Day 3 - 3rd of January
We went to bed thinking we had a filled up the SD card on my camera; we are still up at 6am so we had time in the morning to get up and empty the card before setting out to go bone carving and to the Lost Spring Spa. Disaster though! The card was actually corrupt and was stopping us getting at our pictures, working this out soaked up a couple of precious hours that we should have been using to update the blog! Karen hit the internet for a computer shop to get a new card, so we could worry about getting pictures off the camera later. We then picked up a message from my mum saying that the Kayaking people wanted us a day early because of bad weather moving in (it's raining now as I write this, but I don't think that would have stopped me kayaking 😁 ).
We arrived at the bone carving around 0945; having spoken to Roland the day before, he said come at 1000 no appointment necessary. There were a group of kids just starting and Roland wanted us to wait until a bit later, but we had to be done with the bone carving and off to Hahei beach by 1230 to get there for 1330. In fact the kayak tour wanted us to phone at 1130 to confirm whether they were even going to run the tour! (The sun was starting to come out at this point, and it looked like it was going to be a great day). Bone carving was a Christmas present to us from Karen's siblings.
Karen persuaded Roland to get us going on the bone carving, it's delicate work and it's a bit like trying to spread butter with a chisel. Karen chose to make a fish hook and I chose to make a Koru.
We went to bed thinking we had a filled up the SD card on my camera; we are still up at 6am so we had time in the morning to get up and empty the card before setting out to go bone carving and to the Lost Spring Spa. Disaster though! The card was actually corrupt and was stopping us getting at our pictures, working this out soaked up a couple of precious hours that we should have been using to update the blog! Karen hit the internet for a computer shop to get a new card, so we could worry about getting pictures off the camera later. We then picked up a message from my mum saying that the Kayaking people wanted us a day early because of bad weather moving in (it's raining now as I write this, but I don't think that would have stopped me kayaking 😁 ).
We arrived at the bone carving around 0945; having spoken to Roland the day before, he said come at 1000 no appointment necessary. There were a group of kids just starting and Roland wanted us to wait until a bit later, but we had to be done with the bone carving and off to Hahei beach by 1230 to get there for 1330. In fact the kayak tour wanted us to phone at 1130 to confirm whether they were even going to run the tour! (The sun was starting to come out at this point, and it looked like it was going to be a great day). Bone carving was a Christmas present to us from Karen's siblings.
Karen persuaded Roland to get us going on the bone carving, it's delicate work and it's a bit like trying to spread butter with a chisel. Karen chose to make a fish hook and I chose to make a Koru.
We finished up with the bone carving and called the Kayak tour, they wanted us half an our early to make the most of the (now) fantastic weather. We raced back to Sailors Rest (our Airbnb) and had a quick lunch of Vegemite on bread (Jono) and Marmite for Karen. Then back in the car and off to the beach!
Arriving at Hahei, with 15 minutes to go before we were due on the water, we hoped we were close to where we were meant to be; folks guiding cars were telling us there was no space at the beach parking and we just needed to follow the footpath down to the beach from this carpark. We were hoping we were close to the kayaking tour start and that we would have time to check what we could store with at the tour base, so we packed in haste and set off to find the kayak tour. We got a bit lost, the place isn't great for sign posts, luckily we could hear, but not see the sea, and eventually we hit the beach. Spotting kayaks down the end of the beach we set off towards them, of course they were the wrong kayaks so we had to double back and head the other way. Fortunately the 1pm kick off was more of an aspiration than a hard dead line; we found our tour and got kitted up. First time for either of us paddling a tandem Kayak! And of course we had too much gear with us and the kayak tour had no where to store our excess gear (spare camera batteries don't mix well with salt water). Fortunately we had some dry bags and the guides had some dry bags and we let some stuff (like spare clothes) get wet. Thanks Mum and Dad for this trip for Christmas! The tour was fantastic and the view spectacular.
