Arriving Opua

Ruffy-tuffy...

The last 24 hrs (motoring) went in a blur as we cleaned house, taking particular care to eat all the prohibited consumables (fish, fresh meats, vegetables, cheese, honey, etc, etc, etc) before arrival. Or consign them to the deep.

NZ is famous for their border checks for foodstuffs and 'biosecurity' so we didn't want any glitches. Or fines. All well covered in their downloadable Yacht Pack, so we thought we had it sorted.

Land ahoy!!!

A la Oz, we'd given plenty of notice to the Border Protection people but they seemed a lot less interested than their more paranoid cousins across the Tasman - barely responding to our notification, other than an auto-reply by email.

We were actually arriving on the exact date we'd given about 6 weeks earlier - go figure - and confirmed by our shore team the day before, but  we had to make a round of radio and telephone calls as we approached, to coordinate our arrival at the customs clearance berth of Opua Marina at 0900, start-work for the CIQ officers.

I see a long white cloud...

And they didn't have our completed (and very detailed) Advance Notice and Inward Report forms, so we had to fill them all out again from scratch. An hour-long process in itself. Mumble, grumble...

First to arrive was a very polite & efficient chap from MPI (formerly MAF) who checked on the recency of our anti-foul (3 weeks), the condition of our woodwork for possible pests, and of course foodstuffs and other stores. No problem - we had that sorted, or so we thought. Having received all assurances, he began his below-decks inspection at the 'beer-fridge' immediately at the foot of the companionway, and found - yep, a stack of vacuum-packed salami and sliced cheese! Who checked that fridge!!!?

Not to worry, it all went in his de-contam bag (he was all suited up in de-contam gear as well) and on he went with his search. I think he'd seen worse in his time...

Hoist the Q-pennant!

Then came two ladies from Customs, who explained the Temporary Import formalities for the yacht (up to 1 year), interrupted by the 2-man dog team, who had us all off the boat and formally lined up on the dock for 20 mins while 2 dogs (one each for drugs & explosives, apparently) went very convincingly over the boat from top to bottom. Even up on the boom for a good sniff!

And finally a chap from Immigration who completed the passport & visa process, revealing - yes, you've guessed it - irregularities with student work visa applications from a couple of our 'continental' crew.

Phil's speech

Finally, all sorted (probably 2 hrs the lot) we were declared fit & legal, and allowed to move to a regular berth. But not before the rum came out to celebrate! It's tradition!

Oh, and for Phil to mark the occasion with an arrival speech, a sort of prize-giving, where he gave us back all our own gear! For example: coffee vacu-mugs, now carefully inscribed with various witticisms from the crossing.

Farewell Matt!

Matt C was jumping ship immediately, off on a hitchhiking adventure; John & Yann were leaving later to drive south, but all agreed to get together for a celebratory curry in Auckland the following week to properly mark the end of the voyage.

That's both the 1 year / 10,000 nm (?) voyage from Hong Kong, and the 2 week / 1,500 nm Tassie crossing from Brisbane - now there's something worth celebrating!