So after the delay, 2 guys arrived promptly at 9am and began the clearance process. I must say it was the smoothest, nicest clearance process we've had. We'd got out all the food stuffs we weren't sure about - but all they took was our last eggs (expected), the mung beans (expected) and the popcorn (which I expected, but still don't know why). All our wooden things and shells were fine.

About 30 minutes and we were legally in NZ. We didn't stop to set foot on dry land though, the moment they were off the boat, we dropped the lines and headed up the river to town basin. We squeezed up the inside of the walkashore pontoon (which feels impossibly tight between moored catamarans and the bank!) fortunately at high tide.

Since then, we've been catching up on some jobs. Lots of laundry to do, but we need to get a Warrant-of-Fitness before we can plug in the shorepower. This is one of those things where both New Zealand and Australia seem to love their rules. I'm not aware of anyone being killed by a faulty shorepower installation on a production boat in saltwater, but we have to spend hundreds on the inspection. Ah well. We also had to get SIM cards and sort out our connectivity, cancel the satellite service, do some shopping (lost all our fresh stuff of course), have a meal out etc.

The blog will continue whilst we're in NZ but probably more sporadic. We plan to be in Whangarei for a month or so to start on the job list...