On Tour

We are in a town called Turangi, at the south end of lake Taupo. We left Opua yesterday morning in our friend Hector's car and drove through Auckland to Cambridge where we stayed at Betty's place, a friend of Brenda. She is a delightful lady who is the most traveled person whom I have ever met and is still rear'in to go for more. We left Betty's this morning at 9 AM and did a tour of the thermal areas from Rotorua to Turangi. This area is amazing with steam coming out of the earth in parks, back yards, and even gutters beside the road. We saw steam coming from rock crevices, through hot water, and through mud. Just today they had an earthquake of 5.8 on the Richter scale 20 km below this town.

I have established contact with Bob and Ann, relations of my neighbours, and we hope to see them tomorrow afternoon in Wellington. We will then spend the night in Wellington and see Bob and Ann once again before we start trek back to Opua. We hope to spend Thursday night at Hector's home in Whangarei, though Hector won't be home at that time. We expect to be back in Opua on Friday morning.

While we are away Bruce will be installing our new electrical system which will mean making a real mess of the boat so it is just as well that we are away. By the time we get back we hope to have received the replacement Rutland wind charger from UK and the four new cooling system diaphragms from Noway.

Once we think that the boat is ready we will do a very short sea trial by motoring into the Bay of Islands and spending the night at anchor. The idea is to exercise the engine and the battery system as much as possible and then return to the marina for a final checkout. Once that is done we will plan our departure.

Attached are photos of Brenda at two thermal sites and two photos of the most interesting public toilet that I have ever seen, in Kawakawa. (Boys on left, girls on right.)