A last crossing ride takes us from the west coast to the east coast of the Northland. Seeing Opua roads gives us a burst of emotion. We accomplished the whole tour of New Zealand, from the very North to the very South, back and forth, only with fair means, in nine months total! 

From this second, we change the modal of our daily activities from riding to looking for a ride on a sailboat to Caledonia. We are mid-March, meaning early in season, which is said to be open from mid-April till end of June for going north. Better early than late, anyway. And we quickly notice some sparse boat that goes already. 

Our motivation for going as soon as possible are our friends Adrien and Marilyne who bought a sailboat in Caledonia and invited us for three months on board to go around pristine Vanuatu archipelago. They are now about to end their job and should depart mid or end of April, after having done some work on the boat to make it ready. 

But as we refused to take any motorized mean, we must assume and wait for the first opportunity. We find a private garden where to put our tent and swap the medium term hospitality for deforesting the area with the Maori owner. Of course we quickly contact the local pilots community and find in Wolfgang, a German local pilot, a passionate and generous man with who we share a lot. He’s so into it, very much a grown-up kid as soon as the wind seems to blow in the right direction, and it’s a pleasure to share that! 

- Hey Oli, what a shame for my clients, it seems we’ll brake the local record of 6 days flying in a row, today! I really cant’ go working today…

- Wolfgang, are you sure you have a job? I thought a job means you must do something else than flying, right?

- Well, young man, are you sure you have any right of talking about that subject? How long have you been on the road yourself?

We must also name here Ricco, an Italian navigator who settle in Bay of island, Russell, in a house over the cliff we fly. The day after we met for ten minutes, he invites me… for flying in his motorglider! It’s the first time I get into such a machine. For an hour we play with the thermals and clouds of the northland’s sky. When we are too low, a simple button makes the engine pushing us back up for another tour! 

After some weeks in the area and lots of flying in front of his house, he’s really up for getting an Ultralite, as well as Wolfgang! 

Really, these new friends in Bay of islands have a super good energy in a super nice area.