Left Auckland day before yesterday and hopped on the Auckland-Paihia bus at like 6am. Stop at various honey farms and pituresque sights along the way. Sign up sheets circulate for tons of tours, bungee jumping, sky diving, speed boating, nature walks, etc. etc.
I sign up for a dolphin swim and once we reach Paihia I go directly from the bus to the marina, do not pass Go, do not collect $200. Me and another German girl from the bus head out and air cruising around the Bay of Islands on a sick little catamaran ran by a young pilot chick named Grace and an older stewardess chick named Moppy who has a gold tooth.
Let's be clear here: Moppy is really really into dolphins. She encourages get on our tummies and stick our heads out over the bow so we can see them swim under the boat and hear all the clicks and whistles... and lovingly schreeches "Hello muffin!! Oh you cheeky muppet!" to every critter swimming past.
My two favourite things about dolphins:
1) Like humans they have sex for fun and in their society it's totally cool to be girl-on-girl, guy-on-guy, dolphin on a bit of seaweed - whatever.
2) Individual dolphins float around to different pods, flipping in and out of different groups and travelling mad distances all the way. If they don't have a baby, they just do whatever they want. :-D
After the dolphin day, me and German Jasmine check into the hostel and proceed to lounge out in the hot tub. Now don't be too jealous here, this hot tub is only big enough to cram in about 5 small German chicks or 3 English dudes, depending how you look at it. We then enjoy the $10 bbq at the hostel where we eat enourmous yummy steaks, sausages, coleslaw, baked potatoes... pretty much more calories than I've consumed over the past 2 days. nom nom nom
Get on the piss with everyone, including a Welsh dude who looks eerily similar to Freddie Mercury. I met the owner of the hostel, Bobbi, back at the bar in Auckland and she hooked me up with mad drinks. Her and the bar chick need to do a Famil. on one of the local sailing trips (get to know the tour so they can recommend it) and they invite me to come along on Sunday - sweet!!
Spent yesterday doing the Cape Reinga tour - a cruise up to the very top tip of NZ with a rad Maouri driver. Pissing rain in the morning but it makes for a pituresque tromp through the forest to check out the massive local trees they make the dugout canoes from. Cruise up to the Cape to see the Tasman Sea and the Pacific Ocean crashing into each other, it's sunny by then and you could totally see the two different colours of water mixing. Head to another gorgeous beach for lunch and a frolick in the waves. I see a couple dead blue bottles washed up in the surf.... :-S
After lunch we head to the dunes to go Sandboarding. Those from Black Creek will appreciate this sport which is similar to Dirtboarding, only these dunes are fucking MASSIVE and you go down face first REAL FAST. Many fellow boarders come away with sandburn from spectacular wipeouts.
Rip through a creek and down to 90 mile beach in the bus, see Seals chilling out, dead sharks washed up on shore, dudes fishing. Get out and dig for clams called Piu Pius, get a whole fucking bucket within like 5 minutes, unbelieveable. The guide busts a couple open to eat raw, me and a Japanese chick were the only ones who got down on it though. Have a nice winding cruise back down the point, stop for fish and chips and eat my weight in marinated mussells.
Back to the hostel, back to the hot tub, back to the pub where it's like glow stick night or some shit and they're painting everyone in tribal designs with neon black light paint. A couple of the bartenders from Auckland roll in and things get properly out of hand. :-)
Chilling out today, probably going sailing with the chicks tomorrow, then driving out to Auckland to crash there for a night before heading out to Mercury Bay where you can dig holes in the sand and make your own little geothermal bathtub. It's a hard life...
No comments:
Post a Comment