Spirit of New Zealand by Fraser Braid

My Spirit Voyage

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In February I flew to Christchurch to join the Spirit of New Zealand, which was travelling back to Auckland from Bluff. 

We set sail from Lyttleton harbour and sailed all day and night to reach Kaikoura by 5am the next morning. Off the Kaikoura coast we spent a day whale watching and swimming with hundreds of dolphins.

Then we headed north and sailed into Queen Charlotte Sound, where we followed in the footsteps of James Cook visiting Ship’s Cove. We hiked to waterfalls in the dark and saw glow worms. During the day we rowed ashore to Anakiwa, walked to Mistletoe bay, then sailed the luggers back to the Spirit.

We prepared to end our journey by selecting voyagers to take over the main jobs on board. I was elected navigator, which enabled me to plot the route from Queen Charlotte Sound across Cook Strait and into Wellington Harbour. We were all very sad to leave the Spirit after such an amazing voyage.