Adventuring.

Friday, October 17
South Island: Picton to Kaikoura

We woke up early on Friday to shower, pack up and check out. The showering in particular went quickly (for me, at least), as it was difficult to find a shower that had hot water. We left our bags awkwardly in the hallway while we went out to explore Picton.

Picton, I can tell you, really doesn’t require too much exploring, however. I’d compare it to Ada, except remove the University and add in the ocean and more tourist shops. We wandered around for a while, popping into just about every souvenir store we could find. (This would be a continuing trend throughout our trip.) It was slightly chilly, but the sun was out, much to our surprise.

At Andrea’s insistence, we had lunch at Gusto’s, a small cafe. Andrea and her dad ate there when they were in the south, and Andrea couldn’t stop going on about their ham sandwiches and museli bars. I ended up going for the eggs and bacon on toast, which did not disappoint.

We headed back to the Villa to collect our bags around 12:15, then hitched a ride to the ferry terminal in time to catch our 1 p.m. bus to Kaikoura. The 2 1/2 –hour bus ride went by fairly quickly. Part of the drive was along the coast. Though the weather was mostly cloudy, there was a patch of blue sky in the distance that held my interest and made me hope that maybe we’d get some decent weather on this trip afterall (the weather forecasts didn’t look all that promising).

When we got to Kaikoura, we walked into “town” while Andrea called Judy, the owner of the Brook House B&B, where we’d be staying. She picked us up outside the grocery store and took us to her quaint B&B nearly at the foot of the Kaikoura Ranges, the northernmost reach of the Southern Alps. With all the cloud cover, however, the mountains couldn’t be seen.

Judy showed us to our room when we arrived, then introduced us to Louis the poodle and Bruce Willis the senile cat. Somehow, I knew we were going to like it there. Judy then suggested how we could spend the rest of our afternoon and evening. She suggested hiking out near the seal colony, followed by dinner in town. She even offered to drive us and pick us up. Now that’s what I call service!

The first stop was the peninsula seal colony. On our drive out there, Judy told us a little about herself, and about Kaikoura. Kaikoura, a small town of less than 3,000, began as a whaling outpost back when whaling was still legal. Because of the underwater trench just off the coach, there was always an abundance of whales, namely the popular “right whale.” Today, though whaling is illegal, whales are still the source of Kaikoura’s main revenue. These days, Kaikoura is known as New Zealand’s premier spot for whale watching. Judy works for Whale Watch Kaikoura, which is the company we had booked a whale watch through for the next morning.

Judy dropped us off at the peninsula and told us to give her a call when we wanted picked up. It had stopped raining, at least, and a brisk wind hinted that maybe the skies would clear up after all.

We started out by climbing the path that lead to the top of the cliffs overlooking the ocean. We followed a worn path made, we guessed, by the farmer who owned the sheep we could see on the other side of a barbed-wire fence. We followed the path along the cliff’s edge for a bit, stopping every now and then to take a picture. Once we’d had our fill of windy cliffs, we headed back down to the mainland. It was low tide, so we picked our way along the rocks and reef jutting out from shore.

We saw some cool birds (including a big blue one with a really long orange beak), and a few lazy fur seals napping on the rocks. Being brave (or perhaps slightly crazy?) like we are, we all crawled up close to one of the seals to get a scared-looking picture as he went right on napping. Andrea also performed a personal science experiment on a mollusk. And when I say experiment, I mean that she basically killed it by poking at it with a rock, and, once she realized it was dead, continued dissecting it. Poor Milford Mollusk.

The tide soon started creeping in, but luckily we realized it before we were trapped out on the reef. We returned to shore and gave Judy a call to pick us up. By the time she arrived, that blue patch of sky I’d seen from the bus earlier was right over top of us, and even the mountains were starting to emerge from the clouds.

Since it was starting to clear up, Judy decided we needed to see the town from the lookout. She drove us up to the Kaikoura water tower, which also serves as the lookout. The tips of the snow-covered mountains were just peeking out from about the clouds, and the sun was out, making for a fairly impressive view.

After getting a few photos, Judy dropped us off in town again, giving us directions on how to get back to the B&B on foot. Since the weather had cleared up and we didn’t have large bags with us, we didn’t mind having to walk 20 minutes or so. We had dinner at Adelphi, then took a leisurely walk back to Brook House.

