After a bit of a nervous sail from Vuda, waiting to see what the mast would tell us we had done poorly or forgotten to do, we anchored in a familiar spot off Denarau. We had returned so that we could catch up with our friend Eugeni, who we might not see again for some…

With Christine, Cara’s mum, visiting, our cruising experienced a change of tempo. Wanting to take Christine out on Taurus we sailed to Mala Mala Island, an island resort which we could visit for $30 a head. The price was pretty reasonable as it meant that we could use the resort’s facilities. The snorkelling around the…

We left Kia Island with a nice easterly breeze that allowed us to sail for most of the morning. Alas, later in the afternoon the breeze slowly died away and we ended up motoring in very hot and humid conditions. During this time we were joined by one of the largest pods of dolphins we…

After three days anchored off Also Island, two of which we were confined to the boat because of the weather, we had a window to move on. Rather than try what seemed a fairly sketchy entrance through a shallow reef we backtracked and left via the same reef we had entered by. It was a…

We spent six days in Nawi Marina, catching up with friends, restocking the boat, and getting a few boat jobs sorted. Savusavu, the town across the river from the marina, was great for re-provisioning, but other than buying food and eating food, there isn’t a whole lot to do there. Indeed, the local geothermal streams,…

We left Vava’u on Monday the 17th of June, two days before our thirty day visa was due to expire. Exiting the country was straight forward, the only complication being the number of yachts trying to leave, or enter, so that the short customs dock ended up being two yachts deep. We were fortunate, once…

A short sail of about two hours brought us from Pangai to Fau at the northern end of the island of Nafuka. We had heard of a place called Matafonua Lodge, located just off the beach there, which has a reputation for being cruiser friendly. Anchoring off the island was a bit of a game…

We arrived in Tonga on 20th of May, thirteen days after leaving Opua, NZ. The first few days were spent acclimatising to the hot and humid weather and catching up on lost sleep. Due to the heat we spent a lot of time swimming and snorkelling in the beautifully warm water. When we first set…

Tuesday May 7th saw up early as we had an appointment with NZ Customs at 8:30 am. The guys were friendly and relaxed but they made a point of making sure we understood that when we left we had ‘cleared customs’ and had to go straight back to Taurus and leave. No stopping for coffee,…

We left Whangarei Harbour on Monday 22nd of April. Leaving the heads we were caught out by an unexpected squall that caused us to struggle with our sails for a minute or two, and managed to make such a hash of it that a container ship coming in to the harbour blew its foghorn at…