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Adventures to the South Island
  • Simon and Sarah
  • Simon and Sarah

Adventures to the South Island

Exploring South Island with Klepper Read more
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  • Trip start
    December 2, 2024
    Simon and SarahAdventures to the South IslandTraveler

    Leaving home

    December 4, 2024 in New Zealand ⋅ ☁️ 18 °C

    We are off!!! Thank you to all our lovely friends and family for all your loving support for our big adventure ahead. We hope that this is a good way to keep you up to date with all of explorations... we 'll be able to share our route and photos as we go along. Thank you all for your wonderful farewells with farewell sings, dinners, pizzas and a farewell flotilla (Thank you Susanne for planning this fun occasion!). We are finally ready after our initial engine hiccup when klepper got shy with the leaving flotilla waiting... but all good now and we are on our way!

    We'll keep in touch!    Read more

  • Simon and SarahAdventures to the South IslandTraveler
    1
    1

    Arrived in Sandy Bay

    December 4, 2024 in New Zealand ⋅ ☀️ 21 °C

    Awwwww.... what a glorious day... the breeze on our backs and the sun warm on our faces. Stopping for the night in Sandy Bay...

  • Simon and SarahAdventures to the South IslandTraveler
    This is the hole in the wall... we think it's more like a heart ❤️
    1

    Welcomed to Whitianga in warm sunshine

    December 5, 2024 in New Zealand ⋅ ☁️ 24 °C

    We are being so blessed with glorious sunshine... and perfect sailing conditions. Our trip from Sandy Bay was glorious and it looks like the map showed s pretty accurate route 😊 We are staying in Whiti for a few days just to get a few boat jobs done before we take the long trip South (next stop possibly Tauranga) Once we have finished our jobs ... an oil change... downloading navigational info... and unpacking our stores of food and clothes. it feels soooooooo good to be settling into life on board our 'floating home' for our trip ahead.Read more

  • Simon and SarahAdventures to the South IslandTraveler

    We're Anchored in Mayor Island

    December 9, 2024 in New Zealand ⋅ 🌬 19 °C

    It looks like we are in the middle of the ocean... but there is an island here! We just dropped our anchor and we're greeted by a Haka on the beach by a school group who are here camping! We'll at more details soonRead more

  • Simon and SarahAdventures to the South IslandTraveler
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    pristine :-)3pohutakawas starting to bloomleaving Mayor Island11Night lights of Tauranga in the distance

    look who joined us today!!

    December 11, 2024 in New Zealand ⋅ 🌙 18 °C

    We left Mayor Island this morning to head to Tauranga.... and look who joined us 🤗 We are now tucked up under Mount Managanui. We have a few days of exploring, restocking food and supplies. The next plan is to look for a weather window to head further South towards Napier.Read more

  • Simon and SarahAdventures to the South IslandTraveler
    Mount Manganuu with Klepper 🤗
    2Very very soggy n wet1huge container ship that followed us down the channel!!

    Rainy day in Tauranga

    December 12, 2024 in New Zealand ⋅ ☁️ 23 °C

    Pouring with rain today as we fill up with diesel in Sulphur Point Marina... do some food shopping to stock up for the next part of our journey... catching up on a bit of sleep too 😊

  • Simon and SarahAdventures to the South IslandTraveler
    Dodging cargo ships on our way out of Tauranga harbour!

    Sailing our way to Napier

    December 13, 2024 in New Zealand ⋅ ☀️ 22 °C

    All packed up and Klepper is ready to sail South. we'll go past white Island (an active volcano) and to East Cape (the first place in Aotearoa) to see the sunrise) and then past Gisbourne to Napier. it's about 300 Nautical Miles and it'll take us up to 3 days sailing through the night. We really do plod along at average 4 nautical miles an hour!!! (top speed is 7!!)Read more

  • Simon and SarahAdventures to the South IslandTraveler

    Still active Whakaari White Island

    December 13, 2024 in New Zealand ⋅ 🌬 20 °C

    The name Whakaari means 'to make visible' or 'exposed to view'. The full name is Te Puia Whakaari which means 'The Dramatic Volcano'. It is still very active and last erupted in 2019 killing 22 people and seriously injuring many more. The island is held as sacred or Tapu and it still made us feel a large amount of respect and privilege to witness this immense power.Read more

