“Nikki in Auckland” – Sunday, December, 12th

When Ida went off with her NZ friends for lunch I decided to go and do some exploring on my own – namely, go swim with the sharks! I took to a place called Kelly Tarlton’s Antarctic experience, which was essentially an aquarium with penguins, sharks and other fish. I took a tour and then went to go get dressed to swim with the sharks. When I got there they informed me that there would not be swimming with sharks today as they had just gotten a couple of new sharks and they needed to acclimate. Bummer! And rather irritating so off I went to find new adventure. Had a good soda though!
I took the city bus to a place called St. Helier’s Bay and went for a hike down to Lady’s Bay. When I got down to the bay there were some guys fishing, and we started talking about fishing in Auckland. The guy I was talking to, John, set me up with my own pole so that I could hang out and fish with him. I caught the little fish in the picture, it was similar to a very small swordfish.

After bit, I turned around and was startled to find that the beach behind us had a bunch of nude guys on it! I had wandered into a nude beach. Only I could find the one nude male beach in New Zealand!! By accident!! The nude beach was unique as it was about 30 men and 2 females. I was trying to get a picture of it discreetly, because I knew that Ida would never believe what I had found. The sky picture is one of those trys and the beach picture has a couple of nude guys at the far end of it. (Just to note, the people that were fishing were wearing clothes).

After catching a few fish, I headed back to the bus to get back to the ship. I had a bit of time when I got back to the ship before I needed to get on board, so I went and found myself a seedy little pub nearby to have some New Zealand beer. I was there for a bit and then there was a tap on my arm and a guy asking “what’s a lass like you, doing in a joint like this?” It was John that I had been fishing with. Stalking? Or the hand of fate? You be the judge!