She's a Lady

Note:  New pictures in Bay of Islands Album

Never made it to Leigh today.  The sky was crystal clear when we woke up.  We immediately decided to take advantage of the situation and find ourselves a sailboat for the day.  Made a quick call to our ATCers in Leigh.  They had dinner planned for us, which was very sweet - they will put it on hold until tomorrow night.  Called up to our present landlady and asked if we could stay one more night in her wonderful paradise studio.  "Sure!"  Got a last minute booking aboard She's a Lady, 40ft sailing yacht, leaving the dock at 10am. Seeing as it was almost 9am by then, we gobbled down some breakfast, packed up a backpack and headed to town. We were sailing with 4 other people.  Two couples from England, one couple was residing in Auckland for the year and her sister and boyfriend came over for a visit.  They were twenty-somethings but we didn't hold that against them. They were really good kids and fun to be with.  One couple will be coming to the US in the summer and when they had visited before, they enjoyed Boston the best.  They plan to return, so we gave them our info if they wanted to crash for a night or two.

Glen, the captain, is a nice guy who handled the boat solo.  Geoff did play first mate from time to time to help with the steering.  We had some good wind going over to a small island for our picnic lunch and water activities.  Glen anchored and G & I took the kayaks and went out to investigate the blowhole on the side of a smaller island formation.  The winds picked up and the clouds came over soon.  Didn't want to go out too far, so we turned around and beached the kayaks.  Walked down the beach for a ways, and I came upon my first paua shell (abalone) - very pearly inside.  This is a real treasure to find.  We started getting sand blasted so we all gathered up by the trees on the grass for our picnic.  After lunch, Geoff & I hiked up the hill to get the NZ vistas of the day.  And, of course, to see our daily sheep quota.  We have not missed a day in this country where we do not see sheep.   Came down the big hill, donned some snorkels and thought we would snorkel our way back to the boat.  Unfortunately, we didn't bring our own gear and these snorkels were so filled with sand they just didn't work.  We would up swimming to the boat instead.  Which was fine.  The sun was out again and the water was nice and warm.

Had a great sail back - exhausted by the kayaking, hiking, and swimming, we sat along the sides and enjoyed the ride. We are now contemplating going out for dinner for our last evening in Paihia.  Last night we stayed in and had steak and salad. 

Just got back from dinner at 35degrees South and dessert at Al Fresco.  Had an Irish coffee in honor of St. Pat's Day and G finally tried a NZ favorite, sticky date pudding - quite good, not at all like it sounds.

Next time... Leigh, I promise