Whangarei

3 hours up the coast (in a bus where you are not allowed to eat or drink (bloody bus nazis)) is Whangarei, a quiet little town with an even quieter youth hostel. In fact the only reason to stop here is if you want to dive the Poor Knights islands, which were rated by Jacques Cousteau as having some of the best diving spots in the world. So I did so and encountered the delights of cold water diving for the first time. Decked out in a thick wet suit, sexy rubber booties and a hood, I felt like James Bond about to invade the beaches of North Korea, but it was worth it as the 2 dives were excellent. I spotted a Stingray for the first time and they are absolutely beautiful, they really do "fly" underwater, flapping their wings like a lazy albatross. Needless to say when I surfaced after the second dive I had parts of my body which shouldn't have been THAT blue...

The other great thing about Whangarei is that the manager of the youth hostel - John, is a very kind 70 year old grandfather of 10. John also has an eyebrow piercing and a tongue piercing to boot. He wears skateboard shoes and says "cool" quite a lot. In fact he is without doubt the worlds coolest 70 year old. Apparently he was in the states 10 years ago doing some building work (and why not?) and his younger colleagues suggested the image change. He agreed and off they popped to the nearest piercer. He skydives, scuba dives and makes the rest of us look pretty much wet behind the ears.