So after a mammoth 2 hours of sleep, we awoke and packed our bags to check out of the brilliant ACB hostel. Rather embarrassingly the 2 blokes of the reception were the 2 I encountered the night before. I, being under the influence I must add, managed to lock myself out of my bedroom not once but twice during the night whilst on the way to the bathroom. Instead of knocking and waking up the other 7 people, I had to get the lift to reception and get the spare key, usually this wouldn't be too bad, but I was only wearing boxers at the time. Ok at 3 an the morning when its quiet, but different at 7 in the morning! The receptionist said not to worry as most people lock themselves out after a big night out, but most remember not to do it again. Well I made their morning anyway!
Never one to break a habit, I was last on the bus, although my excuse of "Fiji time" didn't quite work, "I'll leave you behind next time" was the reply from Dallas, our driver for the next 2 weeks.
After leaving the Kiwi Experience office in Auckland we headed up to the panoramic view of Tamaki Makaurau, (Auckland Region) [see photo on last entry] from the top of Maungawhau (Mt Eden), one of NZ's 50 dormant volcanoes.
50 km's South we pulled into a little town called Thames, which happens to sit next to the river Thames. Named by the world explorer Captain Cook as it resembled England's River Thames, original ey? Not the most interesting of towns to be fair so we jumped back onto the bus and drove a further 100kns to the picturesque area known as Cathedral Cove.
It was here me and Dan, the only people off the bus, took part in our first 'Extreme' sport, Sea Kayaking, well maybe not extreme, but it makes it sound a bit more interesting. We had both got massive tax rebates the previous week in Fiji, (Dan 600 and me 1100 quid) so we thought we'd try everything that was on offer.
We jumped into our 2 man canoe and started to eagerly paddle out over the waves to the carmer sea on our horizon. It took a while to get used to paddling in time together, but it wasn't long till we were cruising along at a pace Steven Redgrave would have been proud of. Unfortunately the weather was a bit overcast so it wasn't the warmest out on the sea. It also didn't help when the canoe starting to leak water through the supposedly water tight seals! Gladly it was only 30 mins before we pulled into Cathedral Cove to enjoy an excellently made mocha by our guide.
Although we enjoyed the activity, we found it hard to reach the same enthusiasm as our guide that did this day in day out 6 months of the year. True the scenery was amazing, but after a while it did start looking the same! We kept ourselves amused by always making sure we were at the front of the pack, much to the annoyance of the Swedish couple, that for some reason were trying eager to lead.
Back on dry land we were driven back to Whitanga, a popular summer holiday destination for Kiwi's, but a Ghost town at this time of year. Before we arrived, we made a quick detour to a viewpoint our guide thought we might be interested in seeing. It was where Captain Cook observed Mercury one evening in 1769. Being the ever interesting explorer he was, he came up with the name Mercury Bay, now surely he could have thought of a name a little bit more interesting?!
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