New Zealand

After a good month of updating in February, March has become quite slack so I’ll do my best to fill in some gaps of what has been happening since then.

I took the ferry down to the South Island with the majority of the guys on the Stray bus and the first significant stop after arriving in Picton was at a vineyard in the Marlborough region for some wine tasting. Claire is a bit of a wine connoisseur so she had all the appropriate techniques for sampling the wine and could differentiate between the styles and qualities of the wine, whereas I just drank and simply replied with either “that’s alright, I quite like it” or “I’m not a fan of that one”. I guess that illustrates the differences between those from South East and South West Northumberland! I think there were around a dozen or so wines in total but I had to retire at the halfway mark due to my lack of food and ever lightening head. Once we had our fill of wine we made our way over to the Abel Tasman National Park to stay at a place called Old McDonald’s Farm.

The farm was as much in the middle of nowhere as I think it’s possible to get, it’s situated roughly in the far north west part of the South Island. We stayed in a load of cabins that were dotted around the farm and it had a centrally located building with a kitchen, barbecue area, showers and all that kind of thing. Most people were booked up on kayaking or boating activities or walks or things like that, all sounding very exhausting but I took the opportunity to just chill out and wander around the place, see what the llamas were getting up to. I’d had my adrenaline shots in the North Island so this was time for relaxing! As we were there for a couple of days, we had ample supplies of all the essentials but James and Hughie made sure they wouldn’t run low on the beverage front by finding a reliable source nearby. Later that night, we all got round the table in the barbecue area for some fun and games and we had a real good laugh, although I became a bit of an easy target during the Fuzzy Duck/Ducky Fuzz game (thanks to some cruel Europeans) so I quit before I got into any more of a mess.

The next stop (after brief moments of sight seeing) was Baz Vegas itself, a bustling hub of activity boasting a thriving population of well over 130 people and countless more sheep. There’s a saying that whatever happens in Barrytown stays in Barrytown and that’s probably for the best, although less than flattering photographs seem to be finding their way on to Facebook as I type! It was essentially one long night of messy fun, women’s clothing, a scary Canadian clown, worrying Norwegians and that damn green peg. It was a good laugh though, definitely something to remember (despite my best efforts to forget) and there was a cute little black and white kitten that seemed oblivious to everything that was going on around it.

Franz Josef (and its glacier) was to be our next base for a couple of days but the weather wasn’t to be that cooperative. The village itself has some amazing scenery, the whole South Island does, but this place added yet another variety to the many types of terrain New Zealand has to offer. The Southern Alps form the backbone of the region and the glacier seems to dominate the skyline above the village and even though I’ve never seen a glacier before and have nothing to compare it with, it’s something quite special. A bunch of people from the group had organised hikes up and through the glacier itself but Tongariro well and truly put me off hiking of any kind and so marching through ice was a certain NO! I did go with Yves and Claire to take photos of the glacier though, that was easy as we just took a bus to the bottom of it and clicked away.

I can’t remember what else we did in Franz Josef, just more chilling out I guess and talking to other people in the group as other people had joined us along the way. Yves is Belgian (Flemish) and works for a TV news station in Belgium reporting on the EU and he had lots of stories to tell us about all the people he’s met and he also filled us in on what’s happening in the country itself, as I had no idea, and it seems that it’s pretty much split in two between the Flemish and French halves, both quarreling with each other for control of Brussels and there’s certainly no love lost between the two peoples (although I wasn’t too shocked to learn of yet another example of anti-French feeling on the continent!).