The weather continued to clear until the mountains were fully visible on the near horizon, just in time for sunset. We made a short detour on our way back at a playground complete with fake rubber spider web. That sort of thing isn’t something you just walk past!

We got back to the B&B just in time to catch the last pink rays of sunset reflecting off the snowy mountains. The view from Judy’s back porch was amazing; it made me very jealous.

We spent the evening in Judy’s living room, watching TV and eating fresh chocolate muffins in front of the fireplace with two other guests and Louis. It was relaxing, and probably one of the friendliest places we stayed while in NZ. I definitely recommend it!

So it begins.

Thursday, October 16
South Island: Wellington to Picton

After finishing up my last assignment and packing and repacking my duffel bag for 10 days’ worth of travel, it was off to the railway station. Andrea and I caught a bus from Courtenay Place and arrived at Wellington Station with plenty of time to spare before the Interislander Ferry shuttle would come to pick us up. Jamie, however, wasn’t quite as successful. She ended up getting a taxi last-minute and meeting us at the ferry terminal. Good thing, too, since it kind of would have been a downer if she’d been left behind in Wellington.

Our 6:25 ferry ended up being delayed roughly 20 minutes, so we just hung out in the terminal until it was time to board. Once we got onboard the Arahura, the middle-sized of the Interislander ships, we made straight for the lounge. We sprawled out in front of one of the large windows, grabbed some dinner from the food court one deck below, and had a pleasant ride. The seas were moderate, and the gentle rocking coupled with the Dramamine I took nearly put me to sleep. But I had Jamie’s insistences of “I’m gonna throw up. I am going to puke” to keep me awake.

We arrived in a slightly soggy Picton close to 10 p.m., where we were met by a van from The Villa, the hostel where we were staying. The Villa is a cute blue house with corresponding cabins run by a friendly German family. We checked in, then were handed some hot apple crumble and shown to our cabin room. The room was a bit chilly a bare, but we didn’t really mind.

After cleaning our plates, discovering where all the showers and toilets were located, and briefly going over our plans for the next day, we went to sleep.

They call him Flipper, Flipper, faster than lightning...

Sunday, October 12
Queen Charlotte Sounds

I woke up Sunday with a sore neck, but feeling well-rested. Since I’d come in so late, Jamie and Katie were already asleep, and had claimed the bottom bunks. Meaning it would have been impossible for me to climb into a make up one of the top bunks without making a racket. So I just slept on the couch. It happens.

We were all up and ready to leave by 9, when we were picked up by Dolphin Watch Ecotours. We piled into the dolphin-watching boat, and headed back out into the Sounds. It was another chilly, but sunny morning, and the water was calm. I don’t think we could have had more perfect weather for this trip.

On our way out to Ship Cove, we encountered our first pod of dolphins. They were Dusky Dolphins, the most common breed in NZ waters. They were an active bunch, and hung around with our boat for some time, darting here and there while we all snapped hundreds of photos. Even a lone fur seal joined in the fray at one point. One of our guides said it’s not uncommon for a seal to hang out with the dolphins – it’s easier to get food that way, apparently.

We idled for about 20 minutes, watching the dolphins. It really was amazing to see how gracefully they move through the water – they make it look so effortless! But eventually we had to move on.

Along the way to Ship Cove, our guides pointed out all the sea and bird life they could spot along the way. And, at the front of the boat, one of them was constantly on the lookout for more dolphins with a pair of binoculars. We saw a lot of birds on our trip. Mostly shearwaters, I think, but also a King Shag. Shags (we might know them better as cormorants) live all over, but the King Shag is very rare. So rare, in fact, that it’s only found in the Marlborough Sounds in NZ. Pretty cool!

We stopped at Ship Cove for about half an hour to stretch our legs and learn a little about the area. Captain Cook named it when he landed there in 1770, and visited the site five times throughout his life. There’s a big monument dedicated to him there. Also at Ship Cove I saw my first Weka! Wekas are another breed of native NZ bird. They are flightless, and resemble what I imagine would result if you crossed a kiwi with a chicken. They were apparently in the running with the kiwi as NZ’s national bird, though the kiwi eventually won. I’m not sure which I like better… the wekas are certainly more friendly!

Once we got back onto the boat, we headed back in the direction of Picton. Along the way, we ran into another pod of Dusky Dolphins. This one was a much smaller, relaxed pod, and they drifted lazily around the boat for a bit while we watched. Eventually they lost interest, however, and we had to set off again.

