Paihia Week #1

12/14/07 – 12/21/07

When we flew into the Kerikeri airport (which is the biggest airport close to Paihia), we couldn’t believe it was actually smaller than the Airlie Beach airport had been! I mean, it was ridiculous. It was one airstrip and one small building with a baggage claim sign outside of the back of the building where they drove our luggage up to us on the luggage cart so we could take it off. I know the Airlie Beach airport didn’t have a baggage claim either, but this was even smaller and funnier.

Luckily, there was a shuttle waiting outside that we took to our apartment in Paihia. It was about a 25 minute drive and our shuttle driver and his wife talked to us about the things we could do in Paihia. We got to the motel and checked in and found our apartment to be very nice.

There are tennis courts across the street that we can use and our motel provides us with rackets and balls for free, so that is nice! We ended up playing tennis about 3 times this week and we actually did better than we thought we would since we haven’t played in about 6 years. One of the days we had to play with this couple staying in our motel because all the courts except for 1 were being used and we were both going to the courts at the same time. The lady was in her 40s and the guy was 50 and they were awful! At one point the guy ran up to the net to hit a ball and totally slid on the sand (there is sand on the court) and scraped his knee bad. We were hoping that would cause them to quit, but he couldn’t act like a wuss, so they kept “playing”. Eventually, I couldn’t take it anymore and we quit. It just wasn’t fun because they were so bad!

Other than tennis, we didn’t really do anything except take a bike ride because the weather was so bad, and also because we were waiting for my sister to come into town before we did the major fun stuff. But finally, Thursday ended up being a beautiful day, so we rented kayaks and paddled around the bay of islands. I gotta tell you, kayaking takes a LOT of upper body strength, which I don’t have much of, so it was tough. But we took a break at one point on a secluded beach and reminded us of the Corona commercial because our kayaks were chillin’ on the shore and we were sitting on the beach eating and drinking. We took pictures of it, but they are on a disposable camera because our camera won’t turn on :( so we can’t upload them until we get home and get them developed and then scan them. Totally sucks. But my sister is bringing her digital camera, so we will have pictures of the stuff we do with her, thankfully.

Anyway, after we ate on the beach, we walked down the beach (all 75 yards of it) and picked up pretty stones. Finally we got back in the kayaks (after I got my tank top completely soaked in the water trying to wash sand off my butt, and of course I got even more sand in it!) and started back to the shore. It was a long way! But we made it.

That night we realized how sunburned we had gotten. We have been so careful this entire trip, and then we totally forget to put on sunblock in the one place that doesn’t have an ozone layer above it! Can you believe that?!? Apparently New Zealand is so close to the South Pole, which doesn’t have an ozone layer, that it doesn’t have an ozone layer either, so the sun is much stronger. But of course the weather is so cool that you can’t even tell! It was in the upper 60s when we were kayaking, so you just can’t tell how badly you are getting burned. Needless to say, it’s Saturday and we are still in pain :) Oh well. You live and learn. And now we have aloe and sunblock! At least it’s cool enough that we can cover up our burns and still be comfortable.

So today my sister is coming into town and she is going to keep us very busy, which is good since we haven’t done much this week. We promise to post to the blog more often now and post pictures too. I just uploaded the winery tour pictures to the winery tour blog, so that’s something :)