On day 3 I luckily woke up before my recently acquired alarm clock. especially lucky because I had discovered that it had somehow gone from being on time to 15 minutes late in the space of one night. I headed downstairs, checked out, had some toast and quickly packed an overnight bag. I then went down to wait for the bus to Paihia. The bus arrived shortly after, and we headed for our first stop of the day, the 'Top of the Dome' cafe. This was a quaint little diner, situated upon a hilltop and with a small selection of puzzles to keep customers occupied. We waited for a while, as Scoobs, the driver, had to head back the the last town we had passed to pick up some more folk. We then headed further north, stopping shortly in Whangarei. We got into Paihia for lunchtime, and so I had some time to kill before I was due to embark on a cruise on board the Rock boat cruise. I popped over to base Pipi Patch, which was to be my accomodation for the following night, and I made use of their luggage storage room to get rid of the heaviest of my bags. I then spent $10 on a ferry ticket across to Russell, which is often misquoted as being the 'first capital of New Zealand' (i.e. under British rule). It is not, in fact, that honour going to a small town outside of Russell known as Okiato, which was capital until 1841 and was called Russell until 1841, until the name was transferred to Kororareka, modern day Russell. However, as a favored stopping point for some long distance sailors, Russell did become known as the 'hellhole of the pacific', a name which no longer applies, and today it is known as 'Romantic Russell'. I didn't really find much to interest myself in Russell, although I did find it to be very similar to Devonport. I had some fish and chips, which weren't really anything to blog about, and I took the ferry back over to Paihia. I wandered about the town center for a while, and eventually it was time to board the tender for 'the Rock'. Well, it wasn't actually their tender, whose engine was having a break for Christmas, but a scuba diving company'y rib, onto which 19 people were crammed, all of us leaning over the side and holding on for dear life. We reached 'the Rock' and were helped aboard by John, the captain. Whilst the rest of the guests were collected, we met the rest of the crew, Mink, Ben, Olten and Lizzy. We were then shown to our rooms before assembling back downstairs for the shooting competition. This was a 'duck shoot', the target being Matilda, the plastic Aussie duck who was riding in the boat's wake. I hit her on the first go, and got through to the second round. I then shot her again, and won a free drink. When we arrived at our anchoring point shortly after, we got ready for a spot of fishing. it took a while for the fish to start to bite, but then we were catching Snapper thick and fast, and sadly all too small, so they had to be thrown back. We then had a barbecue which was gorgeous, with a huge range of salads with steak and sausages. I sat with a nice American family who I had gotten talking to, and we got put into a group together for the night kayaking. Happily, it also happened to be the first group going out, and at about 9pm, when it was pitch black, we all got our life jackets on and mounted out Kayaks. Although I didn't see the famed luminescence, the view of the constellations out there was breathtaking. You could see everything so clearly, even the great Magellanic cloud was visible. After we had finished kayaking, and the other groups started to go out, a few of us jumped in for a swim. I was surprised at the temperature of the water, which wasn't exactly warm, but didn't feel cold either. It was so relaxing, and after that, I got a great night's sleep.
When I woke up on day 4, still on the boat, the first thing I did was go for a swim before breakfast. It still wasn't cold, but it really woke me up. Breakfast was a bowl of the traditional kiwi dish - porridge (okay, so it's Scottish, but it was still good). Shortly after, we anchored in another bay and we went snorkeling, to collect urchins with which to make the traditional Japanese sushi dish, uni (oo-knee). We then moved to another bay, near Robertson island, and we took a trip over to the beach, a few of us (including myself) kayaked over, and the rest took the tender across. We had a good few hours on the beach, and took a walk to the crest of one of the island hills and we got 360° views of the bay of islands. We then headed back towards Paihia, and I played pool on the boat with the American couple's two sons. It was great fun, because every time you got a shot lined up, the balls moved about the table from the rocking of the boat. Shortly before we were due to arrive in Paihia, we were called to the back of the boat to try some uni. This is prepared by sticking a knife straight into a live sea urchin, splitting it in two and scooping out the innards. The egg sacks are then collected and these are uni. it's actually not as gross as it sounds, and it don't taste too bad, either. It's slightly salty and creamy. Shortly after that, we arrived back in Paihia and we were dropped off on the wharf by the tender. I headed off to the base hostel to check in and pick up my bags. as soon as I was moved in, I jumped in what is claimed to be the smallest hostel pool in the world, certainly in New Zealand. Saying that, there was still room to swim. I had the hostel's barbecue for tea, because i couldn't be bothered cooking. I found out that it was going to be the hostel's ladies' night, and all the men had to dress as women. I thought 'why not?', and I decided to wear my kilt as a skirt, with my pink shirt tied to make a crop top. I stuffed it with my kilt socks, but I could have done with bigger boobs. When I arrived in the bar, I found out that there a was a 'Miss Pipi Patch' competition, with the prize being a free sky dive. I decided to go for it, and if I won, I would actually give skydiving a go. Thankfully, I didn't win, I got beaten by another guy in a dress. I got knocked out in the first round, limbo dancing. I was glad I didn't get to the final, as there were two blokes left, and it was a snog off between them. after the competition had finished, I headed to bed, to get a good night's sleep before the Cape Reinga day trip the next day. 
