Day 40 - Mercury Bay, Whitianga, Coromandel

Oh my we've been away for 40 days, I can't believe it. Well it's been a pretty active day again today. I managed to badly bruise my little toe yesterday evening when I was having a swim. There was a hidden rock underwater and I managed to kick it! Consequently with Bill's knee playing up after the climb yesterday and my toe giving me gip we decided not to walk too far today so hired a kayak from a dive shop in the town. As it was half eleven by then the guy said we could just pay for half a day and bring it back around 5:30. The intention was that we would paddle around to Cooks Bay and maybe further but it became evident after we had been going for quite a while that inspite of the outgoing tide that had helped us through the harbour "run", the swell out in the bay was quite large and it was quite hard work paddling against it. We did managed quite a long way though and had our lunch in a nice quiet bay. It was a bit better on the way back as we had a following swell which helped push us along but occasionally there were some hairy parts when we rounded the headlands and the currents merged and did weird things to the waves. These kayaks are very low to the water and we got pretty wet when they washed over us. We actually handed them back early and watched the weigh in at the Deep Ocean Fishing Club. They were weighing a big blue marlin that had been caught which was attracting quite a crowd, 187 kilos, but not a record for the area as the largest had been over 350kg caught this month. The Lions Club were running a fish auction in the market square which we went over to watch and I kind of wished we were self catering as huge snappers and other types I've never heard of were selling for around $5 each which is about £2.50. Now back at the lodge nursing sore arms, shoulders, arse etc as well as my bruised toe, so much for a nice easy day……