Harbor Availability

[SailingFan]

Greetings all! My wife and I are submitting our EOI in the next few days. We have 145 points and are hoping that they agree to count them all!

Anyway, I am wondering about harbor space. Here in Chicago, there is a waiting list for harbor space of about 2 years for a mooring bouy and about 5 years for a slip if you have a boat less than 30 feet in length. For greater than 30 feet, it is about double that.

We think we will end up in Auckland or Wellington and are wondering if it will take that long in NZ. We are keen to buy a sailboat straight away (is that the right lingo?) - sailing has a lot to do with our choice of New Zealand.

Does anyone know if there is adequate harbor space so we wouldn't have to wait a long time?

[MotherBear]

Hi SailingFan and to the forum.

Sorry I haven't got any personal information on sailing being a bit of a landlubber myself but here's a few links about sailing in NZ. Whether you can pick up any useful stuff from them, I wouldn't like to say. Some aren't recent items but might give some indication of how things run in NZ and you may be able to make some contacts through them. Pity you weren't going to Nelson, SI, as Nick of Nick&Jacky on here has his own boat.

Coastal occupation charge . There is a contact us link at the top, perhaps you could email them to get on-the-spot information.
Seaview Marina, Wellington
Wellington Yachting
Westhaven Marina, Auckland
Passion for boating runs deep in Auckland

Failing all that, you could look up Marinas or similar in NZ Yellow Pages and see if any of them have email addresses. You could then get firsthand information. I would point out the site is down at the moment but you could try again at a later date.

[SailingFan]

Thank you for the quick response MotherBear!

I will be looking at the links you posted this weekend. I hope our luck is good!