Showing posts with label bay of islands. Show all posts
Showing posts with label bay of islands. Show all posts

Sunday, September 23, 2012

Parasailing


We were in the Bay of Islands all day today, so I decided to go for a run because of the late rise. Surprisingly, I was able to run right after breakfast and not feel sick. It was a nice run too. Since we were staying pretty close to the beach, it wasn’t as hilly as it would have been elsewhere. I had to keep my run shortish though because I signed up to go kayaking along the coast with a few other people that morning. I ended up sharing a kayak with Ben from Tasmania and we shared life stories. The going wasn’t very rough except for when we had to maneuver through the mangroves.

After kayaking, I took a shower and met up with Jacob before we headed back into town to look at souvenir stores and pick up some ice cream at Movenpick. It had gotten really cold out, so I was freezing by the time we went down to the boat for parasailing.

Parasailing isn’t something that I would really pay to do again. It was okay and the view was nice, but if it had been much windier, I think I would have gotten motion sickness like I do on swings. I was frozen after being on the boat all afternoon, so I put on multiple sweatshirts before we went out with the old group for dinner at an Italian place in honor of our last night on the tour. It was an okay meal, but it took them forever to cook and it was kind of expensive, to me at least. I really don’t like spending more than $10 on a meal and since I always cook in Sydney, I’m still not used to the prices of eating out down here.

Sebastian and I going up

Saturday, September 22, 2012

Bay of Islands


This morning came really fast. I was up before 6 and on the bus by 7. Breakfast wasn’t fantastic, so I was happy when I woke up from my bus nap and we were in Auckland. I wandered the streets with Scottie, Sebastion, and Jacob for a little bit. I feel like I have a possie or something. We went and got Burger King, even though it was only 10 in the morning. There wasn’t much else to do. We randomly found the hostel that I’m staying in when we come back to Auckland and I picked up a magnet from the souvenir store.

When we got back on the bus, we were joined by 25 more people on the same tour everyone else has been doing but going in the opposite direction. They got a whole little orientation to Contiki, which kind of made me feel weird about joining in Wellington and not really getting anything special. Then we were en route to the Bay of Islands.

The Bay of Islands is pretty nice. It reminds me of just about any other beachy island town. The group went to dinner at Shippey’s. It was this cute little boat set in the sand next to the ocean. The chicken burger I got with my wine was pretty good, but I ate way too much. 

Auckland as we passed through

Bay of Islands