Whangarei

We are currently in the small city of Whangarei. It’s a two-hour drive north of Auckland. It’s several hours upriver from the ocean but once here, everything is very convenient–most shops are within walking distance. The marina is a block or two from the downtown core. A large grocery store is right across the street from the marina. One is able to push one’s cart full of groceries right up to the boat to unload. It doesn’t get any easier than that!

In addition to having groceries and other shopping needs covered, Whangarei is a centre for the marine industry. There are several boatyards with travel lifts. With this comes a large pool of skilled trades people and several marine stores making it easy to get ready for returning north in a few months.

We’re not sure how long we’ll be here but we don’t plan on being here long. Having just returned from our road trip we don’t feel the need for shore time. We will take advantage of the shops to get what we need and then head back out to explore.

The plan from here is to slowly make our way back up to the Bay of Islands where we’ll wait for the end of cyclone season and watch for a good weather window. Then, it’ll be back to the tropics. It’s cooling off here. Last night, I had to put on a sweatshirt once the sun went down. What’s next? Socks? Jeans? The tropics are calling 🙂