Leaving Franz Josef, we made our way through to Fox Glacier (there were no mints) for a photo opportunity and then on towards Makarora, a place which makes Barrytown look like New York City! I know it’s probably a strange thing to say about a place but the bed in Makarora was probably the best I’d slept in whilst in a hostel, a few of us said that so it’s not unique to me. Like most places in the South Island, it’s miles and miles (or kilometres and kilometres, for any Kiwi reading this) from anywhere and that point is firmly made when the only thing to do in this place is karaoke. When asked if I’d be stepping up for a number or two, one of the things I replied with was along the lines of I’d rather skydive naked but maybe that wasn’t the best thing to say as I would later witness a few guys in Queenstown doing their bungy in their birthday suits so I suppose a naked skydive isn’t out of the question either, although I doubt the dvd would be pleasant to look at as it does get very cold up there…

Queenstown was next up for us, it’s often labelled as the adventure capital of New Zealand and probably the world. It’s the home of bungy and there aren’t too many things that you can’t either jump off or swing from in this town. (Un)fortunately I didn’t get involved in anything like that this time around so the only extreme activities I did was the luge (not too thrilling but the view was amazing) and a night out with the Irish guys. I think I was in Queenstown for just under a week and I can’t remember too much about it. A handful of the guys and girls went off on their various bungy excursions, including Claire who did the Nevis – the third highest bungy in the world at 134 metres! I could easily give you a list of a million other things I much rather do than that, especially after seeing her video, but it was great that she did it! Jo won a canyon swing whilst in Makarora so she did that and Jacqueline went too for moral support, so that was their activity. Instead, I went for breakfast with Desiree, it wasn’t that extreme but the bacon was very nice, if that counts for anything? The Irish guys (Hughie and James) and Finland (we had a tendancy of calling people by their countries rather than their names but Finland = Heter) were leaving us early for their flights from Christchurch, so on the Tuesday night we had a big old farewell for them as our group was starting to break up. Again, things got a bit messy after such a strong start but James introducing me to new drinks was to be my downfall (blaming others is so much easier) and I somehow made my way back to the hostel in the early hours where I found Jo and Jacqueline in the corridor outside our room and they took good care of me, their airline training coming in very handy. Apparently I kept on asking them where they got their burger from but I can only remember asking once. Ferg burgers, by the way, actually are the greatest things in the world. I could write a full entry dedicated to them alone but I’ll refrain.

Wednesday was a write-off, as many of us were still tired and emotional, so Claire and myself did our best to help each other around the coffee shops of Queenstown, which can be regarded as both an adventure and an achievement in itself. Sometime in the late afternoon, Claire decided to find a patch of grass to claim as her own for the remainder of the afternoon (I’m sure she’ll thank me for saying that) so I waited around for Holly as she was arriving that day. The luge was Thursday and I left Queenstown for Christchurch on Friday. By that time, most of our group had left or would be leaving soon so there wasn’t that many of our original group left and that was quite sad as I’d had such a great time with them all and made some good friends. Travelling the rest of the South Island would be different now.

The drive from Queenstown to Christchurch, although in itself was uneventful, offered probably the most spectacular scenery I’d seen so far. It was like were escorted by the Southern Alps each step of the way as we made our way through tiny little towns and villages for the usual coffee/cake/pie stops. Getting into Christchurch, the second largest city in the country and the most English according to whoever you talk to, was quite underwhelming especially after Queenstown and the matter of constant, miserable rain. I had the pleasure (not the most accurate word but probably the most diplomatic) of being in Christchurch for a long weekend and other than helping Claire with her uploading skills and finding somewhere for coffee, not much was done. We went to the cinema and had some soup and wandered round looking for something, anything, to do. We did stumble upon some Oriental festival thing in one of the little parks one evening but, and I kid you not, the second to headline act was a couple of kids pouring tea, albeit in a kung fu style. Pretty much sums up Christchurch, although maybe I caught it on a bad few days? It was sad to see Claire go back to the West Island as she continued her travels although we’ll meet up again in either Northumberland or London once I return back to the mother country.

The Great Escape from Christchurch took me to the familiar surroundings of Kaikoura and an opportunity to see some seals up close, providing yet another photo opportunity. I was only in Kaikoura for one night before heading back up to Picton and then on to the ferry back to good old Wellington for some decent coffee, wind, blanket man, wind and cricket.

