Bay of Islands

To continue on with some of the things we have experienced here, I will tell you a little bit about the Bay of Islands. This is located in the Northland of New Zealand and is a beautiful bay full of many small islands.

Saturday, May 26th

Today was really a wonderful day! In the sense that we got to have a day of fun and sight seeing by exploring the Bay of Islands. We ate breakfast in the hotel and then packed up and loaded our belongings in the van so we could make it out on the pier by 8:45 A.M. Our boat was leaving at 9:00 to take us on a three hour tour of the islands.

Sunrise, looking out from our hotel room this morning!

We loaded onto a beautiful big boat owned by a company called “Great Sights”, for a three hour tour visiting Hole in The Rock (no, not the one at Lake Powell!), and a dolphin tour.

These pictures don’t really do the boat justice for how big it is. It holds over 200 passengers and had three decks on it. It is a beautiful boat.

Today we were in some pretty choppy water with winds around 30 MPH. However, this did not bother the boat we were on. I don’t know for sure how big it was, but it was new, with big engines and the bumpy water did not phase it. If you went outside on the decks the wind hit you so hard you could hardly stand up, but inside it was smooth sailing. I would have rather been outside but the weather was too cold to stay out there very long. However, the sky was clear and it did not dampen the views of this beautiful area. I have to say though, we did not see any dolphins and that was a bit disappointing. But the company guarantees that you see dolphins and when we didn’t, they gave us vouchers to come again for free. That was a good deal for us since our trip cost us each $107.00!

If we had seen dolphins the company will let you don wetsuits and jump in the water and swim with the dolphins! That sounded very intriguing to me but I think I would rather try that in the summer and on a day when the water is not so cold and choppy!

We learned a lot of things about the islands. There are 88 to 104 islands in this bay and they all seem to have a unique history as to who owned them and what happened here. A lot of the Maori wars were fought around here. The English signed their treaty with the Maori’s close to here, and Captain Cook first landed on one of these small islands here. He was the one who actually named this place the Bay of Islands. His boat had 96 crew members and was named The Endeavor. It was a smaller boat than the one we were on and I can’t imagine that many men living on a boat that size for 3 years!

Captain Cook was actually a man raised on a farm and since he was not of high birth, was not eligible for a high rank in the military. However, he was the best navigator in the navy and they gave him his own ship because of how talented and smart he was. In those days they would put double the amount of crew on a boat because generally, half of the crew would die of scurvy before the several years-long trips ended.

On Captain Cook’s 3 year trip to these islands, he did not lose one sailor. He insisted they eat oatmeal and bought celery from any port he landed in, and made the cooks mix the celery in the oatmeal for his men. No one died or got scurvy, and that was a big miracle at that time.

We got off the boat at Russell island and ate lunch at a tavern there. This island was once the wild and crazy place for all sailors to have some R&R. There was something like 80 tavern’s and brothels on the island and believe me, they did a booming business.. We were told that when the missionaries came to the New Zealand islands they stayed far away from Russell island. They figured that place was beyond all hope!

One of the other little islands is “pig island”. A tribe of Maori’s lived on it and owned the only pigs in the country. They would raise them and let other tribes come and buy the meat from them, but they would never sell them a live pig. They wanted to monopolize the pig industry and did a good job of it until one day, a neighboring chief came to the island and told them a war broke out close by, and they needed their men to help them fight it. The pig island chief and his warriors all went to fight this war and while they were gone, another chief brought his warriors over to the pig island and killed all the women, children and old people that their chief had left there, and then stole all the pigs! It was definitely a scheme put together by two chiefs inland who wanted those pigs, and it worked! From then on, pigs were raised all over the place and among all the tribes.

Because it was not raining, our Captain took us out to the open ocean where all the islands ended. There was a big light house on the tip of the last island.

You can go on a 7 hour hike to get to that light house and then spend the night in the little cottage there, and then hike back the next morning All lighthouses are electronic now and there are no light house keepers living at them anymore. Kind of sad but not surprising!

Right close to that island was another huge outcropping of rock with a giant arch in it. This is called “Hole In The Rock” and is a very imposing sight. When the water is not choppy the boat will go right through the hole but we did not do it today. We got close though and it was quite inspiring!

I have to admit that I like sight-seeing with other couples because then I can go shopping with the ladies without John bugging me about what I am buying or looking at! He hung out with the guys and I shopped with the ladies! So fun! I managed to buy John two birthday presents. One was a tie and the other was a little stuffed Kiwi. I have always bought him a little stuffed animal indigenous to the land we are visiting. A Kiwi is definitely representative of New Zealand! I also bought a couple decks of cards for my country card collection at home, a tee shirt and some gold dangly earrings.

One of my favorite things was finding a wall garden of Hens and Chicks! These are my favorites and I think it is a lot because my mother loved them too!

We ate lunch at a Tavern and I had a hamburger that was so big I had to take the top off if it, and the onion rings out of it, to even eat it! It was good though!

After lunch John and Sam hiked up the hill to the famous little church that eventually got established here. But the only picture he took for me was of a flower! What a guanaco! But I do love flowers!

At 3:00 we got on a small boat and rode the ferry back to the town of Paihia (or The Bay of Islands) where we started our excursion. We took a couple of pictures and then went over to an ice cream shop where we all got cones and got ready to go home. The dairy and ice cream in his country is the best of anywhere I have been! Very hard to resist!

John drove us back in the van to Whangarei where we and the Woodard’s picked up our cars, and all parted for our homes. It was such a fun day and we enjoy our association with these two great couples. We are so glad we have made friends with people here that we can do a little sight-seeing of this beautiful land together. By the way, “winter” is a good time to do this as there are not a lot of tourists and nothing is crowded!

Today I am just thankful for good friends here, for the opportunity to explore another beautiful part of this earth Heavenly Father put us on, and that it did not rain on us all day!