We are now officially Cantabrians. We have moved to Christchurch. Its been a whirlwind of activity for us since we accepted the offer from Roger and Colette to buy Southern Star.
We spent over three hours with Roger and his mate who drove up to Marsden Cove from Te Puke (near Tauranga- about 5 hours south). Roger is a dairy farmer and the farmers have had a good year.
I was unsure of Roger’s interest level. He had agreed to buy a similar sized trawler, a Selene, over a year ago. But the purchase fell over due to some structural issues that a surveyor found. So we knew he was interested in trawlers, but there is a big difference between a Nordhavn and a Selene, both in terms of build and in price.
After Roger left, our broker, Chris Nel at 36 degrees, contacted us and said that he was expecting an offer. This was on a Friday. And so we spent the weekend checking emails, and wondering if the offer was going to be realistic or a low ball offer.
Nothing happened until Monday evening. Chris sent us a written offer from Roger, which was a fair offer. So rather than play games, we accepted it and signed it. It was subject only to Sea trial and Surveys.
We spent the next few weeks, cleaning and polishing the boat (even more), and doing any maintenance items that we could come up with. We had promised to house and dog sit for Lisa and Kerry in Herne Bay, first few weeks in October, before the boat offer had come in.
Plus we had agreed to fly down to Queenstown to pick up a car for Gordon and drive it back to Auckland. So our dance card was filling pretty quickly, without the sales process. But I’ve always said, If you need something done, give it to a busy man (or woman).”
So we left Southern Star, ready to be sea trialed, and headed back to Auckland, to catch a flight to Queenstown 6 October. We landed in Queenstown, took the bus to Arrowtown to Gordons place, and took off in his Mitsubishi Outlander on 7 Oct, stopping in Christchurch to see Jenny’s mum, and to look at a few properties in Christchurch. We decided that if the boat sale went as it should, we would likely make an offer on a house in Parklands, near Waimairi Beach. The next day we continued our road trip back up toward Auckland- taking the ferry across the Cook Straight (a very beautiful trip, but in this case a bit lumpy) and ended back in Auckland on Friday the 11th October – coincidentally, Jenny’s Birthday.
We spend a day in Herne Bay, before returning to Marsden Cove for final preparations for the haulout, Sea Trial and Survey over Wednesday, Thursday and Friday 15-17 October. The boat looked great and all systems ran as expected. We watched the weather, hoping it would improve dramatically for the haul and sea trials. And it did.
There were lots of nerves, no one more concerned than Chris our broker, as the surveyor that Roger was using was the same one who failed the Selene’s survey. But luck was with us. The weather was great on the day of the sea trial. After several hours on board, the surveyor told Roger and Colette that the boat was in great shape, saying ïf a cement truck and Southern Star had a collision, the truck would come out worse off.”
With a few items to attend from the survey, all parties left us. I contacted the marine engineering firm to set up and appointment for the work, and a fire suppression company to come out to install a NZ approved fire suppression system.
We headed back down to Auckland to resume our house and dog sitting duties. Jenny had previously arranged to fly back down to Christchurch to see her mum, before we took Gordon’s car for the road trip, so I dropped her off at the airport on Wed 22 Oct.
Jenny attended several more open homes, and found one that she liked a lot. It is a 3 bedroom townhouse- app 145 sq meters (1450 sq feet for you Americans) located close to downtown Christchurch (15 min walk) yet on a quiet tree lined street, Bishop Street.
She called me that night and was pretty excited about the house. I looked at the listing photos, and a few more that she took. The day that she was to fly back, she went back with her ex sister in law, Jill, to see the townhouse again. Jill’s input was very positive: “I can totally see you guys here”.
The property was scheduled to go to auction 6 Nov. We were interested, but refused to take part in the auction, as we had not done any due diligence (building survey, LIM report or legal searches). We told the agent that if the property did not sell we would make an offer subject to due diligence and my inspection. We planned to come back to see the property after the boat sale was finalized 13 November. And after we loaded a trailer with our stuff and drove down to Christchurch- arriving around 22 November.
We watched the auction on line. There were a number of auctions that day, and the first one was for a large family home in Avonhead. And the auction was crazy. 4-5 bidders, upping the bids, and the property sold well above the government CV (Current Value- for property taxes).
So we were pretty nervous. We have been watching Christchurch real estate for almost two years, and the market has been pretty suppressed. Very seldom do properties we like sell at auction. And so we figured, just our luck- a heated market right when we are able to buy.
Luckily our type of property, city townhouse- small yard, basically a non family home is still not very popular at this time, and there is an oversupply of average quality builds. But this one we felt was a cut above others we had seen, and the auctioneer also noted this We watch the auction for 55B Bishop Street, and were relieved when the only bid was from an investor, and it was well below CV.
The auction was paused and the bidder and the agent met off screen. We could only sit there and wonder if the deal would be made, outside of our influence. Jenny had a good rapport with the real estate agent, and we texted her during the negotiations, and said we would pay well north of the last bid, after we can inspect it.
We both realized that the sellers would not find much comfort in this if we are not planning to inspect the property until the end of the month. We jumped online and found some cheapish air fares on Jet Star to Christchurch for the next day, Friday, returning to Auckland on Saturday. And we texted the agent this, and agreed to meet at the townhouse on Friday (the next day).
The next day we drove to the airport, and were in Christchurch just after noon. We stopped by Jenny’s mum’s house, grabbed our car and went over to Bishop Street. And I guess you could say, I sort of fell in love with it. It was a comfortable size- two levels- kitchen and living room on ground floor- nicely appointed. With a huge three stacker glass door opening onto a nice sunny patio garden with an impressive fixed wooden bench.