As with all updates, I think I’ve got most things included but no doubt I’ve missed some things out but I’m sure I’ll be boring you all to death with the same old stories upon my return. I’m actually in Taupo at the moment for the Easter weekend so I’ll update about the cricket once I get back into Wellington.

This past week has been such a mixture of things, I just hope I can remember it all or else this will be a brief update. We spent last Monday and Tuesday in Auckland after coming back from the Bay of Islands, it was just a time of generally chilling out and having a bit of a break from beaches. Holly wanted to go see the house where her Dad used to live in the Epsom area so we caught a bus and went there, the area itself was really nice and I took a picture of Holly standing in front of the house – the neighbours probably thought we were acting a bit strange seeing as it’s not exactly the tourist area of Auckland! I can’t remember if it was this time in Auckland or from before we left for the Bay of Islands but there was a buskers festival in the city and we caught an act in the afternoon, it was a guy doing some escapology in his sack of doom or whatever he called it. I think that was about it for that visit to the city of sails, I can’t think of much else that we did, Auckland is Auckland I suppose.

We rejoined the Stray bus on Wednesday to take us to the Coromandel peninsular just a couple of hours or so from Auckland, it’s where a lot of Aucklanders (and many other New Zealanders) have their holidays so the locals have ready made nicknames for their holiday guests, not all of them entirely friendly! We got into Haihei sometime in the afternoon, it was a holiday park with camping and all that kind of thing, Holly resumed her camping adventures (without the ants of Taupo) but again I opted for the comfort of a bed. The bedrooms were so small, I shared with three others and there was no way we could actually be in the room at the same time as each other (except for sleeping) but I guess it all added to the charm. I strolled into the kitchen after dumping my stuff in the room and then it was time for “it’s a small world” part 3. After the usual ‘where are you from?’, I found myself talking to Claire from Ponteland! It had been a while since I’d met a fellow Northumbrian so it was a really good, random time for us both. She’d lived in London for six years and had time in Australia but the accent was very much still there and she said that as soon as she started talking to me, she slipped right back into northern speak, abandoning her city voice and use of real, recognisable words.

A bunch of us got together and had a walk towards Cathedral Cove and some really stunning beaches, the walk involved going through a bit of a woodland forest type thing where me and Claire reminisced about the mother country and past experiences of meeting Northumbrians in unusual places. We got back to the holiday park, had a brief rest and then we were driven to Hot Water beach where you could dig holes in the sand which filled up with boiling hot water (funnily enough) and then just chill for a while. By the time we got there, the choice spots were at a premium so we gatecrashed the hole of a nice New Zealand family which was then, in turn, invaded by the cold water of the sea. Our Northumbrian radar must have been on full alert at this stage as we bumped into a guy from Gateshead (yes, I know it’s technically Durham but it’s near enough) walking along the beach with his family so we had a quick chat with him. Once more back to the holiday park for a barbecue, a few drinks and then bed.

Thursday morning we set off towards Raglan which is famous for surfing and other water based activities. The place where we were staying was so nice, set in the middle of a large woodland area with a large loop of a walk (which we somehow managed to get confused over) and a zip wire ride thing called the flying fox. I can’t remember too much about Raglan, I don’t think we actually did that much as we got there fairly late on but we had a few drinks and talked to people and had a good night. I talked with Dina (Dutch girl we met in Paihia) and she mentioned she saw glow worms hanging around the trees and bushes of the resort but I was a bit reluctant to believe her after the carry on in the Bay of Islands and the alleged bounty of the little faeces burning maggots but I’m sure they were there if Dina saw them.