Arriving at Hahei, with 15 minutes to go before we were due on the water, we hoped we were close to where we were meant to be; folks guiding cars were telling us there was no space at the beach parking and we just needed to follow the footpath down to the beach from this carpark. We were hoping we were close to the kayaking tour start and that we would have time to check what we could store with at the tour base, so we packed in haste and set off to find the kayak tour. We got a bit lost, the place isn't great for sign posts, luckily we could hear, but not see the sea, and eventually we hit the beach. Spotting kayaks down the end of the beach we set off towards them, of course they were the wrong kayaks so we had to double back and head the other way. Fortunately the 1pm kick off was more of an aspiration than a hard dead line; we found our tour and got kitted up. First time for either of us paddling a tandem Kayak! And of course we had too much gear with us and the kayak tour had no where to store our excess gear (spare camera batteries don't mix well with salt water). Fortunately we had some dry bags and the guides had some dry bags and we let some stuff (like spare clothes) get wet. Thanks Mum and Dad for this trip for Christmas! The tour was fantastic and the view spectacular.
We paddled up the coast with our guide telling us about the rocks and caves and the wild life reserve that has been established around Cathedral cove due to over fishing, and he told us about the Maori using the local beach to source stone for tools; one of the coves we passed was a source of semi precious gem stones.
We got to Cathedral cove, and we had a half hour break while our guide made us a quick coffee. And by made us a coffee, I mean he took orders (Flat white, a long black, 2 cappuccino's and a mocha) while we went for a swim and to take some pictures.
Back in the boats and out to an island created by mother nature in the shape of a tribal chiefs nose. The Islands are home to long tailed bats (they eat fish) and has had a breading group of lizards introduced to it to try to conserve the lizards. You're not allowed to land on the islands! No idea what the penalty is.
On the way back we headed for open ocean, and with the wind behind us we rafted up and did a bit of sailing (the guide took some pictures so we might revise this a bit latter with some more pictures). We hit the beach and got our gear together, said our farewell to the guide (Tom?) and headed back to the car, covered in sand and a bit tired but also totally exhilarated!
We got back to the car, and headed back to the Sailors Rest, sun still shinning.
Quick shower, and I booked us a table at the Squid in town for dinner. Seafood chowder for 2, Salmon and crispy rice, followed by banana rolls and Ice cream for Karen and I had a knickerbocker. All washed down with a local un-oaked Chardonnay for me and a Pinot Gris for Karen.
On the way back we headed for open ocean, and with the wind behind us we rafted up and did a bit of sailing (the guide took some pictures so we might revise this a bit latter with some more pictures). We hit the beach and got our gear together, said our farewell to the guide (Tom?) and headed back to the car, covered in sand and a bit tired but also totally exhilarated!
Quick shower, and I booked us a table at the Squid in town for dinner. Seafood chowder for 2, Salmon and crispy rice, followed by banana rolls and Ice cream for Karen and I had a knickerbocker. All washed down with a local un-oaked Chardonnay for me and a Pinot Gris for Karen.
Then back to the Sailors rest after a walk through town. We got back to discover that they'd had rain at the Sailor Rest while we'd dodged it all again!
I then had to have a crack at getting at the photos on my card, this is where our technology started to die, first the keyboard on my tablet stopped working, then my card reader that I was trying to do the recovery with stopped. All very frustrating. I managed to get most of our pictures back and we've stashed the card so we can do a better job of recovery some other time. Only day 3 and we've blown up a USB charger, killed our only real keyboard, lost an SD card (and we didn't bring spares) and Karen's gear fit crashed and so she lost a couple of days fitness data.
I then had to have a crack at getting at the photos on my card, this is where our technology started to die, first the keyboard on my tablet stopped working, then my card reader that I was trying to do the recovery with stopped. All very frustrating. I managed to get most of our pictures back and we've stashed the card so we can do a better job of recovery some other time. Only day 3 and we've blown up a USB charger, killed our only real keyboard, lost an SD card (and we didn't bring spares) and Karen's gear fit crashed and so she lost a couple of days fitness data.
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