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New Caledonia Passage Preparations

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It is with a heavy heart that we depart New Zealand.  We have loved visiting this beautiful country over the last four years.  The NZ government has allowed us to stay roughly 24 months but it is time for us to head west.  So we begin the passage preparations.

Passage Preparations

It has been an unusually cold autumn in NZ with temperatures dipping to the low 40’s.  Matt and I have not dared to get in the water as it is just too darn cold!

How does this relate to our passage preparations?  It is best to have a clean bottom at all times but especially when you are preparing for a passage.

We have not cleaned the bottom in almost two months due to the cold weather.  So, it was time to do a “haul and hang.”

We head 10 miles down river to Marsden Cove Marina.  They have lovely facilities to haul catamarans.  The haul out slip is also the fuel dock so we took advantage of that and filled our tanks.

The slipway staff expertly situated the travel trailer under our boat and around our scuppers.  The haul out went smoothly as they drove us to the wash bay.

The yard had two men pressure washing simultaneously.  She was cleaned up in no time!

We did not have a lot of growth, but we did have some barnacles and soft growth that easily came off. This is what grows on your bottom when you sit in a marina for 6 weeks.

Our friends on “Midnight” captured us traveling up river (thank you Michelle!)

Provisioning

We have to be careful when provisioning as there are a lot of foods that are not allowed to be brought in to New Caledonia.  Prohibited items include: all pork products, eggs, fresh produce, vegetables, grains, rice, seeds, nuts, honey, certain sea shells, wood products, feathers.  Chicken and beef have to be labeled from AU or NZ with expiry dates and original packaging.

We loaded up on staples and junk food.  We allow ourselves to eat badly during passages as sort of a “reward.”

Prepared Meals

Matt was busy preparing, cooking, and freezing loads of passage meals while I was in the states.  This allows us to just warm the meals up in the pressure cooker if the sea conditions are poor.

Each cube can easily feed 2 people.

Donations

I gather more prescription glasses and sunglasses for donations to the smaller islands.  The local New Zealand Rotary club provided 300 prescription glasses and 50 sunglasses. 

We separated the glasses by prescription and then sorted a variety of prescriptions into 8 packs.  This will allow each recipient to have a variety of prescriptions, colors, and glasses.

Paperwork

There is always a lot of paperwork to complete prior to a passage.  You have to do paperwork to clear out of the country you are currently in and a lot of paperwork to clear into the country you are headed to.

New Zealand Departure Paperwork

Each vessel has to schedule an appointment with customs to clear out of the country.  When you schedule the appointment you have to include the following documents:

  • Completed C2B Advanced Notice of Departure Form
  • C3B Advanced Certificate of Clearance
  • C4B Completed form with Customs ID and T.I.E. number
  • Boat Registration
  • Copies of bio page for each crew member
  • Photo of vessel

In addition, each vessel has to complete the online declaration form with Maritime NZ and schedule a spot on the quarantine dock at the port of departure marina.

New Caledonia Arrival Paperwork

New Caledonia is relatively easy compared to New Zealand, Australia, and Fiji. They do not require advanced notice, but you do have to let the officials and the marina know when you are coming.

We completed the following

  • Customs Arrival Clearance Form
  • Biosecurity Form
  • Health Certificates
  • Crew Letter

Of course, all the documents have to be updated if you change the port of departure, port of arrival, date of departure and arrival, and crew.

Normally, we would not have many, if any, changes. 

However, this particular trip we have tried to add (2) different crew to go on this passage.  And both crew were unable to come.  More on this to come….

Saying Goodbye

Saying goodbye to our New Zealand Family was so incredibly difficult!

Top Row: Matt, me and Rob (RH Precision) then Kara, Matt, me, Sharron, Gareth, and Jason

Second Row: Geoff and Sue (Whangarei Marine), me, Rob (Tavake) and Matt, and Sandra and Andreas on Pico.

Bottom Row: Kathy, me, Kara, Sandra and Matt, Sharron, and I.

Our blog posts run 6 weeks behind actual live events.  

As we waited for a weather window which never seemed to come, we did passage preparation from Mid-May to early June!

New Zealand Welcomes Sugar Shack

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As luck would have it, we arrive at Marsden Cove, New Zealand around 3:00am.  Not a good time to navigate new waters in the dark of night (not even a full moon out).  Tricky, do we attempt to go in without tracks or knowledge of the area or do we motor in circles until daybreak?

As we are contemplating our options, another boat called Only Time pops up and look like they are heading to the same place as us.  Sweet.  We call them on the radio and ask if we could follow them in.  Not ideal, but certainly better than circling around for hours!

Marsden Cove has a beautiful statue of waves lit up at night.

Once tied up to the “Q” dock or Quarantine Dock we grab a few hours of sleep before the officials come aboard.

The next day, we are greeted with customs, immigration, maritime/border control and bio security.  The first three went super well as we had all the documents completed and prepared ahead of time.  I was sorely disappointed that they did not ask to see proof of a clean bottom!  Especially since I spent over 4 hours cleaning it before we left.  Ugh!

The last person to come onboard is bio security.  NZ is very, very strict about what you can and cannot bring into the country.  You have to declare everything and they have the right to take anything that is on the list.  For example:

Prohibited Items

  • Fresh fruit, produce, vegetables
  • Eggs, dairy, milk, cheese, creams
  • Meats of any kind
  • Passage meals.  Yep, all the meals that we made for the passage that we not consumed, got tossed in the trash.  Over 8 meals!
  • Honey
  • Nuts, seeds, rice, popcorn, bay leaves
  • Sea Shells, wood products, feathers (yes, I have them all onboard)

So, after we filled two trash bags full of prohibited items he left.  Our fridge and freezers are now empty…good thing we are in a place where we can replenish them.

We are now officially allowed to cruise the New Zealand waters!  Success!  

After we are cleared into the country, we have to get off the Q dock and we can take down our yellow Q flag and put up the NZ flag.

Town Basin Marina

We untie from the dock and make the 2 hour motor from Marsden Cove Marina to Town Basin Marina which is up the river.  As we motor along, we are greeted by beautiful green hillsides and lovely homes.  

On the way to Town Basin Marina, we have to cross under the Te Matau a Pohe (Fish Hook) bridge.  So, we hail the bridge operator and ask him to stop traffic, raise the bridge, and allow us through.  Pretty cool experience.

We tie up to the visitor dock as our regular spot is not available yet (we arrived 4 days earlier than planned).  But we are tied to a dock and near shore!  Super excited! Sugar Shack is right in front of the marina office with the red roof (with fenders out).

This marina has several side tie slips and then slips on poles where you tie to a pole in front and behind you.  We opted for the side tie slip which is more convenient, but more expensive.

We make a quick run to the grocery store, “Pak and Save” where we find Stubbs BBQ and Vegimite!  There is a nice cafe right on the dock where we stopped for lunch (see Sugar Shack in the background).  Can you tell we are very much enjoying New Zealand so far.

Stay tuned for next week when I show you all the cool things to do in Town Basin, Whangarei!

The events from this blog occurred in early November 2022.  Our blog posts run 6-8 weeks behind actual events.  Did you read about our passage from Fiji to New Zealand in our last blog post?