Bay of Islands

Alrighty, so now that it is totally out of my mind and past, I will give you all a brief synopsis of the Bay of Islands. I have been back here in Auckland for a week now, so this might not be quite as good a telling as it might have been earlier. Oh well. At least it'll be short and sweet for ya!

First off, we went to the Waitangi Treaty grounds, the location where the treaty between the British and the Maori was signed in 1840. It is officially the most beautiful place ever to have had a treaty signed, I'm sure. It is up on this hillside overlooking the amazingy turquoise waters of the bay. Add to that the fabulous gardens and enormous trees on the grounds themselves and it is really, really lovely. They also have a Waka (ENORMOUS war canoe) that holds 155 people! Can you imagine?! I went on a tour up to Cape Reinga, the northernmost point on the North Island of New Zealand. It was an incredibly fun day with everything anyone could ever want to do all crammed into it, but it was also my realization that I am definitely NOT a tour person. I felt so pent up on the bus. And only 45 minutes at the Cape?! I could have stayed there and stared for hours! The Tasman Sea and the Pacific Ocean meet there at the Cape and you can see the green of the Tasman mixing with the blue of the Pacific amidst waves and swirls of white. Sitting atop the hill amongst the grass in the sun watching the oceans curl together was absolutely entrancing.

I must admit that despite the shorcomings of the tour thing, I had quite the evidence of a good day. I came home with icecream dripped down my shirt (blackcurrant honey - YUM!!!!!!!!!!), sand all over me from sandboarding (I will have to say a bit more about that below), sticky fingers from the fish and chips stop at Mangonui (which means big shark in Maori - did you know Mango means shark??? I thought that was pretty cool), AND my face was all sticky with fruit juice from the fruit stand where we'd stopped in Kerikeri. I was just like a little kid after a good, long day at the beach. Just had to laugh at myself. Especially when I saw my reflection with sand all over my face. It looked like I was growing a beard! Or 5:00 shadow, at least! Sandboarding was soooooo cool. It was like sledding, only down an ENORMOUS sand dune on a boogy board. So it was a lot smoother than sledding and it was definitely higher than any hill I've ever sledded down. I don't think I have a picture of that one on the digital to show you guys, but just think of a sand dune so high you didn't REALLY think you'd be climbing the whole thing. But we ended up climbing it twice! And I had one of the longest runs. Yay for those balance skills from my years of dance and skiing. :)

I went swimming with dolphins as well. Although tell me you wouldn't be a bit freaked out if the guide started your talk by telling you the signal for "dolphins over there - swim that way" and then proceeded to "return to the boat IMMEDIATELY." Just as I was wondering what that was all about, she explained by asking if everyone had seen the news. Well, apparently I was the only one who hadn't seen the news since everyone else nodded knowingly. I turned to the person next to me and asked "what was the news?" "Oh, there was a big shark spotted in the bay last week." Great... and I was already worried about swimming in the ocean, wondering whether there was any truth to the advice not to swim in the ocean when you have your period because sharks can smell you, and now this on top of it! Well, I may have been the most anxious one jumping in that water off the stearn, but I made it out safe and sound. Didn't see any dolphins, but I'd already seen them from the boat, which was enough for me. They were beautiful! And so close. I could have touched them, but you aren't supposed to, so I restrained myself. And the cruise around the islands was worth it in and of itself. And mom - hahaha - I wore a size XS flippers!!! So I don't want to hear you singin' "Can't Love Ya Cuz Your Feets Too Big" anymore. So there! :)

After our dolphin swimming, the boat dropped us off on Urupukapuka Island for coffee and tea and lounging for half an hour. Now, after the Cape Reinga tour the day before, I had had just about enough of the whole time limit thing, so I decided to stay and wait for the 3:30 ferry. Plenty of time to get back for my 4:15 bus, or so I was assured by the tour office anyway... As you can probably guess, after an afternoon of hiking on the trails around the island, lounging in the sunshine by the beautiful sandy beach and writing in my journal, the 3:30 ferry didn't quite show up as expected. In fact, it showed up half an hour late. Definitely NOT enough time for me to make my 4:15 departure. As Michelle, an English girl I'd been hanging out with pointed out, there are a lot worse things than being stuck in Paihia for an extra night! We agreed that I would run to the bus stop outside my hostel when our ferry docked and if I could catch the bus I would. Otherwise, I'd head back to the dock to meet her for icecream and we'd celebrate. Yup, that cookies and cream was quite delicious!

Since it was really not my fault that I'd missed the bus, the tour company had already set up for me to spend another night at the hostel. So no worries! Michelle and I took off to Russell, the first capital of New Zealand. Whereas Paihia is your party-hardy resort beach town, Russell is a beautiful, old, Victorian town. I bought a card to top up my phone, which I discovered was down to less than a dollar left already - whoops! But I caught it in time. We then had a fabulous dinner of Green Thai Chicken Curry on the lovely deck of the Duke of Marlborough Hotel, one of the oldest in the town. We walked down the waterfront after dinner and watched the sunset over the bay. I caught the ferry (on time, this time) back to Paihia and hung out with my hostel roomies for the night.

The next morning I was awakened by my roomies at 6:30am, but we were all having such a fun time, that I didn't mind at all. We were laughing, chatting and joking. I LOVE hostels! I went back over to Russell after waking up my friend Gemma's little brother and being his surrogate big sister (nagging him to check out on time since his sister was out kayaking). In Russell, Michelle and I checked out the Russell museum. They had all sortsa cool stuff, including a giant crayfish (Koura in Maori). This thing was caught in 1973 and weighed about 7 kilos! For those of you for whom that means nothing, this crayfish was about 2 and a half feet long and about 2 feet across, including the legs. Imagine if one of those showed up at Unistar!

I managed to make it back in time to catch the bus back to Auckland, which is where I am now. I am staying with Savage and his housemates, which I think I already told you guys is just great. Next time I will have to tell you some of our test-driving stories from my car search. Lets just say we've had 2 cars break down during our test drives already! I went to yoga on Monday, which felt so good. And we are going to the beach all day on Saturday. We are taking a picnic in the chilly bin (cooler - but isn't chilly bin just such a cute term?! I love it!).