Another awesome but tiring day. Managed not to sleep through my alarm (which I did yesterday, twice :/ Actually had a dream where I was holding my phone and pressing the buttons but it wouldn’t shut up then woke up to find that the alarm had been going off for ten minutes. Oops.) and headed out to get breakfast before going on a Waka.
Another awesome pineapple and orange (with banana) smoothie from Mark at the internet café down the street then I headed to the beach to stroll around and munch on chocolate. I met up with Raoul, out of the guys from the bus on Wednesday, and then our guide, Nick, arrived. We got ourselves organised for going out in the Waka (Maori for canoe, I think) and were waiting on, guess who, Victor. He eventually arrived just before ten, had a bitch because my paddle was bigger than his, didn’t really listen to any of Nick’s instructions and wouldn’t put on a life vest. There was no way I was going out into open water in a canoe without a life vest!
Nick taught us the commands he was going to shout out every so often and while I can remember them, I can’t spell them and I don’t want to insult the Maori people by trying. The ones I’m pretty sure about are ‘Hoy!’ which means paddle (both the noun and the verb) and ‘Hut!’ which means change as in change sides. I got to shout that one as we made our way out into the bay which was pretty cool.
Ten minutes into the trip, I wandered if my arms were actually going to last three hours and shocked myself by actually managing to keep going. Victor wanted to go faster and further out, even as far as the ocean if we could make it (thankfully, Nick told him that it would take hours to get there and though that didn’t deter him at first, I pointed out that not all of us are here for a work-out, we were just there to enjoy the scenery and relax - as much relaxing as a three-hour 8 kilometre (or 5 miles for those who don’t know kms) paddle in a canoe allows anyway).
Sigh. When (not if) I go back to Paihia, I’m going to go during summer and definitely do the trip again. Sometimes dolphins come right up to the canoe and apparently there were dolphins feeding in the bay yesterday in the afternoon, right next to the shore.
I’m knackered, but it’s a good feeling. I have bruises all over the place (from being on the front of the dolphin boat and from knocking myself a bit on the canoe today - the worst one is on my left elbow and I’m not even sure how I got it!) but at least I didn’t break anything over the past couple of days :P
Trying out a new hostel tonight. It’s right in the centre of town so it’s probably going to be a bit noisy but right now, I’m pretty ready to just pass out and sleep. Not even sure if I’ll bother getting dinner tonight, I can always get something decent for breakfast.
No firm plans for tomorrow yet. I need to do laundry at some point. And then go see Avenue Q :D Words can’t express just how excited I am about seeing it. Ack! :D
Must get Victor’s truly awful rendition of ‘Walk on Water’ from this morning’s canoe trip out of my head. I fear it will last all night :/
Love and (Shetland) ponies,
Kirsty
Xx
PS. Today’s Subject line comes from something I saw on the way back down to Auckland. There’s a few signs regarding the son of god next to roads here. “Jesus is” is painted on the roof of something and then there’s a huge ‘For Lease’ sign and a phone number (probably not the one I’ve put above so I wouldn’t call it). While I’m intrigued to know what ‘Jesus is’, it’s nice to know he can be rented.
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