  • Simon and SarahAdventures to the South IslandTraveler
    celebrating a glorious days sailing
    first lightSun popping uoEast Island and East Cape

    sunrise ... were we the first to see it

    December 14, 2024, South Pacific Ocean ⋅ ☀️ 20 °C

    A glorious day... and feeling grateful for incredible sailing, smooth seas and fair winds. East Cape is notorious for being challenging for sailors... just watching the sunset on another day and the full moon rising.Read more

  • Simon and SarahAdventures to the South IslandTraveler
    approaching Napier in the dark!Pouring rain and rainbows at the Napier Marina

    Reflecting on our trip

    December 16, 2024 in New Zealand ⋅ ☁️ 19 °C

    What an incredible sail down the coast. with an active volcano, dolphins escorting us, full moons and sunrises... glorious sunshine and fair winds on our back. we arrived into Napier at midnight on Sunday... pretty tired but feeling so blessed for the journey. now we are spoiling ourselves in the marina with hot showers and fresh clean washing. We'll wait here for the next weather window... maybe Friday... but we will see 😊Read more

  • Simon and SarahAdventures to the South IslandTraveler
    Raining again in Napier

    ooops we have an engine problem

    December 20, 2024 in New Zealand ⋅ 🌙 19 °C

    oh dear... we have found water in the oil of the cylinder heads. we will be here for a while whilst we fix our dear Volvo Penta (Penny penta)... THEN we will look for another weather window.. looks like we may be in for a windy wet Christmas 🎄Read more

  • Simon and SarahAdventures to the South IslandTraveler
    leaving Napier2Cape Kidnappers

    Wishing you all a lovely Christmas...

    December 24, 2024, South Pacific Ocean ⋅ ☁️ 20 °C

    we are just leaving Napier and headed to Port Underwood on the top of the South Island xxx we will be sailing for Christmas!!! yay.... may not have signal so here's our little message to you all

  • Simon and SarahAdventures to the South IslandTraveler

    Merry Christmas Everyone

    December 25, 2024, South Pacific Ocean ⋅ ⛅ 17 °C

    Sunrise on Christmas Day... we are sailing down the East coast of North Island and heading to Castle Point at the moment. we aim to sail to Port Underwood which is another 162 nautical miles from here xxRead more

  • Simon and SarahAdventures to the South IslandTraveler
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    3The calm of Port Underwood2

    Arriving in Port Underwood

    December 26, 2024 in New Zealand ⋅ ☁️ 15 °C

    All tucked up in Port Underwood sheltered from the stormy winds and big seas that are predicted for the Cooks Strait today and tomorrow. With winds up to 50knot gusts and 4metre seas... We are feeling so grateful to be in this quiet Anchorage. it's very much like the Sounds with a deep inlet and lots of little coves. Great sail down the coast... very exhilarating at times...surfing waves and hitting record-breaking speeds( for Klepper! ) and dodging lighting storms through the night. We arrived a bit wind swept, wet and bedraggled but very, very happy with ourselves. Our trip was 398 Nautical miles from Napier. It was a pretty fast trip for us to be here in 2 days.Read more

  • Simon and SarahAdventures to the South IslandTraveler
    12Evening song
    Our quiet home for a while1Simon's Red Cod

    ahhhhh... unwinding!

    Dec 30–Jan 4, 2025 in New Zealand ⋅ ☁️ 16 °C

    It's wonderful to be catching up with ourselves a bit whilst we wait for the weather window to keep heading South. The wind is gusting sometimes up to 50 knots out in the Cooks Strait, and you can hardly believe it when you are calmly tucked away in here. We hadn't realized that Port Underwood has a significant part to play in NZ history. Ironside's Cairn is in the next bay over. Samuel Ironsides moved to Port Underwood in December 1840. He established a flourishing mission from which he buried the victims of the Wairau affray in 1843. He was a trusted mediator between Māori and settlers. It was also a big area for whaling (unfortunately), but it meant it was a busy port with ships from all over the world. The area is now mostly holiday homes or bach's and mussel farming.Read more

  • Simon and SarahAdventures to the South IslandTraveler
    Coming down Tory Channel12

    leaving in the dark

    January 2, 2025 in New Zealand ⋅ ☁️ 14 °C

    we are heading to Picton through the infamous Tory Channel. The timing is the challenge as you need to consider tide changes and currents that run at a different time. As well as swell in the Cooks Strait and the weather!!! we left in the dark at midnight... had messy swell and rain... but all worth it now as we motor gently to Picton for a very quick stock up on fresh food and fuel up!Read more

  • Simon and SarahAdventures to the South IslandTraveler
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    13

    Planning... plotting.. waiting!

