The day started
off with me tiptoeing out of the flat while the boys including the substantially
taller one all snoring their little socks off. I wanted to get down to the
market before it got busy and quickly pick up some fruit and veg for the week.
Thirty minutes later I waddle back down to the flat laden down with mangos, a
watermelon, strawberries, kiwis, a pineapple, bag of avocados, large bottles of freshly squeezed apple and orange juice and much more. I just can’t get enough of all
the fab fruit and veg here, I’m sure over time the novelty will wear off but at
the moment I’m just loving it. The boys were up and playing a game of top trumps, of which any adult competing against them doesn’t stand a diddly squat chance as
they managed to memorize all the vital statistics on each of the cards.
Another scorcher
of a day so we decided to drive up north to Goat Island and go on a glass
bottom boat. It took about an hour to get there from Takapuna and was a bit
fraught as we were only 10 minutes late leaving the flat (so very early for us
as we are always running late), and sods law there was no parking and Dan
managed to park the car on the side of a slight grassy embankment… slight
concern when Dan got out and the two wheels of the car lifted off the ground
and it looked like the car might go for a wee
rolly polly, but there was no time to faff so we grabbed our cameras and headed
for the boat.
The glass bottom
boat itself was great. Two great glass panels running along the bottom with
seating all around so everyone could get a good look. The first thing we saw
was oodles jelly fish, see through strings with little black dots, looked like
strings of jelly toad spawn at first, and the sea was a soup of them (was reliably informed they are completely sting proof and if they ended up going down your snorkel they just a
little bit chewy). The first fish we saw were great big snappers where we found
out that they are all born female, and after 3 years approximately half turn
male. There – bet that one will come up in a pub quiz! There were also various
other fish we saw and more snapper, more seaweed and then more snapper and then to throw into the mix... some more snapper. To be
honest if you’ve been on a glass bottom boat or been snorkeling in more
tropical colorful waters the boat trip may be a bit dull to say the least. But
it was a good introduction for boys who couldn’t wait to get back to the
shore to go snorkeling amongst all the jellyfish.
The beach at Goats Island itself was chocka block, and hardly a space to sit… people scrambling over each other, and the sea was full of people busy snorkeling. Again I think we’d been spoilt with all the beautiful tranquil beaches and fancied moving on to another beach with less people. So after a brief lunch, a hot mid-day sun hike up along the coastal walk, and a quick visit to the Maritime University, we ended up Leigh beach and the boys headed off to discover what they could find in the rock pools.
Now whoever said there are no road blocks in New Zealand frankly
lied! Yes guaranteed there may be less of them, but when you do get stuck in
them there are no back roads to bypass the queues so you get stuck in
them - and stuck in one we were when we drove back home to Takapuna. It should
be pointed out however that the road blocks aren’t caused by busy people
rushing home from work – rather their jams are a result of people heading
either to or from their beachtime activities - here in NZ they seem to have their work/ life balance priorities firmly in check.
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