Today was a free day, one of several this week. This week I spending in the Northland Region’s town of Paihia. It is located on the beautiful Bay of Islands. This expansive bay is home to:
- 144 different islands, all shapes and sizes. None are inhabited as they are declared a National Land Conservatory. Visitors can visit the islands but must be off the island by night fall. The one exception is one of the largest islands, where camping is allowed.
- Several different species of dolphins and whales including: Bottle-nose, Dusky and Orcas
- Many different sea birds
- Seals
- Sheep - the government put sheep on the larger island to have them eat the grass and keep it very short and lessen the fire hazard
So, what did I do on my first full day? I enjoyed a Kiwi breakfast at a sidewalk cafe overlooking the bay! Today was one of the first days of full sunshine since I arrived over a week ago. So I took full advantage exploring the small village on foot, waterfront and shops. But the highlight was an afternoon cruise on the Bay of Islands.
On the Water
So at 1:30pm I embarked on a 3 hour cruise, not unlike the S.S. Minnow on Gilligan’s Island. But this was much safer. The sun was out, but the strong Westerly trade winds were blowing at close to 20 knots. It made for a chilly day on the bay. The tour bout was a sleek catamaran motorboat, and I was situated on the roof which provided a great viewing platform in all directions but honestly, was not the warmest spot on the boat.
The skipper provided us a very useful, if not funny safety message, including this message: “he’d appreciate if we did not fall out of the boat, as it would require a great deal of paperwork, regardless if we were ever located or not”. With that in mind we set out on the tour.There are several highlights to these tours, but most spectacularly are the ‘Hole in the Rock’ and ‘Dolphin Encounters’.
For us this afternoon, the Dolphin Encounter happened first. We were in a shallow part of the bay, between several rocky islands, when we spotted a small pod of Bottle-nose Dolphins hunting and feeding as a pack. We creeped up on them, as if they would not notice our giant yellow boat! Once we were amongst them, they seemed to sense that and began circling the boat, flapping tails, and poking heads out to spy on us. IF we had been lucky enough to encounter Dusky Dolphins, well they are known for crazy, acrobatics just to have fun and generate claps from the boat. These are NOT TRAINED DOLPHINS though. But they have a natural curiosity and affinity to humans. In the summer months, this tour operates and allows you to get into the water with them which is incredible. But, since this was Winter/Early Spring....nobody really was ready to dive in despite the Skipper’s open invitation to do so.
We hung around a good 15 minutes and enjoyed watching this pod who seemed to enjoy watching us just as much. The Skipper warned us that as we turned to head away, and picked up speed, he told us to look closely at the stern of the boat, at the immediate wake, and we would see the dolphins playing in the wake, almost as if jumping into the boat from directly behind. Sure enough, we saw 10 breaches whereby the dolphins jumped out of the white foamy wake directly behind us. Unfortunately, I was not fast enough to catch those breaches on film. Should have brought my camcorder I guess.
Hole in the Rock
Once we left the dolphins we went past some of the outer islands and eventually into the open South Pacific Ocean. The water was much deeper blue, much bigger swells, and offshore winds. A bit down the coast now, we saw a towering rock island. The mainland coast was just to the right, with a lighthouse standing guard. And then once we got close, and at the right angle, we saw it, the HOLE IN THE ROCK. It was if a tunnel had been blasted through this monstrous rock island. The captain explained that normally the take you through the hole in the rock, but the wind and swells today would not allow it. Honestly, none of us were surprised as the Boat was really rocking and rolling in the swell and being blown dangerously close to the rock. So the captain rotated the boat so all got a good photo opportunity of the Hole in the Rock.
Just as we thought we were going to turn about, he lined us up and stated “to hell with it, we’re going through! Duck!” and he jammed the throttle forward and we raced through the tunnel of solid rock and out the other side. The boat seemed to barely fit through and those of us on the roof deck felt like we could touch the rocky ceiling. The whole boat erupted in wild cheers. Definitely, a highlight of the trip.
Maori Meet Captain Cook
We made our way back across the open ocean and into the shallower, calmer, but still windy, Bay of Islands. We found a few more historic islands in the Bay including the island that Captain Cook landed at. This story is interesting. He was attempting to validate his theory that New Zealand was in fact an island and not a continent. He missed the bay, but when he ran into a storm and had to turn back, he found the bay and entered it. He wanted to take refuge on an island in the bay. Unfortunately, it was inhabited by Maori. The Maori had never seen a Tall Ship before, and were frightened. When the ship lowered its longboats to row ashore, the Maori were even more frightened because the white men in the boat were rowing with their backs to the shore. Keep in mind, the MAori traveled on the water in long canoes which are paddled facing forward. The english longboats re rowed like a rowboat and so the men face backward. The Maori thought they had eyes int he back of their heads. As the white englishmen approached, the Maori postured as they do with bulging eyes, tongues out, staccato movements etc meant to warn their adversary. The english ship fired a cannonball over their heads and then they beached their rowboats and made contact on this island for the first time. years later, just outside of the village of Paihia on the mainland, the treaty was signed allowing the British Crown to establish a colony in New Zealand.
I ma having trouble uploading pictures and video due to the fact that bandwidth is very limited at these public access sites. Even the hotels limit bandwidth. It takes a long time for even a webpage to upload, so photos and media might need to wait.
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