We arrive in Opua yesterday afternoon at 4.30pm, just in time to clear customs before they finished for the day. It was a very very good passage. It is hard to believe we're the last 5 months have gone. Can't wait to go and do it all again!

We arrive in Opua yesterday afternoon at 4.30pm, just in time to clear customs before they finished for the day. It was a very very good passage. It is hard to believe we're the last 5 months have gone. Can't wait to go and do it all again!

We have North Cape 25nm to our west and with 64nm to run to Opua, we will arrive into Opua mid - late afternoon. We have had some great sailing in the last 24 hours, covering almost 180nm. Currently we have 15 knots on the beam and are doing about 9 knots.

243nm to Opua, we should arrive in Opua about mid night on Wednesday.

We had 12-20 knots of wind overnight from the SSW so we are hard on the wind bouncing our way along.

The wind is forecast to drop to 8-12 knots this afternoon and go around to the SW and then to the WSW.

All well on board.

We are over half way with 395 mn to Opua. Last night we had 15-25 knots with gusts to 30 knots from behind us, a little lumpy at times, the wind has reduced to 15-20 knots beautiful sailing conditions, apart from it being overcast with very light showers, we should past through a front early afternoon and the wind go from the north around to the west and then south west. All good aboard Malakite.

We are making good progress with 570nm to Opua, motor sailing with 8 knots of wind, the sea has level off even more, yesterday we had a beautiful day day with, clear blue sky. This morning we have 50% cloud cover with the promise of rain on Monday and Tuesday. All well on board.

We have sailed 160nm since leaving Noumea almost 23 hours ago and have another 736nm to Opua. The wind. eased this morning and we how have 15 knots from the east, the sea state has also eased making it more comfortable onboard. All well on board.

We refuelled and departed the fuel dock in Noumea at 7.30 am, bound for Opua, sailing south in 20 knots of wind on the noise, the wind is forecast to drop in the next 24 hours and slowly go around to the north.

Tomorrow Friday 20th October we leave New Caledonia, Jillian flies home at 8.00 am and Malakite departs with Glen, David and Martin on board. David crewed up to Tonga with Glen and Martin is a friend of David's. The passage back to NZ will take approximately 6 days, with a reasonable amount of wind to leave New Caledonia and calmer conditions closer to NZ. We have had an amazing adventure enjoying some of the best the South Pacific has to offer. It has been a bit sad to say goodbye to some really great people we have shared our time and adventures with, but we have made some good friends.

New Caledonia is a really beautiful place to finish our journey of the South Pacific. We have been to some truely beautiful anchorages, including the Isle de Pins where we are currently.

We left Port Vila yesterday and are now at anchor at Lifou in The Loyalties, New Caledonia. Looking forward to some yummy French bread while we are here.

Espiritu Santo has been our cruising ground for almost 3 weeks now. We have really enjoyed the things on offer to do here. We went half way up the east coast up as far as a place called Port Olry. We stopped at anchorages along the way that had difficult Reef systems to navigate through, but it all adds to the adventure. We anchored outside a resort on Malparavu island, called Oyster Bay Resort but unfortunately it was closed. There are two blue water swimming holes in the area. The most southern of these is called Forest River. It was a really pretty dingy boat ride with a stunning swimming hole at the end. The other swimming hole is called Nalaiafu River Springs. This one was not quite as inviting but still worth the trip by dingy. Glen and Kristy swam at both. Kristy enjoyed her birthday with champagne (unfortunately only Lindauer) on Champagne Beach. This beach has natural springs coming running down the beach and close to shore. You could see the fresh water mix ing with the salt water, almost like a clear stained glass window. There must be hundreds of litres of fresh water going into the sea from non stop flowing springs. Glen and Kristy had 4 dives each on the SS President Coolidge wreck in Santo. Both had dived on the Coolidge 9 years ago. This time was even better and a new record depth of 46 metres for them both. They saw 'The Lady' that had previously been too deep at 60 metres for most people to dive to. She was shifted to a depth of 45 metres after she had fallen down. They also went through the pharmacy, where lots of medicine bottles are still clearly visible. Both Glen and Kristy were just as fascinated by a dozen toilets all in a row still in tact. They also went into the ships water tank. We spent about six nights on a mooring off Aore Island Resort and went in for a few meals, the food was very good there, unlike the food at Ratua Resort on the other side of Aore Island were we spent three nights. We have two other Ra lly boats sailing with us. One from USA and the other from Australia. We have started to move south and spent last night at Malua Bay on Malakula. When we got here we had two canoes coming out to meet us before our anchor was down. There was a steady stream of locals wanting to trade fruit for things like rope (for tying up his cow), children's clothes, fishing line and stationary things. Today we have travelled another 30 mn south to South West Bay or Metenovor Bay. We are looking for a good weather window to travel the next 90nm south to Port Vila in the next week.

