During the long drive up to Whangarei, we were caught in a massive holiday jam and listened to a rather meaningless debate on the radio about regulating trampoline and tried tuning in to some Chinese channel too. There wasn't much to see on the way and I fell asleep at some point. Missed the turn off to Little Earth Lodge; it was a sharp right down a steep private driveway. As the weather was looking fine tomorrow, we decided to go snorkelling at the Poor Knights Islands but were disappointed to hear that Perfect Day had no more slots tomorrow. Cooked dinner and shared a table with a father and daughter from China. They had just returned from a snorkelling trip with Perfect Day and reported sightings of dolphin or turtle or something. We refused to give up and searched for other operators after dinner and had to walk some distance uphill in order to get reception. He found Yukon and managed to secure slots for tomorrow!

The next morning, we couldn't find the room key when checking out and were almost late for the snorkel trip. Had to wake up the owner and she fined us $10. Parked the car, quickly got changed and joined the rest for our first snorkel in New Zealand at Tutukaka Poor Knights. I was the only one who couldn't swim and hanged on to my boogie board as I felt insecure without any life jacket (there wasn't any provided). RS stayed with me throughout. Water visibility was alright but the marine life lacked diversity. Maybe there's more to see when you go deeper on a dive. We also visited some cave and moved through one of those hole in the wall. I spent most of the time throwing up my blueberry muffins and feeling sick on the boat. I felt embarrassed and apologetic when the crew dumped my vomit into the sea and washed the bucket. On the way back, a passenger offered me some drowsy sea legs which helped a bit and made me go to sleep.








After spending the afternoon in the sea, we felt like eating fish and chips for dinner so we got some at Ngatea (recommended by Little Earth) and checked in to Whangarei Falls Holiday Park. Our last experience with a holiday park was not good and this turned out to be bad too. The owner was a strange dick; he asked if we know how to pitch tent which felt very insulting to us; treating us like idiots. After we settled down at our allocated site and start to eat our fish and chips, the owner came over and asked if we could move as he wanted to squeeze in another camper at the site he had allocated to us. This added fuel to the fire after an unpleasant welcome and it was him who had just told us that the space was ours. RS was fuming and we had an argument with the owner who eventually walked away.