Mānawatia a matariki e koutou. To finish off the year we went climbing to the very tip of the formast and took our little luggers for a sail. In the afternoon we headed ashore to Smokehouse Bay for a camp fire and dinner. After dinner we took a moment around the fire to remember the people that have passed on and who will be missed. This morning we set sail at 0530 and were greeted by Matariki high in the North Eastern sky.

Yesterday morning we woke to some spectacular lightning, up near a local maunga (Mountain) called Hirakimatā (The name of which refers to a place where lightning strikes obsidian). Later that morning the weather cleared for us and the team headed ashore for a hikoi (walk) up to a hut on Hirakimatā. Once everyone was back from the hikoi the rope swing got another hammering. This bunch seem to be immune to the cold.

The team had another big day of sailing yesterday. We loosed all the sails in the calm waters of the Coromandel Harbour then set off North through the notorious Colville Channel and in to Port Fitzroy. On the way we played a few games all whilst getting used to our sealegs. Once we arrived we got out the rope swing and gave that a thrashing with lots of back flips, belly flops and laughs.

Day 2 is done and our rangatahi are doing amazing. After cleanup we set to learning how to speak sailor and how to climb the mast safely. From there we put it into practice and everyone got to see our magnificent Spirit under sail. We sailed east through the Tamaki Straight and across the Firth of Thames to Coromandel Harbour. We saw dolphins that was cool!

Voyage 947 is under way! After getting all our stores and food aboard, meeting all the new faces we set off choosing Hitapa Bay for our 1st night. Our rangatahi are doing a great job at settling in making friends and learning how to keep themselves safe while living on Spirit of NZ. They had their first morning swim at 06:30 this morning and everyone is ripping into cleanup before getting into today's adventures.