We have been in Espiritu Santo, Vanuatu for a week now. This is the largest island in Vanuatu. There is a direct flight into Santo from Brisbane, so there are a lot of Australian's either living here part time or running one of the many resorts around the area. We spent 4 nights on a mooring outside Aore Beach Resort and enjoyed some off their hospitality. We made a couple of trips to 'town' to the produce market where we picked up the yummiest pawpaw for the equivalent of NZ 50 cents each. Add a splash of lime juice and yummy!!! Glen found the most amazing hardware store. Everything he was looking for and more could be found there. I think we had 2 visits in one day!!! We had two days worth of cruise ships visiting while we were in the harbour. The town didn't seem too busy with cruise boat guests but the style of the town changed and became more market style offering all kinds of trinkets and souvenirs. We picked up Kristy from the airport and have started travelli ng slowly up the eastern side of Santo. Kristy has arrived to us with a rather heavy cold so diving is on the back burner for a few days. She really wants to dive the President Coolidge wreck again that her and Glen dived 9 years ago when we were here. There is a lot of good diving wrecks around Santo, so she is trying hard to get herself better sooner that later. There are a lot of wrecks on reefs around the islands above water level as well as below. The local village life around Santo is almost overshadowed by the private residences dotted around, but you still see the locals out at low tide collecting what looks like octopus or squid. They stay out for up to 2-3 hours as the tide comes in over the reef. I watched 2 ladies yesterday who stayed out for nearly 3 hours, then they left there catch in the water and retrieved it later on when they were ready to head home. All good on board. Enjoying having our daughter with us.

Good morning Vanuatu. We have had 4 nights of swells up to 3 metres to get into Luganville, which is on the island of Espiritu Santo. There has been a constant cloud cover on our passage, so didn't get to enjoy the full light from the moon, but Santo is putting on the sun for us. We just need to clear customs and immigration and then we can stop and wait for Kristy to join us on Saturday. Only 5-6 knot of wind as we approach the customs anchorage.

We have 81nm to go to the Selwyn Strait between Ambrym and Ile Pentecost and 147nm to our destination Luganville on Espiritu Santo. The wind dropped away in the night and we rolled in the code zero (large foresail) and motored. We are currently motor sailing but will unroll the code zero and hopefully be able to turn off the engine. All well on board.

We have covered 285nm since departing Fiji and have 317nm to Espiritu Santo, saw two boats last night, it looked like they were fishing, one of them was covered with lights.

Good morning, we are making good progress with Musket Cove 119nm behind us in 18 hours, 473 mn to Espiritu Santo, all well on board.

We have picked up the anchor in Musket Cove and are heading out of the reef towards Espírito Santo, Vanuatu. This is a distance of 600nm away, in a straight line!! We should be there by Tuesday. We are the only boat going straight to Santo as the rest of the rally are heading south to Anatom. Kristy is meeting us in Santo on Saturday 19th August for some much deserved rest and some good diving. This will be the longest passage for Jillian to do so hopefully all goes well. The wind is favourable and is forecast to be not to strong.

