Today Sarah and John carefully piloted the houseboat out of Carlo Creek aided by the owners.To be honest I had no idea that navigating a houseboat would be so difficult ! We learnt about tide times, depth soundings, lead markers, red, yellow and black crosses. For me who frequently mistakes left for right the results if we had been on our own would have been disastrous as this area is awash with sandbanks! Add into the mix the fact we were afloat on the Pacific Ocean and you can see why at this point I was feeling a little nervous.
Then we had our first sighting of a pair of dolphins twenty five metres from the boat followed half an hour later by a whole pod playing in the water. Suddenly all my misgivings had disappeared. The morning was topped by a sea turtle floating on the top of the water who was swimming so close to us that when he regally lifted his head from the suface of the sea I looked straight into his ponderous eyes.
In the afternoon we moored the boat in Kauri Creek alongside the mangroves whilst John and Grant took the kids to behold the marching crab legions guarding their mudflats only to witness them fleeing in haste when they realised the size and unruliness of the opposing forces.
The crab pots set, we had our second casualty of our holiday. Katie, the Archards eight year old stood on something unseen in the mud and due to the risk of stonefish, whom are highly poisonous, a dash to bullock Point was required to meet the ambulance sent by the owners. Luckily this time all was fine and we returned to Kauri Creek to take up residence for the night.
The evening was again adorned by a breathtaking sunset complete with birdlife roosting in the mangroves and pelicans flying overhead.
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