Saturday 11 December Victualling & Commodores Christmas Party

Many of the cruisers who are spending the season in NZ have bought a car from Phil the Greek's car enterprise. It's a good scheme. He buys trade in models from the car dealers and sells to cruisers with a guaranteed buy back price when they leave in the autumn. Early on we made the decision we wanted to explore using Jackster. She's our best motor home to get from place to place and we can hire when we need to go further inland. Our other thought was how do you move a car and a boat with only two people? We can pull the dinghy on board, a car is a bit more difficult and the sea water would cause bad corrosion.

The Inspiration Lady's have guests coming to stay while they're here and opted to buy a Subaru estate from Phil The Greek (from Chicago) in the first week. Today David and I hitched a lift with them to go to the big supermarket in Kerikeri. We loaded up on all the heavy stuff, found a bargain on boxed wine and got supplies for our special Christmas lunch for wherever we are. Special for us is salmon steaks and prawns. I was feeling magnanimous so threw in a box of 6 mince pies for a treat for David. If we can supplement our salmon with a locally caught cray /lobster or scallops all the better.

On the way back we called in to a petrol station to fill our propane tank. I suppose because so many people have either a boat, a motor home or a gas barbecue at home there is a big demand. Unlike anywhere else we've been the fill up is at almost the same as filling your car with petrol. Pull up the same place, an attendant puts your gas bottle on the scales, selects the kgs needed to fill and whoosh it's done. We were lucky, most refill stations require each bottle to have a certificate of safety before filling. We knew this one didn't ask.

After lifting, shifting and stowing all our victuals we needed a party. The Commodores Christmas party at the yacht club. It was from 4.30pm to 6.30pm, there was a buffet and all drinks were half price. How kind to offer such a lovely welcome for their newest members.