Sailing life sounds rosy, but staying in a boatyard demands a lot of patience. The boat is on land so the toilets, kitchen sink, and main refrigeration on the boat have been disconnected. We use the boatyard common area for bathrooms, washing dishes, and other tasks and sleep in unorganized cabin for now.
We were aware of the high quality of boating work in New Zealand and we arrived at Port Whangarei Marine Centre (https://portwhangarei.com/) with a list of repairs and upgrades. We hired some jobs and did others by ourselves.
Unfortunately, John broke the bones in his wrist when he fell from the scaffolding; fortunately, it was his left arm. He was impressed with the medical system in New Zealand. Surgeons opened his wrist and aligned his broken bones with a titanium plate and screws, then a hard casting. He even got to pick out the color of the cast. Naturally, he went for camouflage.
Our six months visitor visa expires in five days. We won’t be able to sail, until John’s wrist is fully functional. This includes addressing on-demand boat repair issues in heavy seas, not to mention handling sails for rough conditions. We are hoping for his wrist to fully recover followed by physical therapy. Unless he gets deported!
We called Immigration and applied for the second visitor visa for both of us; John is for the Medical Treatment Visitors and mine is for the Escort of Medical Patients Visitor Visa. This takes time, though. The immigration issued John an Interim visa with conditions for his legal stay between the first visa expiration and the second visa approval. My electronic visa is still good until late July. However, we both need a long stay Visitor Visa because John’s recovery will take time, and the next Cyclone season starts in November. We are uncertain about our plan but are dealing with issues one by one… 🙁
