Dolphins, Dolphins and more Dolphins…plus a few islands

It was an early morning to make sure we didn’t miss breakfast, which was going to be needed for our long day ahead of us. The plan is to sail to on of the outer islands and kayak to shore, go on a hike to get the scenic view of the other islands, then go snorkeling and head back to the boat to go back to Paihia. It was a beautiful sunrise to start the day:



After breakfast we started sailing to the island and our morning entertainment showed up. A pod of bottlenose dolphins started to follow the boat. We all ‘oooed’ and ‘ahhed’ like a bunch of little girls watching one of them Dicaprio movies. As well everyone started taking pictures and pointing out the different areas the dolphins were showing up. After 10 minutes and probably 60 pictures later we expected the pod to swim away but they kept on following us. They continued entertaining us for about 40 more minutes, jumping out of the water, swimming under the boat, swimming next to the boat and one even tried to push a fish on to the back of the boat. In total we took about 158 photos and 10 videos. Check out the highlights:









We then made it to the outer island (I believe Waewaetorea) for the day of outdoor activity. We kayaked to the shore and hiked up the hill to get the view of the Bay of Islands. It was pretty and sunny but not super warm. Here is what we saw:

Here is Waewaetorea Island as we went on shore. THe sand beach is were we hung out after the hike.




Here is a group picture of everyone on the cruise with us:




Our guides told us the details and names of a few of the surrounding islands, which we can’t remember nor could we pronounce. After our lesson we hiked back down and went snorkeling. We saw the Kina (Maori for sea urchin) and collected them for our feast. John also saw a sting ray with a few other people. Marian promptly swam away from said sting ray to safety. She has heard one too many (of just one) Steve Irwin story to make her a scaredy cat!



After we headed back to the beach from the water, we were quite quick to jump into the kayaks and head back to the main boat – there was a little rain coming in! We jumped into the boat just in time to grab some hot chocolates, warm up on the way back into shore. We made sure to thank the great guides at shore – it was probably our favorite thing? Since we’ve been here? Maybe? Its so hard to tell – this country rocks!

On the journey back to Paihia we got to feast on the Kina. Here is John enjoying his meal:




We jumped in the car and rode to Whangarei, stopping off to see this lovely waterfall (Whangarei Falls) on the way. Its really all about how many waterfalls you can see anyway.



That night we stayed at a Top Ten, where a lady ended up borrowing some of our utensils. Then she stole them, because we forgot to get them back. !!! Dang it!