Whangarei's like home away from home for Alaskan boaties | Northland News | Local News in Northland

Whangarei is a hard place to leave, say an Alaskan couple part-way through a marine circumnavigation of the world.

Mike and Debbie Spence are a pair of empty-nest boaties who have been sailing around the world on their cruising yacht, Deva, for five years.

Returning to their island home of Ketchikan in southern Alaska for northern hemisphere summers, the couple have spent the past five southern hemisphere summers sailing from the Caribbean, through the Panama Canal and across the South Pacific to New Zealand.

They plan to continue on to Australia, Thailand and beyond but are finding Whangarei a hard place to leave.

"We could reside here quite easily," Mrs Spence said, "and we've been in a lot of places, but New Zealand is a place where we've found ourselves to be quite comfortable."

The Spences love being moored in Whangarei's Town Basin and they avail themselves of the town's many facilities. They regularly walk across to the Aquatic Centre for a swim or into the town centre for shopping or movies, and cycle at least three times a week.

"We just love it here, we can walk everywhere we need to be and go, it's just super convenient. Whangarei, it's very easy to get settled in here and not go anywhere."

The couple first moored in Whangarei last summer and were anxious to return to the same dock this summer because of all the friends they made.

"We've all become family and we stay in touch when we're gone, and when we came back it was like coming home again," Mrs Spence said.

The Spences are waiting for the cyclone season to pass before sailing on to Australia and are using the time in Whangarei to make necessary repairs to their boat.

Living on a yacht was like camping, except you couldn't leave the camp, Mrs Spence said.

"It's just the two of us so it's not too bad, but right now with all this work being done it's like living in a shop because he's got paint out everywhere and tools out everywhere."

Being able to walk into town and get her nails done was an advantage not available at most marinas, she said. "One of the reasons we based ourselves in Whangarei is that there's so many things here for us."

The couple were impressed by the improvements in the Town Basin area since last summer.

"I think Whangarei is pretty progressive ... It seems like the trails are well maintained and there's a lot of green nice areas."