Friday took us to Waitomo and its famous caves and actual, 100% guaranteed availability of glow worms. I was determined to see some even if it killed me. Again, I can’t remember the exact name of the activity we did in Waitomo but there was Claire, James, myself and a few others from our bus going down to do some tubing. We had to get changed in what looked like an aircraft hangar in the middle of a farm, I remember joking with Claire that we couldn’t be more inappropriately dressed for walking through a farm towards caves in the hot sun wearing a miner’s helmet, full wetsuit and white gumboots. We thought it was someone’s idea of a joke but we were pleased all this trendy equipment came to good use down in the caves. I think our guides said we’d be about 30 or so metres underground at our deepest, the hole to get down there was a bit tight but we all just about made it. There was a bit of a walk around the caves, splashing through the streams and trying not to create any new traveller shaped holes in the wall/ground. We arrived at the eponymous tubes about a third of the way in, which we sat on and drifted along in the dark beneath a glittering array of shiny, actual real life glow worms. We’d reached the mother load! We got told their life story before disembarking our rubber vessels and heading towards a bit of a crawl.

I’d somehow managed to get myself at the front of our party where Claire very kindly volunteered my services to be the leader of our expedition through a long, tight, muddy and very very dark tunnel. Before I could raise any kind of protest or at least grasp what was happening, I was down on my hands and knees crawling through a pitch black tunnel with my arms waving around in front of me feeling my way through this part of the cave. Claire had a hold of my ankles, the person behind her had a hold of her ankles and so on as we’d formed a crawling human chain. I did my best to relay my findings back down the group to assist everyone and I think we did really well to work together to come out the other end and not lose any limbs or Canadians or anything like that. It was hardly escaping from Shawshank but it was an adventure all the same. There was a bit more tubing and walking through the caves before we eventually made our way through the caves and back into the light to collect our photographs from the office (I’ll get them on Facebook at some point).

After the caves, we drove to Maketau to stay in a traditional Maori house for a meal and a traditional concert and things like that. The Maori girls sang and danced for us while the Maori males performed a haka afterwords, it was actually quite intimidating even though they were quite young (there were around 4 or 5 of them, aged between 13 and 23) but they got up close to us giving it everything. We were told we had to stare right back at them or else they’d just keep on at us and assume they had us scared. Once those professional performances had finished, we were then told it would be our turn! Things were a little uneven as there must have been at least 25 girls in our group compared to 6 guys including our driver, even when the girls were put into two groups there was still a big disadvantage for us. The girls were taught the dance (Maori culture prohibits females from the haka as it degrades their beauty) whilst us lambs to the slaughter (the guys) were taken outside for a crash course in the haka!

First things first, our shirts were made to come off – great, we’d be doing a haka half naked in front of a group of 30 or so girls and senior Maori figures we hardly knew. The haka had two main parts, the first involved psyching out the opposition with sticks, facial expressions and grunting with the second part losing the sticks but gaining equally formidable hand/arm gestures. After some instruction and half a dozen run throughs, we were led back into the house in single file to be greeted by the awaiting girls. Our group of half a dozen pasty looking, united European, bewildered warriors stood just a couple of feet from a crowd of excitable females about to witness something never before seen. Our Maori instructors called out the instructions and gave the signals and we progressed through the haka, I think I was putting much more fear into myself than any I was supposed to be putting into our audience. Even now, a few days later, my thighs are still very much bruised from the slapping which took place during the dance. It was all good fun though, even if it wasn’t the smoothest haka ever performed. The two groups of girls then performed their dances before we chatted with the Maori men and women and before long it was time for a well earned hot chocolate and sleep!

On Saturday morning we drove through Rotorua to experience the sulphur smelling volcanic geysers and heard all about how they were formed and how people live amongst them during their everyday lives. We stayed in Rotorua for a couple of hours before making our way to Taupo, which is synonymous for a number of things but only one thing was occupying our minds on this day – the skydive! We got into Taupo late afternoon and the 7 or 8 of us who were about to say hello to the clouds were dropped off at the airport but just as we got there an enormous wind and rain session began to kick in which put the dive in doubt. (un)Fortunately it soon cleared and we were good to do the dive. Great. I can’t honestly say it’s something that I’d wanted to do but you can’t come all the way to New Zealand without jumping off/out of something so this was to be my day for that. There’s two options for a dive – 12,000ft and 15,000ft – both sounding as scary as each other but I guess if things went totally wrong, it’d probably hurt as much falling from 15,000ft as 12,000ft so that was the option I went for, incidentally it’s also the highest you’re allowed to commercially jump from. All together it was James, Hughie and myself doing the 15 with everyone else doing the 12.