    January 6, 2025 in New Zealand ⋅ ⛅ 17 °C

    We are in a flurry of planning and plotting as we consider taking the next weather window to head down the West Coast of South Island and heading to Milford Sound. We are excitedly dreaming over charts and guidebooks... checking and rechecking the weather (which is constantly changing!)... and whilst we wait, we have cleaned our hull (in all our cold weather gear!!!) and been touristy visiting Ironsides Cairn, a memorial to the first methodist missionary to set up a church in this area. Samuel Ironsides sounded as if he had quite an important part to play in the history of the area.Read more

  • Simon and SarahAdventures to the South IslandTraveler
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    Paradise!!

    January 12, 2025 in New Zealand ⋅ ⛅ 17 °C

    Arrived in Tasman Bay... it's beautiful! Our journey from Port Underwood took us to the edge of Pelorus Sound and to the northern tip of D'Urville Island to Port Hardy. Then across the Tasman Bay to Onetahui Bay on the Abel Tasman. It is how you imagine patadise! Golden sands, stunning blue ocean and amazing native bush. We are exploring along this coast for a few days.Read more

  • Simon and SarahAdventures to the South IslandTraveler

    A special time in Nelson

    Jan 16–18, 2025 in New Zealand ⋅ ☀️ 19 °C

    We are in Nelson Marina... and it has been a lovely time... Our time was short but wonderful... our highlight was to meet our new family member from our cousins... seeing cousin Janie who made the mamouth flight from the UK the day before we arrived and spending time together with Emma, new baba and family who live in Nelson and being spoilt to a day on land 😀 we also squeezed in the Nelson's farmers market for some goodies... we are heading back up the coast to continue exploring Abel Tasman.Read more

  • Simon and SarahAdventures to the South IslandTraveler

    A Techy situation!

    January 17, 2025 in New Zealand ⋅ ☀️ 16 °C

    Well.... we have set up an Iridium GO! satellite phone for our trip as we head off to more remote places... it's very awesome as we can stay connected for weather updates and limited messages also SOS calls in emergency. However we have discovered there is no internet capacity... so we will only be able to update our penguin footprints when we are back in civilisation! Here is a link that you can join to see where we are... it's a bit more formal but will show our location and limited blogs. we will keep updating when we are within internet connection.

    https://forecast.predictwind.com/tracking/rally…

    To find us, first click on South Island Rally and a list of boat names will appear... then keep clicking on Klepper until you see our posts....    Read more

  • Simon and SarahAdventures to the South IslandTraveler
    3Top of Torrent Bay riverhead
    2Awaroa Lagoon1Tasty pizza at Awaroa Lodge1The storms are the Grey colour's all around us!

    Weather Watching

    January 22, 2025 in New Zealand ⋅ ☁️ 21 °C

    Enjoying the glorious sunshine and golden beaches whilst we watch the weather all around us. There are storms on all sides of us with Tasman Bay in the middle, calm and sunny! We are filling our time with explorations up river estuaries, fishing and walking the tracks. We even treated ourselves to pizza and a beer at the Awaroa Lodge!Read more

  • Simon and SarahAdventures to the South IslandTraveler

    More adventures....change of direction

    January 31, 2025 in New Zealand ⋅ ☁️ 21 °C

    We're on the move again! Not quite in the direction we had originally planned!

    We are heading north!!!! it's been a difficult decision... but we have been waiting for over a month for a safe weather window to head south, and it doesn't look like there will be one in the next ten days or so which takes us to nearly mid February. This would limit our exploring time in the fiords and not leave time to visit and experience Stewart Island. Our original plan had us already in Rakiura (Stewart Island) with time to visit and explore fiordland on our way back north.

    We have decided to head to Whangaroa Harbour with a view of spending our next couple of months exploring all the places that we missed last time we were in Northland. Hopefully, to include the three Kings Islands and supposedly the best fish and chips in NZ at Mangonui Harbour.

    To say that we are hugely disappointed that we haven't been able to reach the Fiords or Stewart Island this year would be very much an understatement, but... hey, there's always next year!

    A safe weather window for the 480 nautical miles to head North has immediately opened for us, leaving Saturday morning. We are not finished yet with our adventures this year!    Read more

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