Heading north.....

So after a lovely dinner with Dave, Yana, her mother, brother and girlfriend it was time to do the dishes and head off!

The dinner was amazing with bbq chicken and pork with some lovely salads. Beetroot and spinach, carrot, almonds and mint, chick peas and dates and kumara with lemon. All washed down with some lovely wind=e, company and conversation. Followed by some Wii Sport with the kids, Jimmy and Tyler.

This morning I thought I would be cheeky and do my dishes inside before I left only to realise that we hadn't done last night’s dishes. So Yana and I did the dishes as the dishwasher was misbehaving. It was a small price to pay for such a wonderful two days with some shooting and editing as well.

Dave and I had shot and edited a promotional video for the kayak loader, which went well and has already got some keen interest from a motor-homer. It was interesting being the talent (debatable) and doing some of the editing. Didn't realise that 1am still existed out of bed!

Go have a look at it on youtube.

http://youtu.be/4hUxCRrP1a8

So then after the dishes we done, I packed up the bus and said ‘til next time’ to Dave, Yana, Jimmy and Tyler. Headed out their driveway without scratching the side of the bus this time and headed up the motorway north.

Amazingly the traffic was very light and I had a great journey northwards. Took the off-ramp for Orewa instead of paying $4.40 on the toll road. The good part of that was there was no traffic on that road and the bus climbed the hill into Waiwera well.

I had sort of decided to head up to Snells Beach, just out of Warkworth for the night but saw the sign for the Maharangi Regional Park and as I have never been here before decided to have a look and see what it was like. It’s about 7km off State Highway 1 and as I wandered through some lovely countryside, I realised that we were heading out to the coast. At the end of the road to the park, you head down a hill and there before you is the sea. An amazing view.

As you can see I went back up the road to take the photos as "The Fredrock Cafe" is in the pics.

So I decided that I would at least go and christen the kayak and see if I could use it with any sort of aptitude.

Then after reading the signboards and the information, I decided that I would stay here the night for the princely sum of $6. So I parked the bus,

 set up the kayak and headed out for a spin.

It was fun, and I had a few nibbles while I was out there, but they didn't want to be dinner so I came back in and had some lunch. The weather was still glorious so I headed out again and came back at around 4pm, still with no fish but a lot more bites and a bit more confident in the kayak.

The wheels work, the tackle pod is brilliant and all I need now is to catch some fish.

I think I’ll go back out after dinner and see what can be done!

.....and nothing except bites....

and due to the lack of cell coverage, this post happened today not yesterday.

more to come about getting rung to see whether the birthday party was Saturday or Sunday and the resulting fun and games......