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Hello,
We've been in Waiheke (an island about the size of the Isle of Wight) for the last two days. We cycled to the ferry in Auckland harbour on Wednesday morning. Its about a 40 minute journey with great views of the city and surrounding bay. We were staying with Annemarie and her family who were renting out a house 11km from the ferry point at a place called Onetangi. Our cycle there was a real challenge - the whole route was incredibly hilly and combined with the hot weather, we were exhausted by the time we arrived. Our bums are still really sore from the journey. The house is on top of the cliffs overlooking a beautiful mile-long beach. We spent most of Wednesday in the sea. In the evening we played scrabble. Charlie's made up words got him nowhere finishing on a measly 9 points. I won with 26 points and I was extremely pleased with myself. Charlie and I had to share a bed and the homosexual jokes started to fly our way.
Thursday was perhaps our best day so far. After a huge breakfast we hired out two scooters (mopeds) and spent the day zooming around the island. It was almost a disaster from the word go. After saying we both had lots of experience on the scooters which of course we didn't (the sales guy said he would never let beginners ride such machines) we were told we were wearing our helmets completely wrong and that if we fell off on the road he would be the one shovelling our brains off the road - he even did a hand gesture of shovelling. Charlie set off first with a huge thunder and wheel spin start, dirt flying everywhere. He hadn't really grasped how sensitive the accelerator was. I cautiously followed with a more gentle start but then very nearly hit a car coming out of the centre as I didn't really know how to turn. Stopping only for lunch and a swim, and the occasional halt to check out the views we must have done almost 100km that day. Charlie was a lot faster than I was and kept overtaking me making rude gestures as he did.
Our most controversial incident took place late in the afternoon when we realised we had to go back to Annemarie's in Onetangi to collect our bikes and make our way back to the ferry. We were about 15km away and we decided to have a race home. So we were off, taking no consideration for anything apart from beating the other, gassing it up and down hills and winding mountain sides. The lead changed several times and we got to about 2/3 of the way home, Charlie about 10m in the lead when the road forked. We knew both routes led home. Charlie went left, the route which we had previously taken. I went right. After a while I realised that I had taken the slower of the two routes. When a sign appeared saying Onitangi 3km I knew I had lost and so 'accidently' ended up in a vineyard to sample some fine wines. 25 minutes later I arrived back at the house to see Charlie's scooter already there, no surprise. However upon closer inspection it was apparent that Charlie had had issues of his own. He was sitting in a chair in his pants being pampered by various women. He had fallen off and grazed his shoulder, knee and foot. Furthermore he had gone the wrong way and so perhaps I might have won the race anyway.
We watched the sun go down had another glass of wine then zoomed back to the ferry as fast as we could as we only had 22 minutes to get there. We got onto the 8pm ferry at 7.59 and came back to Auckland last night. Today (friday) its raining hard. We're hitting the town tonight.
Peace out,
Dom
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