We are back on board Malakite in Musket Cove, Fiji after having a week at home. Glen had some urgent business to attend to so hence our trip to Auckland. We are in Fiji until Friday the 11th then weather pending heading to Espiritu Santo in Vanuatu. This will take us 4 days and nights. We need to re fuel malakite tomorrow and buy some greens, sausages from the infamous butcher in Denerau and tonic water to go with Jillian's gin, then we will be ready to leave for Vanuatu on Friday.

We are at Kadavu which is a large island due south of Suva. We have had Luke and Aimee fly into here from Nadi for a week and John just flew in here on Sunday for a week. We had a really good week with Luke and Aimee, although it was really windy most days and nights. The wind doesn't seem to lessen at night here like it does at home. We briefly saw one whale although there were a few around the area. A few water snakes were seen as well on the rocky bottom around a pretty beach called Valoea on the island of Ono. We were told about an island called Vurolevu, that was reported as a great place to snorkel and watch Manta Rays gather to get cleaned. So we snorkelled and saw up to 8 of these beautiful graceful creatures. We had a good time with Luke and Aimee although they wanted to see a whale for longer than they did. After dropping them at Kadavu airport we waited overnight to collect John. We had a great sail up to the island of Ono. Before we stopped into our overni ght anchorage we spent probably close to an hour or longer watching 2 whales just chilling around our boat. They were an incredible sight. Along with the whales we had a marlin beside our boat which jumped out of the water 3 times but didn't take the lure we had out the back. John and Glen have done lots of snorkling and decided to check out where the Manta Rays were so we could go back at high tide the next day, as this is the best time to see them. When we got to the pass where they are seen normally, they were there and sunning themselves in the shallows so Glen and John got in the water with them and filmed 8 rays at one time. They are just so graceful. We are heading over to the Mamanuca island group with John doing an overnighter. His first over night passage. All well on board and enjoying what Fiji has had to offer us so far.

We visited the Bavatu Yacht Club that had some damage to it from cyclone Winston. We were here two years ago and can't quiet believe how that much wind and water damage could happen when it is so tranquil now. Mother natures fury sure is something to be respected. From the yacht club we climbed the infamous 270 steps to get to the village at the top of the hill. There is a little shop in this village called 'The Sometimes Store'. This is because of its irregular hours of trade. The store was open when we were there and we signed the Visitors book, where we found our names from two years prior. From the village you can walk across the island and look back over the Bay Of Islands where we spent the last few days. Very stunning! We have decided to stay in the harbour for an extra couple of days as it is really restful calm environment. We have been doing lots of kayaking as Glen is still not back in the water yet with his knee. After Bavatu Harbour we headed to a new an chorage on the island of Susui. The village here has only recently hosted its first feast as boaties haven't been and stayed here before. So we were the second group of boaties and they sure gave us a great evening. Lots of great food including a whole pig sitting on the main table. There were clams, crayfish, creamy spinach, casaba, whole drinking coconuts and pawpaw. There was one rather interactive lady who thought her mission was to dance with every man from our rally. I think she fulfilled her dream. The Fijian people really love to have a good time. Unfortunately we didn't get to church at Susui but we could hear the singing and it was powerful. We have left this beautiful place of Susui and have done an overnight passage to the island of Vulaga.

Our first full day in Fiji it poured with rain. It was nice though topping up our water tanks with some nice fresh rain water. The village at Daliconi were very generous, putting on a great feast for us, which included lobster, crab, Kokoda, pork done two ways, potato salad, stuffed vine leaves, cassava and taro. The children put on a show all dressed up in native costume, which was fun to watch. There were some real characters putting on the show of all shows like they were never going to be forgotten by those watching. Cute and cheeky faces smiling and having a ball. Lots of laughs had by all. The next day a few of us returned to the village for church. Although the whole service was in Fijian there love of God was so evident in their singing and prayers. We were welcomed into the church by a man who spoke English and one man spoke on our behalf thanking them for allowing us to celebrate the day with them. From Daliconi we have come back to The Bay of Islands. For those that followed our travels last time the photos we took couldn't do this area justice so we are planning on cruising through and taking a video of it. It is a group of mushroom shaped small islands that you weave through and try very hard not to hit bommies (submerged coral heads). Yesterday we followed, in our dingy, the village long boats around that had some of our rally people on board. This was a guided trip around the Bay of Islands looking at caves that you could snorkel around and in. Glen now has himself a reputation for being a 'hooner'. We have been here two nights and are staying one more before heading around to Bhavatu Harbour and then on to Lomolomo, which is a village where we are going to get some fresh produce hopefully and then on to another feast, seafood this time somewhere further around the island. We have been kayaking and enjoying our surroundings. Probably half the fleet left here this morning and we will join them in a couple of days. Glen's knee is still not properly healed so he is still not swimming which is frustrating for him. I have been taking one for the team though!!

