Rough Boats and Wet Coats

Rough Boats and Wet Coats
Bay of Islands, New Zealand

Bay of Islands, New Zealand

After our beautiful calm and fine day at Cape Reinga the NZ weather once again turned on us whilst we were in Pahia. This gorgous little seaside town is no much like Airlie beach in Australia, just a lovely calm and pretty seaside town. As part of the package tour to the Cape we also had a boat tour out to Hole-In-The-Rock, another important Maori cultural ground and a massive tourist attraction which when the weather and tides are right, boats can actually pass through the hole.

Unfortunately for us as soon as we got on the boat they warned us that we would almost definitely not be going to the hole in the rock so if that was our only reason for the trip to get off and come again another day. Luckily the rock was not really an important part of the visit for me, I was more hopeful of seeing some dolphins and perhaps even my elusive orcas.

As we set off we were happy to have secured some pretty sheltered seats on the top deck, we were rugged up in all our winter gear and were looking on bemused at the poor European backpackers who seemed to think that they were on a summers day boat trip where they would be hopping into the 30 degree waters for a swim with the dolphins. No joke they were wearing swin shorts, flip flops, thin fleeces and had a towel with them. If it wasn’t so sad to see them turning blue, it would have been funny.

Thankfully after a few stops in a few bays which were unsurprisingly discovered and named by Captain Cook we got a call over the radio that there were dolphins in the area so we set off and soon had a beautiful pod of bottlenose dolphins swimming alongside the boat and playing at the hull. Sadly all too soon they vanished and we headed onto Urupukapuka Island the largest of the islands within the bay for some photos over the bay.

However the captain of the boat decided to have a little laugh with us, just to ensure that there were no complaints about not going to the Hole in the Rock, he opted to take us out into the open ocean just to show us how rough it was compared to the calm waters of the protected bay. Within minutes waves were coming over the top of the boat, the cold backpackers were making full use of their towels to dry off and one poor woman was soaked to the skin wringing out her coat and gloves. Thankfully everyone could see the funny side and we all just had to laugh through it to get to dry land.

We had a lovely relaxed afternoon in Pahia, eating ice cream, drinking coffee and we even had a kebab from a takeaway with the best name ever ‘Kebabulous’.

I am ashamed to admit that even though our campsite was right next door we completely forgot to go to the Waitangi Treaty grounds where on the 6 February 1840 a treaty was signed protecting the rights of the Maori and leaving them in a much better position than the neighbouring Aboriginals. Oops.

Heading back down out of the Northland we were lucky enough to be accepted to stay another night in Auckland with our CS host Barry, his lovely wife Tomomi was back from her holidays and we got to meet her as well. We were treated to a traditional Japanese tea ceremony and Tomomi also played a few songs for us on her Sax, amazing, amazing, amazing, a very very talented lady.

Next stop, The Coromandel Peninsular.