Rich chocolate cake
Steak, mash potatoes with cheese and fruit salad
Spaghetti
Curry cheese stuffed chicken, mash potatoes and stir fried vege
Wicked Chocolate Brownies(Really wicked!!!)
Honeyed Chilli Pork
Chocolate Eclairs
Spicy pork
Pineapple fried rice
Pictures on the cruise:
There is a sofa
A bar in the middle of the cruise
Looking out towards the port
Our room on the second storey. Shared with Ant and David(Ant's cousin)
The bathroom
This motorboat is the Climax(not so much of a climax to me though). Used to transport us from the port to "The Rock" (our cruise)
One of the crew members demonstrating on the duck shooting. Poor duckie!!
Me and my cool pose. Shuai ma? Muahahaha
The cruise trip is about 168 bucks but the whole thing is packed with alot events which I think is money well spent. On the 1st day, we went for some shooting games. Air guns shooting on rubber/wooden ducks. Was pretty fun. I got into the finals with 2-3 other guys out of around 10-15 people. At least my army training hasnt failed me eh? =)
Weather was good.
Nightfall. Romantic eh?
Everyone out at the back of the cruise. We are all fishing for our dinner! Dinner is buffet!(but actually the share is quite limited).
There is also a pool table. You cant play if the sea rocks too much though. Haha
Dinner soon!!
Tuck in!!!
My plate. Looks good!! Yummy
Picture of the cruise(a fishing trawler it used to be) few years ago before a house was built on it. The whole process must be amazing manz.
After dinner, we went out an exciting night kayaking session out in the sea. It has been years since I last went on a sea kayaking. Moreover it is at night out in the open sea. The suspense of thinking that there might be sharks circling under your kayak just waiting for your kayak to overturn is indeed fun. The kayaking journey is a short distance away from the main cruise and we stopped by a few places. Then one of the crew will tell us about some history of Bay of Island and Russel(which is why I know Russel used to be the capital). The wind is pretty chilly but was better than what I had expected. But all these arent the main attraction for the kayaking. The main attraction for the kayaking is actually the planktons in the sea. When disturbed, these planktons-liked plants will have a chemical reaction and give out some light. So in the dark, it seems like the water is glowing and its amazing. Too bad I didnt bring my phone to take pics coz I was afraid that my boat might overturn. Lol.
We are bored, so we play this game like Uno Stacko, Jengo or something like that?
Ant with his snake fist attack on the game!! Lol Stack until damn high.
On the second day:
So cloudy I couldnt see the sunrise. Damn wasted. Sunrise out at sea in a cruise. How many people can enjoy that type of life manz?
In the afternoon, we travelled out of the bay towards an island called Urupukapuka. Docked there is a yellow submarine which is an attraction for part of another trip. But we still got a chance to take a look how it looks inside. Follow me!!
Inside the submarine
We went to the top of the island and took some views from it. Most of the pics are in Ant's camera coz my fone camera not zai enuff. Zzzz. And it was drizzling which made everything more blur. But now Ant doesnt have the cable, so I cannot upload those pics. The beach at the island is very beautiful.
On the island:
The whole hill is filled with shit. Dunno is it from the lamb or cows. Yucks!!
After leaving the island, we went around the place to some other beach and decided to anchor the boat there. Whats up next is snorkelling!! I had never snorkel before so of coz I was afraid I might drown.(even though I am a pro swimmer! Lol jk) So they provided us with a free wetsuit which should cost us 6 bucks for renting if the weather wasnt so cold. Thats very considerate of them. And all of us got a banana float. The whole process, I swear, was almost killing me. When I jumped into water, it felt like I jumped into Antartica Ocean. Within few minutes, I was trembling so hard I could hardly speak. Whats more, if you dip your head into water to scout for sea urchins, fishes or mussels(which became our snack later), it will freeze your head out. After 30 minutes or so in the freezing water, we decided to go aboard since there seems to be no fishes or dolphins to swim with us. Awwww. Some of the guys got sea urchins and mussels for us though. Yummy. Even after I got aboard, I remembered that I continued trembling for around another 30 minutes. That was how bad the cold was. On the way back to Paihia and while they are cooking the mussels, we saw this shoal of dolphins swimming from afar. For like 10-20 minutes, all of them joined the cruise and began swimming beside it. The view is magnificent. And suay suay my camera went out of battery!! Wat the hell. So Ant tooked some photos, while I could only stand at one side, trembling and appreciating them.
Soon after, the mussels were done and we tucked in. Then the crew also showed us how to eat a sea urchin. Coz it is supposed to be eaten raw. The texture of the sea urchin is superb. It tastes something like abalone, but is slightly better because of the soft texture. The meat from one urchin is only a few spoonful. It is indeed precious stuff. I heard it costs up to 800+ USD/kg in New Zealand!! Also took some pics of it with Ant's camera. Will show it up on a later date. Really had an enjoyable weekend out at Paihia manz. Its so relaxing and the cruise is so fun filled. Wooo.
