Great Barrier

We've been at Great Barrier for about a week now. There's not much wind, so the only sailing we've done is on the passage over here. Since then we've anchored in 3 different places but with only a short motor between anchorages.

The first place we anchored was Whangaparapara Harbour, which we had never been to before but which we immediately loved. The next day we were very fortunate to have dolphins come into the harbour and spend the whole afternoon there. There were about twenty of them. At one point we rowed right past them and B jumped in the water and had 4 of them swim right under him, not two feet away. He had goggles on so would have seen them clearly. It was such a magical moment, that I actually had tears in my eyes. An hour or two later, the boys went off in the dinghy for another close encounter of the dolphin kind, and this time Pozz also managed to have them swim right up to him. I am so pleased for both of them. Again, I felt like I shouldn't do it, because I have done it before.

After 3 nights in Whangaparapara we decided the weather was so settled that it was a great chance to anchor in some more open places. We spent a night by Cliff Island, but there were too many mosquitoes, so now we are on the west of Rangihua Island, where there is a cool stony beach. Yesterday afternoon, the Cousins arrived, together with G11 and C5, so now we have 8 kids and 6 adults hanging out. It's pretty much been a party since then, although they were all pretty exhausted by the passage (motoring most of the way into lumpy seas) so everyone had an early night.

I can't believe how much time 11yo boys spend jumping in the water.

We're still reading Lord of the Rings. I've also read "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close" by Jonathan Safran Foers and "Hear the Wind Blow" by Mary someone (about the US civil war) and Bill Bryson's "The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid" and now I'm onto Marilynne Robinson's "Gilead".