Final thoughts from New Zealand then as I sit here in Auckland having just completed a mini-shopping spree in order that some of our clothes look presentable for the beaches and bars of Brazil. Caroline is currently in the latest of our non-budget hotels trying her purchases on and more than likely cramming surplus items in my backpack rather than complying with the agreed policy of binning the things she will never wear again.
In reality, Caroline is most likely asleep now as the adrenalin rush from jumping off the Sky Tower this morning is probably wearing off. I have suffered no such come-down (no pun) in adrenalin having opted to keep one eye on the budget and two feet on the ground 190m below. My awareness of the need to take a fiscal lead on this matter was convenient given that there is no way in the world I am jumping from any tower without having had full access to all maintenance and accident records and personally having interviewed those responsible for the upkeep of both the tower and the jump equipment. No such materials or persons were made available to me.
We have been in Auckland for a couple of days now and have been content to stroll around, shop, eat and drink well and also re-acclimatise to being in a busy city again after the best part of a month out and about in NZ. Since our last post from the Coromandel Peninsular, we have travelled up to and back from Paihia in the Bay of Islands, towards the top of the North Island. In Paihia, our accommodation moved from the 1970’s to the 1980’s, which was again fine by me although Caroline maintained throughout that the standard of cleanliness of the motel was not of a particularly high order. Unsurprisingly, I remained utterly blind to any issues despite being shown a number of ‘problem areas’ on a number of occasions and only narrowly won a debate over the need to purchase cleaning equipment from the local supermarket and give the place a ‘once-over’.
Hygiene aside, the Bay of Islands was great; beautiful weather and scenery with a couple of boat trips to keep us occupied. On the first of these, we hired a small motorboat, which despite appearances was pretty rapid over the calm waters of the bay. We took a picnic and ‘found’ a remote island beach for lunch and then moved on further round in search of dolphins and a swim. Sadly, no dolphins were found but Caroline did have the satisfaction of sitting in the boat while I attempted, for a long 10 minutes, to get back in to the boat without the use of steps or a rope. Her smugness was soon removed when I detoured on the route back to Paihia and took us beyond the shelter of the islands into some relatively lively open seas. My happiness in a small boat bouncing off the waves was matched and bettered by Caroline’s dissatisfaction, which manifested itself in a probably provoked and reasonable questioning of whether I knew what I was doing. Some harsh words were spoken at the time and we have subsequently come to an unspoken agreement that I will not skipper any vessel carrying Caroline on open waters until I have hardcopy accreditation to the effect that I have been suitably trained to perform such a task. In conclusion, it was a great day!
Thankfully, our second boat trip was managed by professionals, and despite an unusually quiet Caroline having certain reservations about the whole thing my involvement was limited to pulling some ropes and bombing off the side of side of a racing catamaran. Another good day and one that we both enjoyed every aspect of…
Anyway, that will do for now as I have to go and either revive Caroline or remove half of her wardrobe from my bag. Anyone who has had the misfortune to read all our posts from NZ will have hopefully come to the correct conclusion that we have loved the place and moreover would definitely hope to return at some stage in the future. Brazil has a lot of work to do to surpass the last few weeks.
RJH
