Day Date with Alanna Part 1

Today Alanna and I went on a day date because we both had the day off. We went to Whitianga (pronounced Fitianga) and spent the day relaxing, eating, and taking in the sun. I really want to remember everything from today because I had so much fun so please bear with my long winded post for today.

So the day started with a hitchhike into town. We got a ride with James, the cousin of a guy who works on the Mussel Barge I'm going out on. Unfortunately I won't be going out tomorrow anymore because a storm is coming in and it'll be too dangerous. Anyways, back to today - when we got into town we ran into Paul (Alice's brother) and a couple of the guys he's been tramping with the last couple of weeks. Fun to see him!

We then walked out of town down to highway 25 to get a ride over the hill into Whitianga. We had to wait maybe 5 minutes for a ride. We had a number of cars pass without picking us up but eventually we did get one. The guy who makes deliveries in the morning to the cafe, Michael, picked us up in the delivery truck. He initially drove past us but I think we recognized each other at the same moment, right as he was passing, and he decided to stop. It was very nice. He took us right where we were going and we got to do a few deliveries with him as well. He told us about the truck driver wave which we all managed to do simultaneously to another truck driver. It was pretty funny.

Anyways, he dropped us in town and we found a great little cafe to have a coffee and relax. It was really nice to not be working today and to have someone else serving us for a change. After coffee we went to the supermarket to get some things since we were in a "big" town. Compared to Coromandel Town this grocery store seemed huge - American sized! It was great! After this quick errand we went to the i-Site (tourist information place) and they showed us where the ferry was and what to do when we got to the other side.

When we got on the ferry I made a joke to the girl that was working saying "Oh, I'm guessing you're looking for us to pay." She did not think it was funny and shot me a look of death. She'd probably be a good Dementor from Harry Potter, sucking out people's souls. The other people on the ferry were very nice and we got a nice guy sitting near us to snap a few photos:

A photo of the peeps on the ferry. The death eater is the girl standing up facing away from the camera. The guy sitting in the foreground with the bike was the nice man who later took our photo.

Me, enjoying the scenery and the bird poop on the window. 

I'm having slight technical difficulties with the photos. I'll post the rest later. 

Here's a link to a video Alanna and I made at Flaxmill Bay Beach.

Best!