We’re enjoying 18 degrees instead of 33 degrees, sleeping with a blanket and duvet, instead of lying in a puddle of sweat. I’m wearing jumpers and long trousers, not shorts and teeshirts, and waking up to the song of tui, not hornbills and Macaque monkeys.

We’re back in Auckland until January, and it was so good hugging two of our kids and seeing family. The boat is all packed down in Rebak Marina, Langkawi, and we’ve engaged a woman to look after the boat, to run the engine, to clean the inside and outside, and flush the watermaker.

Now, to get the house on the market! We’re whipping the garden into shape, and there’s lots of waterblasting to be done after a wet winter, but the house should be listed by next week.

I’m enjoying this next part of this journey and appreciating what a great country Aotearoa is. I’m so relieved that there are no piles of rubbish and endless plastic bags and bottles in the sea. I see that Countdown supermarket has put paper bags instead of plastic in the fruit and vege department👍 But the sinkhole down the road has meant that there is sewage running into the Waitemata Harbour🙄. I wonder what the e-coli count at the beach in Langkawi is?

I’m going to park this blog for two or three months. Thanks for reading. I wonder if we’ll be able to travel up the Red Sea with the terrible situation in Israel and Gaza? Who knows what will happen with our next passages? It’s all part of the adventures, and we’ll make it up as we go along. Ka kite for now.