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# Visiting New Zealand (or Not)
- URL: https://icefrontiers.com/visiting-new-zealand-or-not/
- Published: 2026-02-01T13:08:39.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-08T00:52:21.000Z
- Description: I’ve been in New Zealand for a week. Most of it has been spent in a hotel room, focused on surveys, registration, and the narrow timeline required to leave on time.
- Author: Jean Peccoud
- Tags: Logbook

I have been here for a week.

It’s Saturday. It’s the weekend. And I have been working in my hotel room all day.

People keep asking me: *Have you seen this or that? You should really take the time. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.*

The beautiful beaches, waterfalls, and lush forests are not the opportunity I came here to seek. Margaritas on the wharf aren’t either.

I came here to take a boat to Alaska this summer. Alaska. A transpacific passage. These are the opportunities that brought me to New Zealand.

This week has been incredibly intense: a long-haul flight, hundreds of kilometers driven on the left side of the road, and meeting *Rosemary* for the first time—making the effort to understand her. Sea trials. Rigging and sail surveys. Preparing for the main survey scheduled for Monday and Tuesday.

At the same time, I am trying to find my place in the local community, to earn the trust of the people who may help me after the purchase. I am anticipating choke points, roadblocks, and last-minute surprises that could delay our departure. My attention is fully consumed by this.

Today, most of my Saturday was spent navigating the maze of boat registration. I worked with a previous owner to reconstruct five years of ownership records. Then I learned that the UK registry would require a certificate of tonnage issued by an MCA-accredited surveyor. I found one, arranged for him to travel from Auckland to Opua, and scheduled the measurements before I leave on the 14th.

Then came the next realization: to obtain a call sign, I will need a radio license I don’t yet have. After exploring options in New Zealand and the U.S., it became clear that the simplest path is to go to the UK. So I booked a week of training there—VHF communications, sea survival, and diesel maintenance.

It’s now 3:30 p.m. I’ve decided to set nautical problems aside for the day. Time to write this logbook entry, do a bit of work on Ice Frontiers’ visibility with Google, and let the mind slow down before dinner.

This trip does not feel like a vacation. It feels like a business trip where work doesn’t stop until you’re back on the plane home.

Every step of this project is more complicated than I expected. The risk of missing the 2026 window to cross the Pacific—between the southern and northern hurricane seasons—is real. To cast off on time, I need a precise sequence of events between February and April, all happening without significant delay.

For now, a morning ritual at the local coffee shop, a long walk along the beach, and the occasional grocery run are about all I can manage. The lush forests, spectacular beaches, and cute waterfalls will have to wait until I have my ducks in a row.

For now, the sunburn I picked up during the sea trial is my reminder that I am in a special place—one I hope to have time to enjoy later, during this trip or when I return to prepare Rosemary.