Fiji to New Zealand: Land Ho! Opua!

Tues Nov 04 2025 1538 UTC, 35 19.016s 174 07.178e, Log: 10240

Roam’s handsome crew at the “Q Dock” waiting for immigration, customs, and bio-security to allow us into the country.

All is well. We are presently tied up to the Q-Dock in Opua, New Zealand’s Bay of Islands Marina, awaiting clearance into the country. We enjoyed a terrific final day of sailing punctuated by whale sightings and a welcome by a pod of dolphins. We sailed into the dying breeze, seeking some favorable current. Once the wind gave out, we fired up the engines and motored the remaining few miles into the Bay of Islands.

Landfall on an unfamiliar coast is a busy and intense time.

The land breeze created thick fog through which we slowly picked our way into the harbour. I finally found a use for the “radar overlay” on the chart plotter. We worked our way to the far end of the quarantine dock, where we tied up, and I promptly fell into the water while stepping onto the dock. That’s a longer story.

It took until 4 p.m. the following day to get fully cleared and into our slip in the marina. We enjoyed long, hot showers, laundry, restaurant meals, and of course, catching up with our cruising friends that we haven’t seen in weeks and months.

We’ll be here until the weather window for our run to Auckland opens up.