Christmas Eve in Palmerston North

Well, we are thoroughly landlocked for Christmas.  We are at least an hour from the coast at our friends Penny and Spencer’s house.  We had a good visit with Jan and Tony and even managed to get our for a sail for a day on Monday.  It was an early start because of the tide and the bar.  We left the dock around 07:15 and despite the fact that Tony made us leave REALLY early to make sure we had lots of water over the bar, we still touched the bottom on the way over the bar.  That really confirmed our decision that if we end up in Wellington working we will NOT be in Mana but rather we will take the boat over to Seaview in Wellington harbour.  We talked to them last week and they were really quite nice and said that there would be no problem with availability etc.  It’s across the harbour from the city but it’s not too bad a drive.  We lived a bit further around the bay in 1997/98 in York Bay.  We left Tuesday morning and went to Porirua to get the tires checked and balanced.  The car was vibrating pretty good at between 80 and 100 km/hr.  It turned out that all the tires were a different make and one of the rear tires had a separated belt.  To top it all off, the tires were the wrong size.  So, new tires and then off to Palmerston North.  The plan is to head back to Opua on the 26^th.  The parts are all there for the motor so I can get it back together and hopefully not need many (or any) other parts.  The weather is typical for this time of year, a couple of days of sun followed by a few days of cold and rain.  Should be right by tomorrow for the traditional Christmas BBQ.