Ex-rehab island

Last weekend we ventured out to a tiny island just over an hour away from Auckland called Rotoroa Island. It opened itself up to the public earlier this year after being previously used as a rehab facility for alcoholics and drug addicts. Sounds a bid morbid, but the island itself is beautiful. There is next to nothing there, except a chapel, visitor's centre, a cemetery, a few baches and one family. But on a sunny day, it's quite something, being isolated on your own beach with a few native birds. It's no wonder the "inebriates" would often fall off the wagon as soon as they were returned to the mainland post-rehab...

The aptly named "Ladies Bay" adjacent to the larger "Mens Bay".

I think the highlight of the day though was seeing our last couple of friends running for the boat at exactly the moment when we slowly backed away from the dock... missed it by THAT much!