Still No Shipment from New Zealand

Well, we still don't have our repair materials that were shipped from Whangarei around the first week in March. Somehow, the shipment of 5 boxes got split into 2 shipments, and the last box was put on a different ship than the first 4. We apparently can't do anything about clearing the shipment out of Customs until the final box arrived. Which it did on the Southern Tiare late on Wednesday night.

On Thursday, we were all abuzz with anticipation, but the guy who's name it was actually shipped to, was on a day charter and couldn't do anything to start the paperwork process until 4pm. On Friday morning, we heard from the Customs agent, that he was STILL waiting for paperwork from Don. Apparently we needed the Bills of Lading from All Marine in NZ. (It is likely that Don had received it by email previously, and not realized he needed it). By 3pm on Friday, we were still waiting for All Marine's email with the Invoices and shipping documents, and it was obvious that we'd never get the shipment cleared on Friday afternoon (Customs closes up shop at 4pm).

So we took off for the weekend. We motored out to Anchorage 27, between Old Harbor and Kenutu, to visit Ben and Lisa from s/v Waking Dream. They owned the Aquarium Cafe in Neiafu for a few years (and several other side businesses), and then they decided to sell it all and move to a small island. Their loose plan is to build a small eco-adventure-resort and hang out here. Ben is building all the structures himself, and his eyes light up when he talks about all the features it will have--both for comfort and usability, and eco-friendliness.

He is hoping to at least have a restaurant open for cruising season this year. Stop in and say hi, if you're cruising through. Anchorage 27. 18-41.34S / 173-57.56W

Finally (back to the saga of our "stuff"), we also heard from Don late Friday that one of the 5 boxes is STILL missing. One box did come on the Southern Tiare, but one of the first 4 packages is missing now. We don't know who's stuff it is. The shipping documents don't itemize whats in each box. Hopefully we won't have to wait until the last parcel is located before we can get our hands on the rest of it. The weather is really dry right now and it would be a perfect time to be fiberglassing on Soggy Paws!!