Bula from Daliconi Village in the beautiful Vanua Balavu, Fiji. It is a bit drizzly though!! We dropped the anchor at 3.30pm after two and a bit days of sailing. We had up to 25 knots of wind and 3 metre swells on our trip and are glad to just stop and be still. Where we are anchored is a reasonably large village that we visited last time we were here and they put on a really good feast for us. They are doing the same this Saturday night. This village had the best drinking coconuts in all our South Pacific travels. Looking forward to sampling some more. We need to stay on board with no socialising until the customs and immigration people have cleared us into Fiji officially. We are both looking forward to a good nights sleep.

Left Vava'u early afternoon yesterday for Vanua Balavu, Fiji we had the wind directly on the stern if we heading straight for Vanua Balavu so we took a more northerly course, changed course this morning as the wind direction changed and now heading directly for our destination about 200 mn away, all well on board.

Today has been a day of last minute provisioning for the next 3+ weeks. We have done our customs clearance this morning and are waiting to fuel up with duty free diesel. There are 32 boats all wanting fuel, and Malakite being in the middle of the alphabet have had to wait until 5.30 to do this job. The first boats starting fuelling at 9.30am so it has been a full day. We said goodbye to our guests, John and Robyn, Karl and Angela on Wednesday last week. We had a really great time with them. Glen had his birthday with everyone on board last Monday. We need to say a huge big thank you to Angela who decorated his birthday cake with a mermaid tail on top and lots of yummy chocolate shells and other chocolate sea creatures all around it. He had a really good day except getting bumped off the paddle board and scraping his knee on some coral. He has been on antibiotics for six days and three times a day washing out the wound and redressing it. You can't be to careful with c oral cuts. He is all good now, but I have suggested to him that my nursing skills are not too good so he probably shouldn't do that kind of thing again. Unfortunately Glen has been unable to get in the water with his cuts and has only had one paddle board a couple of days ago. We spent two nights in a Hunga lagoon, which is just beautiful. It is one of those places where you feel sheltered and removed from the rest of the world. The weather has been very kind to us. Not too hot but a good amount of wind for sailing around exploring lots of places here in Vavau. We are leaving Tonga tomorrow afternoon heading to Fiji. We should be there by Thursday morning. The weather looks good for our passage with the wind behind us and about 18-22 knots. Should be a good trip. We are clearing into Vanua Balavu which is the northern island in the Lau group. This group is eastern Fiji where we cleared into two years ago and is stunning. We have more time here than we had two years ago and will be able to explore the southern part of this group of islands, which we didn't get to do last time. We are really looking forward to this part of our trip. We are both well and relaxed.

At Anchor at Nuapapu Island looking out to Alinonga Island, see Photo.

We had a great sail most of the way from Pangai, in the Ha'apai's , to Neiafu in Vava'u. We motored the last hour and a half as the wind died. Picked up a mooring in Neiafu Harbour at 7.00pm and went ashore to have dinner with Robyn and John.

On Thursday morning it poured down, had to bail the water out of the dingy a couple of times, must of had at least 300mm of rain. As the rain eased we when to the market for some fresh produce and did our internal clearance into Vava'u and picked up Robyn and John. Then we headed out to Port Maurelle went swimming and kayaking. Friday we pumped up the paddle board walked the beach, swam some more, went paddle boarding and went to swallows Cave for a snorkel returning to the boat for lunch, then moved to Tapana Island. Has been very hot on board, up to 35 degrees. All well on board.

