The Queen Mary was departing and I wanted to see it. But I knew that the rest of Auckland thought the same and there would be traffic mayhem. So I managed to convince Kevin to take his (Wayne's) boat out and watch the departure from the water. In the end only Kevin, Duncan and I went on the boat, everyone else either had other plans or didn't want to be on a boat at night.
We launched at about 8 p.m. from Waiake beach and motored over to the harbour. Duncan was fairly nervous but Kevin kept the boat at a reasonable speed and we got there no problem. We did get spoken to by the coastguard as we weren't showing a stern light, but we managed to get it going.
The queen Mary herself is an awesome spectacle, especially at night when it gets lit up like a Christmas tree, and on the water we had a fantastic view. We had a great view of the firework display as well, although it was a bit further away than I had anticipated.
By the time we followed the liner out of the harbour and into the gulf it was completely dark, a new experience for myself and Duncan. Duncan struggled a bit on the way back, he didn't like the unpredictable manner the boat moved in with the various wakes coming off all the other craft, and being dark it was not easy to see the water surface. However, once we were on flatter water he regained his confidence and enjoyed the last part of the journey.
By the time we got the boat back onto the trailer and to Kevin's house it was after midnight, a long and tiring night for a 10 year old (and his dad).
But all in all, a great experience and I thoroughly enjoyed it.
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