Today I joined the Flying Kiwi, wilderness expeditions, in Auckland. The mood on the bus was a little strange at fisrt, since the people who were already on had just seen several of their travel companions leave, and everyone was still a bit shy. but introductions were soon thrown back and forth across the bus, and we were on our way :D

We reached our campsite in Hahei just in time for lunch. that is, the people going sea-kayaking (me included) only had thrirthy minutes to get food and get our stuff sorted, before we were loaded into a bus and driven the whole two minutes to the beach :D

there we were met by an overly enthusiastic guide, but she was very good at her job, explanations went fast, she learned our names quickly, and we were soon on our way, two in each kayak.

The weather was beautiful, and the scenery even more breathtaking. The kayaks were really stable, they barely wiggled when i moved. definitely not like a canoe. Don't think i could have tipped even if i wanted to...

we paddled along the shore, and into a few bays along the way. was a bit hard to get used to the steering, somehow turning left when i pushed down my left foot was a bit too complicated for me, i always expected it to turn left when i pushed down my right foot...;p

Today I joined a new bus of people and headed off to re-start my ticket. I missed a few things the first time around because of time constraints and I have just enough time to do the north island again plus the East Coast Pass for 3 days. That will mean the only part of New Zealand I miss will be the Bay of Islands in the far north, and Napier, an art deco town on the north island.

It is getting on to summer so the buses are more crowded so we had far more people this time so it is harder to make friends. We started with the intro meeting on Mount Eden again, but today our new driver did much more little stop-offs to see random things than my previous bus driver had so it already was quite a different experience. We stopped first for a walk up a hill in Tairua for the view, and then for a photo opportunity at the Kauri scenic reserve, and to hug a Kauri tree which is supposedly lucky (yes mum, I hugged a tree today!). We also stopped off...

At Hahei everybody dispersed to do their kayaking and walking etc while I just went to lie down on the beach with a book. Back at the hostel our driver was putting on a typical Kiwi barbecue for us so we ate well with sausages, steak, chicken, salad, fried veg, banana cake and ice cream. I enjoyed an early night for what feels like the first time in ages!