What if?

We have made a decision to skip Auckland until we are closer to leaving New Zealand, so for this reason we are heading straight through on our way to Orewa North; we arrived on a very windy and rainy day.  Tide full in so no Kite buggy for Andy, wind at 20 mph on shore so no Surfing for me.  Not the best time to go out on a Jetski, the photo that we have tried to put up is of a Jetskier who was hit hard by a wave and disappeared for what seemed an age; as Andy reached for his phone to call the rescue services he appeared from behind his Jetski and managed to climb on board.  At least he wasn’t alone, so his mate went to get him and they just let the Waves bring the Jetski in at it’s own pace; loaded both Jetski’s onto his trailer while his mate gathered his thoughts and off they went ‘this time alive!’  We reached our hostel ‘Marco Polo Backpackers Lodge’ to find that we were alone other than one German gent called Matt, and all three of us commented what a great hostel it was; and only a BBH rating of 85% this was an underrating if ever we had one on the North Island.  Sorry to say we only booked one night here, as on everyone’s advice we have booked right through to the New Year.  Sorry because it really is a lovely hostel, with a long firm beach for Andy and Surf for me; well maybe?  We awoke the next day to a poor weather day again, so not good for either of us at the beach; so as previously head off to the next hostel.  Heading for the next hostel ‘Little Earth Lodge’ at Whangarei we had high hopes as this hostel was a BBH 94%  The room here was seriously good, lovely bed; loads of room but a 94% never; sorry to say no.  Here’s why, only one shower for the main block to use, one fridge, one kettle (didn’t work, but was replaced the day it was reported) one toaster and continuous line of Ants from the food storage area to their nest.  Anyway, enough of hostels; we have at last found something that Andy has a ‘FEAR’ of.  Only a short walk from our hostel were the ‘Abbey Caves’ we were ‘guided’ there by the most friendly dog alive, dear Muttley; when he sees you pick up the Caving helmet he runs ahead of you as if to ‘guide’ you there and then heads home when you go in.  The Caves are an easy to walk cave system that you can see loads of Gloworms and rock formations, well you can see if you go in!  We approached chatting away about how this is going to be a great thing to do, then at the entrance where Andy faced actually going in; he ‘froze’ solid and started to sweat like he was in a Sauna.  This grown man will jump out of Planes, take ‘relaxing’ Paraglide jumps over Queenstown, fly bl**dy big Kites while doing 40+ MPH on a three wheeled ‘go kart’ and I could not get him to walk more that 2 mtr’s into the Cave.  In fact when I asked him could he see the Gloworms above us his replied shocked me, ‘no I can’t’ Why? I asked because there were loads of them above and around us, his answer made me laugh ‘at him’ and also wonder what kind of ‘Man’ I’m with.  His answer ‘because I got my f**king eyes shut and I’m sh*ting myself here’  He has said that after experiencing that feeling for the first time, he will never ‘criticise’ anyone again.  We headed back to the hostel with Andy apologising and embarrassed all the way.  The following day we were heading out for a day on the beach, what a great place Ocean Beach is.  We had a full day of Surf, Sea, Sand and Sun.  13th December and we were swimming in shorts and rash vest (to block the Sun burn) playing in the Sand and putting on the Sunscreen as if it was a July summers day in the UK.  For the briefest of moments we did think of our family back home having there cold spell in winter, thought of them; laughed out load and carried on (sorry but we did!)  We went back to the hostel, knackered; but not before picking up some Fish & chips for dinner that night.  Next stop for us Omapere on the West coast, a quite place we were told; we’ll see.