The boat cruise was SO much worth the money!!! Haven't had that much fun in, well, anyway, it was just really one of the highlights of my whole travelling!!

I spent the day washing, packing everything into my suitcase nicely (well, actually really everything, forgot somehow to pack for the cruise, but I survived;), and to watch "Love Actually" with a bunch of the other girls from the Cape Reinga trip. In the late afternoon I headed down to the Paihia Harbour, where a lot of very sweet cuddly couples were waiting for the boat (oh no, I thought, what is this crap!!). We got taken out to the big boat, The Rock, and "checked-in" to our respective dorm-cabins (I got to share with 3 Chinese people who did not speak a single word English…). After we all got settled, we left for the journey to begin;) Well, my slight disappointment in the other passengers made me go for the crewmembers, and god, what an awesome group of people working on this boat!!! There was even a Danish guy;) They were just so much fun, would love to work there in that environment! We started out with having a shooting-competition; a plastic duck was set out in a line behind the boat, and with a riffle we all got 3 shot to try to hit it. And yes, with the boat sailing on the waves, and the duck going exactly as much up and down, it was quite a challenge. Free beer or wine was to be given to the best male and female shooter, so everyone had a go. I was the only one who hit it 2 times, and as I had my last shot they were all cheering too much and somehow I missed the last one;) But I won in anyway and got my nice expensive glass of wine for free and felt that this was a pretty good start!

I was asked to "carry on the tradition and say something before dinner" by the skipper, and a bit confused I happened to agree. Later I found then myself standing up in front of everyone and had to say something clever, in Danish (with the translation, of course). I… well, no details here, but felt a bit stupid. Apparently I did a respectable job in improvising, and as bonus I got to start with the BBQ-buffet first. It was a delicious dinner, we had done some fishing as well after the shooting, and whatever we had caught was added to the feast (…okay, not to my interest, I am vegetarian any time when it comes to sea food). I did not catch anything, but the guy next to me caught a shark, so I did not complain!! No mum, no need to worry, it was a baby shark (1/2 m) and only a bit scary, and we threw it back into the sea without anyone getting hurt;)

We had sailed for a couple of hours, and arrived at Robinton island Bay for the night. Here they pulled out the kayaks, and the first group (me = beginners) went out in the darkness. But WOW, it was amazing!! There is some sort of organism in the water, called phosphorescence, lightening up all movement in the water. Our paddles, hands or well, the best part - the fish, was moving around in the water with thousands of sparkling "stars" shooting around them wherever they move. It looks just awesome, like fireworks. The fish also jumped around, and it was funny to see the light being broken, and then come back further away when the fish gets back in the water. (One of the guys even had a fish jumping up in his kayak, he got pretty frightened:)

It was really clear to see it, due to total darkness from the clouds, and I got to go out again with the last group, just 4 of us. It was a very extraordinary experience!! As we came back again, the clock had passed midnight and I decided to go for a swim, cause it looks awesome when you swim around in it as well. I jumped in, and jumped out again - it was seriously freezing!! But it was funny to see my body lit up wherever I went in the water. They had a fire going on the boat, and it did not take long before I was nice and warm again. One of the crew took his guitar out, and we played and sang until late… I slept quite nice, but way too short, and was up again with the sunrise, which I had been able to watch from my bed, cool stuff:)

After breakfast we started sailing again, to Palm Beach (apparently there is a palm beach in every country…;) where we did some snorkelling around big rocks and it was really cold, despite the wet-suit. We went afterwards to Robinton island Bay, kayaked into the island and did a walk up to the highest point on the island. From there we spotted some dolphins swimming right beside the shore, and we ran down again, jumped into the kayaks and out to join the dolphins. It was absolutely stunning, such a weird experience to sit there in the kayak and these huge dolphins play around in the water right next to you. I jumped in the water as well in the end and swam around with them for some time, that was so unreal. But great!!! I swam back into the shore and after some lunch on the beach, we headed back to The Rock. Sailing back we did some fishing again (no sharks this time), and the dolphins came back twice, so I took some photos to prove that they were really there;) It was all such a pleasant trip and I had had a wonderful time with the crew. Cool stuff, one of my best experiences! In Paihia I waited for the bus to take me back to Auckland, and I arrived late and very exhausted. I slept only a few hours before I had to get up again and catch the magic-bus leaving early for Whitianga, Coromandel Peninsula. The weather was aweful, or, maybe it just reflected my mood; it rained, was grey and pretty depressing. I just felt like staying in bed all day;) Well, we did a walk at Cathedral Cove for some hours, and I arrived to the hostel in Whitianga wet and tired and ready for bed. So not too exiting, hope tomorrow will be better;) and that I am fit for fight!!