Half a Dozen Memories: Glowworm Kayaking

Welcome back to, Half a Dozen Memories. It's been awhile!

IN CASE YOU FORGOT...
Week 1 - Raglan & Rotorua
Week 2 - Sky Tower & Newmarket
Week 3 - Hunua Falls, One Tree Hill, & Takapuna Escape Rooms

This little series is already half done, but there's still so much to write about! I better get to it then. Without further ado...here's Week 4: Glowworm Kayaking. My host mom had suggested this kayaking adventure to me a couple weeks before and had sent me an email for a Groupon - so it was actually pretty reasonable! I mentioned it to my friends (Clara & Annika) and they were interested. So! We had an open weekend and booked it - along with a new au pair (Wencke - from Germany). The weather was supposed to be a bit overcast and rainy, but we were optimistic!

SATURDAY, AUGUST 4TH
Since the kayak location wasn't too far away, we were able to leave Saturday morning. Clara drove us in her car - "Sam the Box."The drive down went quickly and we arrived at our Airbnb town a little early. I shared my snickerdoodle cookies with the group...and they were a success! My grandma's recipe has now been shared with people from Germany, Austria, and New Zealand...it's getting around.😊 We stopped at a rest area nearby to stretch our legs and grab a couple of pictures of the area. The weather was still overcast, but at least it wasn't pouring rain!

Here is our weekend journey!

I think I'm funny...Clara? Not so much. 😄

View of Lake Karapiro - just a couple of minutes from our Airbnb house.

Here's the group! Clara, Annika, Wencke, and me (in a tree!).

Since we were so early, we decided to head into Cambridge to walk around and grab a quick lunch. Before lunch, we of course had to do some geocaching. There was one close to us, so we looked around and Clara ultimately made the find. It was in a local book exchange phone booth - super cool! There were a couple of people who stopped by to look at the books but we were able to sign and replace the cache without looking too suspicious (I hope). 

Cute, right?

For lunch, Annika, Clara, and I opted for pies and chips, while Wencke chose fish and chips. Tbh, it wasn't the best pie I've had in NZ...but what do ya do? After a quick walk around the town and grocery stop, we were ready to check in at our house.

I love these clocks in the town centers around NZ.

Town Hall.

Many of these were on the "sidewalks" in Cambridge.

Our host was extremely nice, so we felt comfortable right away. She had an adorable dog, Bambi, that we were able to pet and play with a little. We changed into our kayaking clothes and then off we went to our evening adventure! Unfortunately, it was STILL overcast so I knew we wouldn't be able to see the stars once the sun set. When I had booked our tour, we were the only four at the time. However, when we arrived, there were two other couples which made for a lovely group of 8 (plus our 2 tour guides). Once we had signed the proper forms and gotten our socks and water shoes on, we received the rest of our kayaking attire. This included water resistant pants and jacket, along with a life jacket. We also were able to put extra long sleeve shirts in a waterproof bag to keep in our kayak with us. Before heading to the lake, we had a quick crash course in paddling properly. At the lake, we took turns boarding our kayaks in pairs. That's right! We had a paddling partner - no solo kayaking at this place! Clara and I were the last two to get on the lake and we did a couple quick paddles and turns before we set off as a group. 

Our stylish footwear.

 Clara and I practicing our kayaking skills.

Steve and Sally were our guides for the evening. Sally led, while Steve brought up the rear. Turns out, Clara and I were not the greatest of kayakers...so we were usually at the back of the group. Oh well! We had fun and had a few laughs at least!😂 Overall, the trip to the glowworms wasn't too difficult, which was nice. The views of the area were beautiful, even though it was a gray, cloudy evening. We paddled through a group of black swans - such a unique bird to see! Sally shared the history of the area with us when we took a couple of stops along the way. Since we were a small group, we got to our final stopping point a bit early. This was perfect as we were able to enjoy a hot drink, crackers, and pineapple lumps provided by Sally and Steve. It was a delicious treat to have while we waited for the sun to set. While we waited, we heard possums across the lake "fighting."

 Some of our views while paddling to our stopping point.

 

This is the view looking back from where we came.

A funky tree we saw with moss growing on it.

