I was due to be picked up at 7am for a whole day - few hours kayaking and a few hours walk. As it was out of season the man said another company would be picking me up. So a bus arrived at 7.15am, i told him my name, the company i was with etc - no, you're not on my list, you must be on another bus. I double checked - are you sure? The little man said it was prob going to be your company? Nope. So waited around for ages, then the reception man called the co, i spoke to a woman who told me off for not getting on the bus! Was i going to force myself on a man's bus who didn't have my name on his list?? So had to make my way there myself, they were quite good and faxed tickets through to another bus co etc. Grrrr. Got a water taxi up to Bark Bay and was left there to wait for my kayak man to turn up. So walked around a bit for half an hour (that was my walk section - but it turned out well in the end as walking is overrated....) it rained a bit, and managed to get dark brown mud/sand all up my legs and bag. Then my kayak chap and 4 other kayakers who were doing a full day kayaking turned up, we had lunch on the beach got dressed in a jacket, lifejacket and a kayak skirt thing which smelled cheesy, then set off into the sea. It was really good fun, and i loved it. I was sharing the kayak with the instructor so felt safe that it wasn't going to overturn or anything. We kayaked to a cool bit where a river met the sea, and surfed a wave to get there. Cooool. 2 Canadian girls kept getting stuck on sand banks or rocks. The instructor was very supportive and pointed and laughed at them. Aren't you going to help them?? To get back into the sea we had to paddle into the waves we surfed on to get in there. And yes, you can predict it, there was a lot of open mouthed screaming/whimpering as we approached these huge waves which SOAKED us. Nice mouthful of sea. We paddled to an island which had a seal on it, don't know why but i waved at it. It didn't wave back. It was an amazing afternoon after the morning's hiccup and go back to my hostel damp and cold and couldn't feel my thumbs! After a looooong hot shower went out for dinner and had the best meal i had in NZ which was a stone cooked steak (like we had in Portugal, Sheepy) with fries and a yummy olive & sundried tomato dip (but that doesn't mean i'm yet grown up enough to like olives...) and a pint of ale. Mmmmmmmmmm.