Destination New Zealand guide for visiting yachts

by New Zealand Marine on 14 Feb 2011 You can buy all the cruising guides and tourist information manuals in the world, but nothing substitutes for the experience of cruisers who have been there before you!

When Ken Machtley and Cathy Siegismund set off across the Pacific on their yacht Felicity bound for New Zealand they bought all the guide books that cruisers normally buy before visiting a country. When they arrived, however, they found many things weren't covered. The result is their sailor-specific e-book 'Destination Guide to New Zealand'.

In their introduction they say, 'This Destination Guide does not provide detailed information on what to see and do – Lonely Planet and other qualified books do that very well. What it does provide, is a quick introduction to the country for yacht crews arriving for the first time and planning to stay for four to six months during cyclone season.

'This guide has been prepared based on our own first-hand experience and is intended to provide insight on how things worked for us during our stay. Your experiences will differ from ours. The officials you meet may be different. The rules may change. Technology and services may improve or degrade – or even disappear. This guide is simply a resource that provides somewhat recent opinions based on our own experiences.'

Primarily intended as a downloadable PDF format e-book, Destination New Zealand is a highly informative guide for skippers of yachts intending to visit New Zealand.

The e-book helpfully provides clickable web links to the government departments relevant to visiting yachts such as Customs, Biosecurity and NZ Police. Other up-to-date details on berths and pilots, chartering, cruising and refit/maintenance services make this a highly useable publication. A hard copy book has also been produced.

To down-load your own e-book, simply http://www.svfelicity.com/articles/newzealand.pdf!click-here.

About Felicity and her crew:

We are Ken and Cathy from Seattle, Washington and left our home in August of 2000. We sailed down the West Coast of the US and participated in the Baja Ha Ha sponsored by Latitude 38 that fall. After cruising Mexico for five months, we sailed the traditional Coconut Milk Run through French Polynesia, Rarotonga, Niue, Tonga and finally New Zealand.

Felicity is a 1987 Tashiba 31 designed by Bob Perry and built by the Ta Shing yard in Taiwan. She is a heavy double-ender, which we have extensively outfitted for long-distance cruising.

Learn more about Felicity at www.svfelicity.com/boat.

Along our voyage, Cathy keeps a running log and we’ve taken lots of pictures. We share this with our family and friends on the Web at www.svfelicity.com and invite you to visit the site if you want more info on our travels. Our guide to cruising the Coconut Milk Run as well as future Destination Guides will be available as we continue our journey. Please let us know if you would like anything added or changed in this guide for future cruisers or you have any questions we haven’t answered. Our email addresses are ken@svfelicity.com and cathy@svfelicity.com.