We floated around a salmon farm, complete with fat fur seals sunning themselves and hoping for an easy meal. And, just before we got back to Picton, we saw one more group of dolphins. There were only three in this group: one Dusky, and two Bottlenoses! The bottlenoses were a mother a son, and were so much bigger than the duskies! After seeing the small, sleek duskies all day, it was a bit of a shock when the mother bottlenose drifted out in front of our boat!

Eventually we made it back to Picton, where we immediately boarded the ferry bound for Wellington. I spent this ferry ride indoors, mostly just talking with Katie and Jamie over a late lunch. The ride back was fairly smooth, though the rocking of the large boat coupled with the Dramamine I had taken only served to make me very sleepy. But I’ll take it.

What time does Wee Willy Winkie run through the Sounds?

Saturday, October 11
Queen Charlotte Sounds

The next exciting thing to write about is a weekend outing Jayne planned for us international kids to the Queen Charlotte Sounds. We (about a dozen of us, including Katie who Jayne invited along with us) met up at Massey at 7:30 a.m., and loaded up the shuttles that would take us to the Interislander Ferry terminal down on the waterfront.

The morning was chilly with a rather biting wind, but the blue sky overhead kind of made up for it. We were aboard the largest ferry in the fleet, the Kaitaki, and the ride was relatively smooth despite the wind. Even though it was cold and windy, I spent most of the three-hour journey on the top deck, watching as we navigated the Cook Strait. Jen and I had a nice chat on deck about our time in New Zealand, and how weird it will be to head back home.

We arrived in Picton right on schedule, disembarked the ferry, and immediately clambered onto another, smaller, boat piloted by our hiking guides for the day, Joe and Steve. After handing around lunches, they took us to Mistletoe Bay so that we could briefly drop off our things and get into our hiking gear. Then it was back into the boat, destination Anakiwa, another bay nestled in the Marlborough Sounds.

It was from Anakiwa that we began our four-hour hike along the Queen Charlotte Track. We wove our way along an uneven trail, through native bush and moss-covered beech forest. Shafts of sunlight filtered down through the silver fern here and there as we made our way steadily uphill.

Halfway through the hike we reached a lookout. We were given a 20-minute break to rehydrate and take in the Sounds sprawling out below us. It was a pretty awesome sight on a day like that.

After that, it was more hiking. Far more hiking that I really cared to do, to be honest. It was fun for the first two hours. But after that, all I could think about was putting my feet up somewhere and getting out of my sweaty clothes.

We eventually made our way back to Mistletoe Bay, after a solid four and a half hours out in the native NZ bush. We all chose cabins, Jamie, Katie and I claiming the one that overlooked the bay. After discarding our shoes, the three of us made our way down to the boat dock to test out the water. Jamie and Katie were convinced they were going to go swimming – until they stuck their toes in the freezing cold water, that is.

Scratching the idea of a dip, we headed back to the cabins, hoping that dinner was not far behind. It turned out Ash (one of Massey’s tech gurus and an American expatriate) had finished dinner 20 minutes earlier but hadn’t bothered to tell anyone. Needless to say, after our long hike, word travelled quickly.

Tacos have never tasted so good in my entire life. I ate two, followed by chips, followed by pavlova. I’m sure that between all of us, we ate enough food to feed at least 50 people. Okay, perhaps that’s exaggerating a bit… but we did eat a lot.

After dinner, we discovered the board games. Jamie and Katie wandered off to have some roomie bonding time, while a group of us played Scrabble. Ash kind of kicked our asses, and then admitted that he’s no longer allowed to play with his friends because he always annihilates them. Jen and I came in second, though, so go us!

Following Scrabble, we broke out the Trivial Pursuit. The game began with me, Josh, Denise, Una and Melinda, but Una and Melinda soon tired of the game and wandered off. The remaining three of us proceeded to play the most epic game of Trivial Pursuit ever. And this wasn’t just any old game of Trivial Pursuit. No. This was a New Zealand-based Trivial Pursuit from the early ‘90s. It was beyond amazing.

None of us had even had any wine, but we were bringing each other to tears with laughter on a regular basis. Part of it was because we were doing so badly, part of it was because we were exhausted, and part of it was because we just wanted to have fun with it. Some things involved? Wee Willy Winky running through the town, Donald Duck, cygnets and syphilis (and Josh deciding his child was going to have both words in its name, along with Aloycius, and hopefully have a lisp), and watermelon seeds. And those were just the questions!

