Bay of Islands or Hotel California?

We can't leave! We've been sitting here for 5 days waiting for an unusual summer storm to pass and it feels like we're stuck in the middle of winter. The wind picked up last Thursday and should be dying by this Thursday. Yesterday the forecast was for easing wind and seas by Thursday with 20 knots of wind for this morning. When we woke up this morning, with the dinghy stowed, sail cover off and ready to go, the actual wind out front was still 30 knots ENE and still "extremely rough" seas. We
have respect for how tough the kiwis are and don't want to mess around with something they think is extreme! This is, after all, the country where you can bungy jump from their Space Needle. As boats were coming in from Fiji last Thursday we heard reports that in these seas and high wind gusts it was a battle to stay off the lee shore and clear the entrance to the bay. Much as we like sailing and penny pinchers though we are, we thought it prudent to wait for better weather. Someone asked a local
weather guru, Des, this morning if this weather was unusual. His reply was that it's expected this time of year... he remembers a similar storm in 1954. The forecast for Friday is for a very workable 10-15 knots and 1 meter seas.
With our departure again delayed we've run out of time to take the boat down the coast so we'll drive to Auckland Thursday to pick Lisa up and we'll all come back here and bring the boat down together. Lisa will get to see the Bay of Islands (if we're ever allowed to leave) as we head south and there might even be sun by then.