Who knew? Gannet colonies smell!

The family straggled awake between 6am (LC) and 10am (SC) then headed off to Muriwai Beach...

...to take a gander at the gannet colony. I'd seen photos of it, and wasn't really expecting to be particularly impressed, but there was something remarkable about being so close to birds courting, nesting, feeding their young, and squabbling. Just as well, because the smell is quite remarkable. The one advantage of photographs!

We fled the smell, and quickly regained our appetites, stopping for lunch at a cafe nearby.

We then drove the short distance north to Tree Adventures to check out the ropes courses there and see if we could book for tomorrow. It looks awesome--most of it is on a par with the Go Ape courses we've done in the UK, but a couple of the sections look even higher and even more difficult. All six of us are booked for 11:30am on Wednesday. Can't wait! In the meantime, here's a sneak peak at what we'll be grappling with...

Drove home, via a shopping centre to purchase shirts for a certain 12 year old who had managed not to pack any! Also gave me a chance to stop in at a 2 Degrees store, where a very friendly sales guy finally got data working on my mobile phone. (And talking of friendly, everyone so far has met or exceeded my expectations for friendliness and helpfulness here...and my expectations were already pretty high.)

Dinner at home, followed by:

and then: