In and on water!

A bit delayed but here it is!

Saturday 3rd of October we went to Goat Island in order to dive in the marine reserve up there.
We started out from Auckland at 9 am in the morning. We had been warned by Markus(cant make the symbol needed here because Im using German windows on a English computer so whats written on the keyboard is in many cases a cruel lie which only leads to spelling errors) landlord that we should turn off the highway at Orewa in order to avoid paying for the last bit of the highway, we did so and Im glad we did because the scenery driving on twisty roads on the coast is just perfect for a weekend trip, even on a rainy and cloudy saturday as this was.

We got up there and found that we were the only humans, but after some time jumping from stone to stone at the water we decided to follow a sign leading up a small hill to a private house and get some snorkeling equipment. When we got up there we first had to avoid a cow which were transfered from one field to another and didnt seem happy about it, after some explosive brething from the cow it went on and we all survived. We got our wetsuits, swimfeets, snorkel and diving glasses and were ready. We asked for some tips and where to swim in order to get the most from the money we had paid($25 per man), we also got told that we were 22 days ahead of season and that was the reason why it was so empty. We went back to the car in order to change to our bathingshorts and the wetsuit. By the time we were ready some more people had come to the parking lot in order to enjoy the view over the ocean and on Goat Island.

We went in the water and ...lets face it... 22 day colder than preffered :D but it was okay in the beginning it was quite cold for the top of the head, but after a bit swimming around the wetsuit started to work and everything was fine. Markus had a underwater camera so there will be some pictures to be uploaded as well as soon as i get my hands on them.

On the way back from Goat Island we discovered that the Golf 3 we were driving had run out of fuel and we had to find a petrol station quick, and it is in such situations you get to know how hard it is to find one outside of the city. We made a tactic break and ate some Fish n Chips and asked for the next petrol station. I was quite far back on the road from which we came in the first place so we had to drive carefully, we ended up holding up a guy in his Pickup truck with a boat on a trailer on the back, BUT we managed and thats the most important part.
After refuelling we decided to go to Waiwera hot pools to get heated properly. We swam around in a pool which was 28 degress and it was quite pleasent, we then tried the waterslides, the movie pool and decided to explore what the "lava pool" was. It turned out to be a 48 degree hot pool where you have no chance of getting in unless your skin is dead or have lost the ability to feel when things are hot. so we chose to get in its little sister which was only 38. After 10 minutes of doing abselutely nothing we felt weak because of the heat and decided to head back to the movie pool and relax a bit before we again left for Auckland.

No body had any plans for dinner so we stopped at Pizza Hut in Auckland and ordered some pizzas, and - sigh, how bad can you do a pizza.....? never going back there, in Pizza Huts defence: I have had some good pizzas there before, but this one was ruined.


Sunday:
On sunday we were invited to come sailing with markus(symbol missing again) landlord on his 10 meter boat. The weather wasnt that good but we decided to go to the habor and prepar the ship in case it got better. It got dry and we went out, we had a few showers on the way but the mood was high and the speed of the wind was good. Its quite an experience going on water with a ship designed to sail with an angle of 37(the max we hitted that day) without tipping over.
We sailed past devonport and the northeren end and did a 180degree turn in order to sail under the harbor bridge, and on our way back it was time for a sailing snack, a Carlsberg. After sailing under the harbor brigde we took down the sails and went on engnine power into a harbor where the rich people have parked their ships. We went in and did a round looking at the big ships, on the pictures youll be able to see some pretty amazing stuff.

We ended the day by having a big dinner at Markus(symbol) house with smoked chicken, lamb and mint sauce, roasted potatos, pumpkin, sweet tomatos, carrots and a lot more. Had a great time basically!

on the last few pictures youll be able to see the capability of dealing with fog on the windscreen of Thorstens Golf 3, the pictures are after 25 minutes of driving with full blast on the heater