I don’t even remember who won. All I know was packing up, in tears and with my abs aching from all the laughing, around 11 p.m. Josh was tempted to steal the game because, as he said, “I think I love it,” and Denise and I stealing the cards with our favorite questions on them.

What a night.

A few words.

Since I’m behind with all this blogging, I’m not going to go day-by-day and bore you to death. I will only tell you the good things. That being said, this needs to be shared:

First of all, the bucket fountain on Cuba Mall has been dismantled. Sad face!

Secondly, on Friday of that next week (Oct. 10, if you need a date), I was walking down Courtenay Place in search of sunscreen and toilet paper, when I noticed an odd sight coming towards me on the sidewalk. Now, remember, this is Courtenay Place, possibly one of the busiest streets in Wellington.

Walking down the sidewalk was a woman openly breastfeeding her baby. I’m not talking about discreetly breastfeeding, where the baby’s head and her boob were covered with a nice little blanket with bunnies on it. Oh no, everything was just hangin’ out, bouncing around as she strolled down the sidewalk. I wanted to do a double take, but really didn’t want to see it again.

Then again, I suppose there are stranger things to be seen in Wellington. Like Blanket Man. I haven’t mentioned him before, I’ve realized, and I have no idea why. He is worth mentioning. He’s a homeless man who, on a good day, sits on a corner of Courtenay Place (his favorite corners are the one outside of Burger King, and the one outside of the sports bar) wearing a loincloth and a blanket. The blanket sometimes varies in color, but there is always a blanket. He has matted dreadlocks, and not many teeth. I am not sure if he speaks English, though I assume he does.

Blanket Man is a bit of a celebrity here in Wellington. If you don’t believe me, Google him. Just type in “blanket man.” Dude’s even got his own Wikipedia entry.

Lastly, since this post has been nothing but random, I feel like I have to mention that I have been told at least three times now that I am not American. I’ve had a drunk guy argue with me that my “accent” is fake, an Israeli guy assume I was a kiwi, and a guy in Rotorua thinking I wasn’t American even though I was standing and talking next to Jamie at the time. What’s up with that? I know I still have a very strong American accent (probably made worse recently by hanging out with Jamie and her Cincy twang), but apparently it’s not strong enough? Haha, who knows. I just find it funny, especially since it exasperates Jamie so much.

Hoodoos! 'Nuff said.

Saturday, October 4
Wairarapa

We woke up early-ish to the sounds and smells of breakfast. The B&B owner, a tanned, white-haired man, was busy making us a fresh, hot breakfast. We ate in a window-laden dining room, joined by a few cats and a little terrier. I think it’s an unwritten rule that B&Bs have cute animals to entertain and charm the guests with.

The breakfast was delicious, and we chatted for a short time with the B&B owner about our studies and our travels. We told him we were headed out to the Putangirua Pinnacles that day, and he went to get us a book to show us what to expect. The Pinnacles are an example of “badlands erosion,” meaning that all the softer rock in an area has been eroded away, leaving the harder rock behind in interesting formations. In this particular case, the rock has formed into pillars, also called “hoodoos.” And if that’s not a fun word, I do not know what is.

After packing up and paying, we headed out to see the hoodoos. It was a little over an hour’s drive out to the Pinnacles, which are located southeast of Lake Ferry in the Putangirua Pinnacles Scenic Reserve (see, what did I tell you about those scenic reserves?). Saturday was cloudy, and a few raindrops dotted our windshield as we drove.

We arrived at the scenic reserve in the late morning, and headed off in search of the pinnacles. We hiked for about 15 minutes through a dry riverbed, over big, smooth rocks and patches of fine, cream-colored sand. We got our first glimpse of pinnacles not long after.

Finding thin fissures in the oddly-eroded rock (hoodoos!), Jamie and Andrea decided they wanted to climb up into them. I followed at first, but I didn’t trust the steep ground and loose boulders just waiting to come tumbling down the fissure. It didn’t help that a little boy was watching us, and looked really interested in following. I nearly smooshed him when I bumped a good-sized rock and sent it rolling.

I decided that, after a few photos, I would get out of the way of falling rocks, should Jamie and Andrea send them falling. They were much higher up in the fissure than I was.

