Last night Fiona and I experienced first hand a form of this torture whilst in bed. At three in the morning, Fiona had one of her waking turns, waking both herself and John up. After settling down, we realised it had been raining. It was then we heard the loud bang of water drops hitting our tin roof. The bang became louder and louder. After ten minutes we realised we were powerless to stop it. After half an hour we were distressed, after an hour, madness had set in. John tried jamming half the duvet and a pillow on his ear to stop the relentless noise. After an hour and a half, the rain stopped and we eventually drifted off to sleep.
We woke up feeling a bit drained. Still, the rain had stopped and the sun was beginning to show itself. We joined our American guests for breakfast. Organic locally grown oranges, grapefruits, tangerines, home made breads and jams. Very nice. The Americans were all fired up about their impending election, so politics was discussed at great length. We also discussed the Royal Family, one of John’s favorite topics.
After breakfast, we jumped in the car and drove to our hiking spot. The roads were half tarmac, half gravel and very twisty. It was great fun driving rally style for one and a half hours.
We intended to walk from Fletcher Bay to Stoney Bay, a 7 hour hike. The sun was shining and the views on the trek were stunning. The waters around the coast are very clear and they sparkled in the sun.
We stopped at a look out spot, where we met an English couple. They had recently graduated from University. They were unable to get jobs in the UK, so they had decided to visit New Zealand for a year by working their way round on farms. She was from Newbury!! Whilst resting at the look out we saw a chap in a kayak, way down in the bay. The views over the bays were magnificent.
We reached Stony Bay in good time, but the clouds had moved in. We met the same chap who had been kayaking in the bay. He had rigged up a system, that allowed him to use a fishing rod whilst in the kayak. He had caught two snapper which he intended to cook for his dinner. He took this photo of us!
One the walk back we came across some cyclists who had travelled all the way from Coromandel and were heading for stoney bay where they intended to camp. That’s some journey!
Not far from Fletcher bay, we stopped at a deserted cove where Fiona rested in the sun and John paddled in the sea and around the crystal clear rock pools. A family of ducks were bobbing around on the calm waters, nibbling at some seaweed.
We drove back along the rally course and made it back to our B&B for just after 6pm. As we arrived the Americans were off to town for some dinner. They invited us to dine with them, however, they were just off and we were still in need of showers etc.
We ended up eating at the Pepper Mill restaurant in town on our own as we did not feel up to a full on American evening. However, we met an English couple in the restaurant who were on a three and a half month honeymoon. They gave us lots of tips for the south island and were interested to hear about our years travelling. They came from Cambridge.
We went back to our B&B, wrote this blog entry and retired, hoping it would not rain again!
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