Dale would be the guy I’d be attached to for this experience and he was really good, a nice cool guy to keep me talking and make me relax. I think by this stage I wasn’t as scared or nervous because I’d just accepted that it was going to happen. I got kitted out and given all the instructions before we made our way to the plane, also in the plane was Hughie, James and Des (who was doing the 12 but we were letting her out first). As we took off and started to climb, the reality was kicking in and it took me a minute to get my head round it all but we were all chatting away in the plane and us guys were doing our best to keep Des calm as she really didn’t want to do it but felt she had to so that was our mission whilst we climbed. Before we knew it we were at 12,000ft and it was time for Des to leave us, the door opened (it was a transparent door, by the way, a nice touch on the part of the skydive people) and soon she shuffled towards the ledge and she was gone! For us lot, it was on with the oxygen masks and then up to 15,000ft and a few more final words of encouragement from our instructors.

Hughie was first out and then I followed a few seconds later. Even with my limited vocabulary, I can’t even begin to describe what it’s like to jump from a plane, the free fall lasted for over a minute, probably the longest minute of my life as we spun round a couple of times, continuing to plummet towards the ground at an alarming speed. I’d forgotten to pick up some gloves so the one thing I can clearly remember is my hands being absolutely freezing! I’ve got the dvd so I’ll get that on Facebook at some point, it describes things better than I ever could, you can even check out my less than glamorous facial expressions as I’m falling from the plane. I wasn’t so much frightened by this point, it was just such a weird sensation, my brain was trying to figure out what the hell was going on, part of me was enjoying it and the other was still trying to do the ‘big banana’ technique I was told to do. The fall seemed to last forever but the parachute eventually opened (such a relief) and then we drifted for about five minutes or so down over Lake Taupo and surrounding area and this is where I really really began to love it all. It’s easily the best thing I’ve ever experienced, just gently gliding in the air, being so high up so see everything and there wasn’t even a fraction of a second where I felt in any danger or anything like that, I was in complete trust of Dale’s ability and I was even chatting to him on the way down, it was so effortless and surreal. When we eventually got down I wanted to get back on board and do it again! I needed more! I can’t recommend it highly enough, everyone needs to do it. Back in the centre, we had a quick look at our photographs and dvds before we had a limo ride back into Taupo and went out for a few celebratory beverages. So I’ll get the video onto Facebook as soon as I can for people to check out if anyone’s interested. I’ve just had a quick look at the video again and I should probably take back what I said about not being terrified jumping out of the plane as my face tells a very very different story! I do start to enjoy it after about 15 seconds but the initial jump does freak you out a bit!

Sunday we went to a national park to do the Tongariro Crossing, apparently one of the best walks in the world and it goes alongside the mountain that was Mt Doom in those Lord of the Rings films. I can’t pretend to be an expert in walking or hiking or anything but even at my most naïve I had no idea what I was letting myself in for on this so called ‘walk’. We can all laugh about it now – and we certainly have been – but at times it was so scary as it was very apparent we were out of our depth and would have appreciated at least some kind of information or advice before heading out. The trek took us about six hours to do 18km (probably about 10 or 12 miles) and we were doing a fairly decent pace but we were warned by our “very helpful guide” that if anyone wasn’t back by 4:30 then the bus would leave without them and they’d have to pay $200 for a separate pick up. During the trek we climbed up some rocks known as the devil’s staircase and that just about killed me, it seemed to go on for ages and was quite disconcerting when we were climbing and the thick fog meant we couldn’t see either how far we’d come or how far was yet to climb. After a stop to catch our breath we (Holly, Claire, Katie and myself) made our way up another steep incline to a ledge which will forever live in our memories. The wind and fog were really starting to kick in by this point and the ledge we were on was about 6 feet wide but the fog made it impossible to see how long it was and what was on the other side towards the way down. The strong side wind didn’t do us any favours and we were starting to panic because we didn’t think we could make it ahead without being blown off the mountain but we didn’t fancy the idea of turning back and repeating the past 3 hours but the way ahead was equally as unattractive an option. Katie then just sat down and we all followed suit, so we’re all sat, stranded on a ledge in the middle of some mountain in New Zealand! We seemed to be there for ages before another more experienced party came along and took pity on us, letting us tag along with them and helping us along the ledge and down the other side. We were so pleased we didn’t head back because the lakes we reached were amazing (even if they did smell of rotten eggs) and the rest of the way was downhill! The rest of the journey seemed to be much easier and the scenery was something special, definitely made it worthwhile.

