And More Stupid Sports
From Hamilton, I was off to the surfing town of Raglan. I spent my first day in Raglan relaxing and not doing too much. For my second day, I had big plans. Unfortunately, when I woke up and tried to use my camera it died a horrible death. There was nothing that I could do in Raglan to fix the camera, so I left it on the side and spent the day surfing (you think that just because I am a computer engineer I should be able to fix my camera with duct tape and a swiss army knife, well I can’t).
After enjoying a great afternoon of surfing I needed to get my camera fixed, so the next day I headed to Auckland. After a day or research, I discovered that my warranty was only good in Canada and to fix my camera would cost as much as a new one. So, after a few more hours of research were done, I purchased a new camera.
After wasting so much time in Auckland and now owning what I thought was a working camera, it was time to hit the tourist spots. I walked the parks and city and then headed to the Sky Tower to get a view from above.
Later that evening I went to a bar called minus 5, a bar made entirely of ice. The galsses in the bar, made out of ice, the bar itself, made out of ice, the tables…. you guessed it, ice. It was really cool.
The next morning it was time to hit more tourist spots before heading out of town. Unfortunately, at this point I realised, that when my camera died, my memory card died too. So, all of my photos from the day before were gone (luckily I had backed up my camera 2 days before it died, so I hadn’t lost other pictures). So, after heading back to the camera store to buy a new memory card, I was back in business, again. So, again, I walked the city and took photos.
It was now time to get out of Auckland. I headed north to Paihia. In Paihia, my stupid adventures continued. After doing a 14 km hike in flip-flops (a bad idea) I had a good night sleep and then prepared for my tour on Sat.
Saturday morning, I was picked up at 7:15 am in order to head north and see the tip of the north island. The highlights of the tour included driving up 90 mile beach in the bus at a good pace, swimming in the sea, gonig to Cape Reinga, and sandboarding.
I know, you want to know what sand boarding is, so I will explain. Some kiwi said, hey look at this sand dune, I wonder how we can do something dangerous on it.
The Kiwi’s solution was quite simple. Take a boogie board, carry it to the top, say a prayer, and then slide down the dune on it.
This post is now way too long. Hopefully, I’ll have pictures of all of my next destinations.
Marc
).