Day 49 - Goat Island, North Auckland, New Zealand

Another good lie in this morning then greeted by a gorgeous healthy breakfast feast. Got to love this surprise B and B. Such a gorgeous place in a fantastic setting. 

Glorious day too. 

Before we hit the beach we have more admin though. Nat has tooth ache so we need to drive into Matakana to the pharmacy to get some mouth wash and dental floss. Definitely worst things to do on a Sat morning though as the drive is gorgeous. Especially in this weather. We also book Nat an appointment at the dentist. What a great service they have here. We book in at the dentist and time of our choice tomorrow afternoon (ie Sunday!!!) all for NZ$40 (£20). Randomly we book the "tooth-hurty" appointment and have a lot of laughs when I genuinely ask "is it 2.30?" and Nat genuinely replies no it's just gum ache. The oldies are the goodies. 

After our visit to Matakana and my birthday purchase of new swim shorts from Nat we head back to the beach at Goat Island. Matakana is such a lovely little town. It very much reminds us of Stellenbosch in South Africa. Like a model town. 

It's fantastic down at the beach today. A lot busier than yesterday. Goat Island is great as there are virtually no tourists here. It is pretty much made up of New Zealanders and locals getting away for the weekend (I know these are technically tourists but you get my gist). 

Nat's perfect sunbathing weather. Just the right temperature with a lovely breeze. 

Now I can honestly say this picture was not intentional but turned out alright...! ;-)

Scoping out the snorkeling situation. 

Then getting involved. Shame about the leak in my nose bit though. 

I spent about an hour snorkeling, swimming out to the island and back and must say it's pretty rubbish for snorkeling. Bit mystified where this place got its reputation from. The snorkeling was far better in Thailand. I hardly see anything apart from a fish that was about thee foot long and scared the be-jesus out of me!!

Nat wakes up to realise she has been asleep face down in the sand. 

Sexual. 

Some fantastic pics of our gorgeous B and B (Yiannis these are the patio covers that Nat was trying to describe on face time) 

Random palm tree. None anywhere else here. 

That evening we go for dinner at the Saw Mill which is pretty much the only restaurant in at least 20 miles. Luckily it is really good. We have the salmon nicoise (aka the "nick-e-o-see"). Very tasty. 

After dinner we have a very long and disappointing drive to Pakiri Beach. It's only disappointing as after a long, bumpy and windy ride we don't even get to see the beach as it is then a good walk from the car park and it's fast getting dark. Oh well. Great scenary on the way. 

We get back to the B and B and have a great couple of face time sessions with the parents (makes such a difference with good wifi) whilst sampling a bottle of the local Cabernet Sauvignon from Matakana. A few games of cards (to continue my losing streak) and then we curl up in the sofa to watch the Green Mile. So nice to have our own living room and sofa to chill out on! It's these little things we miss.