Sailing and Tramping

New Zealanders tend to be an open and generous people. A fine example of this surfaced this week when Rotarian Ian Thomsen, before I even had met him, invited me out sailing. Mr. Thomsen, who also happens to be of Danish heritage, heard from my Rotarian counselor that I was new to town and was keen on going sailing. Now you must understand that even though I spend a good amount of free time on the water, I have never stepped foot on a sailing boat before. Nearly all of my experience involves riparian recreation or saltwater fishing. For me, sailing was quite a novelty, perhaps because yacht ownership in Alaska is quite difficult. Auckland on the other hand is known as the “city of sails” and with eight marinas strategically located around the city and some of the best sailing in New Zealand (some would argue the best sailing in the world), the name makes perfect sense. Ian, a few of his sailing friends, and I met up at the marina in Half Moon Bay on the east end of Auckland for a local “rum race,” which is put on every Friday just for kicks. The race took us out to Islington Bay near Rangitoto Island formed after a massive volcanic eruption 600 years ago. In the near future I hope to go ashore and climb Rangitoto’s caldera, but on Friday I had to suffice myself with a beautiful view from the bay.

Setting out under clear skies with a strong breeze, the sailing proved quite enjoyable, though notably less rigorous than I had anticipated. Yet, the saying “in New Zealand you can experience four seasons in one day” also proved true as the warm summer-esque weather broke with an incoming front becoming markedly colder and down pouring rain, a change, which occurred in a matter of mere minutes. I was ready though with warm cloths, a ski hat, and gloves on hand. The sea gods did not particularly approve of the combination of my ski hat and army baseball cap however and the latter was snatched off my head with a heavy gust of wind. It now resides at the bottom of Motukorea Channel amongst many other seafarers’ former treasures. Though our yacht, carrying a spare outboard motor and barbecue, was not as fast some of the lighter racers, we quite contently finished in the middle of the pack and capped off our day in true sailors fashion with a shot of rum. Though I found sailing quite enjoyable, particularly in favorable weather, I still think a drift boat may have it beat on my personal desirability chart…

On Saturday morning I headed south out of town with a few members of the tramping club (think hiking) to May Camp. We reached camp by noon and went for a short walk though the Korehangehape Gorge (I may have butchered this name as I don’t have map sheet in front of me). This area is an old mining region established just over a century ago and includes a sizeable tunnel blasted through the canyon wall, which trampers are now able to hike though. The route, though short, was quite scenic first following the stream, then crossing through the tunnel (nearly one kilometer long) and emerging in the dense New Zealand sub-tropical forest. Once back at camp, I was able to meet many other trampers and share a festive evening including among other events, playing on the local playground (which included a quite impressive “flying fox” or “slide for life” we in America often call it), sharing a large pasta dinner, and dancing in the local War Memorial Hall.

Sunday morning we cleaned up from the previous nights festivities and headed out on another tramp. This time we penetrated much deeper into the dense kiwi forests. I was quite impressed when we finally ran into a kauri tree, which I had been hearing a great deal about. In one word, Kauri trees are MASSIVE! Up to 3 meters in diameter and living up to 1500 years, kauris are straight as a rod, with little to no taper as they ascend the canopy. The hardwood is quite good for carving and for this very reason, kauris were heavily harvested up until the 1950s, when they finally obtained expansive protection. The two hour walk in, which as I have found typical for NZ included many stream crossings and little hope of keeping your boots dry, was completely worth seeing these few mighty and beautiful trees. Unfortunately, I did not manage to get any good pictures, but I promise you them in an future post. Cheers…