Off to the far North

Another bright day and we were up with the late larks to make the trip up Cape Reinga to the very northernmost point of New Zealand.
I should have mentioned in my last blog that several people seemed totally bored by a trip we took yesterday for wich they had paid fifty pounds and that a couple actually seemed to sleep all the way through it. One Asian girl in particular huddled down with her hood up and seemed to sleep most of the way.  She had to leave the boat when we got to the island but once we were back on board went back to sleep again.
The drive up to the Northern Cape took a little longer than we had thought. In fact it took us about four hours including a stop to get bread for lunch and petrol. Andy had asked someone in the campsite how long it would take and they said two and a half  hours so we were obviously doing something wrong.
The Cape itself after miles of windswept desolate countryside was worth the drive. The coast line scenery was fantastic and the sun shone for us. I imagine it to be a fairly desolate place if it is pouring down with rain and and a gale is blowing.
The Maoris have declared it a sacred site and ask people not to eat and drink there a request blissfully ignored by some people we saw who were busily making their sandwiches on one of the benches.
We walked up a hill overlooking the site although Andy refused to do this as he had walked up two hills the day before and then we went out to the obligatory lighthouse, all in the most brilliant sunshine.
By the time we got back to the car it was time for lunch and Sally said she remembered some tables a little way back down the road. About half a mile out of the site we saw a picnic table, but this was rejected as being unsuitable and down the road we went. Unfortunately the tables Sally had remembered were in a private campsite and so we continued driving for another two hours. I declared this was extremely cruel to those in the party who were feeling hungry.
We eventually found two tables on a grassy site but as we approached them Andy decided that he would drive by then to see if there was anything any better a little further up the road. I started to write my letter of complaint to Amnesty International at this point. There was nothing better and we were forced to return to the two tables we had found. I did tel, Andy , in no uncertain terms that if these tables were now taken he was in deep trouble. Luckily for him the tables were still free, and we enjoyed a late "high tea".
We drove back another way to the expedition base and surprisingly got there in about tow and a half hours but really we didn't care as we had seen some spectacular  scenery.
By the time we arrived at HQ our friends Julia and Fran and arrived and we went off in search of them. They didn't know that we were on the site and the plan was for Andy to go up to Fran and call her name out. This worked very well and standing back as we were we could see the puzzlement in her face as she hugged Andy and started to ask I'm how he knew her, she then saw me over Andy's shoulder and called Rosemarie and I "bastards". The same modus operandi worked with Julian as well. He had seen nothing of waht had happened to Fran as he was in the communal kitchen cooking their dinner, so in Andy went and started speaking to Julian , before dragging Julia out to where Rosemarie and I were waiting, in his own words., he screeched like a schoolgirl.
We all separated to have our dinner before Julian and Fran came to our room for a few glasses of wine. As it was a wonderfully warm evening we all sat outside having a merry time until at 10.34pm another camper came to complain that we were making too much noise, it was four minutes after the curfew time so we moved into our dining  room and carried on for a little bit longer. We all had a great time.