We decided to wake up early on Wednesday morning (4am) and to head out of Auckland. I didn't need sleep!! Marius' business partner, Andrew, was with us until Friday morning and so we decided to see something of the country with him too. The Bay of Islands is North of Auckland and it didn't fall on our road trip route. I'm so glad that we decided to do this "little trip" though - it was quite possibly my favourite stop-over.
The drive from Auckland took us around 3 1/2 hours, which meant that we arrived early enough to do a boat cruise through the some of the bay's 144 islands, to go and see the Hole in the Rock. The boat cruise was an absolute holiday highlight and the scenery is just gorgeous.
This is the view from the boat, waiting to leave the harbour in Paihia...
Marius and Andrew...
Looking back at Paihia. The clouds had come over and it was not very warm on the back of the boat. Most of the people in the picture above headed indoors soon after we pulled away. Not us though...
Just across the bay from Paihia is the town of Russell, where we picked up more passengers. Russell was an old whaling station and so has quite a history...
We'd almost just left Russell, when Bottlenose Dolphins were spotted just off our boat...
Squeal!!! They got really close and the water was superbly clear...
The bump in the back was where we were headed...
We finally reached our destination and you just have to look at Marius' nose to know that it was COLD...
Since Andrew was with us, we could get a picture of both of us at the Hole...
Amongst other things, we got to see Little Blue Penguins out in the wild too...
The weather finally started to clear up a bit and the blue skies came out...
And we got more dolphins!! A mommy and her baby - I remember it being a lot smaller than this!...
These dolphins were thrilled to see us and played in the surf behind the boat, right where I was standing! It was magical...
Of course I have about 7 million photos and only a handful are great, but I love them...
And look - this one even smiled for me...
Swimming off...
Look how flat the sea is...
A gull with a difference...
Another highlight of this tour was a stop over on one of the islands...
We took a little walk down the beach and I found a gorgeous shell for Jake. Looking back though, there were people walking up that hill. We'd only had 30 minutes to start with, we'd have to be quick...
Marius is always game and the hike was quite steep, but well worth the effort...
There's the boat we came on and the little beach where we'd started our island exploring...
Directly behind us - more pretty prettiness...
And look how green everything is. The grass in New Zealand is so bright, it's luminous...
Proof that I was actually there and didn't just send Marius up with my camera... 
My guy... 
Our time at the top of the hill came to an end all too quickly - I don't think I could ever grow tired of those views. Hey Marius... how about we buy an Island? This one, specifically...
New Zealand is very big on keeping certain areas pest-free. They're putting a lot of effort into re-introducing birds and plants into these areas. This island is a pest-free zone and so I took my pest home with me. We'll need to find another island - I have another 3 little pests at home too...
The view from the jetty, looking back towards the hill we'd just climbed. Doesn't look that high from here, but look how blue the water is...
One of the skippers was feeding the fish off the back of the boat. Damn me for leaving the hand line Jake packed me back in Auckland - these were impressive fish...
Back in Paihia, the guys left me on my own for a few minutes...
Their dolphin tourism is big. We apparently missed the Orcas by a week too...
I imagine this place gets pretty busy in the summer... 
Beach bars and restaurants on the water's edge reminded me of home...
I fell asleep in the afternoon sunshine after all my snapping and only woke up with Marius laughing at me sleeping in public. Is his fault for making me wake up at 4am with jet lag! The power nap was amazing and worth being laughed at.
While in Paihia, we decided to do a glow worm cave tour. Now I know there's a bigger, better cave nearer to Auckland, but this one was the one we wanted to do. It was smaller and more intimate and a bit off the beaten track. This specific cave - the Kawiti cave is a family owned cave and the story of how it was discovered was beautiful and lovely to hear first hand. Our guide was a young Moari girl and she was very sweet - we loved it. Sadly - no photos allowed inside the caves!!
We had a picture taken together at the entrance though...
You exit the cave into a forest and make your way back to the car park from there. The three of us had some good laughs in the forest, Marius is a clown...
The light was lovely and if I didn't have the two guys rushing me on, I could've spent the rest of the day in the forest...
Green rocks...
We spend the night in a little el-cheapo hotel in Paihia. I was EXHAUSTED and was in bed and asleep before the other two had even taken their shoes off. We were up early to hit the road back to Auckland. There were so many gorgeous places along the way that I'd love to have taken photos of, but there are no places to pull over and so most of my photos look like this...
And this (it was raining)...
We made a pit stop for food and coffee along the road and managed to get some wifi to chat to the kids. I was already homesick, probably because I knew just how much Jake would've loved our adventure in the Bay of Islands - the birds, the fish, the dolphins, the glow worms. I missed him SO much already and his little love messages got me each and every time.
But for Marius and I, our little adventure was only just beginning and I was super excited to see what was around the next corner!
Love,
Sue XXX
1 comment:
Fantastic adventure! And the dolphins
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