We arrived at Pangai early yesterday morning, cleared customs just before midday and then picked up Jillian and Angela off the wharf in Pangai Harbour, we then did our local clearance out of Pangai as we are sailing up to Vava'u this morning, to pick up Robyn (my sister) and her husband John. Dropped David ashore before daylight so he can catch his flight to Nuku'alofa, which was brought forward by 3 hours (luckily he checked yesterday) and then home to Auckland. Thank you David for your help sailing Malakite to Tonga, I enjoyed having you aboard. The 5 of us had a good night on board last night.

Position corrected, lasted report showed yesterday's position.

Caught another Mahimahi yesterday, this time on a lure made from a tooth paste tube, it shows you don't need to spend money on fancy lures. Having a great sail this morning, some of the best sailing conditions we have had on this passage. Have just changed course to avoid an area of volcanic activity shown on one of the cruising glides we have. When the underwater eruptions occur they can create islands of ash that are then washed away. Looking forward to arriving in Pangai which is now 117 mn away, Jillian is flying to Pangai today with Angela the wife of one of the crew members aboard, but is staying in a resort ashore tonight. We should clear customs tomorrow morning.

Shortly after leaving South Minerva Reef we had a double strike of yellow fin tuna, we managed to land one but lost the larger one at the boat. Had an uneventful night no boats showing on the AIS or Radar and no lights spotted, motoring in 6-8 knots of wind from behind. Sailing slowly this morning to time our arrival into Pangai in daylight on Tuesday morning. Have put a load of washing on this morning.

All good aboard Malakite

Had a great couple of days at South Minerva Reef, snorkelling, there were plenty of clams to see, saw a couple of rays, walked to the outside of the reef this morning found a crayfish in a rock pool, had drink on another catamaran Felix last night and a Mahimahi red curry for dinner last night cooked by David. Bacon and eggs for breakfast cooked by the skipper. Have just departed South Minerva for Pangai, Tonga, should arrive late Monday afternoon or Tuesday morning. Skipper and crew all happy.

Anchored in South Minerva Reef. Air temp 27.4 degrees C, Water temp 26.2 degrees C. Can't wait to explore the reef.

Another beautiful morning aboard, we addded to yesterday's catch of 2 Mahimahi with a very large skip jack tuna and a wahoo. Had Mahimahi for dinner last night cooked by Karl. We have 16nm miles to go to South Minerva will spent a day or two there and a night in North Minerva. The Minerva mermaids had better watch Out!

Double strike of Mahimahi this morning, lost one at the boat, third crew member slept through it all. 142nm to South Minerva Reef, just turned off the motor, sailing in 6-8 knots of wind, South Minerva tomorrow morning. Looks like the cloud will burn off again and be another great day.

Still motoring, we have had 0-5 knots of Wind over the decks for most of the last 24 hours and the forecast is saying it will continue to be light until we get to South Minerva on Thursday morning, beautiful sunset last night, 75 % cloud cover this morning. All well on board.

Motored last night, 10-12 knots for wind from behind, 450 nm to South Minerva Reef, hope to be into South Minerva Thursday morning.

All having showers today. All good on good on board, just need more wind.

Had a great nights sailing, wind has eased this morning, may have to start a motor soon. Two skip jack tuna yesterday. 607nm to South Minerva Reef.

Departed Opua this morning for Tonga, hopefully the weather will allow us to stop at South and North Minerva reefs. Glen, David and Karl onboard. The winds are forecast to be light so a lot of motor sailing.

Departure has been delayed again, now hoping for a Friday or Saturday departure.

Beautiful day in the Bay of Islands, heading out into the bay for a few days.

We have just been told if the weather forecast doesn't change overnight we will depart for Tonga tomorrow, cannot wait to finally depart for the warmer weather.

After being in Opua for 2 weeks, we are still waiting for a weather window to leave for Tonga, it currently looks like we will get away towards the end of next week, about the 18th May. We need to wait for Cyclone Ella to pass through or break up.