We’re Sailing to Australia

sailing in New Zealand

After over six months exploring beautiful New Zealand, we’re sailing to Australia. It’s always hard to leave a place as welcoming and wonderful as New Zealand has been, but we’ll always have the memories, photos, and friendships we’ve made here. After short hops in New Zealand, the Go crew is ready for the next voyage.

rear view from our sailboat, islands, wake
We’re leaving New Zealand behind and sailing to Australia

Why We’re Sailing to Australia

We are going to Australia for a few reasons.

First, we have a few friends living there who we want to see. Friends we met our first year cruising, and friends we met in Panama. Second, all the things to see and do in Australia, including great sailing, beautiful reefs, and great wildlife. We’ll finally see kangaroos and koalas! Last, we’ve never been there. But now we’re sailing to Australia and should be there soon.

Our cat is the reason we’re going straight to Australia non-stop. Having Domino on board was easy until we got to Fiji, when it got ridiculously difficult. Ever since last July, we have to go through bureaucratic hoops to make sure Domino is allowed in country.

Domino cat on a boat
Domino loves her beanbags

We already put Domino into quarantine in New Zealand, which lasted longer than we were told. As a resident of New Zealand (after 180 days), Domino should have no problems entering Australia. Fingers crossed. We had to wait until the 14th of May for her to be official, missing some good weather windows while we waited.

Domino is the reason we are not stopping at Vanuatu or New Caledonia on the way to Australia. If we stopped anywhere, we’d have to put her into quarantine in Australia. Are we slaves to our pet? Is she cute? No answer required.

We're sailing to Australia with Domino, boat cat
Domino doesn’t like vet visits. She’s cute though

While We Were Waiting

As I said, we would have left earlier in May, before it got cold and while there was a good weather window. Instead, we waited for Domino to be certified.

Giant sand dunes,sand boarding
On top of the hill at the Giant Sand Dunes

While we were waiting, we explored more of Bay of Islands and Northland. One of the highlights was a trip to Cape Reinga, the farthest north point of New Zealand. On that drive, we stopped and boarded down the Giant Sand Dunes and had a blast!

Brian sandboarding in New Zealand

We also got to witness the Aurora Australis last weekend, more with our cameras than the naked eye. We’ve had some fun, but we’re itching to get sailing to Australia.

Aurora at BoI Marina, New Zealand
Aurora at the marina

Who’s Going

For this trip we have crew! We are sailing to Australia with a crew member, Aaron, who will help with watches and cook pancakes. More crew members means more sleep for everyone, and Aaron lived on his family’s boat and has sailed a few passages and is keen for more.

Homemade Pancakes
Aaron makes delicious pancakes

How We Prepared

As always on a boat, we have to get ready for passage. Since we’re sailing to Australia with a cat, we had to take Domino to the vet and get her a certificate to export her from New Zealand to Australia.

Other practicalities before we’re sailing to Australia included getting Go ready, making sure everything’s running properly. A few weeks before leaving, we hauled out at Bay of Islands marina. Everything looked good and we got her bottom cleaned so we can move faster in the water. After Whangarei, we were moving quite slow with all the growth, but should be good for this passage.

Go catamaran haul out we're sailing to Australia
Hauling out Go at Bay of Islands Marina

In New Zealand, if you buy fuel and check out within 24 hours, it’s duty free! Makes a big difference, so we filled up the afternoon before and Go has plenty of diesel for the passage.

Gas dock,  Bay of Islands
Getting our duty free fuel at the gas dock

We also made trips to the supermarket to supply enough food for three people for two weeks, including as much produce as will last us. I pre-made a few meals for when the weather’s rough and/or I’m not feeling up to cooking. We also have ramen and lots of snacks for easy meals.

It’s a bit of a game determining how much food to buy because we’re not allowed to bring meats, produce, or dairy into Australia. They’ll confiscate what we have, so we don’t want to buy too little or too much, and I’m used to shopping for two, not three. Fingers crossed that we’ve planned well for a safe and successful passage with a happy crew.

Where In Australia

Our plan is to sail to The Gold Coast of Australia, and then work our way north for a while. It looks beautiful and should be warmer than New Zealand. These last weeks the temperatures were only 5C overnight. Bring me back to the tropics!

How Long Will it Take?

The sail from Opua to The Gold Coast is just under 1200 directly, but we’ll likely have to take and cover more distance. The passage should take us approximately 10 days, depending on wind conditions. This will be one of our longer trips, and hopefully will be more peaceful than the sail to Niue. If we have wind on the nose or no wind, it will take longer, but we have lots of fuel so we can motor if needed.

How to Follow Our Journey

As always you can follow Go’s progress as we’re sailing to Australia. You can also click below anytime you want to know where we are.

This will be our first visit to Australia so share your suggestions and things to do in the comments! And we’ll take all your positive thoughts and good wishes for a safe and easy passage.

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Author: Mel

Living aboard a sailboat, blogging about the places we visit and the adventures we have. Love hiking, cycling, scuba, animals and adventure.

6 thoughts on “We’re Sailing to Australia”

  1. Following your adventures. Safe sailing to Australia. Always thinking of you guys. Be be well.

    1. Thank you, Fred! As always, very excited and a little nervous. We’re hoping our Starlink stays on and we can stay connected the whole way!

  2. Hope to catch up with you guys (and Domino, of course) on the Aussie east coast somewhen towards end of the year. Safe and happy sailing!
    Kobi and Pia / SY Lupina

  3. You guys are doing it for sure. You never know who will break off from the pack and end up half way across the world. Good job guys. Can’t wait to see what you find next.

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