"KAKARIKI"

Our second stop in Auckland wasn't really a stop in Auckland. We took a trip to Tiritiri Matangi which is an island sanctuary where they've eradicated non-native species (rats and the like) and made it safe for endangered native species. It's one of the few places where you can see Takahe, which are enormous flightless birds a bit like giant moorhens. As a bit of a birdwatcher, this was awesome. Not going to bother writing much more on this - let's just lob in a load of photos.

Just before we finally came across a pair of Takahe my camera died, so here we have some of Claire's and Amy's photos.

Claire, we decided, had fallen in love with the Takahe. It was sweet.

I had a bit of a stupid moment on spotting a couple of red-crowned parakeets and started sort of whisper-shouting "KAKARIKI!" much to Amy and Claire's amusement. And I have no photos of this and neither does Amy, so have one of Amy's of a female Stitchbird instead.

And then we got on a boat again and Claire somehow managed not to get too seasick. Again.

Arrival back in Auckland began with a trip to a supermarket for food. In the process we passed a busker singing Bruno Mars songs, but it went more like: "When I see you face..." Bless him.

Aaaargh, the departure is looming.

Falafel

After the adrenaline rush and whatnot of the Cape Reinga/Ninety Mile Beach trip, we took a more leisurely tour on our second (and final) day in Paihia, taking a cruise out into the Bay of Islands.

First spot of the day was a pod of bottlenose dolphins. Well, mostly bottlenose dolphins - one of them had adopted a common dolphin calf.  Very cute. Behold, almost decent photos, courtesy of the fact that bottlenoses don't swim as fast as the dusky dolphins we saw at Kaikoura.

Lots of birds were seen, but photos are lacking in that department. So have some really bad photos of a pod of common dolphins instead. Woo.

And then there were some fur seals on a rock.

And then we finally made it to the Hole in the Rock, which was kinda the point of the trip. Skipper said it was too choppy to go through the actual hole, so we were a bit surprised when we started reversing in. Claire overcame her seasickness long enough to join us at the stern to take some pics before we all fled back inside away from the spray and the wind. I do believe we have a selfie of this...

Anyhoos, then we started back and Claire went back to feeling sick. We stopped off at Otehei Bay on Urupukapuka Island on the way back and took a walk up to a lookout on top of the headland. Which was windy. Very windy.

Amy fed a seagull. Amy doesn't really like birds coming near her, so I was very impressed. Here is a short clip:

Hot chocolate was drunk on the boat and we decided to get off at Russell instead of Paihia, given that we had a ferry ticket included in the trip so we could get back later. There isn't much in Russell, so we had a very brief wander round and then headed to a little cafe/restaurant for lunch. Mmmm, falafel burgers.

Lunch consumed, we got the ferry back to Paihia and raided shops for tat. No tat was bought, but we acquired a large quantity of yummy chocolate. Mmmmm. So instead we deposited ourselves in a cafe and spent an hour or so drinking tea and eating nice cake. We also got a trip booked with the lovely lady in the i-Site for the next day in Auckland. Said lovely lady turned out to be from Manchester. Not sure why this is relevant...

And then we went through the routine of retrieving our rucksacks from the hostel and waiting for the bus. Again.

Blergh-Carvings-Blergh

Woke up to discover that the snow from the previous night had settled in a nice little icing sugar dusting. Amy had kept her little bit of wood from when we cleared the car in Kaikoura and fortunately the snow hadn't frozen, so it didn't take too long to clear the car.

Ah, the ever-trusty Ead.

Setting off, we finally got a glimpse of Mount Ngauruhoe, otherwise known as Mount Doom. Look.

Impressed. We also got a brief look at Mount Ruapehu and I managed to grab some pics of Mount Tongariro. Woohoo!

And then the sun came out and we got some amazing views of Lake Taupo, which is absolutely massive.

Turns out it was pretty windy and the kayaking trip we'd booked the day before was cancelled. Instead we booked onto a trip on the lovely little boat Ernest Kemp and headed off for a wander to kill some time until then.

Stopped in at the Taupo Museum where it became all the more apparent that Taupo is actually pronounced Toe-paw. Which is odd, but hey. The museum was just big enough to fill the hour we had to spare and had an awesome exhibit of Maori history.

