Tag: Museum

Best of Bundaberg

We stopped into the Bundaberg Port Marina thinking it would only be for a weekend. We had work to do, which took so long, we spent over a week in Bundaberg. The good news is we got important boat jobs done, and experienced the best of Bundaberg, Australia.

About Bundaberg

Bundaberg, or “Bundy” for short, is an industrial town of about 100,000 people. Located up the Burnett River, north of Hervey Bay, it was our stop after K’Gari. Upon arriving, we noticed a lot of smokestacks and water tanks. Famous for making rum, the land is primarily sugar cane farms, with little trains moving the supplies between.

iconic Bundaberg scenery, smokestacks and sugar train
Bundaberg smokestacks and sugar train

The downtown is surprising, though, with boarded up buildings interspersed with lovely churches and heritage architecture. It’s nowhere near as exciting as Brisbane, but we had some fun finding the best of Bundaberg.

Bundy CBD buildings
The CBD has some heritage architecture
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New Zealand’s Top Attractions

After six months exploring one of our favorite countries on earth, we have some recommendations. This is our list of New Zealand’s top attractions, so you know where to go when you visit.

New Zealand is one of the most popular tourist destinations in the world. The country has world class museums and historic sites, but there’s also a lot of hype, and you can’t do everything! Hopefully this list of what we loved helps.

Best Museums

We couldn’t talk about New Zealand’s top tourist attractions without mentioning museums. On a rainy or cold day, or the day after a long hike or bike ride, a museum is a good option. Some of New Zealand’s museums are among the best we’ve ever visited.

auckland war museum

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Auckland Favorites

We don’t normally get to spend large chunks of time in big cities on the boat, so we tried to maximize every minute in Auckland, New Zealand’s biggest city. Our conclusion: we could live there! Auckland is a vibrant cosmopolitan city with a lot to offer, from museums to excursions to food. This post details our Auckland favorites.

About Auckland

I thought it was the capital, but that’s Wellington, at the southern end of the North Island. Instead, Auckland is New Zealand’s most populated city, with nearly 1.7 million people.

Located in the north of the North Island, Auckland is on a narrow isthmus between two large harbors and is known as The City of Sails. With it’s waterfront location, Auckland is home to beautiful beaches, waterfront trails, fish markets, and scores of sailboats. It’s also based around multiple volcanos, great for hiking.

Auckland Harbor
Auckland from the water
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Living Aboard in Whangarei

We sailed from Fiji to New Zealand in early November. After checking in at Marsden Cove and completing the formalities, we moved up the river to the Whangarei Town Basin marina. Here’s what it was like spending almost two months living aboard in Whangarei.

About Whangarei

Whangarei is not pronounced how it looks. Unless you speak Maori. In that case you know that the WH is pronounced as F, so it’s pronounced Fang-Ah-Ray.

We enjoyed living aboard in Whangarei. It’s the biggest town in the Northland region of New Zealand, with all the amenities we’ve missed since Tahiti. Whangarei’s population is almost 57,000 and it is 155km north of Auckland, which is said to have almost 1.7mm people.

marina, town basin Whangarei
The marina and town basin in Whangarei

The Town Basin Marina is located on the Hatea river and is walkable to groceries, shops, restaurants and more.

The supermarket across the street is huge and overwhelmingly good. After being in Tonga, where you couldn’t get basic rice, and Fiji, with no cat food or kitty litter, we consider New Zealand the land of plenty. On our first visit to the supermarket, we were overjoyed upon seeing the varieties of lettuce, berries, and yogurt, and the glow hasn’t faded. It doesn’t hurt that we arrived in springtime.

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Five Nights in Niue

Discovering a truly special place is one of my favorite aspects of this nomadic seafaring life. We recently sailed from French Polynesia to the compact island nation of Niue, spent five nights in Niue and loved every minute of our short visit there!

About Niue

I hadn’t even heard of Niue a few months ago, and that’s not surprising. Most of its visitors and many of its residents hail from New Zealand. However small, Niue is an impressive country. It left its mark on us!

Niue, which means “Behold the Coconut,” is pronounced Nyoo-Ay.

Niue is a ruggedly beautiful country in the South Pacific Ocean. Itis defined by dramatic high cliffs, which we could see as we approached by boat. This explains why Niue is also known as the Rock of Polynesia.

Looking at Niue from the water.
Looking at Niue from the water. High rugged cliffs, caves, and no beaches

For sailors, Niue has one safe bay on the western side of the island near the town of Alofi. The bay is very deep almost right next to shore (the cliffs), so Niue’s yacht club installed moorings for boats to tie to for their stay. We were one of the first boats there after several years of Covid lockdowns, so it was exciting for us and the people of Niue!

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