The Coast

The past week or so has been jam packed with activities. Im gonna try and catch you up on them, I could write for hours on each but ill try and keep it brief.
On Wednesday the 18th we did my favorite thing of the whole trip and Mandys second favorite. We went on an all inclusive overnite cruise. It was 180 NZ dollars. It was on a boat called The Rock and it used to be a ferry but was rebuilt specifically for this purpose. There were 15 customers, half the capacity, and 4 crew. They were our age, sooo nice and easy to talk to. Ir really made the trip. We left at 5pm, cruised 2 hours to our mooring. There where two full bars on the bottom, a pool table, open back deck,and upstairs bedrooms and showers. We had a shooting contest on the way out which i got second in. I was pretty upset cuz the winner got a beer! When we got to dropped anchor it was in the bay of the biggest island in the area. We fished for Snapper and Mandy caught the first fish, also good for a free beer. We fished for a few hours drinking beer and watching the sunset against the islands. The best scenery of the trip so far in my opinion. I caught the second fish of my life but it was a few cm shy of being a keeper. After fishing they cooked us a steak dinner (real food is amazing!) Mink, one of the crew, volunteered me to give a predinner speech. After dinner we went nite kayaking around 10 pm. There is phosphorescence in this area so with each paddle stroke it looked like there were hundreds of blue sparks around it. We paddled around the bay in the dark and headed back to the boat, had a quick swim in the freeing water, and had a beer around the on deck campfire. The next day we got up for the sunrise and then ate breakfast. They took us on a walk on the big island we were docked at. We saw some endangered birds then set off to another island for another walk and more beach time. So far everywhere we go in NZ the scenery is great and this trip definitely had some highlights. We did some snorkeling, which didn't compare to the great barrier reef and then did some kayaking in the light of day. on the way back we had the sushi that was minutes away from being alive and uni(urchin eggs) that was only seconds, it was quite good.
We had made an American friend and she bummed a ride with us back to Auckland and we stayed with her and her friends, they were great.
Over the next two days we went to a couple beaches on the Cormandel Peninsula. One was Hot Water beach and it actually had a hot spring under the sand. So we joined about a hundred others, rented a shovel and went down to the beach to dig our own hot tub in the breaking surf. It was awesome. In some spots the water was too hot to sit in, but it felt great and we spent the day lounging in the pools. The following day we went to the very famous Cathedral cove which had a huge archway way leading through a sandstone cliff leading from one beach to the other, Great views. Sorry im so rushed right now but theres an old librarian yelling at me to get out of the library. Ill catch u up as soon as possible!