We got back to the national park for a well earned relaxing evening and had a session of watching each other’s sky diving dvds on the tv in the living room. The next day we drove on down to Wellington after a couple of the usual stops in some random places – stairs, steps and generally bending over were my difficulties in the next couple of days.

In Wellington, Holly and myself were the tour guides for Claire and Katie as we took them around the harbour and Lambton Quay and the numerous coffee shops, it was actually really nice to be greeted by the wind as it cooled us down nicely. I’ve really really really had such an amazing time this past week or so, it’s had just about everything and the group of people we’ve met on the bus have made it all worthwhile too, we’ve had a good laugh. I’ve decided to stay on the bus and head on down to the South Island for a couple of weeks because I do really enjoy being with the people on the bus and it’s fun to hang out with them all, there’s a good mixture of people/nationalities.

This has been a bit of a long update, thanks for reading this far (if you have done) and it’s nice to have survived it all! I’ll get photos and videos uploaded wherever and whenever I can to enhance the experiences. Soon I’ll fill you all in on South Island adventures!

The plan to hire a car to drive around the Bay of Islands didn’t happen at all due to the general lack of cars to hire anywhere within the Auckland region so we just upgraded our Stray passes and caught the orange bus instead. We left Auckland at around 8am last Thursday for the drive up to Paihia, this included a toilet break/supermarket stop in the town of Warkworth, named after the fortified town in our fine county of Northumberland. It’s not similar in any way to the original town, the obvious and notable lack of a castle is a major aspect of this but in terms of size it’s probably around the same and it’s quite near the coast so there’s something else they have in common. I even brought my Northumberland flag ready to stake a claim for the town in the name of His Grace the Duke of Northumberland but I think I’ll let the Kiwis keep a hold of their Warkworth for now.

On the way to Paihia we drove through the gravelled country roads of Northland, stopped off again for a brief snorkel and beach visit before being shown some hills and fields apparently used as the setting for the battle scenes of the second Lord of the Rings film. A few minutes from these battle weary hills there was a carving of Gandalf made out of a tree, which was a gift from the LOTR custume department to the farmer who owns the fields and allowed them to use his outer buildings as workshops.

After a good few hours we got to Paihia (a combination of Maori and English to mean ‘good here’) via a slight detour through Waitangi (the place where the Treaty was signed to create New Zealand as a British colony). Paihia is essesntially a beach/harbour type village with more hotels/hostels/apartments than people… and even sheep. After checking into the hostel we went to the bar for a drink or two and a barbeque (so good that it rhymed). Friday morning was an early start as we got a bus towards Cape Reinga via a brief forest walk and a drive past a Maori Pa (fortified hill). Cape Reinga itself was amazing, it’s right on the tip of the North Island and, according to Maori legend, is where people’s souls travel up to take one last look back towards family and friends before departing on to the next stage. There’s a lighthouse there too and a signpost which tells you how many thousands of miles it is to Sydney and London, although there used to be more but they seem to have gone missing. Back in the bus, we made our way to some sand dunes for a little bit of sandboarding. This was the first time I’d ever sandboarded (if that’s the correct term) but it was so much fun! I’d like to have done it more than once but the climb up the hill was far too exhausting, especially in the heat. I attempted to get as much sand out of parts of my body I really didn’t expect sand to be able to reach before it was back to the bus for a drive down Ninety Mile Beach. First notable thing to say about the beach is that it’s not ninety miles long, it’s a mere 64 or something like that, but I do at least admire the Kiwi attempt to use a proper measurement system. We spotted some wild horses strolling around the beach but they wouldn’t cooperate with attempts to take their photograph as they ran as soon as the bus door opened. The drive down the beach was a long one before we turned off somewhere to get some fish and chips. It was quite a continental affair at the table as we got talking to Dutch, Belgian and Swiss girls with the topic of conversation rapidly turning towards our wonderful, mutual neighbours, the French. I guess that proved us Brits do have something in common with (most of) our European cousins. We got back to the hostel some time around 7pm for a quick drink in the bar and a wander along the beach.

