We jumped into the car and headed for a beach that Sue had recommended called Matai Bay. When the arrived the sun came out. The views were magnificent. We were the only people on the entire beach which had the whitest sand, clear cool water and lots of amazing shells. We walked the entire length of the beach, had a paddle and took in the views.
We drove back inland to a forest area which our map suggest had some walking. The roads became very dusty as we twisted through the thick forest. They have trees here that look like palm trees but are in fact massive ferns. The forests are covered with them, they look very tropical.
We eventually found the walking centre where the management were running a first aid course in the car park. At first we thought it was real. A chap was on the floor covered in bandages, looking in a very poor state. One of the chaps came over to us and said it was just an exercise!
He was a very friendly chap and he told us where we could do a short nature walk through the forest. There were longer walks, but we did not have time for that.
The walk took us through dense forest where they had the fattest, tallest trees we have seen so far this year. These trees must be three meters wide and extremely tall.
After the walk we headed back to our B&B where we were met by Sheba, the B&B resident dog. She is a very sweet natured Labrador, Boxer cross. She gave us a great welcome as did Sue.
We had dinner at a restaurant called Gannet. We both had the lamb which was yummy.
We discussed the next few days activities due the weather forecast not looking great. It looks like we are not going to get the best of New Zealand weather as it is a little early in the year for that. New Zealand is all about outdoor activities, so the weather is an important factor.
