FREE AS A BUTTERFLY

Papillon (French for butterfly) is the first Sun Odyssey of its size to reach New Zealand. She arrived over the winter and was commissioned in Auckland before being sailed down to her new home in Wellington.

Owners Phillip Beavon and his partner Suzanne Wood plan to spend their summers on extended cruises around the top of the South Island – the Marlborough Sounds, Tasman Bay – so they were looking for a boat with plenty of space and creature comforts.

Perhaps surprisingly for a boat which is nigh-on 50-feet long, has only two cabins. While the 490 can be specified to have three, four or even five separate cabins and up to four heads, Beavon