done and, sure enough, a bunch of other stuff was required when we went to get the bearing fixed. Nonetheless, for about US$1,200 we got a great car. Enough on that.The marina is huge--something like 2,000 boats. It's very secure with keypad entry and security guards patrolling at night. We look west to the Auckland Harbor bridge and east to the city skyline We're about a 5 minute ride from downtown where you can actually still park on the street. NZ is really pretty, and all the pommies say it reminds them of Scotland. Cool right now and one of our missions has been to get the heat on the boat working. Hasn't been used for 8 years. Our berth is at the end of X dock which is about a 1/4 mile walk to the car. Long walk, but we have great views of all the activity in the marina and out into Auckland harbor. The marina was supposed to have electrical adapters, transformers, etc as power and water are included, but they don't. Another $1,000 down the tubes for that gear, but we'll need it again in Australia and most of the other places we'll be for the foreseeable future.Unbelievably, the captain, thus far, has only hit the casino once--won a quick c-note, but we have shopped 'til we dropped. It's pretty funny at the grocery, for instance, we have to remind ourselves not to overbuy since it will still be there tomorrow. The rule of thumb when out in the hinterlands is if you see something you need, buy it now and buy extra if you can since it might not be there tomorrow. Here, of course, there are ready supplies of everything, but the habits of cruising are hard to break. We won't bore you with the details of all the work we've done or are having done, but that has kept us busy and we're chipping away at the 5 page list of stuff to be done. We have new upholstery, painted the inside of the boat, and are getting other repairs done. Rendezvous will be essentially brand new when we leave here. Some stuff is really cheap, but we're finding it's cheaper to have West Marine ship some stuff in. On a side note, I really got ripped by DHL. Lizzie had shipped a small package to me in Fiji and the yahoos neglected to inform me of it's arrival until we were 100 miles south at sea. Okay, just forward it, we said. They tried to charge about US$300 for that on top of the rip-off $284 Lizzie had to pay for a 15lb package. We negotiated down to $150 for the forwarding, but that still put the total at over $400. By contrast, we're have West ship in three large boxes of stuff weighing over 50lbs for under $100. Thank you FedEx. I really hate DHL as they have ripped us off before!! Beware out there of crappy couriers. On a happy note, we did find some really nice stainless latches to replace the constantly corroding aluminum ones Voyage put on the boat. The problem was finding a similar footprint, so now we're fixed for life. Expensive but eliminating one of those nagging maintenance things. Oh, I've backtracked, but the really good news is they have some great electric heads here. You have to understand that marine heads are a maintenance nightmare, and we switched to electric several years ago, because it is no fun to turn around and hand pump the thing empty when you're done. The electric conversion units are about $300 just for the pump, don't last more than about 2 years and are very noisy. Here, however, we've found these "made in China" things that are reliable, whisper quiet and, get this, cost NZ$260--about $175 for the entire unit--not just the pump. This also saves me the tedious task of taking off and repainting the old toilet seats. You have no idea what a huge win this is. We are easily excited and amused here!!Okay, on to the more important stuff. Joey managed to get not one, but two, jobs. Almost immediately he was hired by Sail NZ to work on their old America's Cup boats taking guests out for match races. He wasn't getting many hours and managed to land what is now his primary job working at one of the marine stores here. Great deal. Regular hours, good pay, walking distance AND a 30% discount--yes!!!! On the love front he continues unfettered. You will recall he already had Helen here who he met in Rarotonga. Now we can't even keep track. There's Mel, Crystal and Emma that we know about.. Who knows how many others. Ah, to be young--two jobs, partying and several women to balance out. He's bound to burn out and die young if he keeps this up. Unlike last year, we were able to find a turkey for Thanksgiving One of our Kiwi friends from Tonga was baching it as his wife was off in Thailand, so we invited him. Did the whole deal and it was great. We ran out of wine, though, which was a bit mysterious after all we'd loaded up in Rarotonga. A day later we discovered from Holly that our very own Eddie Haskell had been raiding the wine locker in Tonga to share with "the girls" Good thing he has a job so he can afford to replace our stocks.The fact that we didn't notice the wine shortfall is indicative of what a calm and proper life we are leading here on Rendezvous. I should say that Rose and I have been living as Joe certainly isn't!!! Well, I'm sure you're all interested in the state of Rose's health which is one reason we're living like monks. One of the first things we did was to get her to a doctor here that one of our friends recommended. First thing he tells her is they don't have Lymes disease in NZ and orders about 10 blood tests. All clear, so he throws up his hands and sends her to an infectious disease specialist who orders another 13 tests, all clear! So he orders some more tests, a cat scan, x-rays..... all clear. Well, we figure BS. We're not going to the expense of the radiology right now, and we think the coincidence of the tick and all her problems plus her symptoms all say Lymes. Maybe she got it in Australia where they do have it.. The doc emphatically says no! So that's where we stand. We're going to get some ultrasound scanning done in lieu of the CAT, and Rose has started with her friend, David's, acupuncturist, as that seems to be the only thing that has worked (she saw a little Chinese guy in Suva who really helped). The guy here has depressed poor Rose by telling her all her body energy lines are screwed up and to come back for several visits. What the hell. It works, so that's what we're pursuing in concert with the conventional medicine. The symptoms are those of rheumatoid arthritis so Rose is tired and sore a lot of the time. The MD seems to think we'll get it sorted before we leave in May. Gee, that's only 5 months away--seems his sense of urgency is not the same as ours. We were hoping after all these tests, they would find the problem, give her a shot or two and, boom, we're good to go. These guys are very thorough, and Rose spent about 2 hours with the specialist, but they're as frustrated and mystified as we are. We still think it's Lymes. We'll keep everyone advised.Lizzie and Ben arrived on 11/27 and leave on 12/21. They've actually done some boat work, but, basically, they are being complete touristas and going to all the museums, hot springs, etc. Today, weather permitting, we're going to the "glowworm caves". Next week the Rainbow amusement park is on the agenda before they leave on Thursday. We've already done our Christmas with them, and they brought an entire suitcase full of stuff for the boat which was like a whole new Christmas. Nice to have the family around during the holidays and, surprisingly, we've actually all gotten along pretty well for the last three weeks. It'll be pretty sad when they leave, but they've got a new house and need jobs back in the states, so the new year will be busy, and they need to get back to North Carolina to get started.The other big news is we got an email from Hein and Vic, and their owner has decided they need to return to Auckland. We don't know for how long, but we're hoping it will be at least over New Year's. Ben spotted the boat a couple of days ago, but we haven't heard from them yet. Expect the owner is on board and they're restricted to the ship. Will no doubt catch up with them next week. In the meantime, we're loving it here. Have been to several good restaurants and the movie theatre even has a premium section (which we haven't attended) with easy chairs and servers for your drinks and food. Must try that before we leave--about NZ$30 pp.Left alot out so as not to bore everyone with our maintenance nightmares, but basically, we're just settled in and living a pretty normal life. Hoping the weather warms up as it gets quite cool at night and in the low 70's during the day. We like it hot!!!More laterTim, Rose & Joe