Dolphins*

Wednesday’s plan had been to visit the Waitangi Treaty Grounds and drive up to ninety mile beach but all this water and two Pisceans cannot be easily parted so we booked a boat trip around the Bay of Islands. The scattered islands and clear blue waters was the cradle of European settlement in New Zealand starting with Captain Cook who anchored here in 1769. We set sail (not really an appropriate term for the eco-fuelled catamaran we were on) and before long we encountered our first pod of bottle-nosed dolphins who come into the fish-rich warm waters of the bay to feed. They swam near to the boat and rose out of the water – no matter how many times we see them we absolutely adore the thrill – and no matter how many times we see them we try to photograph them and have a few black specks or clear water to show – this time a few are identifiable as dolphins. Later on the cruise we saw another larger pod who were ‘corralling’ a huge shoal of fish in order to get their food for the day – quite an amazing sight but once again no photos of any worth.


We did some more sailing around the bay and went to the far eastern side to see the Hole in the Rock, a natural tunnel through Piercy Island which our skipper Annie decided to try and sail through even though there was a swell of about 2m. After much hesitation and getting the position absolutely correct she took us safely through – very exciting for us but probably something she does several times a week. We then landed on Urupukapuka Island (where Zane Grey, author of bestselling cowboy books and avid angler set up a fishing resort) and walked up one of the hills to get a good view of the bay before strolling along the beach, getting back on the boat and returning to Paihia. Even though there was a scattering of cloud throughout the morning we both got sunburnt on our faces despite wearing SPF20 and having had a lot of sun exposure for past couple of months – it shows how depleted the ozone layer is down here. It’s off to the pharmacy for SPF50 tomorrow.