As expected yesterday was a pretty uneventful day. We wandered into the town centre to catch our bus and didnt have much to do so spent it on the wharf watching the sea. What did happen was 5 StingRay turned up in the wharf and came right up to the very edge of the beach. Neither of us had seen them before and there were small ones (50cm or so wide) up to one that was a meter and a half I would estimate from wing tip to wing tip. We also had to defend someones lunch from seagulls. I am sad to say that our excitement for the Rays did not rub off on everyone. A blustering american lady seemed completely non plussed by the opportunity to see them like they regularly wandered into her sitting room uninvited on a regular basis and always put their boots on the best sofa cushions. Ho Hum, can't please everyone.
I wish I could say that the bus journey was short and uneventful but it was late, long and we had an alcoholic heavily pregnant bail jumper sat behind us. In times like these I resort to Sherlock Holmes and finished 3 books on the journey. Faye fell asleep as much as she could.
Happily we made it back by 6pm and Nik met us at the top of the hill (mountain with suitcases) and took us back to a lovely meal and a lot of cider. Faye is sun burned to the point of being crispy and Ive brought in a team of out-of-work students to come in and waft her with a large fan until shes feeling better.
Today was a great day, as we took a 1.5 hour trip on a boat to the island reserve of Tiri Tiri. This is an island where the rock itself is over 200 million years old. The next land mass next to it (mainland north island) is only 20 million years old. So its not going anywhere in a hurry. We were taken on a guided walk around the island to look at the reintroduced and protected birds that were now living on the island. We saw Tui (lots of Tui), Saddlebacks, North Island Robins, 1 Riffleman, Whitehead, stitchbird, read headed paraketes, a little Morepork Owl and Greg the Takahe (think black turkey with a beak like a vice and a bad temperament). They were all very sweet, especially the owl and Greg. We avoided sun burn and continued our tradition of picking up old ladies*.
The island was a lot like being in Jurassic park but without the terror. It was a great day and has been topped off by more dinner and an abundant supply of crushed apple cider (and beer for the lady). Time for a film whilst Nik does some course work editing and tomorrow we are going to have something that I believe is called a "Lie In".
Coromandel on the weekend. It promises to be absurdly beautiful and apparently the scenery can cause spontaneous applause. We shall let you know.
Love you all and I am working on the comments and followers issues already pointed out to us.
Tui and Kiwi (currently checking her eyes for light leaks, 'no Im not sleeping honest!').
* for those of you unfamiliar with our last trip, we have a tendency to talk to pretty much everyone, this usually ends up with us either rescuing or entertaining little old ladies for considerable amounts of time. We dont mind this as we quite like old people. They are friendly and often carry a large assortment of boiled sweets. Today I was given $2 for allowing the guide to use my phone for the octegenarian who couldnt cope with any more climbing and needed the jeep to come and collect her (it went into the reserve charity box). We then spent the boat ride home chatting to them.
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