Wednesday May 8th, Opua   New Zealand  South Pacific Ocean 35:18:884S  174:07.227E 

Subject: 3 days of silence...must be time for 2 blogs..the alternative  from Daryl

After our adventures with Dug Monday dawned distinctly wet and unpleasant so activities were limited to helping the captain check  the specific gravity of the domestic battery bank...no mean feat since it could power a few golf buggies and visiting the laundrette. We did all smarten ourselves up in anticipation of dinner in the yacht club only to find it doesn't reopen until tonight! Even the pizza service in the general store had shut up shop by 18.45 which gives you a clue as to how keen we all are for that little window in the weather to get us going.

Tuesday dawned brighter,not least with a very early call from Wayne of Rent A Dent to rant at the captain about these poms  using cheapskate BA Amex cards and depriving honest businessmen of a living ! We politely pointed out that his own form made provision for the use of this card ! After further discussion about the quality of his shock absorbers we were allowed to hire the divine sylphy

   complete  with shag pile seats which you can see Richard is recording for posterity! It also reeked of some hideous air freshener which even Richard could not dissipate! David's blog has more than covered our day out , but Richard and I enjoyed it so much we deserted the captain again today leaving him sunk into the depths of the weather charts and how to pick a course between the depressions before the crew tried to reenact the mutiny on the Bounty!

The Waitangi treaty ground where the 1840 treaty between the crown and the united Maori tribes was signed proved quite interesting

and we followed this with a visit to the local falls

an excellent lunch and a further bout of provisioning .In the midst of this sylphy chose to reveal to us her innermost secrets...

Yes, sylphy was blessed with a pop up sat nav screen. Unfortunately like all good ladies of the magical east she was not prepared to give up her secrets so easily,since everything was in Japanese

Still it kept Richard occupied!