Waitiki Landing 1

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Stopped off at Waitiki Landing lodge on our journey up towards the northern most point and 90 Mile Beach. Once settled in the restaurant, with beer in hand whilst perusing the menu, we couldn't resist a first try of Ostrich - in burger form! Turns out to be quite burger-like, unsurprisingly, with a slight gammony aspect to it, although it's quite possible that they had run out of Ostrich and just palmed us off with any old dog meat, still, when in Rome.

Across from us in the restaurant, some young guys that we'd spotted on the way were playing pool while we munched through our food and when we were finished they came over and struck up a conversation, asking oddly, (but later, obviously), about the car and where we were going. 'Where do you want to go?' was my first question, having seen through their warm-up speil and realising that they were after a lift. They seemed nice enough, (and, completely unrelated, one of them had really beautiful eyes), and like us, were heading north to Cape Reinga, so we arranged to pick them up outside their tent at 9 in the morning.

Turns out the guys are German: beautifully-eyed Oliver, (yes, I know that's really bad English), who was 26 and a business translator, and David, 19, who had just finished school. We had a good chat on the way up, and arrived at around 9.45 to find dramatic clifts, a lighthouse and a haggared 800year old Pohutukawa tree, whose roots - according to Lonely Planet - are said to hide the entrance to the mythical Mauri underworld, where the spirits of the dead depart the earth - cool!

We had a quick paddle in Sandy Bay, (I did suggest a swim, but sadly the boyz weren't up for it 😉 always worth a try tho ), and then headed over to the stunning 90 Mile Beach, which turns out to be closer to 90km, but either way, it was huge.

Looking back to the Germans, mid-paddle, it seemed they'd found something further up the beach and were beckening us to check it out. On investigation they'd found a huge Ray of some sort and we weren't sure whether it was a Manta, or Sting Ray, but it was obviously still alive as we could see it breathing.

Oliver was certain it should be returned to the ocean and didn't seem to realise that it could have a potentially deadly sting; both him and Andy were attempting to pick it up, but the poor Ray was majorly slimey and kept grunting and flexing its 'wings'. They weren't having much luck and David seemed a bit squeemish, so I stepped in, grabbing its left wing, and with Oliver on its right, we cautiously dragged it out to sea, trying to dodge its tail, presuming that would be the dangerous end.

The touble was that the Ray seemed rather weak, and as soon as we had it in a foot of water, the waves washed it worryingly back towards us and the beach. In the end Oliver fetched a bin liner from the car and we unceromoniously slopped it in, and I dragged it out, past the breakers.

No sooner had I released it, when I could see that it really didn't have much stength and, unbelievably, a large pink crab had pincered its left wing and was dragging it down! Seconds later I spotted another crab had appeared from nowhere and grabbed its right wing, and then , madly, a third had gone for its face!! The poor Ray had presumably beached itself in order to die peacefully but would now be eaten alive because of us! GRIM!

I left it to its watery demise and we headed back to the car laughing and shaking our heads in disbelief at cruel Mother Nature working her best.

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Photos

Us and the Germans!
Me, David, Oliver and Adam