I climbed down, and headed for another set of hoodoos (seriously, how great is this word?) on the opposite side of the riverbed. These ones were much more pronounced, and looked a lot cooler. Andrea and Jamie eventually followed, and we climbed up the steep hill to get closer to the pinnacles. You could tell by the smooth, haphazardly-deposited rocks that this hill – the whole area, really – probably floods like mad when it rains. All I could think about was Bear from Man vs. Wild talking about flash floods, and how dangerous they could be. I kept my eye on those rain clouds.

After climbing up as far as our tired legs would allow, we headed back down and decided to go further into the reserve. In the distance, we could see ever bigger pinnacles further up the riverbed.

The climb to the bigger hoodoos was on a much milder grade, but we still took it slow. Jamie took it upon herself to find a walking stick, and tramped partway up the long hill with a ridiculously large, bent stick. Andrea followed suit with a pathetically short, bendy stick. But Jamie, not to be outdone, foraged around in the riverbed and emerged with a small tree. And I don’t just mean a stick that could pass for a tree – I mean an actual small tree with branches and roots and everything. She proceeded to name it Tyrone, and drag it halfway up the hill only to “replant” it near the base of a pinnacle. I love her, I really do.

When we got up into the pinnacles, the wind died down, and it was dusty. And eerily quiet. I’ve read that they filmed bits of the Paths of the Dead scenes for The Lord of the Rings here, and I can definitely understand why. They pinnacles reach up hundreds of feet into the sky, like weird skeletal fingers. The only sound besides our footsteps was the clattering of small pebbles every time a light breeze worked its way up into the valley. Had it been a little darker, I would have definitely been a bit creeped out.

We walked around for a bit, then decided to head back. It had been a long morning/afternoon of hiking and climbing, and we wanted to get back into the car before the rain really started. We walked back down through the riverbed, the yellow flowers of the prickly gorse bushes standing out starkly after having been up in the towering grey pinnacles for so long.

Jamie stopped to take a drink out of the “river,” which, that day, was nothing more than a trickling stream. Andrea was mortified, and was convinced Jamie was going to die from a bacterial infection. I had a hunch that the water she was drinking was probably cleaner than anything that’s ever come out of any of our taps or water bottles, however. And, for the record Drebo, Jamie was fine.

We got back to the car and decided to make the drive out to Cape Palliser before heading back into civilization. Cape Palliser is… well, I’m not exactly sure why it’s so cool, but the B&B owner told us we should check it out. It has a lighthouse high up on an outcrop of rock that can only be reached by climbing some ridiculous number of stairs.

By the time we made our way there on a windy, narrow dirt road, however, the wind had picked up, the rain clouds had rolled in, and none of us felt like climbing up hundreds of stairs. So we simply turned around and headed back the other way.

We pointed the car in the direction of Featherston, and arrived with the rain. We fueled up the car, grabbed some linner (it was late afternoon, so technically it was both lunch and dinner), then headed back to Wellington. The storm was fairly strong, and made driving the Rimutaka road nerve-wracking. Jamie was going 40 kph, if that, and the traffic behind us wasn’t very happy. But, when you are approaching a curve and can see only a flimsy guardrail between you and the edge of a cliff and the wind is blowing so hard that you can literally see the sheets of rain being whipped across the narrow road, you’d drive that slow, too.

We made it safely back into the city, however, and navigated our way off the motorway with surprising ease. Jamie dropped Andrea and I off at our respective flats, then took the car back with her to Brooklyn, planning to return it the next morning.

After our eventful, adventurous weekend, my nice, soft bed never looked so inviting.

A happy, sandy birthday.

Friday, October 3
Wairarapa

For my birthday weekend, the girls and I decided we should plan something fun and get out of Wellington at least for a couple of days. We spent Thursday afternoon lining up a rental car and a bed and breakfast for the following night. The latter part of this was quite difficult, and we spent at least 4 hours researching and calling various B&Bs before we found one that looked nice and had a vacancy. We settled on Beatson’s B&B in Martinborough, in the heart of the Wairarapa region, where we planned to have our adventure.

On Friday morning, we picked up our rental car around 10, ready to head up north on a beautiful sunny morning. We were thwarted slightly in our plans, however, when I got behind the wheel and didn’t realize that the parking brake was still on. I never use it in the States, so it never occurred to me to check it. We subsequently drove up the motorway almost peeing ourselves with laughter as our white Mazda Familia made a horrible screeching sound with every turn of the wheels. To be fair, however, neither Jamie nor Andrea noticed the hand break on, either. Instead, we drove back to the rental place, only to be basically told we were morons. Yay driving!

