Moose picked us up from in front of the Stray Travel office at 7:45 on Tuesday morning. Our numbers have increased from 11 to 20 ... adding even more nurses and Germans.
We stopped briefly for coffee in the outskirts of Auckland, then again in Thames for groceries. Moose bought groceries for our dinner and breakfast, while the rest of us grabbed snacks. There was enough time to wander the town before continuing on our way. One more brief stop at a lookout, then right into Hahei.
The TV character Moose most reminds me of is Otto, the schoolbus driver in the Simpsons. He even has the hair!
Kate and I decided to participate in the kayak to Cathedral Cove, and so did Cherry. Shortly into it, we decided it was well worth the $95 each as we paddled through the blue waters and steep-sided coastline. The wind came up a few times, once fierce enough for Kate to lose her hat. We got a glimpse of manta rays, but I haven't checked my GoPro footage to see if I caught them on film yet.
Cathedral Cove was everything we thought it would be: spectacular. After some hot chocolate/coffee and cookies on the destination beach, we paddled back to the main beach.
Wandering back from the beach, we picked up some drinks at the corner store. On our way into the campground, we passed three of our group headed to Hot Beach. On the way in, we were told that
the low tide wasn't until 8PM (after dark), so hot beach was out of the question. It turns out, those three shared a cab and had a great time enjoying hot beach, although they missed dinner at the campsite.
We got back to the camp just as the meat went on the grill. We had great steaks, sausage, potato salad, and greens. With a couple drinks plus some bubbly, we chatted until after 10PM ... late since we'll be on the road at 7:30AM tomorrow.
Although this is voting day in the USA, we're 18 hours ahead, so we probably won't hear any results until tomorrow.
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