Then we headed for the marina and boarded the boat. Warnings from the skipper regarding the conditions on the lake - basically, it's really rough and his little helper had got seasick on the trip in the morning. Which was worrying.

Setting off, it became apparent just how bad it was. Claire, bless her, got seriously seasick and the skipper sent his helper to leave some "just in case" bags in the cabin. We're talking swells of at least a couple of metres. Amy spent most of the trip grinning manically while I caught myself clinging to the table without realising. Claire just buried her head in her arms so she didn't have to look at anything. My brain went on a mad trip trying to work out why I thought a shallow drafted boat was a bad move in such big waves...


Anyways, we got to the carvings eventually. They're amazing - something like 10m high and carved by a group of local artists in the 70s. Have some pics:

Claire managed to look up just long enough to go "mm, carvings" and then retreated back into her arms. Good job I had strict instructions to take lots of photos.

Heading back towards Taupo wasn't so bad because we were running with the waves. We passed another boat we'd considered going on, a sailing yacht called Barbary. Glad we didn't go with it - looked like they were having an even bumpier trip than us.

Got some awesome views of the Tongariro National Park and its beautiful mountains. The pics aren't so good, but trust me - it was amazing.

After we'd got off the boat and the skipper had checked that Claire was OK (bless him), we headed off up the road to Huka Falls which are apparently the most visited attraction in New Zealand. The place was indeed full of tourists, but the Falls were pretty cool. Behold, stupid photos.

We also got some photos from a lookout at the top of the hill heading out of Taupo.

And then we went to the hostel. Where there was a dog. Called Jess. She was cute.

"It was fine till I fell out the boat"

Motueka hasn't got a lot going for it, but the hostel was nice. We started off with a drive to Kaiteriteri, 20 minutes up the road. The sat-nav, we have discovered, really can't pronounce Maori place names. It is hilarious.

We claimed part of the beach at Kaiteriteri for New Grimsby, complete with flag. We're that cool.

We were actually in Kaiteriteri for kayaking. The last time I went kayaking, which was getting on for 15 years ago, I rammed myself repeatedly back onto the beach and had to be towed off by the instructor. We hoped this was going to be better.

Sophie, our guide, was brilliant. Amy ended up in the kayak with her while Claire and I went in the other. Which was fine until we discovered that the steering pedals weren't quite in the right place and we couldn't really turn properly. Claire also couldn't see past my head so my yelling "there's a rock, TURN!" wasn't helpful.

Anyways, it turned into Amy and the guide paddling serenely along and me and Claire paddling along in a desperate zig-zag behind them. And then the wind started to get up. Paddle harder!

A couple of hours later, having managed to paddle as far as Split Apple Rock as planned, we headed back to the beach. Everyone had acquired aches and pains of some description - blisters on thumbs comes to mind. Landing was fine, managed to paddle onto the beach. And then I stood up to get out of the boat. And a bloody big wave hit the back of the boat. Boat wobbled, I lost my balance and then I was on my arse in the sea. Sodden. Just next to that little boat ramp there:

As I'd got up, Claire in the back had started to take off her spray skirt, so of course when the wave came, she also got soaked. So there's the two of us, soaked and cold and Amy standing on the beach having hysterics. We sent her to get the car while we squelched to the nearest loos. Ugh. Other than that, kayaking was great.

Back in nice dry clothes, we raided the tiny shop for hot chocolate and headed off on the afternoon drive to Picton.

Stopped off at Pelorus Bridge on the way back. Sadly, there were no dwarves, hobbits or lovely lake-men. There was however this sign, which made us giggle.

Then we took a minor detour and went down the Queen Charlotte Drive from Havelock into Picton along the edge of the Marlborough Sounds. Such a beautiful drive, although Claire did have to take over the driving at one point because sitting in the back round all the twists and turns was making her ill.

The ferry was uneventful save for Claire's expected seasickness.

Wellington was windy. Very very windy. Lugging bags back from the car in that was not fun. Also, the hostel was very much an old Travelodge type place that'd been converted. Which meant an en suite bathroom. YAY!