At the very moment we stepped off the ferry, I sensed that something was amiss about the island. Uh huh, THE ISLAND. It's that feeling when you just know that something is not quite right though everything seems fine.
Like any other tourists, we got a map of the island and wondered which road to head next.
Soon enough, a middle-aged Kiwi guy approached us and asked, "You guys seem a bit lost here. I've got a van just right there, I can take you up to the village for $2 a person. And from there, you can just take another bus to wherever you want to go."
We looked at each other, thinking the same thing, "Does this guy sound dodgy or what?"
Janice, being the big sis among us, spoke up: "Actually we prefer to walk around by ourselves."
Dodgy guy: But it's a long way up, and you might get lost. It's only $2 a person...
Janice: Erm. Actually we wanted to do a bit of kayaking just by the ferry, so we won't be able to go up to the village just yet.
Dodgy guy: Kayaking? Oh... I actually have a few kayaks at my house just by the other side of town. I can bring you guys there. It's only $35 per person. Wait right here... I'll just get my van ready." (rushes off to his van)
Us: Let's just ignore that weird guy.
(few minutes later...)
Dodgy guy: Hey, I was looking for you guys. Let's go!
Janice: Ermmmmmm. Actually we're waiting for a friend to arrive quite soon. Sorry but no thanks.
Dodgy guy: Alright, fine then. (walks away, probably thinking: dang, I almost got them to believe me!)
After he left, we decided to walk up to "the village" ourselves. Guess what, it was only a 10 minute walk! Bloody dodgy guy claimed that it was very far away. Anyway, "the village" turned out to be just like any other small township with tourist shops and a beach just nearby.
Thank goodness we found a visitor's info centre and got more information about getting around. We also asked the lady working there if she knew about any other kayaking services around besides the one we saw near the ferry station. Why am I not surprised to hear that it's the only registered kayaking business on the island? This proved that the dodgy guy was running his own little illegal, dodgy, tourist-cheating business.
A little while later, Kang arrived with food! We went down to the beach to have lunch and had the biggest, most value-for-money ice-cream. Hehe. Later, we went kayaking for $50 per person (bit pricey), *the guy was a bit odd too!*. Bit disappointing as I expected a better view.
2 hours later, we walked quite a distance to Mudbrick vineyard for some wine-tasting and to buy some wine home. The cute wine guy looks tipsy to us, and on the table was a bottle of *cough* alcohol *cough* labelled with coke. Ah, the ultimate job where you get an awesome view of the island and enables you to drink whenever you want to.
Finally, we headed back to Auckland around 6-ish, totally drained out of energy, and also glad to leave the dodgy island. All in all, it was an interesting experience, but visiting it once is enough. ;P
Green green grass all the way.
Th typical feet together photo.
Sandy beach.
Lavender + a honey bee.
Post-kayaking; the 50-dollar photo proving that we went kayaking.
Unripe grapes at Cable Bay Vineyards.
Mudbrick vinyard; after the 2 km walk up and down hills.
View from mudbrick vineyard; notice the ray of sunlight in the middle of the sea.
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