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Published: April 9th 2007
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The last leg of our NZ trip was to be spent in comparative luxury to the Spaceship - with a bed of our own and a shower in the morning! Ace or what.
So how did we get this lucky? Well, once again incorporating the family of a friend only this time the friend was there too! Mike from New Zealand who stayed in Milford (I know- he's a little bit odd) for about a year (even odder!) and his family kindly let us stay with them!
After a night spent by the lake in Hamilton and some shopping in the morning - some of our clothes were now looking decidedly worse for wear. Mike came and met up with us to suggest a walk up another mountain (can you imagine our enthusiasm........) called Te Aroha. So we headed that way! The mountain loomed above us and the peak seemed to be shrouded in cloud but we intrepid travellers were not to be put off and up we went. I should mention here that this was not without a bold statement from Mike that it wouldn't rain (famous last words - I mean come on I was there!!!)
The trek up was a quick affair and before we knew it we were on Bald Spur, about a third of the way up, taking a breather and admiring the rather spectacular views......with photos of course! Mike's girlfriend looked out from our photoshoot to declare oooohhh look at the rain! Only to realise seconds later that it was coming our way. And fast! Almost straight away the sky opened, taking shelter in the bush, Mike made his second Faux Pas of the day declaring that it would stop in a minute!
A minute went by, then 5 all the while getting wetter and wetter - things were not looking promising! Going up further was no longer an option - sealed in stone by a rumble of thunder from overhead - I was off! Downhill and fast. Unfortunately the water too was also taking the fastest route down.....lapping around our feet. Needless to say it was somewhat sodden and drowned-rat like that we emerged at the bottom!
From there Mike very kindly offered his parent's place for a stopover and dinner.....mmmmmm home cooked grub. We very gratefully accepted and made our way to his farm to meet his mum
and dad, Martin and Ria. There we were given our very own room and were taken up the farm to pick mushrooms! This was true Kiwi living with the prospect of going fishing the next day. Eeeeeekkkkkk that was exciting! Some misinterpretation of the tides meant that we arrived on the water a little later than we should have done - but this meant that we would just have to spend a little longer fishing! Exciting stuff! Having never been fishing before Jen and I were a little hesitant to begin with but with some guidance from Mike and his dad we soon had the knack. Landing some of the first keepable fish was pretty exciting - topped only by my reeling in a real live shark (granted it was only about 2 feet long - it still had teeth though!!!!) Needless to say I adopted the true girly role there and Mike 'dealt' with it - reuniting it with the water fairly swiftly! We moved about 3 times, probably caught about 50 fish in the time we were out although we had to put 29 of those back as they were too small! It did mean, however, that we
Learning the tricks of the fishing trade....
well the picture taking...if you hold them toward the camera they appear biger! had 21 fish to take home for dinner. Not a bad day at all! I genuinely didn't realise that fishing could be quite so much fun! A day out on the water took it out of us fairly well and bed beckoned soon after returning - after a slap up HOMEMADE kiwi fush and chups - YUM!!!!
Unfortunately the next day some very shocking news changed our plans a little for the remainder of our travels. One of Jen's very close friends from home, Adam Birdsey, who was travelling the South Island had been killed in a road accident. We had been with him only a few weeks previously and it was such a shock to realise that something so horrible could happen to someone so close. Bird was a great guy and he will be sorely missed.
Martin and Ria's kind hospitality meant that we were able to begin to accept this news in the comfort of a home environment with some exceptionally nice people around us. We spent our remaining days in NZ at their house - one night at the Beach in Whangamata and the second back at the farm, before heading back into Auckland
to wave goodbye to Predator and await our flight to Tonga.
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