Bay of Islands

Beautiful, amazing, great, wonderful, paradise. These are the words that come to my mind when I think about my weekend at the Bay of Islands. I have mentioned it already how beautiful this country is, but the Bay of Islands was something special. New Zealand just keeps surprising you with beautiful sceneries, the nature and in this case also wildlife. So as I told you in my previous blog I went on a three day trip to the Bay of Islands (an area on the east coast of the Far North District of the North Island of New Zealand and one of the most popular fishing, sailing and tourist destinations in the country).Now before I get to the highlight of this trip I will start with the beginning. The weekend didn’t really start that well actually, because that Saturday it was just raining all day long. It reminded me of those typical rainy autumn days in The Netherlands. But luckily for us the weather was great the other two days.

So on Saturday we left from Auckland to Paihia where we would stay these days. On our way to Paihia we first made a stop to see some large trees which apparently were something special, but to be honest I didn’t really see why. I didn’t even feel it was worth the effort of taking some photos of it, but maybe I am getting a bit spoiled over here with all the beautiful things to see. After some tree hugging we continued our trip to Paihia, but we would stop one more time on the way. This time it was to see the Whangarei Falls which was quite beautiful, but it would have been much better if it wasn’t raining all the time. On a sunny day it would really be a nice place to take a dive and swim by the waterfall, but unfortunately for us it wasn’t a sunny day. Next stop was Paihia where, after some dinner, we had the night free to ourselves which was a good opportunity to have some drinks in the bar.

The next day we had to get up early, because we were going to the most northern tip of the Northern Island, Cape Reinga. So now I’m at the point where my previous blog started, sitting on the bus writing the first part of that blog. As I told you the All Blacks won their semi-final that morning and as you may know they also won the final against Australia, also known as the Wallabies. Before we got to Cape Reinga we made a stop in a small historic fishing village called Mangonui. With the clear blue sky and the morning sun shining on the big lake it looked really beautiful so that was a good start of the day. After taking some photos of the beautiful lake, waking up some more and enjoying the morning sun we continued our journey to Cape Reinga. Finally arrived at Cape Reinga the weather looked good, but unfortunately for us there was a very strong wind blowing that day. Although the wind didn’t make Cape Reinga any less beautiful with its amazing views it did made it quite difficult sometimes to hold your camera steady to make a good photo. At the Cape you can see the Tasman Sea and the Pacific Ocean collide creating some impressive waves just outside the coast. The Maori believe that the Cape is the point where the spirits of the dead enter the underworld. Just nearby the Cape we also visited a small but beautiful beach where we played some football and relaxed a while before heading back to our hostel in Paihia.

So that was the second day of the trip, the third day was really the highlight of the trip I can tell you. On this Monday, a day off for most people because it was Labour Day, there was a cruise planned which would show us all the top Bay of Islands attractions. Next to that it would also search the Bay of Islands area to see bottlenose dolphins and we would also have the possibility to swim with them. So as you can imagine I was really excited about this cruise and was hoping to swim with dolphins in the open sea although the water was still very cold. The cruise showed us some really amazing looking islands and rock formations and other beautiful sceneries. While everybody was looking to spot dolphins the captain had some exciting news. The boat that left earlier that morning had spotted a group of orcas, so the captain decided to go to the location where these killer wales where last spotted. At this point we were getting even more excited, because when do you get the chance to see wild orcas in their natural habitat? And we did get to see the wild orcas. First one, followed by another one and also two with a young. I can tell you this really was an amazing experience. After seeing the orcas the cruise continued to the famous Hole in the Rock, Urupukapuka Island and many more wonderful things. Now on the way the captain was still looking for some dolphins to show up, but we didn’t get to see any that day and most likely that was because of the orcas being present in the area. During the cruise we did get to see some seals relaxing and sunbathing on the rocks, some stingrays in the water and other wildlife. So no dolphins or dolphin swimming, but it definitely was an amazing cruise that I will remember the rest of my life. After the cruise it was time to go back to Auckland, but not before we visited one more waterfall.

So I think I am at the point of wrapping things up with this blog, because I think I have told you most of this awesome trip. Now I’m not going to make any promises about when I will post my next blog, because this one was already supposed to be posted about two weeks ago, but I really didn’t find the time to finish it. So just keep a good look on this page and my Facebook page for the latest photos and my next blogs.

Cheers!!