New Zealand: No. 43 part 5: Goodbye!

Watch Papillon IF you have the time. Not a bad movie, but can be quite tedious.

That DVD was recommended by the hostel guy, so that's how I spent my 2nd night at Peppertree.

So here's what happened on Day 3. I woke up feeling mighty pleased because the weather held up. The guy walking towards the sunrise is a Korean named Sun, another hostelite.

Tumultuous grey clouds making way for happy sunshine!

As fate would have had it, I circled this island later during the day.

Another view that caught my eye was the mushroom cloud that erupted from the distant mountain. In reality it was just very fascinating! :)

Unfortunately for me, even though the weather was looking steady, the dolphin trip was cancelled due to the rocky seas - and I was probably not going to get the chance to swim with 'em in 2-meter high tides. Disappointment aside, I figured that it had to be a reasonable challenge to get no. 43 ticked off my list...

So why not go for some sea kayaking? I don't recall having done this before, so I got myself acquainted with a nice chap named Dan who got me up to speed. It wasn't as simple as it looks due to fact that we were encountering 2 meter waves. First attempt...

...on the way...

...uh oh!...

...I was ever so grateful that Dan did not have the video camera working 'cos I got washed back to the shore and it wasn't pretty! There's a skill to outmaneuvering these beastly waves...which I didn't get to master because Dan gave me a boost the 2nd time around.

I was finally on my way for some more adventuring.

Let me give a piece of advice based on my experience in sea-kayaking. DO NOT underestimate the tide. At some point of my splashing around, there were some tricky moments where the sea could just take you wherever they pleased (towards anchored ships and rocky masses). My adrenaline just shot up when I saw myself taken further and further away from the bay towards the South Pacific Ocean. Furious paddling against the grain got me back on track, and I realized why they had to cancel the dolphin trip! My hard work was duly rewarded with a thrilling airborne surf to the shore :)

Here's a picture of Dan and I - a good friend to have especially when he's the wayfaring adventurer type of guy. I might give him a holler when he's done recuperating from his rotator cuff injury and ready to hit the summer surf spots.

Alas, it was closing time and I had to make my way back to Auckland. I'll remember what Dan told me when he translated the town's name of Paihia - it means "Good here". Sounded like he really meant it regardless of the translation.

Here's how the statues greeted me on a sunny day:

I departed at around noon, and within an hour or so arrived at a dreary sleepy town called Whangarei. Took the opportunity to grab lunch and surf the net at Esquires (a popular franchised coffee spot that even defeats Starbucks in terms of territorial space). By 3pm I was back on the road.

The long Queen's Birthday weekend was the main reason why cops were visible every 10km from Paihia all the way to Highway 1.

These next few pictures are dedicated to sheep lovers out there (Larry, Jason, Fenny are the honourable mentions :) )

(this one spotted me stalking it)