Bye for now!

Thought I'd sign off with a final little blog whilst awaiting my final plane in Abu Dhabi Airport. It's been a long and fairly uneventful day, so far everything has gone around about as it should. I didn't find the long flight as bad as I did on the way out...perhaps because I was anticipating it's tedium more, and so I made a more concerted effort to sleep! Which I didn't exactly succeed in, but I was in quite a relaxed not quite awake state, so time drifted by fairly pleasantly. Plus I had the luxury of an empty seat beside me, which meant I had free access to the isle and some extra leg room. Hurray! It seems like ages since I left Auckland, so it's strange to think there hasn't been a proper nights sleep since then. But a small price to pay for the fun adventures I've had! 

I'm living on the edge as I bought a milkshake with my credit card in this airport...in a country I didn't pre warn the bank I was going to, as I'm just passing through. So will they block my card, or will they figure out its part of the journey... Who knows! Exciting huh? Hmm, perhaps not, hehe.

Best get in the queue to board my plane now, so it's over and out, until my next adventures, whenever and wherever they might be!

8th

7th, Paihia, and 8th, Volcanoes and shipwrecks!

Started typing up the parasailing adventures yesterday, but unfortunately my battery died and it was lost! So I'm trying again this evening! 

My last day in Paihia was lovely, with beautiful sun...slightly breezy, but this worked well for the parasailing! But before that I took out a kayak once more and revisited some of the islands, as they were too nice to only see once! The tide was slightly further out than the first time, which meant there were more little rocks sticking out of the water to explore and circumnavigate. I thought I would be slower than in the double kayak, but this was a slightly more streamlined version, so all in all it didn't feel too difficult. It was quite a soggy boat to sit in though, as there were two holes in it (deliberate holes, not accidental ones!) so I got quite wet.

I returned to the hostel for lunch, and then went out for the exciting parasailing adventure. This was great. We got about 12 minutes in the air each, which feels like plenty of time when you're up there. It's strangely calm, and you can't hear or see anything from the boat, it's just a speck far below. So you're out on your own for a bit, but it was nice :-) we had the option to get wet feet on the way back in if we liked (I did), it was most exciting to be partially dunked in the water on the way back, though I was glad the driver didn't misjudge and fully dunk me!

After that excitement I hopped back on the bus to Auckland, my final NZ stopover. The hostel is massive and busy, but at least it's cheap :-)

Today I visited the Island of Rangitoto for the day. Much more peaceful than staying in the busy city centre. It is a conservation island, with no 'pests' including humans... You can't camp or stay on the island at all, though there is a campsite on its very close neighbouring island. They are aiming to preserve the flora and fauna as NZ should be without introduced species. There are animal traps everywhere and you are asked to clean your shoes and check bags for any stowaways. I've never found a mouse in my bag before, but I guess you never know!

Rangitoto is a volcanic island, so walking in places is hard going, as it's all made of lava rocks. There aren't any roads on the island, except a dust track...and some walking tracks are a little easier underfoot and others. I however chose the tricky track first, which lead to Boulder Bay, or Wreck bay as it is also know...for it has been the site of about 13 deliberate shipwrecks. They put them there as it is out of sight... I guess before the days of stringent conservation laws! It made for an exciting adventure. I only managed to find the remains of about 5 wrecks, as the others were around the bay, and would have required hacking my way through a lot of vegetation, swimming, or cliffhanging. Perhaps I'll save those challenges for another time, as it was a bit cold and grey, so getting lost/wet/injured wouldn't have been ideal when quite literally in the middle of nowhere with the whole place to myself. (All the other ferry passengers had headed straight for the summit track, but I was more excited by the shipwrecks!)

After sheltering from a downpour in the rocks, I headed up towards the summit track myself. You reach the volcano's crater, and from there can head up to the highest viewpoint from which you can see pretty much the whole island. It was very marvellous. And it didn't rain again after that first conveniently timed downpour, which was a bonus. I made it back with plenty of time before the last ferry back, so sat in a field just over the causeway to the other island, and wandered along the beach. I spotted a few jellyfish (after paddling!) and went back for the ferry.

I now write to you from the 51st level (I can't call it floor, most of the floors don't exist as this building is more like a giant concrete stick) of the highest building in the Southern Hemisphere (the Sky Tower) watching the sun set for the last time in NZ. It has very spectacular views, and I'm sure is preparing me nicely for the idea of being in the sky, which I mostly shall be for the next couple of days!

Parasailing! :-)

Hopefully these people will email through the pictures of me we agreed to do a swap!

The bay

Magical bay of islands adventures

Myself and Liv, my friend from the coach yesterday, headed out in search of water activities on the bay. Because I had a repeat trip on the dolphin cruise on stand by, we decided to try that in the morning...but they sold out, so instead we deferred that until the afternoon and went in search of kayaks. We hired a double kayak and set out on the lovely sunny sea to find islands. Upon the advice of the kayak hire man we first went across to a bay on the other side that you can do a five minute walk from to a view point. This was a good plan as it had very lovely views. Technically it was an island that we had landed on, although the tide was low enough that it appeared to be attached to the main land. It was rather unfortunate timing as we approached the main land, as there were some waves coming across from a boat. For some reason we thought it would be fun to stay in the water while the waves passed, but because we were right at the beach the waves just broke over the boat, and we got rather wet! Oops! We pulled the boat up high enough on the shore to make sure the tide didn't come up and strand us whilst we looked at the view. Then we returned to the boats for more island hunting, and stopped off at two or three other bays to explore and photograph. Then it was back to the mainland for lunch, and to board our dolphin cruise.

We hadn't been travelling long this time when we found dolphins! Hurray! There was a pod of 6 or 7, and they came over to say hello. Unlike the ones I saw way back in Akaroa, these were the larger species of bottlenose dolphins. They were so graceful and effortless as they swirled round the boat. There were a lot of people on board so sometimes you had to wait patiently for the dolphins to come back in to view, as you couldn't see from all sides due to the numbers of other people trying to see. It was very exciting. We might have been allowed to swim, but the waters were too shallow for the boat to easily move around so it was deemed not safe on this occasion. After a while we moved on to see more islands and search for more marine life. We found a rock (not an island, for an island has vegetation on it apparently!) that had four seals on it, basking in the sun. And later we saw one solitary dolphin, but the best sighting had been the first. We did get treated to a drive through the 'hole in the rock', which marked the furthest point in the journey. I didn't think the driver was going to attempt it due to the swell of the the ocean (I think the tide was higher than on my first trip), but we did, and it was most exciting, as the hole in said rock (this rock actually being an island, not a rock, for it has vegetation on it...confusing!!) is not all that much larger than the boat!

Turns out that they didn't see any dolphins on the morning cruise, so we were lucky to not have got on to that one! :-)

When back in Paihia, I decided to have a swim (cold, but not too bad!), then some food and an evening walk along the beach. Glad I decided to stay here an extra night! its much nicer than being in a city!

Cape Reinga pictures