Swimming on Waiheke Island, Auckland

Hi there

I had to wander around Auckland for a few hours before I left for Waiheke and, my goodness, was it windy.  People go on ...and on .... about Windy Wellington, but the day I arrived in Auckland I could hardly stand upright. Anyway, it was still windy when I reached Waiheke, but the first thing I did before I'd barely even looked around my rental accommodation was change into my togs and rush to the beach. 

The breakers were huge because of  a storm further out at sea.  Still, I'd looked forward to this holiday for months and nothing was going to stop me getting into the waters at Palm Beach.  There was nobody else in the sea, but quite a few folk were sitting on the beach.

Whoops.  I couldn't stay upright in the water.  Or even swim to get out to calmer waters.  One wave was so gigantic that I got thrown back onto the shore, landing on a myriad of hurtful crushed shells and, worse, the top that I was wearing ended up somewhere around my neck.  In hindsight I should have tucked my top into my shorts.

All I can say is that thank goodness I wasn't wearing my glasses.  It would have been horrendous and not to mention embarrassing if I'd been able to see the looks on the faces of the folk on the beach as they took in my topless torso!