Day 3 - Opononi to Auckland

We had to be fed, dressed, and packed by 8:30 to start our day. We drove the few minutes into town, and hopped onto a waiting boat, wearing little more than our bathing suits. They quickly shuttled us across to the sand dunes on the other side of the harbour.

None of us had sand surfed before, and there was noone to lead us. The guys on the boat simply placed four flags on the dunes, two at each side of the designated area, gave us brief guidelines, then dropped us and watched from just off-shore.

It was a lot of fun. For an hour, we scrambled up the sand hill, then slid down on what were basically slick-bottomed paddleboards. If you did it right, you could end your slide with a skim across the water (the warm Tasmanian Sea). Even our seniors, Patrick and Wendy, went a couple of times each.

I figured it would involve some danger of scraped knees, faces, etc. ... but it was quite safe. The sun cooperated even though it had be rainstorming all night right up until an hour before our departure.

We only had a few minutes by the bus to change back into drier and less-sandy clothes before the 3-hour drive to Auckland. But we had three stops along the way. The first was at Tane Mahuta: the site of the largest known living Kauri tree.

The second was at Kai Iwi lakes for a swim and lunch. Well, I guess I was the only one that went for a swim. It was great to wash off the salt-water residue with the fresh water of the lake. Visibility in the lake wasn't as good as the blue waters would make you think. And you wouldn't think from the picture below that we were in for a rainstorm within 30 minutes either.

That gave us just enough time for the swim and a brief lunch before we had to escape the downpour. The only other stop before Auckland was for a quick pee break.

Back in Auckland, we dropped off Patrick and Wendy ... they were the only 2 of the original 13 who weren't staying for (at least) most of the journey. We were all sad to see them go, as they kept things very interesting.

The rest of us were dropped near Stray Travel Headquarters where we walked a block to the Nomad accommodation. This is definitely the low point in accommodation, but it's good enough. We gave ourselves an hour or so to check in, then we all gathered and went to Velvet Burger for dinner.