I met up with a few of the people from the bus later on (another international affair, this time featuring Canadians and an Israeli) as we went in search of glow worms which allegedly hang round in some bushes somewhere according to our driver. Armed with torches and cynicism, we marched blindly into the woodland – led by a Dutch girl (the Dutch make good navigators) and a fellow Briton (token British person to assume all credit and control for someone elses discovery) but our search was in vain. I think we did spot a worm type thing hanging from a tree but it didn’t glow and it probably wasn’t even a worm, we all felt cheated and let down so we called it a night and made our way back to the hostel.

Saturday morning and afternoon were quiet ones for me and Holly as we’d booked up on an evening/overnight cruise but we met up with the girls from our bus for an hour or so before they left to go back to Auckland. We walked over to the harbour at around 4:45pm to board the ‘Rock’ boat, a converted car ferry. I think there were around 30 people on the cruise, a variety of ages and nationalities, I think we were the only Brits on board with Germany, America and France providing the majority of passengers. We dumped our stuff in our cabin before heading back down for the usual security brief and summary of what would be happening. Everyone started to mingle and talk to each other before we were called over for a bit of fishing at the end of the boat with the bait of choice being mullet (at least now I can say I was fishing with a mullet). Holly managed to catch seven fish (tiny, tiny fish, probably can’t even class most of them as fish) whereas I managed to haul in one solitary poor little fish, which I had to kiss (beggars can’t be choosers). Luckily our Finnish friends and crew were more successful as they added some sizeable catches to the barbeque.

After we ate and drank a little bit, it was time for some night kayaking – another first for me. Some brief instruction before we were cast off the boat and followed Julian and Sante around the islands in the dark. The night was amazing though, the stars were really low and bright and the plankton acted as reflectors giving more light to our movements in the water. I think we were out for about 20 minutes or so before navigating back to the boat. I took my life jacket off and changed into my swim shorts as I followed the lead of another guy by having a night swim and the water was probably the perfect temperature for a swim but my lack of fitness meant I was only in the water for about ten minutes. The rest of the evening was spent chilling out and talking with the other people on the boat. In the morning we had breakfast and a little while later it was into the wet suits and time for snorkelling. I didn’t see anything too exciting but the guys ahead saw a little stingray, which made Holly jealous! It was soon back on the boat before a trip to an island (the name of which escapes me) but it was the very first place where Captain Cook landed in New Zealand so it was quite historical and so we had a wander round there for a little while before again heading back to the boat. The rest of the cruise was spent heading back to port, that took a couple of hours so it was enough time to get our stuff together and say the goodbyes.

Once back in Paihia, it was basically time for some more chilling out – as if we hadn’t done enough already! On Monday we went over to Waitangi (the birthplace of New Zealand) to see where they signed the Treaty and to have a look at some Maori carvings, it’s probably as historical as New Zealand gets (in terms of European origins anyway). After that, it was back on to the bus in the afternoon for the trip down to Auckland for a couple of days to have some post Bay of Islands relaxing and  whatever else is in Auckland.

Hopefully I’ve remembered everything or at least most of the things we did but there’s some exciting things to come in the next week or so.