NZ Land Logs 4, Year 2: Getting Ready for the NZ Land Trek
Date: Thursday, February 22, 2007
Weather in Whangarei: Mix of Sun and Clouds with Some Rain, 70 degrees F
Location: Whangarei, New Zealand

It was a good day. I hardly got to stick my head out of the main cabin of the boat, but as a result, we have most of our planning for our land travels completed and the inside of the boat is clean and ready to go sailing. Mark worked with me all day and that helped to move things right along. As we cleaned and organized inside the boat, we gathered together those things we will need for our land travels. In addition to the bed linens and towels that we need to take, today we gathered everything from the needed medical supplies, bug spray, and sun lotion to the basic cooking spices we will need. From the looks of the things we have ready for the trip, it looks like we are taking everything but the kitchen sink. It seems like we are taking a lot, but needed or not, it is ready to go. We pick up the van at 10 AM in the morning and then go grocery shopping for our trip. Most of the places where we will be staying have kitchens, so we will be cooking some evening meals, and will take things so that we won’t have to buy breakfast and lunch often.

We heard from our son Justin today. He has left New Orleans after an “interesting” Mardi Gras experience. We went to his blogsite and checked the logs he has posted to catch up on his experiences. He has posted some great pictures and we enjoyed catching up on his adventure by looking at the pictures. We also got an email from our daughter Heather today with a couple of photos of Sam attached. He has started losing his dark hair and is quickly becoming a little “baldie.” Right now he looks a little like Charlie Chaplin without the mustache—well, he’s cuter than Charlie Chaplin, but the hairline looks very similar. In a previous log, I listed Justin’s blogsite for those of you interested in checking in on his adventures. Now Sam has a website where you can go check out his latest pictures. That site is found at: http://www.picasaweb.google.com/jedgold/. We sure do miss that little guy, but being able to go to the site and see the latest photos helps just a little.

At the beginning of this log, I mentioned that the boat is ready to go sailing. The weather here is so beautiful that it really begs one to get out on the water. When we talked to the Kanegsbergs today we mentioned the possibility of cutting some of our land travels a little short so that we could spend a couple of days sailing in New Zealand waters. They seemed to think that was a good idea, so we are hoping to make a trip out to the Great Barrier Island or down to Auckland when we return from the South Island. It will feel good to get out on the water again.