Beautiful Bay of Islands
(7th - 9th January)
We spent an expensive day in Auckland, mainly because of the price of parking! We also got some stuff for Asia. Then we headed north again, just north of Whangarei. The rain poured down, it was actually quite scary driving in it. We'd gone from the quiet roads to the motorway of Auckland, and I could barely see the car in front for all the splash. When we eventually arrived at our DOC site though, it was a lovely spot. There was a beach right near, running water and even showers. No hot water here, but the area made up for it. The rain even stopped for a short while for us to enjoy a short stroll to the beach.
It soon started again though, so we weren't able to enjoy the location as much as we'd have liked. The next day we made our way to the Bay of Islands. Apparently these are some of the warmest waters NZ has to offer. We went to a place called Paihia to enquire about a boat trip to see dolphins. We needed to finish some mundane chores so we opted to go early the next morning. 8am to be precise. We found ourselves a local campsite for the night and then got ourselves an early night ready for one of our earliest starts yet (possibly THE earliest start).
I was rudely awoken in the morning first by some rain pattering quite hard on the roof, and then by a worried Chris reminding me we had left our clothes on the line and we really should get them in (they were covered in poison... aka pemethrian, which is hopefully going to keep all the mosquitoes from biting through our clothes as it'll kill them on impact). We didn't want them leaking bad stuff all over the ground. So at 5am I reluctantly got myself out of the van, went and rushed to take in the clothes, then got ready for our morning of dolphin viewing.
Chris was hoping to swim with the dolphins, I wasn't so keen. I've fed dolphins before and I actually didn't like the experience - they feel funny, and we already know my dislike of deep sea water. We got on board the boat (which guarantees you to see dolphins, or else they'll take out out on another trip for free) and headed out on the waters. Certain conditions have to be met before they allow you to swim with dolphins. 1. If they're with babies, you can't. 2. If they're travelling, you can't. 3. If the area forbids it, you can't. 4. If the seas are too rough, you can't.
The seas were too rough. We took a while to even find any dolphins, and the sea was very choppy. Nowhere near as bad as Kaikoura when we were there (the boats were allowed to sail, for one), but too dangerous for Chris & co to swim. So we just floated in the water, watching the dolphins swim around and do fancy jumps in the water. This was all very nice and great to see (last time I was here, a bunch of Orca were in the bay so all the dolphins were in hiding), but the rough seas were not at all helpful and I felt very sea sick.
During the boat trip we made a quick stop off on a small island, and then we headed back to Paihia. It was a great trip, I really enjoyed seeing the dolphins in their natural habitat. It's just a shame the weather hadn't been better.
We spent an expensive day in Auckland, mainly because of the price of parking! We also got some stuff for Asia. Then we headed north again, just north of Whangarei. The rain poured down, it was actually quite scary driving in it. We'd gone from the quiet roads to the motorway of Auckland, and I could barely see the car in front for all the splash. When we eventually arrived at our DOC site though, it was a lovely spot. There was a beach right near, running water and even showers. No hot water here, but the area made up for it. The rain even stopped for a short while for us to enjoy a short stroll to the beach.
It soon started again though, so we weren't able to enjoy the location as much as we'd have liked. The next day we made our way to the Bay of Islands. Apparently these are some of the warmest waters NZ has to offer. We went to a place called Paihia to enquire about a boat trip to see dolphins. We needed to finish some mundane chores so we opted to go early the next morning. 8am to be precise. We found ourselves a local campsite for the night and then got ourselves an early night ready for one of our earliest starts yet (possibly THE earliest start).
I was rudely awoken in the morning first by some rain pattering quite hard on the roof, and then by a worried Chris reminding me we had left our clothes on the line and we really should get them in (they were covered in poison... aka pemethrian, which is hopefully going to keep all the mosquitoes from biting through our clothes as it'll kill them on impact). We didn't want them leaking bad stuff all over the ground. So at 5am I reluctantly got myself out of the van, went and rushed to take in the clothes, then got ready for our morning of dolphin viewing.
Chris was hoping to swim with the dolphins, I wasn't so keen. I've fed dolphins before and I actually didn't like the experience - they feel funny, and we already know my dislike of deep sea water. We got on board the boat (which guarantees you to see dolphins, or else they'll take out out on another trip for free) and headed out on the waters. Certain conditions have to be met before they allow you to swim with dolphins. 1. If they're with babies, you can't. 2. If they're travelling, you can't. 3. If the area forbids it, you can't. 4. If the seas are too rough, you can't.
The seas were too rough. We took a while to even find any dolphins, and the sea was very choppy. Nowhere near as bad as Kaikoura when we were there (the boats were allowed to sail, for one), but too dangerous for Chris & co to swim. So we just floated in the water, watching the dolphins swim around and do fancy jumps in the water. This was all very nice and great to see (last time I was here, a bunch of Orca were in the bay so all the dolphins were in hiding), but the rough seas were not at all helpful and I felt very sea sick.
During the boat trip we made a quick stop off on a small island, and then we headed back to Paihia. It was a great trip, I really enjoyed seeing the dolphins in their natural habitat. It's just a shame the weather hadn't been better.
posted by wobblepop at 2:52 am
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