After a leisurely breakfast we hopped in the car and went to have a look round the Goat Island Marine Reserve, for which the area is reknowned. After the recent stormy weeks, a load of the kelp seawood had been ripped from nearby rocks making the water's edge a bit murky and uninviting! You could still see pretty big fish around the rocks, but they were hard to see in detail. The sea was still fairly rough, and so our glass-bottomed boat ride was limited to the sheltered side of the island. We'd never been on a glass-bottomed boat, so it was a novel and good experience all-round! The guides were really informative, and we saw loads of snapper and red moki.

The highlight of the day for me was horse riding at Pakiri Beach. Another new experience for me, but I was keen to have a go, and asked for a horse that wouldn't just plod around! I'm glad I did this, but it was scary! The trip was for two hours with our guide Kylie. I was on Missy, Claire on Stuart, Sandra on Cookie and Tony on Sparky. Stuart was a bit mean and liked to bite the other horses; Missy and Sparky didn't get on with Cookie; Sparky wasn't very sparky and Cookie didn't like being left at the back! I didn't know horse personalities were so complex!

The trip began with a wade through a deep stream where we all had to lift our feet up so they didn't get wet! Next was a walk along Pakiri Beach for about an hour. This was stunning: empty white sands and beautiful blue sea. It gave me time to get used to being on a horse on fairly flat ground. We turned off the beach and into the sand dunes, where we split into two groups, one group to go for a canter and one group keeping it fairly gentle. I went for the canter group as I wanted to have a go and Kylie didn't seem to think it'd be a problem - unfortunately Stuart and Missy weren't too keen, and it took Claire and I some time to convince them to not go down the slow track! Kylie gave incredibly brief instructions and we were off! Over the next hour we cantered four or five times. The first time, I thought Missy and I were cantering, but she was only trotting, and when she did kick in to cantering I thought I was going to die! I was holding the reigns wrongly and was pulling Missy to the left, so had to let go of my trusty handhold in full flight! I got the hang of it a bit over the next few canters, but struggled with holding on properly. I had a moment of clarity at one point, feeling sure that I was going to come off. The track was narrow, twisting and sharply undulating - I thought I was coming off when Missy came up from a dip as she turned left, but luckily for me, the track dipped again and twisted right, so she went back under me! I think the thing that scared me the most was puting my safety in the hands (hooves?) of an animal that I really had very little control of... Maybe I could do with a few lessons!

After this amazing experience, Claire and I went for a dip a little further down Pakiri Beach. It was rough, with ~8ft waves, strong side-currents and amazingly refreshing.

A great day, finished with some fish & chips for dinner, served by two ridiculously young kids in the local chippie!