Boating boom hits as closed borders force New Zealanders to explore closer to home
Before the pandemic Bruce Goodchild split his time between Australia, his home country, and New Zealand’s far north, where his work and family are based. When travel restrictions stopped him from skipping back and forth across the Tasman Sea, he decided to explore the waters closer to home – by buying a boat of his own.
In November, Goodchild bought a 60ft-long wooden schooner. A keen sailor, he had had his eye on the local yacht market at the start of 2020, but the emergence of coronavirus focused his mind. “I thought, ‘I’m stuck over here – this is a way I can spend my time.”