Group picture!

Posing with our kayak...Miro!

Soon, the sun had set far enough for us to start the journey back. Clara and I were the last kayak to arrive which meant we were the first to go into the water again. Going back was much easier since we were going with the current instead of against it. Floating through the "canyon" of glowworms was incredible. We were surrounded by hundreds...probably thousands of lights from the worms. The group was silent as we just floated and enjoyed the spectacular view around us. At one point, Sally told us to get as close to the rock as we could to see the worms. It's hard to describe how beautiful the view was, but imagine being surrounded by stars or stationary lightning bugs and maybe you'll get a sense of what we saw. Unfortunately, it's difficult to capture the worms with a camera, so I have no pictures of the glowworms. We spent several minutes just admiring the view before we sadly reached the end of the "canyon."

Sunset.

It was quite dark for most of our journey back...we did have headlamps and our guides occasionally turned theirs on to guide us. But mostly, we paddled in the dark!

As I mentioned earlier, due to the overcast weather, we couldn't enjoy the starry sky. I didn't mind so much as seeing the glowworms was the priority. Apparently, because it wasn't the best of weather, the glowworms were even more vivid (according to Steve & Sally). All too soon, we were back where we started. I carried the paddles and Clara helped carry the kayak back to the grass. All of us took our gear off, thanked Sally and Steve, and then headed out. Before going to dinner, we took a quick pit stop back at our house to change out of our wet clothes - especially Clara and I! We definitely got a bit wet due to our lack of kayak paddling skills.😏 For dinner, we went to a nearby Indian restaurant to eat curry. While the hot food felt good to eat, the curry itself was just ok. Oh well! Back at the house, we had some wine and watched a cheesy movie on Netflix before calling it a night.

SUNDAY, AUGUST 5TH

Today's weather wasn't much better than yesterday's...but we didn't care! We had breakfast in Cambridge at a local cafe suggested to us by our host. The place was a tad funky - there was a bike mounted on the wall as part of the décor! I had my classic scrambled eggs on toast, with a long black. Mmmmm.

I've accepted that I have to spend around $4 on this small cup of joe here in NZ.

After breakfast, we walked along the streets and shopped at a couple of places. Then, it was back on the road to home! The journey back went quickly...especially since we stopped in Pokeno for a famous ice cream cone. Remember the massive cone I had a few blogs ago? Well I got another, but with different flavors (except I think I did have chocolate before...).

Annika and I had already found the geocache in Pokeno, but Clara wanted to find it so we went with her. For a moment, I thought someone had taken it because it wasn't in the same spot. After searching around though, the cache was spotted on the ground. Once we had signed it (yes, I signed again), I put it back where it was supposed to be.

Can you spot the cache?

With stomachs full of ice cream, we finished the drive back to Auckland. Wencke had plans to meet up with a friend, so we decided we should do something more before calling it a weekend. Can you guess what we did? An escape room of course! I've honestly lost count of how many we've done, but I think at this point it was our 2nd together as a group of three and Annika's and mine 3rd room together. This room was Saw themed, and we had some great moments during our time in there - plenty of laughs! We successfully escaped with time left on the clock. Yay us!🙌

Our favorite place in Takapuna.

We did it!

Before Annika and Clara headed back north, we stopped for dinner at La Pasta again (because it's delicious!). Wencke met us at the restaurant and the girls dropped me off on their way back to their homes. The weekend was busy and full of fun activities. I loved the variety of things we did!

IN OTHER NEWS...

I went shopping with Ava one day, and she insisted on carrying the basket the whole time. Well, at least until I had to add milk to the basket...then it got a little heavy for her. 😊

Ava was my snickerdoodle cookie helper earlier in the week! She LOVES licking the beater, the bowl, the spoon, the counter...you name it.

I got a notification on my Instagram that I was the first finalist in a competition from when I went black water rafting. How cool! Since then, I saw someone else won...but it was great to be in the running at least!

Friday, August 3rd, Clara came over and we planned our Fiji trip as well as pretty much every weekend for the rest of 2018. It was a fun night and I introduced her to the Tim Tam slam!

Week 4 = DONE! Week 5? Coming to you soon!