Once we had collected ourselves, we got back on the motorway, destination Castlepoint. We stopped at Subway in Lower Hutt, and then drove straight on through. The drive took a little over two hours, with the beginning part of it consisting of weaving along the Rimutaka Road, a winding, nerve-wracking road that skirts the sides of the Rimutaka Ranges. The drive also consisted of Jamie shoving candied babies into my mouth on said winding road, and Andrea grossing Jamie out with a “chicken liver.” I think it was actually a burnt bit of cheese from Andrea’s sub, but Andrea had Jamie convinced it was something much more sinister. I threatened to throw them both out of the car at least once.

We arrived at Castlepoint in the early afternoon. Castlepoint isn’t so much a city, but rather a point of interest on the east coast of New Zealand. It’s a scenic reserve (though, in NZ, you can find those around every corner) that was named by Captain Cook way back when when he compared one of the cliffs to a castle. I’m not sure I could see it myself, but whatever.

Castlepoint is definitely worth a visit, and I’m really glad we went there. The area consists of a series of limestone cliffs that jut out into the sea, surrounded by an arm of reef and sand dunes. Where the reef cuts off the ocean, waves often breach it to form a lagoon between it and the dunes. On a sunny day like we had, it was really stunning.

But it was also very very windy. Hands down, Castlepoint is the windiest place I have ever visited, and that’s saying something coming from Ohio and, now, Wellington. As soon as we arrived and got out of the car, I regretted putting in a new pair of contacts that morning, knowing they were only going to get sand scratched.

Jamie and Andrea began our Castlepoint adventure by attempting to “surf” down the sand dunes using the floor mats from Shornty, our rental car. Needless to say, this was a bit of a bust. But at least it was funny to watch.

Next we headed off to explore the lagoon and reef. We had planned to walk along the reef between the cliffs and Castle Rock, but the wind was too strong, and all we were getting was a faceful of sand. So we decided to make for the cliffs, instead.

Not unlike in other countries I’ve visited, I’ve noticed that New Zealand isn’t really all that concerned with liability and people getting hurt. It’s probably because no one can sue each other here. But whatever the reason, it meant that us girls were pretty much free to do as we pleased on the cliffs. We climbed up, down, and all around the area, hanging over edges and shimmy-ing along ledges meters up in the air. But we had fun, and no one died, so I suppose it was well worth the risk.

We caught glimpses into some underwater caves, and even saw a lone fur seal lazily swimming along the bottom of the cliffs. On such a clear day, the water was an unreal shade of blue, broken up only by the foamy white-capped waves pushed along in front of the strong wind.

We spent hours hiking, climbing and sitting up in the cliffs, enjoying the surroundings and the beautiful day. Up away from the beach, we were safe from the blowing sand. Not from the wind by any means, though. When we walked up to the lighthouse, we understood why there was a fence on one side of the path as we were forced into it by a particularly nasty gust of wind.

After getting our fill of rock climbing and photos, we headed back to the car. It was at least an hour and a half to Martinborough from Castlepoint, and we wanted to try and get there well before sunset so that we could make it down to Lake Ferry.

Jamie drove us down to Martinborough, where we dropped our things off at our B&B before heading back out again. As we made our way through town, we found Ohio Street, and naturally stopped to take photos. We found out later from the owner of the B&B that a lot of the street names in Martinborough are of places the town’s founder had visited. Also included were Kansas, New York, Broadway (I think perhaps he was slightly confused there), along with some French towns.

We made our way down to Lake Ferry, about half an hour south of Martinborough along a scenic country road. We passed farms and wineries, and very few other cars. Andrea had been told by one of her Massey lecturers that Lake Ferry was famous for its sunsets and its fish and chips.

We had dinner at the Lake Ferry Hotel – basically the only multi-room building in Lake Ferry. We were a little late for sunset, but we caught a glimpse of it over the eerie white clouds that laid like a blanket over the Rimutakas in the distance. I had the Famous Ferry Fish and Chips, while Jamie and Andrea had garlic bread and soup (they don’t like seafood). For dessert, we ordered Mars Bars Cheesecake, which was possibly the most delicious thing I have ever tasted. Jamie paid for my meal as my birthday gift, and we headed back to the B&B to relax for the evening.

We watched a little TV, tried to brush and wash the sand out of our hair, and turned in early, preparing for another busy day on Saturday.