Ailsa and Andy’s Travels: Day 24 Weddings, Pipers and Mr Lee

It’s packing day again! Since it’s our last day in Russell, we decided to stay close to home and not venture too far. We had a wonder round some of the lovely shops then hopped in the car for a very short drive (5 minutes) to Tapeka Point Beach and Rocky Bay. This was one of my favourite places we’ve found whilst here! The beaches were golden and empty as usual. We explored along the beach, through caves and gaps in the rocks which then opened out into whole new little coves and beaches. They were never ending! I reckon you could probably walk round a big part of the island going from cove to cove.

We sat in the shade of one cove, Andy thought he saw a hammerhead shark in the shallows - it was a snorkler 😆. He emerged from the water dressed head to toe in black with a spear gun like he was in a James Bond film. I don’t think he had caught anything.

After a few hours of exploring and watching the world go by we came home, thought about packing, put that off for a while and played dominoes on the balcony instead. I’m currently on a losing streak at crib (I’m 5 games behind) so suggested a new game tonight……Dominoes! It turns out this was a very good decision as after 5 games Andy has yet to win one! I think I’ll be sticking with dominoes for a while 😅.

This evening has been eventful….there’s a wedding in the hotel so it’s very lively! The parents of the bride and groom are in the rooms next to us, I don’t think we’ll get much sleep tonight, judging by the shots and bottles of whisky in the hall outside. The did have a bag piper after the ceremony which was rather nice to hear.

When we were having dinner tonight, we were people watching a usual, and trying to decide what the different groups of people were/did. There was one group of 9 people (8 men and 1 lady) at the table behind us and we just couldn’t work them out. We came up with all sorts of ideas, from teachers to a religious group but none of those seemed quite right. In the end, Mr Lee, who was on the table and spoke no English, came to our aid! He had made one of the men on the table laugh out loud, which then made us laugh. The man came over and spoke to us and explained that it was a work outing - something to do with Steel and heavy construction in New Zealand and Mr Lee was the main steel supplier from China. Although Mr Lee could speak no English, he had managed to entertain the table by using some (iffy) Chinese AI app to take pictures of people which then enabled him to animate them and make them move, causing much hilarity.

As I type, it’s 11pm…….the wedding is still in full swing, the music is playing and Andy is snoring 😂. This might be a long night but it’s been a rather lovely day.

Ps, yes, we did get the packing done, eventually!