Thursday we were lucky enough to be invited by a neighbor on his speedboat, here it's legal to be in the boat when you're driving so me and my sisters had a great time! We got a 'Tekki Tour' of the local coastline doing a couple of short walks and learning a bit of history as we went, plus we saw seals and I got to sit on the front of the boat going at high speed... s'all good! Wanting to contact home I decided to try out hitch-hiking (in New Zealand everywhere but the cities you have Hitch-Hiker stops, not bus stops) and I have to say it went quite well, didn't have to wait more than 5 minutes and I met this random Australian couple who were very interesting to talk to for my 15km journey. So I caught up with people at home making me miss people even more (and I do miss you all a flippin lot) which I soon cured with a read through the Quotes Book, cheered me up nicely! We then spent the evening on the beach making a bonfire, barbequing sausages, toasting marshmallows and singing songs to acoustic guitar... good timmeeeesss!
Friday (New Years Eve) we got up very early to go kiyaking round the coast! Which was great fun (if a bit tiring) and lounged on beaches for several hours enjoying the sunshine. When we got back packing began as on New Year's Day (which we get 13 hours before you.. mwahahaha) we start life living in our campervan travelling south! In the afternoon all the girls (being lightweights) fell asleep whilst the lads headed off on an epic adventure to Wharariki Beach, the most famous on the island and for good reason! Winds whip across the beach forming wild patterns, standing on the spot for more than 10 seconds had a pile of sand forming around your foot! There were seals basking in the sunshine but we made sure we steered well clear... they ARE kinda big.. Then we attempted to cross the island to the Western side by following this endless gravel road.. we drove for like 40 minutes and didn't even get close, but the sights were spectaular so we didn't mind particularly and we had to get to The Mussell Inn before 9pm to get food.
So yeh we had New Year at this hippie place with a band called Black Sand Diva playing... they were okay, but nothing particularly special. No one seemed to have an accurate clock so the entire place had already been through one countdown before the band decided to do one of their own leading to much confusion as to whether it really was 2011 yet... all good fun! Oh and this couple were dancing salsa (if only you had been there Toni we coulda shown em how it's done!) It was a good night although it was the most mellow and sober (we had a few but not many) New Years Eve I have had in a few years
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