Day 3 - settling in at Taupo Bay
The cool bright sunlight broke through a morning mist over the bay, just out of view of where we are parked but the freshness in the colours as they changed and strengthened was staggering. We took this a sign to get our backsides up and siege the day! Before the sun was fully visible, we smashed out a hiit workout in the shelter of Kylie. Even before we finished we could feel the southern hemisphere heat building.
A quick shower, breakfast and we took a walk down to find Taupo Bay. On arrival we were greeted with a 1km stretch of beach, hugged by moody and ragged cliffs, lush with green vegetation. The tide was high, leaving only a 10m band of sand for us to walk along, which was ever shrinking. We decided to head for the far end of the beach, passing surfers riding waves and kids playing in the sand. The sound of the crashing waves was incessant but calming, and the warm sun heated our little cove, encouraging us to dip our toes. The water was warm and shallow and the sand very sinky under our weight, the undercurrent was strong and we could feel it pulling us towards the open ocean. After we walked the length of the beach and back, we were both hankering for some grub so headed back to camp.
Holly rustled up an omelette of sorts, including sausages...it did a job. After that we went and offered our services to the wedding party by helping to decorate the marquee. Instructions were lacking from anyone apart from the bride, so we filled some jars with candles, milled around a little, looking helpful and then headed back to Kylie. After reading our books for a while we then planned to meet the gang on the beach for bubbles, but Kiwi's seem to work to 'North Island time', which means things don't really happen when planned to, or at all. We decided to grab some fizzy wine and crisps and headed over to Macca and Andy's cabin for a little tipple. Three hours later and many beers down we were all ready for a nap!
Chicken Pad Thai for dinner in the bus and some more beers, we were in no way ready for a pub quiz, but proceeded anyway in the hope of napping at the table. To our absolute joy, teams were mixed up so we got to meet new people. This was fun until the alcohol kicked in and our team mates weren't so interested in answering questions but shouting out false answers to confuse the opposition...we both like to win! The pronunciation of Basmati by the quiz master will go down in quizzing history.
The end of the quiz came around and we both scarpered for a much needed nap, in bed by 10:30! By all accounts some others were in bed by 01:30....good luck to them on Sat!!?