Up bright and early, we went to the check in office and found out our boat the Mandrake wouldn't leave until 3.30. Only 7 hour to wait!!
We heard 3 other people chatting about the Mandrake and we all got chatting and decided to wait together. We found a quiet cafe by the lagoon and all ordered smoothies while all doing the crossword together (later discovering we were wrong with most of our answers). We moved down and sat in the shade next to the lagoon before wandering to the quay excited about the trip.
We met all our other passengers and were given our rather fetching "stinger suits" (thin wet suits) before being lead down to the Mandrake.
We met Billy the Maori captain, who's stomach hung rather sexily out of his t shirt over his skintight leggings, Pet the hostess who turned out to be Billy's partner and Liam the deckhand from Portsmouth. Once aboard we opened our goons (wine boxes) and the drinking commenced! Although a few hours later we regretted that, the water was rather rocky and turned most of our stomachs. After some food and chatter, we settled into the cramp beds and slept off the wine.