Auckland, the City of Sails where the “waka” are flying.
All cozied up onboard O2, safely docked in Gulf Harbour Marina, we poured ourselves another glass of Pinot Noir and listened to the wind rattling our rigging, with gusts reaching 51 knots. This bout of stormy weather even halted ferry services between New Zealand’s North and South Islands for a couple of days, leaving Kiwis upset about the lousy conditions. They don’t mind and even boast about the infamous “four seasons in one day” weather pattern, as long as summertime comes out on top. And it seems that summer is indeed coming into full swing again. Now that my e-mountainbike bruises are finally fading, and that the many boat chores – installing a new mechanical throttle control for instance – are either completed or handed over to professionals, we can indulge again in leisurely strolls through the bush to the supermarket and local restaurant, watch black swans sail by, or hop on the ferry to downtown Auckland to get new polarized bifocal sunglasses —crucial equipment for our future adventures.
Gulf Harbour Marina is a bit out of the way, but being docked among the locals—and how we love the locals!—definitely comes with its perks. That’s how we suddenly found ourselves in the front lines to watch the SailGP – GP as in “Grand Prix” -event in Auckland, the second event of the season. The first took place in November 2024 in Dubai . Team New Zealand won that one.
Aboard Andrew’s & Lissa’s catamaran, we mingled with the crowd consisting of their family and friends, some of whom spoke Dutch. Lissa’s parents had emigrated from The Netherlands to New Zealand in the early 1980s and were clearly still elated with that decision—which we totally get. Out on deck, surrounded by dozens of boats flying wildly diverse interpretations of the Kiwi flag—some with the Union Jack, others with the laser-eye kiwi or the iconic silver fern, —we watched the four races unfold.
Eleven F50 catamarans, streaking above the water on their titanic foils, flashed across the bay like a frantic school of flying fish. At first, we had no idea who was leading in this “zero-emission,” “high-tech,” “high-octane” race. But thanks to simultaneous TV footage on Andrew’s boat and YouTube live streams on our fellow spectators’ smartphones, we began to piece it together. The somewhat subdued mood onboard suddenly made sense: New Zealand’s team, The Black Foils, was struggling. Until they weren’t. In the final race of Saturday’s series, they came back with a vengeance for a triumphant home run and in doing so securing the fourth place on the leaderboard behind Australia, GBR and Spain. Anything is still possible on Sunday’s final races in Auckland’s SailGP. The boats alongside the course track witnessing this final Saturday win, blew their horns to high heaven and happy cheers erupted from each and every deck, ours included. Thank you so much, Andrew and Lissa, for the invite—we had an absolute blast. We will watch Sunday’s finals on YouTube with our fingers crossed.
In a couple of days, we’ll temporarily move O2 from Gulf Harbour to Westhaven Marina, which will bring us closer to the airport. Friends will be arriving soon for a joint campervan expedition around part of the South Island, where we’ll check out all the different landscapes and mountains with our own eyes . My Captain is trying to somewhat curb my enthusiasm, but he should know by now that he is no match for the Kermit in me. And no, we are not planning to take the Interislander ferry.