Day 112 - Discover Bay of Islands

We got up today and knew we couldn't leave Paihia without seeing the Bay of Islands, Chino researched into some of the cruises Chaggie could do. Jamie was always going to stay back at Paihia and keep himself occupied as he is to be visiting Paihia again later on in his travels with his girlfriend, so he wouldn't of wanted to have ruined the surprise for both of them. We packed our bags and packed the car, then chilled out in the lounge most of the morning.

Chaggie were lucky to book for two on a 'Discover Bay of Island's Cruise' which would leave at 13:30. Until then we hung out in the lounge online. Jamie got in contact with his girlfriend, he stayed in the lounge at YHA throughout the duration of our cruise also. The cruise was brilliant, we booked it with 'NZ Extreme', after picking up the remaining passengers from 'Russell', the first capital of New Zealand where Chino had to get a picture of the sign for his Dad, we continued on around the Islands.

The scenery was amazing, the Islands offer many fantastic beaches and walks, most all isolated and untouched. 1 or 2 used to be privately owned but they are now all open to the public so if you can get hold of a kayak or boat, you would find the most amazing places to spend your day on.

A Baby and Adult Bottlenose Dolphins

The favorite part of Chaggie's trip and most memorable will be seeing the dolphins, not just one species but two at different times. The Bottlenose and Common Dolphins were both seen on our cruise, we had enough time with both to take plenty of pictures and video. They would come very close to the boat, all friendly showing off their speeds and skills. They would then keep with the boat for a bit when going to the next spot.

Common Dolphins

An important part of the trip was to sight see the popular 'Hole in the Rock'. Basically one big hole...in a rock. The skipper managed to cruise through it with today's conditions which was pretty cool. We stopped off at 'Otehei Bay' on the way back to Paihia, a beautiful beach on a small, quiet Island. Was very Caribbean like!

Hole in the Rock

We got back to YHA at 17:30 to find Jamie watching 'Team America'. We thought we'd use YHA's lounge although we were no longer staying there for as long as possible, chilled out to some TV and a comfy sofa till 22:00. This evening we skipped out on dinner, took us a while to find somewhere we could sleep for the night. Again Jamie and Staggie were going to crash out in the car and Chino was fine with the hammock, just wanted a nice, safe spot to camp out, preferably close to the car.

Night Night Chino

We couldn't find a quiet, free car park anywhere so we tried a camping ground nearby. To our amazement we found one where the office had closed and no gates kept us out. It was quite a busy camping ground so we weren't scared to park in a space between many campervans. All couldn't go so smoothly though, when setting up Chino in the hammock between a tree and the car, we must have tightened it too strong, when moving about the hammock broke. The material completely tore down the middle. Not good! Chino thought about it and is a person who would do anything for a free night anyway! He took one for the team and slept on the ground next to the car, he had a sleeping bag and used the hammock as his mosquito net! Can't get much more rough than that, after the amount of spoiling though that we have received from family and friends, staying in lovely homes, to live rough for a week was needed and we were fine with it!

Chaggie x