#WeFoundThePavlova

Punished I was as I rose from bed in the morning. At first I was quite chipper as the remaining drinks continued to sail around in my bloodstream. And talking of sailing, that’s exactly what I was doing next.
Our new tour guide Sam dropped us off at the water’s edge and we made our way on to a rickety looking boat.

I sat next to Angela and Grainne and snuggled down against the beanbag behind me. It was freezing so we all got covered in blankets and raincoats. Grainne kept banging on about how her legs were cold when I stole half her blanket, but I know she was just happy to be sat next to me. At first, it was a pretty calm ride with beautiful surroundings. The lake had once been a volcano and was now a peaceful, blue haven surrounded by small mountains. The wind picked up and up shot the sails. We were warned that it might feel like a roller coaster and that we will get splashed.

The boat tipped like a sea saw, splashing us in the face. I gripped Angela’s arm to prevent me from falling in the freezing water. Marc was completely soaked from sitting near the front so I felt better about just having had a few splashes!
We sailed past a cave engraving that had been done by an old Maori lady’s grandsons in celebration of her birthday. A giant face was scratched into the walls and a small snake sat at the bottom to keep guard. You can usually swim here but it was far too cold to get in the water so we sailed back instead. We got off the boat a bit shakily and Angelia checked her arms for finger bruises. I looked at her guiltily and smiled so she didn't arrest me.

We now just had a very long 5 hour bus journey. To entertain ourselves Grainne and I took ugly selfies to see who could look the ugliest and we took boomerang videos of us pulling faces. Enya poked her horns in for an occasional photo too and Jon pulled stupid faces in the background. Marc was fast asleep bless him, all cosied up in his red hoodie looking like Little Red Hiding Hood's creepy older brother.

We stopped off at mount doom from the Lord Of The Rings and attempted jumping photos, they told me my jump was rubbish so I trotted like a horse instead which also wasn’t deemed acceptable! Grainne and Sam showed me up by taking a perfect jumping selfie complete with ground shadows.

The next stop was to throw wellies. Because there is literally nothing to do in the rural farm towns they have created an area where you can go any time of day to chuck a welly (they call them gum boots..they are wrong).

Dinnis nearly knocked us all out by throwing it high into the air and it falling heavily down to where we were stood. I was pretty terrible but tried my bowling ball technique which is to throw it as high as possible and then hope it rolls a bit further in the landing. Pat cheated by using a baby boot and got her’s the furthest. I then stole the idea and did much the same as Dennis by throwing said baby boot too high and it falling not much further than my feet! All in all, we were all pretty terrible at gum boot throwing apart from Sam and Carl who managed to get theirs to the other side of the ...arena? Track?

Field? I'm uneducated in the technical names for Gum Boot based sports.

Back on the bus and another trillion hours until we reached Wellington! More selfies, some singing of Britney! This was a good highlight, I particularly enjoyed adding in some actions and using my water bottle as a microphone. Marc was loving it! Marc and Enya created their brand of Mountains with Marc which was essentially them taking selfies in front of mountains.

Once we reached Wellington, we all got dressed for a family night out. The dinner was entertaining. Whilst having a cigarette Marc and Enya told a random crazy man that they were married and that Enya worked as a nurse. They then spent the majority of the evening adding the finer details to their story including problems in the marriage. Meanwhile on the other table, Ranji was laughing and calling me over. She pointed to the dessert menu, “Crushed Pavlova!”

We found the pavlova after all!! Judy ordered it and then gave me what she couldn’t finish. What an adorable little family we had become! I was nowhere near ready for my little adventure to end but had so little time left!