Downunder 2001 Update 4

Auckland 06/05/2001

Finally here is update number four. I have to go back in my memory for this one. That is somewhere one month ago at Thoms landing near Kaitia were I stayed with a local guy called Marty. After dropped off by the Awesome Experience bus at Marty's place , which is al little house on the property of farmer Pete. After a nice sleep in this real remote area , Marty took me kayaking at Parengarenga harbour. Stopped at one of his favourite fishing spots. Caught a big Snapper and left all the "fishermen" in their little boats behind with a look "How he did that !?" (I am still asking me that too) Kayaked further to Coal point where we did a nice hike and spotted some "wild horses". We had a lunch and a little rest and tried to get closer to the horses. We planned to do an overnighting camping there later this week , but first we had to go back "home" to meet a french girl who was joining us the coming days. Back at Marty's place cooked my own caught Snapper and met Steph. Unfortunately it was bad weather that night and the mornig after. So everyone was a little bit depressed. Changed plans , no kayaking , too windy for that. Instead we went for a hike downhill at Cape Reinga where we were fishing from the cliffs. This was really a thrilling experience with all that rain and big waves. Luckily Marty supllied us the right and was a real good guide for fishing with this kind of weather. Guess what , we caught a lot of fish (See the pictures as proof). Even so much , that we had to thrown back a lot of the fish. Although the nice fishing day and the good feed after , I decided to head back to Auckland. Mart dropped off at the sand dunes and jumped on the awesome bus again. Still some crazy people went boogey boarding from dunes although it was very windy (and also sandy). Met a couple of nice people on the Awesome bus with was now full with people from Kontiki and Kiwi Experience. Stopped at several places like Cape Reinga (Saw it now in a misty and foggy view) and had a nice meal at New Zealands best Fish & Chips shop. Arrived at Paihia with a full belly and stayed this time at the "Saltwater lodge". This is really a nice hostel which was brand new and very friendly staff. I could imagine that Sarah (girl from England) would call her room her "home". After a nice shower and another bite of the smoke fish I brought with me from Marty's place , I went to the local pub Odeon , where I met Sarah and some others from the awesome bus. As suspected , next morning I left the smoked Kahawai in the fridge of the hostel. So couldn't please my new flatmates with nice smoked fish.