Upstairs the three bedrooms are a nice size, the master easily fitting a king bed. Master ensuite high quality finish, fully tiled, double vanity. Guest room nice size- with a large family bathroom- also fully tiled and luxurious feeling. The third bedroom- was set up as an office- which we too would do, with a sofa bed for overflow guests.
There is a unique small sitting room at the top of the stairs, which we envision with a comfy chair, surrounded by our books and memorabilia; a place to chill.
The next day we made an offer- bettering the investors offer of $825 by $25k. We wanted to make a significant bump to push him out and to show our sincerity. Subject now to due diligence (and just in case the boat did not finalize) finance. Our offer was accepted after we left the agents office with a $2k bump- which I countered with- leave the fridge. And so we have a deal.
We flew back to Auckland that evening- and drove straight back to Marsden Cove- to ready ourselves for our settlement, and our agreed handover to Roger and Colette.
We rented the AirBnB previously used for our haulouts so that we could finish moving all of our personal items off of the boat, and let Roger and Colette have full access. We thought they might stay aboard, but it turns out they stayed in an AirBnB as well.
We had prepared an outline of what we thought should be included in the handover, we also prepared user guides for many of the systems, so that they could have a reference later on to remind them of how to do something.
For three days, we met at the boat and went over systems, and operations, and how to start and run this and that. Exchanging 9 years of information to someone in three days is quite daunting. But we were pretty organized, and my work at Garmin writing user guides helped me to illustrate some of the more complicated things, including connecting Starlink to devices, and to the boats N2K network, so that boat information can be shared across the boat and other devices, such as phones, and tablets.
I set up the security system, so that they can log in and see the cameras. We exchanged all of the documents, manuals, etc, that I had downloaded and referred to over the years on Drop box.
It was very tiring, and a bit stressful. But the real stress, came about the day we left the dock, for Roger to learn to maneuver the boat. We left the slip, I drove, and turned over to Roger once we were in the channel. We showed them how everything turned on, and how to operate it, and where to find it in the user guides.
We anchored and set out the flopper stoppers, we showed Roger how to run the crane.
We upped the anchor, and headed back to the marina. Roger at the helm. The winds had kicked up by late afternoon, and were gusting 25 knots.
Roger did well, learning to steer with the FU lever (follow up lever) which allows you to steer without using the wheel- it is much more responsive and better for close quarter maneuvering.
As we made our way into the slip, I asked Roger if he wanted me to take it? No, he wanted to do it. Bow in but with a 25 knot wind on the beam- blowing us away from the dock.
I watched from the Flybridge, Roger had the con with the headset on, and Jenny had the head set on and was running the deck- putting out fenders and lines, and showing Colette what she was doing.
Well Roger was a champ. He guided Southern Star into the slip, and fell in love with her thrusters- both bow and stern allow you to spin in her length and control here even with a broad side wind. We docked, with no issues-and no damage, and no yelling.
We had dinner with the new owners, that night.
The next day, Roger’s crew showed up for training and to ready Southern Star for her trip to Tauranga, her new home. Rogers crew are well seasoned, both working with Roger at Coast Guard in Tauranga, where they all volunteer ás Coast Guard crew. (I didn’t mention this- Roger is very well experienced with his work with CG).
We went out that afternoon with crew. Colette was left behind to drive the car back to Tauranga. Roger and his crew did super well again, running the boat. We departed the marina, in much nicer conditions that afternoon. We ran out to the anchorage again, dropped anchor and deployed flopper stoppers.
Upped anchor and headed back to the slip, where Roger easily docked her after first reversing in to practice for Southern Star’s new berth in Tauranga, and set her up for shore power (some changes need to be made to the inverter due to the shore power in NZ being 240V 50 Hz).
We left Roger with his crew after a drink, and agreed to see them off the next morning for their departure for Tauranga- 150 miles. They planned to make an overnight stop at the Mercury Islands, and time their arrival into Tauranga for a slack tide, owing to the strong tidal flow in the marina.
We spent our last night at Marsden Cove and woke early to see Southern Star off.
When we got to the boat at 7am, the engine was running, shore power cable stored and only a few dock lines remained tied to the dock. We went onboard to see if everything was fine, and Roger was smiles and confident- all systems go.
We stepped back on the dock and threw them the dock lines, as we watched Southern Star, glistening in the morning sunlight, as she turned toward the channel.
Tears welled up in my eyes, as I saw Southern Star from the dock, rather than from the flybridge. Jenny was crying too. Mixed feelings flooded me. Sadness in watching a good friend moving away, and leaving me behind. A bit of relief, and the deal has finally concluded, after three long and intensive days of handover, and joy at seeing our bank account with more money than we had ever seen before.
We walked back to the car and headed back to Auckland, where we have a trailer booked and a ferry crossing reservation, and a few motel stops along the way to our new home in Christchurch.
We were lucky to have found a short term rental through a friend of Jenny’s mum, where we are staying until we take possession of our new home on Bishop Street.
In the meantime, we are shopping for all the worldly goods you need to live here on Terra Firma, except for a refrigerator- which is part of the house deal.
Move in date is 12 December- two weeks tomorrow as I write this final entry in Southern Star’s blog. Roger and Colette are not picking up the blog, but they are wonderful new owners who we know will take great care of their boat, and we know Southern Star will take good care of them.
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