We spent Friday and Saturday nights at the Kuaotunu Bay Lodge B&B. The accomodations were great and Bill and Lorraine were excellent hosts. After the big-city feel of Auckland it was nice to get out into the "country" and meet some real Kiwis. (Bill isn't technically a native, but he certainly seemed like one)

Early Morning Majesty
Saturday morning (10/13) we got up early to take photos on the beach at dawn. I'm not normally a morning person, but there was something magical about standing on the beach, dead quiet, witnessing God's paintbrush transform the night sky into sunrise. As I stood on the beach, watching the sea deliver its presents to Melody in the form of seashell upon seashell, I reaffirmed my decision to leave the tragedies of Auckland behind me. I am too blessed to do otherwise: here I stand, majestic mountains behind me, vast seas before me and a beautiful woman beside me... can a man want for more? I feel loved and awed, and and I am thankful.

Afternoon Delights
After a fantastic breakfast we head out towards the coastal town of Whitianga. I spent an hour or two cancelling my credit card and other errands related to our Auckland misfortune, and then we eat lunch at a local burger joint. Once again, I get the impression that my idea of a proper hamburger differs significantly from the Kiwi idea of a proper hamburger. At least this time there's no weird potato fritter!

After lunch we head over to the High Zone adventure course. This place was pretty sweet... it consists of a number of "challenges" such as a tight-rope crossing, log crossing and trapeeze stunt, all roughly 50 feet above the ground! Melody and I both did the 3-wire challenge, crossing a tightrope while holding on to two guidelines. I thought it was a good warmup for the remaining challenges but she declared that one was enough, thank you very much, and that she'd just watch from that part out :) She did a really good job though, the 3-wire is harder than you'd think.

After the 3-wire I did the log crossing (very hard to take the first few steps, because there was no guideline to hold onto!) and then the trapeeze stunt. For the trapeeze I climbed atop a log pole maybe 50 feet high and then jumped off, grabbing hold of a trapeeze bar that seemed like it was miles away. Finally, I climbed atop a platform, attached a cable to my safety harness, and jumped off... eventually the cable grew taught and I entered a graceful arc, a human pendulum swinging back and forth amongst the North Island countryside.

All in all the High Zone was a lot of fun. It was a lot more challenging than you might expect, and I think it was good practice for the mental battle I'll face on the Canyon Swing in Queenstown.

Change of evening plans
There's fierce weather coming in, so we decide to head back to the B&B early rather than risk being caught in unfamiliar territory during a storm. The weather prevents me from taking the sunset pictures I was looking forward to, but it does afford me some much needed relaxation. Mel and I curled up with our books at the B&B and let the real world drift fall away behind us.

Click here for more Kuaotunu pictures and here for more High Zone pictures.